Differences Between Fields & Records in a Database

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A phone book is a common example of a database.

Fields and records are two basic components of a database, which is an organized collection of information, or data. The term "fields" refers to columns, or vertical categories of data; the term "records" refers to rows, or horizontal groupings of unique field data. Examples of both database components are seen in older, printed databases and also in modern, computer-based databases.

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Database Structure

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Common examples of a database are a phone book, library catalog or the search engine of a retail website. A database is typically constructed in a grid-like format with rows and columns. For example, a telephone book has a last name, first name, address and phone number for each entry; those categories form the "columns" of the database. Each entry in the phone book has a unique identifying quality, which is the person's name; each named entry in the phone book forms a row, which contains unique data in each of those four columns.

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Database Function

Databases are organized according to fields and records so that they are easily searched. To find a phone number in the phone book, you simply have to locate the person's name, which is unique; once the person's name is located, the correct phone number is found in the "phone number" column of that same row. Most databases follow these basic organizing and functional principles.

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Field

In the phone book example, the four data categories of last name, first name, address and phone number are called "fields." A field is single unit of data that is unique within each entry/row, but the overall data category is common to all entries. For instance, "address" is a field that is common to all named entries in the phone book; however, the content of the address field will be unique for each named entry. As a guideline, a database field refers to the columns, or data categories, that are used by all entries/rows.

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Record

A record is a row of a database, a horizontal grouping of fields; the content of those fields is unique to that row. In the phone book example, each last name begins a record/row which contains data in the name, address and phone number fields. A record is often used in a database search because each record has a unique, identifying quality (or value). A database record is, basically, a row that contains unique data in each of the fields. A database will usually contain a large number of records but only a small number of fields.

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