BCS Glossary of Computing, 14th Edition

B3 DATA HANDLING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

Although a computer can store enormous amounts of data, this data is useless without appropriate links between individual data items. Imagine, for example, what a (printed) telephone directory would be like if it was simply two separate listings of telephone subscribers and their numbers, without the connection that is made by the printed layout between a particular subscriber and their telephone number. The data is also useless if it cannot be easily retrieved when required – imagine the telephone directory in random rather than in alphabetic order.

The same applies to computerised collections of data. These are generally referred to as databases and can vary between such things as a simple name-and-address ...