
Contents > Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications > Database Fundamentals > Understanding database basics > What is a relational database?

What is a relational database?

A relational database is a structured collection of information that is related to a particular subject or purpose, such as an inventory database or a human resources database. You use databases to manage information. Information, such as product name, cost, and on-hand inventory, is stored in a database. Within the database, you organize the data into storage containers called tables. Tables are made up of columns and rows. Columns represent individual fields in a table. Rows represent records of data in a table. You can think of database tables as grids, as in the following example:

This is a picture of the feature being described.

Each field in the table contains one piece of information. In an employee table, for example, one column contains the employee name, another contains the employee phone number, and the address, city, state, zip, and salary are all stored in their own columns. Each record represents one set of related information. For example, an employee table might store information about one employee per row. The number of rows in a table represents the total number of table records.


Contents > Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications > Database Fundamentals > Understanding database basics > What is a relational database?

Version 6.1

Comments are no longer accepted for ColdFusion MX 6.1. ColdFusion 8 is the current version.

Comments

No screen name said on Nov 18, 2004 at 1:46 AM :

Thanks for the realtional database page, just what I neede for course-work :)

RSS feed | Send me an e-mail when comments are added to this page | Comment Report

Current page: http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/6.1/htmldocs/db_basi3.htm