Entity

Updated: 12/05/2021 by Computer Hope

An entity may refer to any of the following:

1. In general, with computers, an entity can be another name to describe a user using a system or the system itself. With a program running on a system, an entity may be another way to describe an object.

2. When describing a database, an entity is anything that can be described or have additional information stored. For example, a database may have a table (entity) on a person containing additional information or attributes describing that person. To help separate entities in a database, it is often assigned a unique ID, called a primary key. For example, if a new entity was created for you, it may be assigned ID 1126. Once assigned, another entity cannot use that same ID.

3. When describing a business, an entity type is the classification of your organization. In the United States, this could be a C corporation, LLC (limited liability company), partnership, S corporation, or sole proprietorship.

Business terms, Database terms