Progress
SQL-92
Guide and Reference


Review of Relational Database Components

A database is a collection of data and the structure of that data, called metadata. A relational database consists of two or more logically related data items. The following elements comprise a relational database:

Table 1–1: Components of a Relational Database 
Element
Description
Table
A table is a group of related data composed of columns and rows.
Index
An index provides a means of efficiently locating a record or set of records in the database.
Row
A row is a single occurrence of data in a table.
Column
Each column characterizes one attribute of a row of data. Each column has a data type such as character, integer or decimal associated with it.

NOTE: A View is a subset of a database that an application can process. It may contain parts of one or more tables. Views have no independent existence. They are a way of looking at the data.


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