Database Structures

Key Words: Record, File, Table, Field, Data

Starter
What is a Database?
DEFINITION: A database is a collection of data or information which is
held together in an organised or logical way.

Databases of data are held on a computer.

Example of a database with stored data.

The database below shows you an example of stored medical patient's
data:
Breakdown of the medical patient's database.
• Medical center, Doctors surgeries and Hospitals hold lots of data about patients.
• Let's look at the data they might hold:

• Each patient has information stored about them. Notice how the information is
similar (Name, Gender, D.o.B etc).
Database Structures
Structure of a database:
• Databases are so useful because they store data
in a structured way.

• Once data has been structured it can

manipulated easily.

Databases consist of the following:

 Files / Tables
 Records
 Fields
 Data
What is a Database Table?
 A collection of records and fields for storage is called a table.

 Database Tables allow you to see the records all at once rather than
individually.
 NOTE: In the medical records database we have 8 columns and 5
rows:
What is a Record?

o Records are sets of data about a single object or person.

o For example: the data about each patient in our database is known
as a record.
o Even though the data is different, records contain the same
structure (Each one has a Id, Name, Gender etc). This structure is
made up of Fields.
What is a Field?

 Fields are the items that make up a record / attributes that define an object
(person, car etc)

 For example, our records consists of 8 fields:

 Patient Id
 Name
 D.o.B
 Gender
 Phone
 Doctor Id,
 Doctor and Room
Records and Fields
 Each Row of the Table contains one Record:

 Each cell of a table indicates a single field.

 A single field can hold one piece of data

 Fields are given field names. These are found at the top of each column.