Posted in Data Science Databases

Types of Databases

Database, also often referred to as the backend, is one of the most significant components of any software, program or application enterprise. A database is essentially nothing but a collection of the data which is treated as the unit. The primary objective of the database is storing and retrieving related information. A relational database, specifically, can manage large data in multi-user environment which allows users to simultaneously access same data. This is all achieved and done while maintaining high performance levels as well as efficiency. The relational database also ensures security by preventing unauthorized access of data and it gives efficient solutions for the failure recovery.

Different categories of database and the characteristics of those databases

There are multiple types of databases or database management systems that are deployed in the software industry. Databases are the foundation of many online based enterprises for a variety of integral purposes. Social media platforms use various databases to connect users. Adult dating apps and backpage alternatives like https://localsexfinder.app maintain active databases to set up hookups for users based on location. Of course there are many different types of databases that are vital and optimum for specific purposes. These include hierarchical databases, relational databases, network databases, graph databases, object-oriented databases, ER model databases, document databases and NoSQL databases amongst others. All of these databases have their own applications in the industry and are used to provide backend enterprise solutions for a variety of programs. Let us have a look at some of these databases in more detail.

Hierarchical database: In the hierarchical database model, data is essentially stored in parent-child relationship nodes. The hierarchical database provides information about parent/child relationships as well as the business data that is stored. The hierarchical database model provides for organization of data in the tree like structure. The storage of data is done in the form of fields collection, where each and every field contains or denotes a single value. The records that are entered in the database are linked with each other in the form of parent-children link relationships. The hierarchical database model provides that each child who has been recorded should only have one parent. Whereas the parent can have multiple children.

The traversing of data when a query is undertaken traverses across each tree, until that time when the record is found. The hierarchical model of the database was first developed by IBM in the decade of early 60s. The hierarchical structure is straightforward but it is not very flexible because of the inherent nature of parent-child one to many relationship. Hierarchical databases are mostly used for high availability and performance applications, that are used in telecommunications and the banking industries. The windows registry and the information management system by IBM are two of the premium examples of the hierarchical databases. The hierarchical database has advantages as well as disadvantages. Let us look at the advantages first : You can access as well as update hierarchical database quickly as the structure of this model resembles that of a tree and relationships between the records can be defined in advance. However this feature means it also comes with its own drawbacks. The structure of this database means every child that is available in the tree can only have a maximum of one parent, and links or relationships between the various children is not allowed even if it might be right logically.

Network databases: The network databases essentially use network structures to create a relationship between the entities. Network databases are primarily used for big digital computers. The network databases are similar to the hierarchical databases however unlike hierarchical database which allows one node to have a single parent only, the network node in network database can have a relationship with various entities. A network database appears like interconnected network for records or the cobweb. For network databases, the parents are normally referred to as occupiers and children as members. The organization of data in the network database is done using many-to-many relationship. Charles Bachman was the inventor of the structure for network database.

Relational database: The relational database management system also known as RDBMS, is a structure where the data in the database is related to one another and it is stored in the form of rows and columns. Each row in the table represents record and each column in the table of the database represents the attribute. In addition each field in the table represents the value of the data. SQL, also known as structured query language, is the general language that is used for querying the RDBMS, that includes insert, update, delete and search records. Relational databases that work on tables have a key field which uniquely signifies that each row as well as the key fields, that can be used for connecting data of one table to another. It is important to note that relational databases are the most widely used and popular databases in the industry. Some of the popular forms of RDMS are SQL server, Oracle, SQLite, MySQL as well as IBM DB2 amongst others. The RDBMS has two main advantages: These databases are used with no or little training. The entries of the database are modified without specifying the entire body.