What is a Table?

<< Click to Display Table of Contents >>

Navigation:  Table descriptions >

What is a Table?

Previous pageReturn to chapter overviewNext page

Dispatch is stores data (e.g. Customers, Trucks, Materials) in a relational database.

 

Within a relational database, data that are similar are organized in Tables.

 

A Table contains zero or more Rows of data.

 

Each Row consists of one or more Columns. Columns are often referred to as fields.

 

The image below that was captured from the Dispatch Customer Editor illustrates the arrangement of Rows and Columns within the Customer Table. The Grid control in the image represents a Table.

 

clip0125

 

Characteristics of a table

There is no significance to the order in which rows are created - rows are ordered (sorted) as required when they are recalled from a table
There is no significance to the order of the columns - columns can be included, excluded and ordered as required when they are recalled from a table
Rows contains one and only one value for each column
Columns have a specific or presumed data type (e.g. text, number, date)
Columns can be declared to have a default value
Columns can contain values that are calculated (e.g. col3 = col1 x col2, net = gross - tare)