by Kris Traughber
In today’s world, you use databases almost every day and you may not even know it. When you login to Netflix to look for a movie to add to your queue, you are using a database. When you go to the Zappos website to buy that awesome new pair of shoes that you really don’t need, you are using a database. Even when you create a guest list in Excel you are using a database – sort of. I’ll explain the “sort of” in a minute as well as what a database is.
In the simplest of terms, a database is a way to store and organize data so that it can be easily retrieved. Let’s first explore the storage and organization aspect, followed by retrieval next.
First, a database stores and organizes data
Databases are organized into tables, which are further divided into rows and columns. That’s why, in this general definition, an Excel spreadsheet can be thought of as a database. So let’s use that as an example to further explain what databases are.
Tables are like spreadsheets
In a database, a table is like an Excel spreadsheet. A table organizes several pieces of information about a particular thing. For instance, it can hold all of the things you may want to know about the people you are inviting to your next party: their name, address, phone number, etc. A table is made up of records and fields.
Records are like rows
A record in a table is like a row in a spreadsheet. It represents all of the data about one particular instance of a thing (in this case a person). In other words, one record might be your Luke Skywalker row which contains all of the information about Luke: his name, address, etc.
An alternate view of a row in a table
By the way, it is common when using database management systems to see screens that look like this. This is a good representation of a record in a table. It is presented in a user interface, showing one record at a time, instead of a table view as discussed earlier. In the picture, you can see that you can navigate to a different record using the little arrow buttons at the bottom.
Fields are like columns
If records are rows that tell us everything about a thing, then columns are individual pieces of information about that thing. So, the Address column is a field in our database.
Second, a database makes it possible to retrieve data
The second aspect of a database that we discussed at the beginning was that it makes it possible to retrieve data. Having this really cool place to store all of your really cool data is useless if you can’t get to it and use it in a way that makes you more productive. That’s why all database applications, have some sort of search functionality. But, simple search is just the beginning. Many applications, like Microsoft Access give you the ability to create very powerful searches called queries. Queries provide hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to search and manipulate data. I will be covering lots of these tips in later posts. Think about the applications that you’ve used that store data of some sort. I’ll bet they all give you a way to search for that data and in some cases change it and even add new data.
Database software
We’re going to expand our definition of a database a bit. Even though I used Excel as an example to describe the basic organization of database tables, it is not generally thought of as a database. When we talk about databases, we usually are talking about what is known as a Database Management System (DBMS). But, since “regular” people don’t use this term on a regular basis, we’re still just going to call them databases for the remainder of this article. For now, we’re going to refer to a real database as any of the off-the-shelf programs like Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, FileMaker Pro, or any custom designed piece of software that is created to store and organize your data for easy retrieval in order to make your job more productive. There are three types of database software that we’ll look at.
- First, are the database applications that are meant for the regular computer user. These are programs like Microsoft Access and FileMaker Pro. They are designed for you to create your own
databases to store and organize your data as well as create forms (screens) and reports to display and edit your data. - The second type of database is what is known as an enterprise level database. This includes database platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. These are usually installed on servers and are managed by Information Technology departments in small to large companies. Although, Microsoft has created a free version of it’s SQL Server database platform for individual and small business use.
- The third type of database I’m referring to isn’t really it’s own type, but rather describes custom solutions built using one of the above database platforms. I’m separating this into it’s own category because often times the average person may pay someone to create a database application for them or buy one online. When they do, the often refer to it as just “the database.” The other, possibly more common example in this category is when you sign up for certain web applications on the internet. Services like Netflix and Amazon use databases to help you find and purchase products. One easy example here is the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). It’s called a database, but in reality is a web application built on top of some enterprise database platform. In fact, you can bet that anywhere you can see and search for information on a screen, it has a database behind it.
All of these examples are what people mean when they say database. The power user for example might say, “I’m interested in building my own database in Microsoft Access.” The IT professional says, “We use SQL Server to store the data for our web application.” And the regular business user might say, “Bob created a database for me that allows me to enter and search all of my contacts and look at their sales data.”
Summing it all up
The bottom line is that a database is mechanism for storing, organizing, and retrieving data. There are applications which allow you to create your own databases or you can you buy one that’s already been created for you. You can do some amazing things with databases and they can make your personal and business life much more productive. And, if you’re the techie creative type, you can have a lot of fun creating your own.
Further reading
There are much more technical definitions of a database. Many of the database know-it-alls out there will say that I didn’t give you a good definition of what a database is. However, my intent was to give you a correct yet common understanding based on the way people often use the term today. Read the Wikipedia entry about databases for a much more involved explanation.