SAMS Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 24 Hours

Examining Database Fundamentals

You might have heard the term database used before without being completely clear about what a database is or what it is used for. In the simplest terms, a database is a collection of structured information that can be efficiently accessed and modified.

Databases contain data and allow four operations to be performed on that data: retrieval, insertion, modification, and deletion. Most commonly, databases are used as a means to retrieve already inserted data. Therefore, we will spend the bulk of our study of databases examining how to retrieve the database's data.

Before you can insert, update, delete, or query a database, you must first set up and install a database. We will start this hour by examining the basic ...