DATABASE

A database is a collection of related data stored in an efficient and compact manner. The word "efficient" means that stored data can be accessed very easily and quickly. Similarly, the word "compact" means that stored data takes up as little space as possible. In the above definition of database, the phrase "related data" is used. It means that a database contains data or information about a particular topic such as:

1. Database of employees that contains data of employees of an organization or department.
2. Database of students that contains data of students of a college/university etc.

A database holds related data as well as description of that data. For this reason, a database is also defined as a self-describing collection of integrated records. The description of data is known as the system catalog or data dictionary or metadata (It means data about data). For example when a table of a data base is designed, the data type, size, format and other description of fields are specified. This is an example of metadata, which describes the properties of data to be stored into fields of table.

The data of any organization is its integral part. The data is very important for developing new products and their marketing. The data must be accurate and available when needed. This is the reason that all organizations must organize and manage their data into databases. The databases are used for variety of purposes in an table.

Almost all the organization and government departments of every country in the world use database to maintain their records,