What is a database and where can it be used?

It is not difficult to understand what a database is. We are constantly confronted with its varieties, even without knowing it. For example, in any production facility, in any institution where people work, equipment is used, there are databases where information about the staff units is entered, i.e. On the composition of staff, personnel, on the equipment that is used (inventory). The library file library is also a good example of a database.

Definition

So, what is a database? It is collected together and specially organized information on a topic, within any subject area. And if a few decades ago the necessary information was recorded and stored on paper, now all the material of interest is stored in a computer and stored in a computer version.

Classification

According to the content of the material, the databases are subdivided into factual and documentary. Factographic contain a brief information about the described objects. Information is provided in a certain form and format. For example, in the case of a library database, each book contains bibliographic information such as the year and place of publication, author, title, etc. The contents of the work, the text of books such a database will not contain. Personnel department in its database will keep personal information about employees - full name, date and place of birth, graduated schools, received professions, places of work, etc.

A documentary database can contain a huge amount of different-type information: texts, graphics, multimedia files. So, the discography of one or another variety artist is a sample of a documentary database. From it you can find out about the albums released by the singer, about the songwriters, listen to the songs themselves, watch the videos they've shot.

Thanks to modern technologies, the boundaries between factographic and documentary databases ceased to be sharp. Now you can easily connect information from one type of database to another.

Information warehouse - that's what a database is, and accessibility to a huge number of them thanks to the Internet has become quite a very simple task.

By the type of processing and submission of information, databases are divided into relational and network.

What is a relational database, you can understand, if you issue information in the form of tables. The tables will be interconnected. Thus, the list of toys in the storehouse can be presented in the form of a table where the types of toys (bear cubs, dogs, elephants, etc.) will be listed in the columns, the number of each species (bear cubs - 20, dogs - 35 etc.) , The price, the overall total of the value of the entire product is hit.

The relational database is very user-friendly and has been used for a long time. A school diary with a schedule of lessons, homework assignments, grades and comments is a tabular database. The schedule of train or bus journeys at stations is also a relational database.

A relational database consists of rows and columns. A table row is otherwise called a record, and a column is a field. In one record information is presented about one system object, the model of which the table is.

A more complex database model is the network base. In fact, the network database is the Internet itself, the World Wide Web, the Global Network. Thanks to hyperlinks, millions of documents are connected to each other. So they form a single distribution network database. And almost any Internet user can connect to it and get the necessary information.

In addition, if several computers are connected to one master and can, thanks to it, simultaneously work on the network, they form a local network or a local database.

That's what the database is and how it works.