Part 1

 To answer the question “what is a database?”  To understand the basic components of a database and start to plan/create our own.

 Database  Table  Field  Record  Primary key

 Yellow pages  Mobile phones  Microsoft Access

 Patient information in a hospital  Car registration numbers and owners  Names and phone numbers of friends  Student information in a school  Criminal Records What kind of information could we store in a database?

Each table within a database will have a collection of fields and records. e.g. Customer details is a table Tables

Each piece of information in a record is called a field. e.g. Name: Joe Bloggs is a field. Fields

Each set of information about a person / object is called a record. e.g. Name: Joe Bloggs Address: 33 Wood Lane, Porth Phone number: is a record which has 3 fields. Records

Primary key Every table in a database needs a primary key; a primary key uniquely identifies each record in the table. e.g. Applies an ID to a record e.g. St1234

Table Record Field Primary key

 Which is better and why?  Data storage capacity  Faster data retrieval, especially when searching  Easier to manage security  Amending data is much easier

When information is typed into a database it is stored as a certain format. Text: Any text Number: Only numbers Yes/no: anything with only two possible answers. E.g. yes/no, male/female. Lookup wizard: a drop down menu with multiple choice answers.

 Your new band has a set up an online fan club.  100 requests for information on the fan club that have been ed to you.  10 people have sent £10 for information and autographs after talking to the secretary.

Design view Enables you to do the work you need to create a table. i.e. field names and data types. Datasheet The Datasheet View shows the records in a table. Having designed a table you can then go into datasheet and display/add records.