For this, we shall use the example of a school database, keeping data about the students. The FULL set of data about ALL the students is called the FILE. There may be a file for the data about the teachers as well.
The student file is split into sets of data about each individual student. These sets of data are called RECORDS. Each student will have their OWN record.
The record could contain many pieces of data Eg. Name, Form Tutor, Gender, No. in family. Each of these pieces of data is called and ITEM OF DATA and they are stored in FIELDS. Each record must have the same fields.
Each RECORD in the file must be distinguishable from other records. If there were two people with the same name, you wouldn't know which data belongs to who.
So a KEY FIELD is used. This is unique and will usually be a number. a key field is sometimes called a PRIMARY KEY.
A file is a group of records. A record is a group of fields. And a field contains a single item of data.
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