Database Concepts & File-Based Storage
A database stores and organises data so it can be searched and managed efficiently. This lesson compares file-based storage with databases, and introduces tables, records, fields, primary keys, foreign keys and relational databases.
Key terms
- Database
- An organised collection of related data that can be stored, searched and managed.
- File-based storage
- Keeping data in separate files for each application or department, with no links between them.
- Data redundancy
- The same data being stored more than once, which wastes space and can cause inconsistency.
- Data inconsistency
- The same data differing between copies because one was updated and another was not.
- Table (relation)
- A set of data about one type of entity, arranged in rows and columns.
- Record (tuple)
- A row in a table holding all the data about one item.
- Field (attribute)
- A column in a table holding one piece of data about each item.
- Primary key
- A field (or fields) that uniquely identifies each record in a table.
- Foreign key
- A field in one table that is the primary key of another table, creating a link between them.
- Relational database
- A database made of tables that are linked to each other using keys.
Part of Databases.