Storing Structured Data

Recall from our earlier definition that a database is a collection of structured information that can be efficiently accessed and modified. Databases structure their data by storing it into tables. A two-dimensional grid, a table is a combination of columns and rows. Each column corresponds to an attribute of the data, whereas each row corresponds to an actual data item. Furthermore, each table is assigned a unique identifier to differentiate it from other tables in the database.

To clarify this concept, imagine that we wanted to use a database to store information about customers. Let's name the table Customers. In order to decide how to store the customer information, we must first decide what information, specifically, ...

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