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<concept xml:lang="en" id="GUID-9665C072-EA52-54B8-87A3-A7F818940DCD"><title>What is the CommsDat API</title><shortdesc>This topic is an intrdouction to the CommsDat API. Tools and applications use the CommsDat API to access the data in the Comms Database. </shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody><p>The CommsDat DLL implements the CommsDat API. Symbian OS loads the CommsDat DLL at boot time. Tools and applications do not load the DLL. </p> <p>The API made available by the CommsDat DLL is the only method that users can use to access the data in the Comms Database. The API maps between client-side representations of the data and the data stored in the database. </p> <p>Tools and applications see the data as a set of tables. A table is a set of records, where each record is an ordered set of fields. Each field holds a specified piece of information. A field at a given position in a record contains the same type of data in all records. You can consider that each field at a given location in a record is in a column. A table can also be called a record set. </p> <fig id="GUID-5ABD88C0-67E4-5091-BE8F-56ABFED4FEC8"><image href="GUID-F7BFE6E3-0EEE-536C-8411-65D8F5FEBF2E_d0e65781_href.png" placement="inline"/></fig> <p>Tables, records, columns and fields are all CommsDat elements. An element is an item that can be stored in the Comms Database. </p> <p>The CommsDat API gives tools and applications a set of classes to retrieve, create and change the elements in the Comms Database. The API also gives the functionality to access the Comms Database. </p> <p> </p> </conbody><related-links><link href="GUID-B89D2828-0FEE-5206-97D2-C7D4BBD35799.dita"><linktext>How is the
                Comms Database secured</linktext> </link> </related-links></concept>