Get Maier, Chapter 6: Databases And Normal Forms - Cs Pdx

The relational model means that the logical data structures—the data tables, views, and indexes—are separate from the physical storage structures. This separation means that database administrators can manage physical data storage without affecting access to that data as a logical structure.

Relational Databases collect information in a structured way and enforce relationships about what goes in and out. This provides additional control over editing processes and will reduce data entry time and errors. In a relational database, data in a table can be related ing to common keys or concepts.

A relational model organizes data into one or more tables (or "relations") of columns and rows, with a unique key identifying each row. Rows are also called records or tuples. Columns are also called attributes. Generally, each table/relation represents one "entity type" (such as customer or product).

A Relational Database Management System is a tabular based collection of programs and capabilities that provides an interface between users and applications and the database, offering a systematic way to create, update, delete, manage, and retrieve data.

The purpose of the relational model is to provide a declarative method for specifying data and queries: users directly state what information the database contains and what information they want from it, and let the database management system software take care of describing data structures for storing the data and ...