Relational Terminology — Tables, Records and Fields

In a relational database, data is stored in tables. It is worth learning the exact vocabulary, because these words are used constantly:

• A table (relation) is a collection of related data arranged in rows and columns, rather like a grid on paper. For example, a Student table stores data about students.
• A field (column / attribute) is a single column of the table. It represents one specific property of the data — for example, RollNo, Name, Class and Marks are fields of a Student table. Every value in a field is of the same kind (all names, all marks, and so on).
• A record (row / tuple) is a single row of the table. It holds one complete set of related values — for example, all the details of one particular student. If a table has 40 students, it has 40 records.
• A cell (data value) is the single piece of data where one row meets one column — for example, the marks of one particular student.

A small Student table might look like this:

Here the whole grid is the table; RollNo, Name, Class and Marks are the fields; each horizontal line of details (for example, 1, Aarti Deshpande, XI-A, 78) is a record; and the single value 85 is a cell. …