Databases, Forms, and Reports

Databases, Forms, and Reports

This paper will discuss databases, forms and reports. Why has the use of databases increased dramatically? What factors should be considered when designing a database and why? How would you go about designing forms and reports from scratch? In conclusion, a summation will be given along with closing thoughts.

Database Usage

A database is an organized collection of information or data. It is a collection of organized information in which a computer can easily select and display different fields of data. Databases have been in use since the earliest days of electronic computing, but the vast majority of these were custom programs written to access custom databases. Unlike modern systems which can be applied to widely different databases and needs, these systems were tightly linked to the database in order to gain speed at the price of flexibility. As computers grew in capability this tradeoff became increasingly unnecessary, as a number of general-purpose database systems emerged. With the implementation of relational and object-oriented databases, companies found that the use of databases were much more productive and cost effective. Productivity and cost effectiveness being two of the main factors as to why the use of databases has increased dramatically over the years. Most recently there has also become a growing interest in using company data to improve business performance. Queries around business performance analysis were the top datab...