Fields
The columns in a table are fields. Each column has the same type of information for each record in the table, such as the height field, age field, or weight field. Each cell in the table is a specific data item, such as 72 inches, 34 years old, or 145 pounds. A database keeps like data in a single column allowing you to search or sort on just that one column.

Compare the field concept with Memo Pad where all the data gets mixed up in one long string of text. If you're looking for someone who is 72 inches tall and search for "72," you'll also find someone who is 72 years old, or who weighs 72 pounds.

Table A shows a simple database that has two fields (NAME and AGE) and currently contains three records (Albert's, Bob's, and Cher's) in the list view:

The list view shows the database as a list and each record is a row in the list. Below is shown one of the records in the record view. The record view shows one record at a time on the screen or page.

Sorting
Databases can be sorted on one or more fields. How would you find the oldest person in your database? It's easy. Just sort the database on the AGE field, and the oldest person will be put at the bottom of the list. When you sort on a field, all the other fields associated with each record are moved also to keep all records intact.

Filters
Filters are used to exclude certain data that we don't want to see at a particular time. For example, if we're looking only for females, we would filter on the GENDER field (a field which we just added to the database) and select only "F" in that field. Before applying the filter we have what's shown in Table B:

After filtering for only "F" in the GENDER field we get the list shown in Table C:

The males are still in the database. We just can't see them because they are temporarily filtered out of sight. By using sorting and filtering together, we can look at our data in many interesting and useful ways. If you turn off the filter, the database will display the four original records.

Search
We can search a database by any field. So if we are looking for the first record belonging to a female in the database, we would search for an "F" in the GENDER field, and we would not find any other "F…" words in the database such as "Frank," even though his NAME starts with "F."

Import and export
Other attributes of a database are the ability to import and export data to PC programs such as Microsoft Excel or Access. This allows us to print reports or merge data into other databases, for example.