Topic group

You should know these essential terms:

An application is a complete system of tables and related forms, queries, reports and other components that handles a data management need.

A database is a collection of one or more tables that store and classify information, plus related files such as index, graphic, and memo files. Each dBASE table in a database is a distinct file with a .DBF extension.

A table consists of one or more horizontal rows (sometimes known as records) that contain information about a specific person, place, or thing.

Each row contains one or more fields. A field contains one category of information, such as a person’s name, a phone number, or an invoice date.

A field type describes the kind of information stored in the field; for example, date, character, logical, numeric.

In a table, each row includes a row number field (or RECNO( ) in the dBL language) that identifies that row uniquely in the table.

When you first create the table, you choose a table type. Your choices are standard tables (.DBF and .DB) and other supported databases for which you have configured a BDE alias. Then you define each field’s name, field type, width, and decimal (if a numeric or float field). You can also create an index on the field, which lets you arrange rows in a useful order.

The dBASE Plus interface adjusts automatically to accommodate the type of table you are working with. For example, if the table you are working with supports data entry constraints, you can specify them in the Inspector while designing a Table. Otherwise, data entry constraints are unavailable in the Table designer.