1.1 Data and Databases

1.1 Data and Databases

Data is information that describes real-world systems. Historically data was analog, but today it's mostly digital. Data can be textual, visual, audio, etc. 

Data varies in its scope, which describes the amount or depth of the data, in its format, which is how the data is produced, as well as in it's accessibility, which determines who can create, read, update, or destroy the data.

Databases are a collection of data contained in a structured format. Computers are used to ensure the data is standardized. Standardization is important because of the unprecedented scopes of data we use today (ie. speed, volume, "big data"

Database Management Systems (DBMS) are software that read and write data to a database while ensuring the integrity and availability of the data. 

In order to interact with data, a special language or, query language must be used. Alternatively, database applications can be used to interact with the data. Database applications are software that can be used which allows interaction with data without using query languages.

1.2 Database Systems

Logically one might think it easier to just use text files or spreadsheets to interact with data, however, with the mass amount of data that needs to be managed, performance issues would be prevalent if we were to only used text files or spreadsheets.