Computer Science 1032A/B Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Unique Key, Decision-Making, Business Intelligence

• School: Western University
• Department: Computer Science
• Course: Computer Science 1032A/B
• Professor: Louis Magguilli

Document Summary

Relational database: groups of data are related to each other in a meaningful way. Database: an organized collection of data about related items or concepts in the real world. Data consists of bytes basic storage unit in computers. Characters (i. e. names, addresses) fit into bytes. Bytes are grouped into fields or data elements. Each field in a database contains one data item that has meaning to the organization. Fields might not consist of characters blobs, for binary large objects. Could be photographs, voice recordings, scans, etc. Records: describe a concept or object (entity) the database stores information on. All records of a specific type form a table (sometimes called a file) Database consists of multiple tables about an area, organized so data in them can be used together. Two main uses of data: transaction processing (operational use) Must be able to update record: business intelligence (decision support use) Decision making applications access millions of records at a time for analysis.