<s>
In	O
computer	B-General_Concept
science	I-General_Concept
,	O
data	O
that	O
has	O
several	O
parts	O
,	O
known	O
as	O
a	O
record	O
,	O
can	O
be	O
divided	O
into	O
fields	O
(	O
data	B-Application
fields	I-Application
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Relational	B-Application
databases	I-Application
arrange	O
data	O
as	O
sets	O
of	O
database	B-Application
records	I-Application
,	O
so	O
called	O
rows	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Each	O
record	O
consists	O
of	O
several	O
fields	O
;	O
the	O
fields	O
of	O
all	O
records	O
form	O
the	O
columns	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
object-oriented	B-Language
programming	I-Language
,	O
a	O
field	O
(	O
also	O
called	O
data	B-Application
member	I-Application
or	O
member	B-Application
variable	I-Application
)	O
is	O
a	O
particular	O
piece	O
of	O
data	O
encapsulated	B-Application
within	O
a	O
class	O
or	O
object	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
case	O
of	O
a	O
regular	O
field	O
(	O
also	O
called	O
instance	B-Application
variable	I-Application
)	O
,	O
for	O
each	O
instance	O
of	O
the	O
object	O
there	O
is	O
an	O
instance	B-Application
variable	I-Application
:	O
for	O
example	O
,	O
an	O
Employee	O
class	O
has	O
a	O
Name	O
field	O
and	O
there	O
is	O
one	O
distinct	O
name	O
per	O
employee	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
static	O
field	O
(	O
also	O
called	O
class	B-Application
variable	I-Application
)	O
is	O
one	O
variable	O
,	O
which	O
is	O
shared	O
by	O
all	O
instances	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Fields	O
are	O
abstracted	O
by	O
properties	B-Language
,	O
which	O
allow	O
them	O
to	O
be	O
read	O
and	O
written	O
as	O
if	O
they	O
were	O
fields	O
,	O
but	O
these	O
can	O
be	O
translated	O
to	O
getter	O
and	O
setter	O
method	O
calls	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
the	O
other	O
hand	O
,	O
data	O
in	O
serialized	B-Application
forms	O
such	O
as	O
stored	O
in	O
typical	O
file	O
systems	O
,	O
</s>
<s>
a	O
pointer	O
to	O
data	O
in	O
some	O
other	O
location	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
a	O
URI	B-Protocol
,	O
a	O
file	O
offset	O
(	O
and	O
perhaps	O
length	O
)	O
,	O
or	O
a	O
key	O
identifying	O
a	O
record	O
in	O
some	O
special	O
place	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
avoids	O
searches	O
for	O
an	O
end-marker	O
as	O
in	O
the	O
first	O
method	O
,	O
and	O
avoids	O
the	O
loss	O
of	O
locality	B-General_Concept
of	I-General_Concept
reference	I-General_Concept
as	O
in	O
the	O
second	O
method	O
.	O
</s>
