When dealing with any
type of variable application, whether it is an easy direct mail or an ongoing
cross-media campaign, the most important point to remember is having accurate
data. Most people, who are new to this industry, find the task of managing
content and databases to be a difficult one due to its complexity. Even though
they are used to dealing with everyday databases and files, for example,
putting a contact list together in your address book, they overlook the lists
itself and don’t even consider how a computer software understands that list of
data using SQL - Structured Query Language.
Each database has common
characteristics like its content that is easily labeled and described. For
example, the label for “ABC Corporation” will be “Company” and the content
would be written with letters and numbers. For the computer software, “ABC
Corporation” is understood as the data value, “Company” is field or
field name and what the content
consists of is called the data type.
When you group a number of related fields, you create a record
and the simplest way to create a record
is by making lists using a column format and mentioning with the field names on the top. When you group a
number of related records, you create a data table.
