If you want to make a backup of the WordPress database, you should back it up completely. Note that you should also back up the files stored in the hosting space – especially the wp-content/uploads directory, as this is where the media data itself is located.
Regarding your actual question: the database structure is documented here: https://codex.wordpress.org/Database_Description – plus any tables from plugins.
Thank you for taking the time to reply and thank you for the link to explain the “database” I don’t use “posts” only pages and events so I’m still not certain that I have a database but I guess it can’t hurt anything to ask to back it up. I’ve downloaded updraftplus plugin but I wanted to get a better understanding of how to set it up. I did NOT know anything about files stored in the hosting space but I’ll look for that question. Hopefully that is something it will ask or maybe you’re telling me that I should do that manually somehow in addition to backing up the database. Going to find out now if the question about the uploads directory comes up. I don’t think I would know how to navigate to it to back it up manually.
Thanks again
Updraftplus is already a good plugin if you want to have the backups created. There you can back up the entire project. Files, database. Everything that is relevant and important for a backup of a WordPress project. You don’t have to worry about anything else. If you have any questions about this, it’s best to contact UpdraftPlus support.
Thanks so much. That’s a relief because I didn’t see any option to also back up the uploads folder. I just left everything in the default settings and crossed my fingers.
Thanks again for your assistance with this!
