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What is the difference between a list and a content type in SharePoint?

What is the difference between a list and a content type in SharePoint?

For me it's almost the same.

Do I see the content type as a special kind of list?

Can it look like this?

What are the differences?

By the way, I'm starting with SharePoint.

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2 answers

No, this view is false. A very good analogy to understand the differences if you know C # or any other modern language:

  • The list is like a class;
  • The content type is similar to the interface.

Lists physically exist and contain physical data in the database, so they look like a table in SQL (note that the actual data structures at the SQL level are completely different, but you definitely don't need to do this). On the other hand, content types are simply definitions, sets of fields that apply to lists.

As a result, lists may contain elements of various types of content. In fact, lists contain heterogeneous data. A list item consists of a combination of all the fields referenced by the content types that apply to this particular list, hence the analogy of a class / interface.

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If I could add:, you are creating a content type for a specific data type, and your content type contains a set of metadata (or fields) that define your data type. One list can have several types of content attached to itself, and vice versa, one type of content can be used by several lists.
When do you create a content type? Well, every time you need to manipulate certain data in more than one list / library, it is recommended that you create your own content type for that data so that you do not need to create list fields “manually” every time. Instead, you only refer to your content type.

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