What Is a Database?

A database (or data list ) is a collection of data. A phone book is a database. Your collection of cooking recipes is a database. Even your summer reading list can be considered a database.

A database is a collection of records , each of which consists of one or more field entries . In the case of a phone book, the field entries could be a person's first name, last name , home phone number, work phone number, mailing address, e-mail address, and so on. All the information relating to a particular person composes a single record.

Excel's worksheets provide an ideal format for creating simple databases. Each cell in a worksheet can store a single field entry. The data entries in each row make up a single record, as shown in Figure 11.1.

Figure 11.1. In an Excel worksheet, each row contains a single record.

In this chapter, you learn how to create a simple database in Excel, sort and filter records, and even use pivot tables to compare data.