Attribute
a characteristic of an entity, such as ID number. The specific value of an attribute, called a data item – such as R2D2, can be found in the fields of the record describing an entity.
Big Data
refers to the huge amount of data being collected and stored and to the process of drawing useful information from that data
Data Center
a climate-controlled room, building, or buildings that houses servers storing and delivering information and services
Data Hierarchy
refers to the manner in which data in a database is organized into sequential levels of detail
Data Integrity
refers to the quality of data: the degree to which it is accurate and up to date
Data Mining
the process of extracting information from a data warehouse
Database
a collection of organized data, of integrated and related files or tables
Database Tools
include software and techniques for analyzing, maintaining, and manipulating data in a database
Data Warehouse
a very large database that holds information from a variety of sources
DBMS: Database Management System
consists of a group of programs that manipulate the data within a database, providing an interface between the database and the user or between the database and application programs
Data Dictionary
provides a detailed description of each field and table in a database
Entity
a generalized class of people, places, or things (objects) for which data is collected, stored, and maintained. Entities are represented as tables in a database.
ERD: Entity Relationship Diagram
illustrates relationships between tables in a database
Field
the smallest practical unit in most databases: typically a name, number, or combination of characters that in some way describes an aspect of an object
Key, database
A database key is a field in a table used to identify a record
Normalization
the process of correcting data problems or anomalies, ensuring that the database contains good data
Primary Key
A primary key is a field (or combination of fields) within a database table that uniquely identifies each record
Record
A collection of related fields that describe some object or activity. A record is an instance of an entity.
Relational Database
A relational database organizes data into multiple tables that are related by common fields called keys
Schema, Database
A database schema is a graphical representation of the structure of a database
SQL: Structured Query Language
a popular data manipulation language used by the vast majority of database programmers and administrators for manipulating data to meet the needs of the users
Table (File)
A collection of related records is a table, also called a file in some databases
Glossary: Big Data