Basic Database Terminology
Contents
Just a bit of theory the may be helpful - Some Definitions
Databases
These encode data in a structured and efficiently searchable format. It also easily select subsets of data and can sort those results. There are lots of different kinds, but one fairly standard one is a SQL or relational database.
Database File
The file ( or one of the files ) where database information is kept. We are using sqllite, which keeps a whole database in one file. This makes it very easy to move and/or backup a database.
Table, Record, Column
in a SQL data base data is stored in Tables ( many tables may be put in one database ). A table consists of records ( also called rows. ) Each row is information about some "thing". For example if the "thing" is a person a record might contain the person's first name, last name, date of birth.... The table is much like a spread sheet with the information on each person in a row. Each of the items ( first name, last name, date of birth.... ) is called a column.
SQL - Structured Query Language
This is the language used by relational databases. Typically the system generated the required SQL and runs it. The user interface often shows the SQL which is quite a bit easier to read than it is to write. It may give you useful feedback on what the system is doing.
