Database Overview

Databases are designed to offer an organized mechanism for storing, managing and retrieving information. They do so through the use of tables. If you’re familiar with spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel, you’re probably already accustomed to storing data in tabular form. It’s not much of a stretch to make the leap from spreadsheets to databases.

At this point, you’re probably asking yourself an obvious question – if a database is so much like a spreadsheet, why can’t I just use a spreadsheet? Databases are actually much more powerful than spreadsheets in the way you’re able to manipulate data. Here are just a few of the actions that you can perform on a database that would be difficult if not impossible to perform on a spreadsheet:

Retrieve all records that match certain criteria
Update records in bulk
Cross-reference records in different tables
Perform complex aggregate calculations

culled from: http://databases.about.com/od/specificproducts/a/whatisadatabase.htm

see also: Using Database tables in Label Design

Special Notes:
Label Mix Standard edition does not support use of database/tables, only Label Mix Professional edition does. see details here