ITF+ Certification Cram Notes
5.0 Database Fundamentals
5.1 Explain database concepts and the purpose of a database.
Records: Records refer to the individual data items or a collection of related data items in a database. Each record usually represents a single entity or object, such as a customer, product, or order. Records consist of one or more fields or attributes that store specific pieces of information about the entity.
Storage: Storage refers to the physical or virtual space where data is stored. Data persistence is the ability of data to be stored over time and survive system reboots, crashes, or other failures. In a computer system, data can be stored in various types of storage media such as hard drives, solid-state drives, flash drives, and cloud storage.
Data persistence ensures that data is available when it is needed, even after a system failure. It is a crucial aspect of data storage because it ensures that important information is not lost or corrupted.
A database stores records in a structured and organized manner that allows for efficient querying and retrieval of data. Flat files, on the other hand, are a simple and straightforward way of storing data in a file, where each line in the file represents a record. While flat files are easier to work with and require less overhead than databases, they are less efficient when dealing with large amounts of data or when multiple users need to access the data simultaneously.
Flat files are typically used for simple applications that don't require complex data relationships, while databases are used for applications that require efficient querying and retrieval of data, especially when dealing with large amounts of data or multiple concurrent users.
