A database schema is a collection of metadata that describes the relationships between objects and information in a database. A simple way to visualize a schema is to think of it as a box that contains tables, stored procedures, views, and related data assets. A schema defines the infrastructure of this box.

At its most basic level, a schema acts as a container for data assets. However, different database vendors structure their schemas in different ways. For example, Oracle treats each schema as a user account. To create a new schema, a database administrator creates a new database user with the intended schema name.

Because schemas are a basic structural feature of a database, most database environments apply access rights to objects at the schema level.

For example, a corporate database might contain a set of users. Each user runs a schema, but access to different schemas is granted individually, and with granularity of permissions, to users outside the home schema.