Database refers to a collection of records or files that are stored in a logically-related format, making them easy to associate and retrieve. The most common database uses the relational database model, which consists of tables, fields and records. We look at the relational database model below.

The relational database model

As mentioned, the relational database model is made up of several components, namely: fields, records and tables.

A field is a single piece of data.

A Record is a collection of fields.

A Table is a collection of records.

A File is the database in its entirety, ie all tables, records and fields.

A simple example of this type of database, would be a book shop's stock system, consisting of one table. The table would include a record for each book. The record may be split into five fields, title, author, genre, isbn and stock status.

With the data organised in this way, it makes it easier to locate any one piece of information. For instance, you could search the author fields of all records to find all of the books by your favourite author, and at the same time see which books were in stock.

To query a database you use a DBM (database management system), one example of this would be the built-in DBM of Microsoft's Access database system.

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