Write about your understanding of databases. Explore the database advantages and write about database concepts such as primary and foreign keys

Database:

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A database is a structured collection of data that has been set up and kept to make it easy to retrieve and manipulate the information. It is an essential part of contemporary information systems, offering a dependable and scalable mechanism for data storage, management, and retrieval (oracal.com, n.d.).

Advantages of database:

Using a database to manage data has a lot of benefits. Among the principal benefits are:

Data Consistency: To guarantee that the data is dependable, accurate, and consistent, databases enforce rules for data entry, validation, and verification (geeksforgeeks.org, 2022).

Data Security: Security measures can be built into databases to limit illegal access to data and provide users fine-grained control over the data they can view  (geeksforgeeks.org, 2022).

Data Integrity: By enforcing rules and limitations, databases can be set to prevent data duplication, assure data completeness, and ensure data veracity (tutorialspoint.com, n.d.)

Better Data Retrieval: Databases include robust search functions that let users easily get the data they require, even from huge volumes of data (tutorialspoint.com, n.d.)

Effective Data Management: By streamlining data storage and retrieval processes and minimising the need for manual data management, databases make it possible to store and manage data effectively  (geeksforgeeks.org, 2022).

Database Concepts:

A database is a structured collection of data that has been set up and kept to make it easy to retrieve and manipulate the information. Following are some essential database-related ideas:

Data: Information kept in the database is referred to as data. Any sort of data can be used, including text, numbers, dates, photos, audio, and video (geeksforgeeks.org, 2022).

Table: A collection of data that is arranged in columns and rows is called a table. Each table has a distinct name and reflects a certain kind of data (isaaccomputerscience.org, n.d.).

Field: A field is one piece of information in a table. Each field has a unique name and represents a certain attribute of the data (isaaccomputerscience.org, n.d.).

Primary key: A primary key is an identifier that is specific to each record in a table. It serves to protect against duplicate records and preserve data integrity (isaaccomputerscience.org, n.d.).

Foreign key: A field in one table that relates to the primary key in another table is known as a foreign key. This creates a connection between the two tables, enabling data links and access from different tables (oracal.com, n.d.)

Index: A data structure that facilitates quick access to certain data items and is used to speed up data retrieval activities (oracal.com, n.d.)

Reference:

oracal.com, ( n.d.). What is a Database? [Online] Available from: https://www.oracle.com/uk/database/what-is-database/ (Accessed 5 March 2023).

geeksforgeeks.org, (2022). Advantages of data management system [Online] Available from: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/advantages-of-database-management-system/ (Accessed 5 March 2023).

(geeksforgeeks.org, 2022). Basic Database Concepts [Online] Available from: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/basic-database-concepts/ (Accessed 5 March 2023).

isaaccomputerscience.org, (n.d.). Database Concepts [Online] Available from: https://isaaccomputerscience.org/concepts/data_dbs_concepts?examBoard=all&stage=all (Accessed 5 March 2023).

tutorialspoint.com, (n.d.). Advantages of data management system [Online] Available from: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/Advantages-of-Database-Management-System# (Accessed 5 March 2023).

vignette.wikia.nocookie.net, (n.d.) Cultural Database | Seedship wiki [Image] Available from: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/seedship/images/c/c1/Ok.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180418233927 (Accessed 5 March 2023).