Tables and Information Structure

A relational database consists of one or more associated tables which contain columns and rows. Each table holds information about a specific category of entities.

The table columns are predefined as the common attributes of all entities that the table contains. The table rows are the records of the entities that the table contains. Each separate row gives information of each unique entity. Each field of the table gives a piece of information which is based on the attribute of the particular column. Thus, if we consider that we have a table which contains information about the customers of a company with the name "Customers" a data instance of it will be the following. As you can see the table "Customers" above has four pre-defined fields (attributes) which are the LastName, the FirstName, the City, and the State. On the other hand It consists of four rows (records) of information each one describes a unique customer (entity or object).