DATA HIERARCHY
A relational database is composed of multiple tables, and each table holds data. Within a table,
each row represents a group of related data values. A row, or record, is also known as a tuple.
The columns in a table is referred to as a field or attribute. A record is one instance of a set of
fields in a table. You can also think of it this way-an attribute is used to define the record and a
record contains a set of attributes. A data hierarchy is the structure and organization of data in
a database and an example can be seen below.
A Data Hierarchy is a series of ordered
groupings in a system, beginning with the smallest unit to the largest.
File a collection of related records. i.e. all student information (ID, name, major, email)
Record a collection of related fields. i.e.John Smith’s ID, major and email
Field holds a single fact or attribute. i.e. student name
Byte a unit of digital information 1 byte = 8 bits representing a single character
Bit unit of measurement to quantify computer data. Single value of 0 or 1
Data Types
When defining the fields in a database table, we must give each field a data type. For example,
the field ‘StudentName’ is text string, while ‘EnrollmentCapacity’ is number. Most modern
databases allow for several different data types to be stored. Some of the more common data
types are listed here:
Text for storing non-numeric data that is brief, generally under 256 characters. The database
designer can identify the maximum length of the text.
Number for storing numbers. There are usually a few different number types that can be
selected, depending on how large the largest number will be.
Boolean a data type with only two possible values, such as 0 or 1, “true” or “false”, “yes” or “no”.
Date/Time a special form of the number data type that can be interpreted as a number or a time.
Currency a special form of the number data type that formats all values with a currency indicator
and two decimal places.
Paragraph this data type allows for text longer than 256 characters.
Text
Object this data type allows for the storage of data that cannot be entered via keyboard, such
as an image or a music file.
There are two important reasons that we must properly define the data type of a field.
1. First, a data type tells the database what functions can be performed with the data. For example,
if we wish to perform mathematical functions with one of the fields, we must be sure to tell the
database that the field is a number data type. For example, we can subtract the course capacity
from the classroom capacity to find out the number of extra seats available.
2. The second important reason to define data type is so that the proper amount of storage space is
allocated for our data. For example, if the ‘StudentName’ field is defined as a Text (50) data
type, this means 50 characters are allocated for each name we want to store. If a student’s name
is longer than 50 characters, the database will truncate it.
