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Last Month…

Mick Sulley introduced us to the world of relational databases and their advantages over retaining data on an
ever-increasing sized spreadsheet, which I am as guilty as a lot of people who collate data in one shape or
form.

Databases – what are they?

A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored electronically in a
computer system. A database is usually controlled by a database management system (DBMS). Together, the
data and the DBMS, along with the applications that are associated with them, are referred to as a database
system, often shortened to just database.
Data within the most common types of databases in operation today is typically modelled in rows and columns
in a series of tables to make processing and data querying efficient. The data can then be easily accessed, man-
aged, modified, updated, controlled, and organized. Most databases use structured query language (SQL) for
writing and querying data.

Difference between databases and spreadsheets.
Databases and spreadsheets are both convenient ways to store information. The primary differences between
the two are:

· How the data is stored and manipulated
· Who can access the data