< data , data base, programming > An ordered set of fields , usually stored contiguously. The term is used with similar meaning in several different contexts. In a file, a "record" probably has some fixed length, in contrast to a "line" which may have any length and is terminated by some End Of Line sequence). A database record is also called a "row". In a spreadsheet it is always called a "row". Some programming languages use the term to mean a type composed of fields of several other types ( C calls this a " struct ").
In all these cases, a record represents an entity with certain field values.
Fields may be of a fixed width ( bit s or characters ) or they may be separated by a delimiter character, often comma ( CSV ) or HT ( TSV ).
In a database the list of values of a given field from all records is called a column.
(2002-03-22)