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When to Use Databases
- Handle multiple concurrent users
- Flat files are bad when multiple users try to edit them (at the same time)
- Scalability, speed, data variety, data persistence, granular security
Relational Databases
- Structured data with tables of columns with rows of text or numerical data
- Data must conform to a schema
Schema
- The rules and structure of the database
- Determines the data types of certain fields
Fields
- Columns in a table
- Must be a single data type for all records
Primary / Foreign Key
- A table must have a primary key; primary key is used to uniquely identify it
- Usually, the primary key would be a user ID or something similar
- Tables can also have foreign keys, which refers to a primary key in another table
Forms
- How data is entered and viewed from your database
- You don’t need forms to have a database, but they make management easier
- Mainly used by customers
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