Data Representation

• Though the bits and bytes of digital data represent numbers, letters, strings, etc., the information content is embodied in how the data is grouped or associated

• The basic unit of data base information is a record, a sequence (of fixed length) of primitive data values, called fields

  • Example, an address record:

William J. Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC, 20020

Name Field

Address Field

State Field

ZIP Field

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