A database is a collection of information, organized in such a way that it can be accessed and used by a computer program. Computers are great for manipulating information, but they must store the information before it can be manipulated and they must ensure that the information is easily retrieved. Databases are how computers solve these problems.

There are countless ways that databases are used, from household inventories and Yellow Pages listings to customer records for businesses. In fact, if you use the Internet, you likely interact with databases several times a day without realizing it. Many of the search engines you use, including Google, Bing and Yahoo, rely on databases.

The information stored in a database is organized into tables. Each table is identified by a primary key. A primary key must be unique, and it may consist of multiple columns. For example, a product number that uniquely identifies each item in a catalog would make a good primary key.

Procedures are the rules and instructions that guide a DBMS. They are used to design the database and to instruct the users that operate and manage it. They are the specific set of instructions on how to access and work with the data in a database.

The benefit of using a database is that it can organize a massive amount of data much more efficiently and more accurately than spreadsheets can. In addition, it can be searched faster than spreadsheets and can be accessed by multiple users simultaneously.