Common Terms or Terminologies Used in Database

What is DBMS? What is the abbreviation of DBMS?

DBMS stands for Database Management System. This is a software package that deals with all kinds of operation with data. It is used for several database processes like storing data, searching data, retrieving data, deleting data and updating data etc. One of its biggest tasks is to control the access to the data. You can create users and can give those rights as you wish. DBMS can be used by various users to manipulate the data.

What is a storage engine in a DBMS?

Storage engine plays a very vital role in the performance of a database. It is a part of DBMS that store and accesses the data in a DBMS. It includes the mechanisms for indexing the data, searching the data and locking portions of data in the database. We have different types of storage engines which are optimized for different types of data. We will not go in the details of indexing and locking etc. If you are interested to learn about these topics go to the Mysql website for more details.

What is SQL? What SQL stands for?

SQL stand for Structured Query Language. It is a language of DBMS. It is used to communicate with the DBMS. It is by far the most popular language which is used to interact with a DBMS. SQL is used in every program that deals with a database. It is used by the user as well as the programs that want to retrieve data.

What is Database?

The database is a stored data. It holds the data and is usually stored on a disc but can be stored in memory or somewhere else. It is often stored in a file system. The file system hold the database is sometimes stored in a single file. The term database is generally referred to a place where data lives so the file system that holds the data is a form database.

What is a table in DBMS?

The databases are made of tables. Tables are like sets of related data. They include a single class of data for each one. For example a table of products will include the information about the various products only. It will not include any customer information in it etc. The tables are comprised of rows and columns. Rows are the records are the entity instances. For example in a products table a row will contain all the information about the specific product like title, price, purchase_rate or number_of_items etc. On the other hand columns represent all like data for each record or row in a table. For instance in a products table all the titles of products will be in the titles column and all prices will be stored in the price column for each row.

Rows are also called records and columns are called fields. The each data element in the record is called a cell.