Database vs tablespace, what's the difference?
A little terminology:
Oracle defines a database as the set of files that you find on your Oracle system. This means all data in your Oracle system is in these database files, commonly known as "data files". There are other files in the database such as parameter files and redo logs.
On the other hand, an instance consists of the processes and memory areas that Oracle database uses. Together, a database and an instance make up a database system. (For more information, see the Oracle Concept guide)
Logically, you will want to define different spaces within that database. This is done via tablespaces (see Oracle Concept guide). A tablespace usually consists of one or more data files. When you define a table with CREATE TABLE, you can specify in which tablespace the table should be created. This allows you to seperate different applications on the same database system, for example.
The Oracle Concepts guide is an excellent source of information for questions like these. See this picture on how data files and tablespaces are composed.
DATABASES's data are stored in logical storage units called TABLESPACES. A database may contain "one or more" tablespaces. A tablespace may contain one or more datafiles.
A database's data is collectively stored in the datafiles that constitute each tablespace of the database.
Example: the simplest database may have one tablespace and one datafile. On the other hande another database can have 5 tablespaces which may contain two datafiles each (On a total of 10 files)
Let's consider an example of an Ocean consist of lots of water. Now you want that water. For this what you do is collect water in barrel for better usage and better storage purpose. Same here Ocean is database having lots of Data files here data file means water and for better usage and handling you put that into barrel you can relate barrel as Tablespace
An Oracle database consists of one or more logical storage units called tablespaces, which collectively store all of the database's data.
Databases, tablespaces, and datafiles are closely related, but they have important differences:
Each tablespace in an Oracle database consists of one or more files called datafiles, which are physical structures that conform to the operating system in which Oracle is running.
A database's data is collectively stored in the datafiles that constitute each tablespace of the database. For example, the simplest Oracle database would have one tablespace and one datafile. Another database can have three tablespaces, each consisting of two datafiles (for a total of six datafiles).
