Scribd
Upload
26 views

Relational Database Structure

A relational database organizes data into tables with rows and columns. Each record in a table contains a key that uniquely identifies it. Tables can be joined based on common fields. Structured Query Language is used to manage relational databases and perform operations like selecting subsets of records, joining tables, and projecting requested columns. Relational databases facilitate searching for records by allowing queries across related tables.

Uploaded by

rose anne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
26 views

Relational Database Structure

A relational database organizes data into tables with rows and columns. Each record in a table contains a key that uniquely identifies it. Tables can be joined based on common fields. Structured Query Language is used to manage relational databases and perform operations like selecting subsets of records, joining tables, and projecting requested columns. Relational databases facilitate searching for records by allowing queries across related tables.

Uploaded by

rose anne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Relational Database Structure

A relational structure organizes data in a conceptual arrangement. An individual data item is called a field or column (e.g., name,
date, amount).

● Related fields are brought together in a record or row (e.g., for a single sales transaction).
● Multiple records make up a file or table (e.g., sales).
● Tables can be joined or linked based on common fields rather than on high-overhead pointers or linked lists as in other database
structures.
● Every record in a table has a field (or group of fields) designated as the key. The value (or combination of values) in the
key uniquely identifies each record.
● Structured data file types are generally maintained by Structured Query Language (SQL). Files of this type are used for managing
relational databases and performing various operations on the data in them.

Note that in a relational structure, each data element is stored as few times as necessary. This is accomplished through the
process of normalization. Normalization prevents inconsistent deletion, insertion, and updating of data items.

The three basic operations in the relational model are selecting, joining, and projecting.
1. Selecting creates a subset of records that meet certain criteria.
2. Joining is the combining of relational tables based on a common field or combination of fields.
3. Projecting results in the requested subset of columns from the table. This operation creates a new table containing only the required
information.

Cardinality refers to how close a given data element is to being unique.


● A data element that can only exist once in a given table has high cardinality.
● A data element that is not unique in a given table but that has a restricted range of possible values is said to have normal cardinality.
● A data element that has a very small range of values is said to have low cardinality. A field that can contain only male/female or
true/false is an example.

Referential integrity means that for a record to be entered in a given table, there must already be a record in some other table(s).
The tremendous advantage of a relational data structure is that searching for records is greatly facilitated. For example, a user can
specify a customer and see all the parts that customer has ordered, or the user can specify a part and see all the customers who
have ordered it. Such queries were extremely resource-intensive, if not impossible, under older data structures.
A distributed database is stored in two or more physical sites using either replication or partitioning.
● The replication or snapshot technique makes duplicates to be stored at multiple locations.
■ Changes are periodically copied and sent to each location. If a database is small, storing multiple copies may be
cheaper than retrieving records from a central site.

● Fragmentation or partitioning stores specific records where they are most needed.
■ For example, a financial institution may store a particular customer’s data at the branch where (s)he usually transacts his or
her business. If the customer executes a transaction at another branch, the pertinent data are retrieved via communication
lines.

You might also like