What Is a Database?
For Web purposes, a database is a special server-accessed component used to organize and store data, and is optimized to allow this data to be accessed and updated quickly. At the heart of a database is an organizational structure known as a table, not to be confused with an HTML table. Data is organized in tables because tables are a logical way to represent related information. Tables are represented in a row-and-column format, as shown in Figure 17.1. The related bits of information, known as fields, are displayed across the top of a table as columns. A collection of fields is called a record.
Figure 17.1. Tables are used to organize data in a row-and-column format, as seen in this Microsoft Access sample database.
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