A Short Introduction to Databases

The aim of this book is to explain how discrete items of information (data) e.g. names of individuals or organisations can be linked to other items of information e.g. addresses, dates of birth or amounts invoiced. How that linked information can be used to drive other processes or produce reports is illustrated here by creating and populating a database reporting football (soccer) leagues, a world-wide phenomenon and I hope, explicable to most adults (young and old). Here the word database will refer to any collection of linked data in any structured format e.g. in rows and columns. The data required to populate a database, its form, will depend on its function e.g. the types of reports that the users of the database have specified. The purposes for which data are collected are myriad and it is prudent to bear in mind that there almost certainly will be data protection legislation to regulate the management and use of some types of data.