database types
Posted in Data Science Databases

Basic Database Types

In your house you must have a place where you store items right? A garage, a store room, any kind of place? Well if you do then what do you keep in there? You could either keep valuable items, or some the worst junk you could possibly keep. But most of the time it is filled with the things that you will need and end up using most of the times.

If you consider a library, what is it stored with? Books, it’s stored with useful books. Now both these example are relating to the containment of something, the thing with this is that these containment options are visible to us. But what about the intangible one? Are there such things? Yes, yes there are, these are called databases, the library, your garage or your store room can also be considered as a database.

What you have to know is that there are different types of databases and how they all work and more. There are actually 4 main types of database explained, there can be more, but currently 4 is what is relevant than the others. There is much more to know about it, and all of these will be explained below.

What is a database?

Before learning about the various types it’s important it know what a database is first. Take the library example into account, a library is filled with books, as it stores books, it is a container for books, so you could say that the library is a database for books.

But the quite literal definition of it is that it is a computer structure that can save, organize, deliver and protect data. A system that contains a database is called a database management system, or a DBM. Most of the databases have multiple tables, and different fields and so on.

Each database will work differently based on what type of database it is. Most of the time it works through diagrams. On the down-low there are three key components that work with the management systems, the clients, the server and the database. Firstly there will be the external view which will be the clients, they will have a grasp of the conceptual logical layer which is the second layer in this diagram, the third layer being the physical diagram, which will work with the database. Simply this is how it will work, but there can be more clients and more paths that have to be added in and so on.

Types of databases

There are tons of data bases, but there are 4 main types of databases explained, these ones are the more popular ones. It can range from simple to difficult, overall you can use anything you prefer.

The first type is the text database, this is the simplest one yet so far, it is only about the text. The data can be organized into text files through rows, and columns. These text files can be used to store, protect, organize, and retrieve the data. One of the simplest things that can be done on this database it so save a list of names. Saving the first name followed by the last name will be filed in rows. Each row will represent a record, you can update these, change them, delete them and so on. Basically it is just text manipulation.

The second type is desktop database program, this is a more complex, however it can be used for single users. On this you can enter data, store it and protect it, and retrieve it as well. This is better than text based because it is you can change the data faster, and larger quantities of data can be stored. Some examples are Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and Access.

The third is Relational Database, these are actually the most common types of database systems. This database is great because it does a great job of managing the performance, as the features are way better than the other two databases. On this there can be multiple users to work with the data at the same time. It also has advanced security systems to access the data, so not everybody can just come up and work with it. On this database the data is stored in columns and rows, which turns into tables. And a set of these table are considered as a schema, and a number of these will create a database. So this means that many databases can be created on a single server.

Finally the last type is the NoSQL, and the Objected-oriented databases. These are completely different from the others, it does not follow in a row, column, and table format. Instead bookshelves are built, the data is stored in these bookshelves and it allows access per bookshelf. This basically means that it will direct you to a bookshelf depending on the data you want. It will narrow down the database in order to see what you want. This methods is a great way for you to store in chunks.

The benefits and drawbacks of databases

Database are good to use because there are many benefits that you can gain out of it, like for the fact that it reduces the data redundancy, as you have places to store them now. It also reduces the updating errors this is good because not only do you have less errors, but it also increases the efficiency and consistency of the business. For example, the popular hookup site Fuck Book utilizes a lot of various data to match partners and employs databases to keep the application functioning smoothly. Furthermore there is a greater improved security, so it will be difficult for people to take the data.

However these systems can be complicated to work with and will take too much time if you’re trying to figure it out when you are working. Not only that but there will be hardware and software costs that you have to deal with. Also the cost can increase based on the conversion of the files, and the training that needs to be provided of working with databases regularly.