The difference between lists and libraries

This may seem like a strange place to begin this chapter, but there is usually a lot of confusion around this topic. In the introduction, we mentioned that in SharePoint, ultimately everything is data in a list. This means that there really isn't a difference between lists and libraries except for where that data lives.

In a list, the data lives in various fields of the column. Although a list usually has meta-data associated with it, the bulk of the information is stored in those fields. Usually, when we search for data that is stored in a list, we find the search results in the data itself.

In a library, the data lives inside a file that is stored in a field of the column. Although we can search through the data in a library using various iFilters, for some file types the metadata associated with the file usually has more pertinent information that can be searched.

Searching content with iFilters

The content within the files in a library can...