Glossary for Geospatial Science

database object or dBASE object:  A database is a collection of information related by some unifying theme, such as demographics, epidemiology, or geographic location.  There are a number of popular database programs, such as dBASE IV, that assist in the retrieval and management of such information in electronic form.  The TNT products also handle databases and use specific terminology for the components that comprise a database. A database in the TNT products can be a main level object or a subobject of a raster, vector, CAD, or TIN object.  The object generally defines the “unifying theme” (for example, the soil type polygons for the Crow Butte area). A database is organized into tables, which contain records that store attribute values for an individual example in one or more fields.  (See also: external database, field, foreign key, internal database, primary key, record, table.)