The important concepts of ArcGIS for Desktop

The important concepts of ArcGIS for Desktop
Before we dive into customizing ArcGIS, it is important to know some key concepts
and definitions. We will start with the geodatabase.
The ArcGIS geodatabase
The database is a fascinating storage system. It allows you to retrieve, store, and edit
the different types of information such as text, images, music, and videos. However,
for people who work with maps, we feel there is a missing element in that compound,
that is, location. Adding location information to database helps applications bring life
to the tabular records in the database and make it available visually. Esri has done this
in its ArcGIS product and called this special location-based database a geodatabase.
Adding location information to a database requires two parameters: the actual
location coordinates and how these coordinates are supposed to be drawn, which
is also known as the spatial reference. The spatial reference describes whether the
location is projected on to a two- or three-dimensional map, and it should be defined
for every dataset in the geodatabase that has a spatial component. While working in
ArcMap, all datasets should share the same spatial reference.