Start with Dataverse
To get started with Dataverse, you need a Microsoft Power Apps account. If you don't already have a Power Apps account, you can create one for free by going to powerapps.com and selecting the Start free link. For more information, see Get started with Dataverse.
Tables
You can use tables, formerly known as entities, to model and manage business data. When you develop an app, you can use standard tables, custom tables, or both. Microsoft Dataverse provides standard tables by default. The standard tables have been designed, following best practices, to capture the most common concepts and scenarios within an organization.
Microsoft Dataverse helps you quickly create a data model for your application, based on the tables and the table metadata that you include in your app.
Tables describe the type of data that's stored in the Dataverse database. Each table corresponds to a database table, and each column (also known as an attribute) within a table represents a column in that table.
In Dataverse, metadata (data about data) is a collection of tables. The table metadata is what controls the type of rows that you can create and what type of actions that you can perform on them. When you use customization tools to create or edit tables, columns, and table relationships, you're editing this metadata.
The apps that your customers use to interact with the data in your environment depend on the table metadata. These apps will adapt as you customize the metadata.
Columns
A column, formerly known as a field, is the part of a table where you define which data that you need to be in the database. Several different types of areas are available for you to use, and you can choose which area best suits your purpose.
You can use columns that you've created in views and forms so that you can develop records with a data model that fit your needs or to help you view values in the table.
The main types of columns are:
Text - The text column type can be a single line of text or multi-line; the critical difference is in the space that it occupies in the form and in the number of characters that you can enter.
Lookup - Use this column type for the relation between different tables so that you can connect them to view the record's name from one table to another. The lookup column is filled automatically, which creates a relationship between the tables that you're using to look for records. The best example is the relation between Contact and Account tables. On the Contact table, from the Account list, you can choose a company where the Contact is working, and then you can make a relationship so that records show on both tables.
Choice or Choices - The type of columns where you need to define a list of data to be chosen from; the only difference is whether you need the user to determine only one value or multiple values.
Yes/No (Boolean)
Currency - Specified only for currency usage.
Date - In date type fields, you can choose between displaying the Date & Time or only the Date.
Number - The number column is specific because you're only able to enter numbers, and you can define if it's a whole number or decimal.
Relationships
Table relationships define the different ways that table rows can be associated with rows from other tables or the same table self-referential relationship. Table relationships are metadata. They let queries retrieve related data efficiently. You can use table relationships to define the formal relationships between tables.
The solution explorer includes two types of table relationships:
One-to-many (1:N) - In this type of relationship, many related table rows are associated with a single primary table row in a parent/child relationship.
Many-to-many (N:N) - In this type of relationship, many table rows are associated with many other table rows. Rows that are related through N:N table relationships are considered peers.
The many-to-one (N:1) relationship type exists in the user interface because the designer shows you a view that's grouped by tables. One-to-many (1:N) relationships exist between tables and refer to each table as a primary or current table or a related table. The related table, sometimes called the child table, has a lookup column that allows the storing of a reference to a row from the primary table, sometimes called the parent table. A many-to-one (N:1) relationship is simply a 1:N relationship that's viewed from the related table.