From the course: Learning Azure SQL Querying

What are tables, rows, and columns? - Azure Tutorial

From the course: Learning Azure SQL Querying

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What are tables, rows, and columns?

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- [Instructor] SQL or Structured Query Language is a way for you to write intuitive questions or statements to pull and modify data within your relational database. A relational database table is like a single spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. The table is grid-like and it stores data in a tabular format. It has columns across the top that define what is in each of these fields. And along the side, it has horizontal rows, each representing a single record in that table. One thing to note that is different from a regular spreadsheet is that each column will have a data type so that column can only ever store one type of value like a piece of text or a number or a date. Spreadsheets let you click on a column and click a button to let you convert all the values to display as money or dates, but a relational database will enforce rules that won't let you insert data into a field of the wrong data type. The design and layout of your tables is called the schema. A feature of a relational database is that multiple tables can relate to or link with each other. Think of this like having multiple sheets or tabs across the bottom of your spreadsheet. You might have a sheet or, in this case, a table that stores all of the products that your business sells online. Another table might store your customers and another table might store the orders. If I want to know who I'm shipping order number one to, then I would look at order number one in the order table, go across to the customer ID column and take the number listed in this field and then relate it to customer number one in my customer's table. Now let's look at how SQL statements can help you slice and dice this data.

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