Conventional Files Versus the Database
Introduction
- All information systems create, read, update and delete data. This data is stored in files and databases.
- Files are collections of similar records.
- Databases are collections of interrelated files.
- The key word is interrelated.
- The records in each file must allow for relationships (think of them as ‘pointers’) to the records in other files.
- In the file environment, data storage is built around the applications that will use the files.
- In the database environment, applications will be built around the integrated database.