Chapter 14
Using Databases
What you will learn in this chapter:
- What a relational database is
- What tables, fields, records, and keys are
- What normalization is
- How to use the database Structured Query Language
- Implementing an MDI interface to a database
wrox.com code downloads for this chapter
You can find the wrox.com code downloads for this chapter at www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=9781118336922 on the Download Code tab. The code in the Chapter14 folder is individually named according to the names throughout the chapter.
In Chapter 13 you learned how to persist data using several different types of data files. This chapter expands on that topic but persists the data using database techniques.
It's been said that of all the programs under development, more than 80 percent of them use a database in one form or another. Clearly, this is one tool that must hang from your tool belt.
What Is a Database?
A database is simply a grouping of data. If you wanted to, you could use the topics covered in Chapter 13 to construct your own database. However, if you value your time at more than 2 cents an hour, it's silly to reinvent the wheel. It is far wiser to use a commercially available database system than to attempt to write one yourself.
A relational database is a collection of information in which the data within the database is associated with one another in some way. Managing the interrelationships in a relational database can get rather complex. For that reason, most people prefer ...
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