Database

An SQL select statement and its result.

A database is an organized collection of data, generally stored and accessed electronically from a computer system.
Where databases are more complex they are often developed using formal design and modeling techniques.
The database management system (DBMS) is the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database
itself to capture and analyze the data. The DBMS software additionally encompasses the core facilities provided to
administer the database. The sum total of the database, the DBMS and the associated applications can be referred to
as a "database system". Often the term "database" is also used to loosely refer to any of the DBMS, the database
system or an application associated with the database.
Computer scientists may classify database-management systems according to the database models that they
support. Relational databases became dominant in the 1980s. These model data as rows and columns in a series
of tables, and the vast majority use SQL for writing and querying data. In the 2000s, non-relational databases became
popular, referred to as NoSQL because they use different query languages

database (DB)
A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can be easily accessed, managed and
updated. Computer databases typically contain aggregations of data records or files, containing information about
sales transactions or interactions with specific customers.

In a relational database, digital information about a specific customer is organized into rows, columns and tables which
are indexed to make it easier to find relevant information through SQL or NoSQLqueries. In contrast, a graph
database uses nodes and edges to define relationships between data entries and queries require a special semantic
search syntax. As of this writing, SPARQL is the only semantic query language that is approved by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C).

Typically, the database manager provides users with the ability to control read/write access, specify report generation
and analyze usage. Some databases offer ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability) compliance to
guarantee that data is consistent and that transactions are complete.
Types of databases

Databases have evolved since their inception in the 1960s, beginning with hierarchical and network databases, through
the 1980s with object-oriented databases, and today with SQL and NoSQL databases and cloud databases.

In one view, databases can be classified according to content type: bibliographic, full text, numeric and images. In
computing, databases are sometimes classified according to their organizational approach. There are many different
kinds of databases, ranging from the most prevalent approach, the relational database, to a distributed database, cloud
database, graph database or NoSQL database.
Relational database

A relational database, invented by E.F. Codd at IBM in 1970, is a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can
be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways.

Relational databases are made up of a set of tables with data that fits into a predefined category. Each table has at
least one data category in a column, and each row has a certain data instance for the categories which are defined in
the columns.

The Structured Query Language (SQL) is the standard user and application program interface for a relational database.
Relational databases are easy to extend, and a new data category can be added after the original database creation
without requiring that you modify all the existing applications.
 Distributed database

A distributed database is a database in which portions of the database are stored in multiple physical locations, and in
which processing is dispersed or replicated among different points in a network.

Distributed databases can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. All the physical locations in a homogeneous distributed
database system have the same underlying hardware and run the same operating systems and database applications.
The hardware, operating systems or database applications in a heterogeneous distributed database may be different at
each of the locations.
Cloud database

A cloud database is a database that has been optimized or built for a virtualized environment, either in a hybrid cloud,
public cloud or private cloud. Cloud databases provide benefits such as the ability to pay for storage capacity and
bandwidth on a per-use basis, and they provide scalability on demand, along with high availability.

A cloud database also gives enterprises the opportunity to support business applications in a software-as-a-
service deployment.
NoSQL database

NoSQL databases are useful for large sets of distributed data.

NoSQL databases are effective for big data performance issues that relational databases aren't built to solve. They are
most effective when an organization must analyze large chunks of unstructured data or data that's stored across
multiple virtual servers in the cloud.
Object-oriented database

Items created using object-oriented programming languages are often stored in relational databases, but object-
oriented databases are well-suited for those items.

An object-oriented database is organized around objects rather than actions, and data rather than logic. For example, a
multimedia record in a relational database can be a definable data object, as opposed to an alphanumeric value.
Graph database

A graph-oriented database, or graph database, is a type of NoSQL database that uses graph theory to store, map and
query relationships. Graph databases are basically collections of nodes and edges, where each node represents an
entity, and each edge represents a connection between nodes.

Graph databases are growing in popularity for analyzing interconnections. For example, companies might use a graph
database to mine data about customers from social media.

Graph databases often employ SPARQL, a declarative programming language and protocol for graph
database analytics. SPARQL has the capability to perform all the analytics that SQL can perform, plus it can be used for
semantic analysis, the examination of relationships. This makes it useful for performing analytics on data sets that have
both structured and unstructured data. SPARQL allows users to perform analytics on information stored in a relational
database, as well as friend-of-a-friend (FOAF) relationships, PageRank and shortest path.
Database
Alternatively referred to as a databank or a datastore, and sometimes abbreviated
as a DB, a database is a large quantity of indexed digital information. It can be
searched, referenced, compared, changed or otherwise manipulated with optimal
speed and minimal processing expense.
A database is built and maintained by using a database programming language. The
most common database language is SQL, but there are multiple "flavors" of SQL,
depending on the type of database being used. Each flavor of SQL has differences in
the SQL syntax and are designed to be used with a specific type of database. For
example, an Oracle database uses PL/SQL and Oracle SQL (Oracle's version of SQL). A
Microsoft database uses T-SQL (Transact-SQL).

Database components
A database is made up of several main components.
 Schema - A database contains one or more schemas, which is basically a
collection of one or more tables of data.
 Table - Each table contains multiple columns, which are similar to columns in
a spreadsheet. A table can have as little as two columns and as many as
one hundred or more columns, depending on the type of data being stored
in the table.
 Column - Each column contains one of several types of data or values, like
dates, numeric or integer values, and alphanumeric values (also known as
varchar).
 Row - Data in a table is listed in rows, which are like rows of data in a
spreadsheet. Often there are hundreds or thousands of rows of data in a
table.

Database (DB)
A database (DB), in the most general sense, is an organized collection of data. More specifically, a database is an
electronic system that allows data to be easily accessed, manipulated and updated.
In other words, a database is used by an organization as a method of storing, managing and retrieving information.
Modern databases are managed using a database management system (DBMS).

Techopedia explains Database (DB)

Software programmers are well acquainted with database concepts through relational databases like Oracle, SQL
SERVER and MySQL, etc. Typically, a database structure stores data in a tabular format.
Database architecture may be external, internal or conceptual. The external level specifies the way in which every end-
user type comprehends the organization of its corresponding relevant data in the database. The internal level deals
with the performance, scalability, cost and other operational matters. The conceptual level perfectly unifies the
different external views into a defined and wholly global view. It consists of every end-user required generic data.

database
A database, often abbreviated as DB, is a collection of information organized in such a way that
a computer program can quickly selectdesired pieces of data.
Fields, Records and Files
You can think of a traditional database as an electronic filing system, organized by fields, records, and files. A field is a
single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records. For example, a
telephone book is analogous to a file. It contains a list of records, each of which consists of three fields: name, address,
and telephone number.
An alternative concept in database design is known as Hypertext. In a Hypertext database, any object, whether it be a
piece of text, a picture, or a film, can be linked to any other object. Hypertext databases are particularly useful for
organizing large amounts of disparate information, but they are not designed for numerical analysis.
Database
Database, also called electronic database, any collection of data, or information, that is specially organized for rapid
search and retrieval by a computer. Databases are structured to facilitate the storage, retrieval, modification, and
deletion of data in conjunction with various data-processing operations. A database management system (DBMS)
extracts information from the database in response to queries.
A brief treatment of databases follows. For full treatment, see computer science: Information systems and
databases; information processing.
A database is stored as a file or a set of files on magnetic disk or tape, optical disk, or some other secondary storage
device. The information in these files may be broken down into records, each of which consists of one or more fields.
Fields are the basic units of data storage, and each field typically contains information pertaining to one aspect or
attribute of the entity described by the database. Records are also organized into tables that include information about
relationships between its various fields. Although database is applied loosely to any collection of information in
computer files, a database in the strict sense provides cross-referencing capabilities. Using keywords and various
sorting commands, users can rapidly search, rearrange, group, and select the fields in many records to retrieve or
create reports on particular aggregates of data.
Early systems were arranged sequentially (i.e., alphabetically, numerically, or chronologically); the development of
direct-access storage devices made possible random access to data via indexes. In flat databases, records are organized
according to a simple list of entities; many simple databases for personal computers are flat in structure. The records
in hierarchical databases are organized in a treelike structure, with each level of records branching off into a set of
smaller categories. Unlike hierarchical databases, which provide single links between sets of records at different
levels, network databases create multiple linkages between sets by placing links, or pointers, to one set of records in
another; the speed and versatility of network databases have led to their wide use within businesses and in e-
commerce. Relational databases are used where associations between files or records cannot be expressed by links; a
simple flat list becomes one row of a table, or “relation,” and multiple relations can be mathematically associated to
yield desired information. Various iterations of SQL (Structured Query Language) are widely employed in DBMS for
relational databases. Object-oriented databases store and manipulate more complex data structures, called “objects,”
which are organized into hierarchical classes that may inherit properties from classes higher in the chain; this database
structure is the most flexible and adaptable.
The information in many databases consists of natural-language texts of documents; number-oriented databases
primarily contain information such as statistics, tables, financial data, and raw scientific and technical data. Small
databases can be maintained on personal-computer systems and may be used by individuals at home. These and larger
databases have become increasingly important in business life, in part because they are now commonly designed to
be integrated with other office software, including spreadsheet programs.
Typical commercial database applications include airline reservations, production management functions, medical
records in hospitals, and legal records of insurance companies. The largest databases are usually maintained by
governmental agencies, business organizations, and universities. These databases may contain texts of such materials
as abstracts, reports, legal statutes, wire services, newspapers and journals, encyclopedias, and catalogs of various
kinds. Reference databases contain bibliographies or indexes that serve as guides to the location of information in
books, periodicals, and other published literature. Thousands of these publicly accessible databases now exist, covering
topics ranging from law, medicine, and engineering to news and current events, games, classified advertisements, and
instructional courses.
Increasingly, formerly separate databases are being combined electronically into larger collections known as data
warehouses. Businesses and government agencies then employ “data mining” software to analyze multiple aspects of
the data for various patterns. For example, a government agency might flag for human investigation a company or
individual that purchased a suspicious quantity of certain equipment or materials, even though the purchases were
spread around the country or through various subsidiaries.
SQL; Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data
held in a relational database management system(RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream
management system (RDSMS). It is particularly useful in handling structured data where there are relations between
different entities/variables of the data. SQL offers two main advantages over older read/write APIs like ISAM or VSAM.
First, it introduced the concept of accessing many records with one single command; and second, it eliminates the need
to specify how to reach a record, e.g. with or without an index.