What is a database?

 Two main uses:  Storing information  Sorting information

What kind of information could we store in a database?  Patient information  Telephone numbers  Car registration plate owners  Business clients  Name and phone numbers of friends  Parent’s contact information for children in a school

Key words Each person’s information is separate and that is called a record e.g. Name – Jo Bloggs Address – 33 Wood Lane, Haworth Phone number –

What kind of things could we do with these records?  A search – this is called a query  Example 1 – a child is ill at school – we need to find out if they have any medical conditions quickly  Example 2 – we need to find who owns a car that has been caught speeding on the motorway

How do you create a database?  First you need to decide which fields you want to use  Name is a field  Colour could also be field  Then habitat could be our last field  You could also have picture as a field

Then what?  In softease database we can use the wizard to create a database  We want to create a new database  Not based on another one  Then we can select our fields

Now we can add the information  This is the symbol for a new record

Once all the records have been added we can start a query  Click the button with a ?  Choose which field to search  And what you want to search for

Finally  You can switch been two views:  Form and Report  What is the difference between them?