What is XML, and Why Should You Care?--McIlroy

and the database would print out a list of every name in sequence. In most databases you could also specify that those fields would get printed out in, for example, 10 point Courier type face. So the database would be formatting at the same time it was ordering data.

What about a database used to generate invoices at a printing company? Here you could specify a field to define the printed product, a second field to specify the number of sheets printed, and to define the pricing. Your database can be programmed to calculate new fields from this data. The field would be defined as " multiplied by ." The field would be calculated as "the sum of all the data." And so on.