What is a database?

In the simplest sense, a database is a collection of records and files that are organized for a particular purpose. On your computer devices, you might keep the names and addresses of all your friends or customers. You might have another set of files in which you keep all your financial data—accounts payable and accounts receivable, or your checkbook entries and balances. The word processor documents that you organize by topic are, in the broadest sense, one type of database. The spreadsheet files that you organize according to their uses are another type of database. Shortcuts to all your applications on your computer device are a kind of database. Internet shortcuts organized in your Favorites folder are a database.

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