WHAT IS A DATABASE ?

A database or data bank is a large collection of data stored in a computer, organized so that it can be expanded, updated, and desired data can be recalled rapidly for various uses. It can be viewed as an electronic filing machine. This data could be in the form of tables, graphics, reports, text, etc representing almost every kind of information. Databases also provides improved security. Traditional databases are organized by fields, records and files. A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields and a file is a collection of records. For example, a telephone book is similar to a database. It is a large electronic file containing a list of records, each of which may consist of three fields: name of the contact, address of the contact, and telephone number.

In recent years, database management systems (DBMS), a collection of software programs allowing users to not only enter information located in a database but to select particular information of interest, has gained more prominence. Thus, increasingly, the term database has come to stand for DBMS. Previously, flat-file database systems were in use which only allowed simple rows and columns like spreadsheets. Today, most DBMSs can manage any form of data including images, text, video and sound. On the negative side,database systems are very complex, time-consuming and initial training is required for all programmers and users which subsequently increases the costs.