Part 1

To answer the question “what is a database?”

To understand the basic components of a database and start to plan/create our own.

Database

Table

Field

Record

Primary key

Yellow pages

Mobile phones

Microsoft Access

Patient information in a hospital

Car registration numbers and owners

Names and phone numbers of friends

Student information in a school

Criminal Records

What kind of information What kind of information could we store in a could we store in a

database?database?

Each table within a database will have a collection of fields and records.

e.g. Customer details is a table

TableTabless

Each piece of information in a record is called a field.

e.g. Name: Joe Bloggs is a field.

FieldsFields

Each set of information about a person / object is called a record.

e.g. Name: Joe BloggsAddress: 33 Wood Lane, PorthPhone number: 01443 123456

is a record which has 3 fields.

RecordsRecords

Primary keyPrimary key

Every table in a database needs a primary key; a

primary key uniquely identifies each record inthe table.

e.g. Applies an ID to a record e.g. St1234

Table

Record

Field

Primary key