Tables, Columns, and Rows

In relational database management systems, users access and modify data that is stored in tables. SQL is specifically designed for the relational model of database management.

Each row, or record, in a table describes one occurrence of a piece of data—a person, a company, a sale, or some other thing. Each column, or field, describes one characteristic of the data—a person’s name or address, a company’s name or president, quantity of items sold.

A relational database is made up of a set of tables that can be related to each other. The database usually contains many tables.