Relational and Non-Relational Databases

Relational and Non-Relational Databases | CyberNcrypt

ByCyberNcrypt

Overview

Relational and Non-relational databases are two types of management systems that enable the creation of databases that facilitate the management of complicated data. NoSQL is semi-structured or unstructured, whereas relational databases are structured. Relational databases (SQL) store data in the form of tables (fields and records), whereas non-relational databases store data as graphs, documents, etc (XML, JSON).

Relational Databases

A relational database management system (RDBMS) stores information in table format. In a relational database, rows are referred to as records and columns as fields. The table consists of rows and columns.

Often, these tables have shared information between them, causing a relationship to form between tables. This is where a relational database gets its name from.

The columns of a table define the information being stored, while the rows contain the actual data. Each table will contain a column with unique values; this column is known as the primary key. This column can then be utilized in other tables to define relationships between them. When the primary key of one table is utilized in another table, the corresponding column in the second is referred to as the foreign key.

Eg: MySQL, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB

Advantages of relational databases

  • Data Accuracy – By using primary and foreign keys, you can make sure that no information is duplicated. This helps make sure the data is correct because the information will never be repeated.
  • Normalization – Normalization is the process of making sure that the data is organized in a way that reduces or gets rid of data anomalies. This, in turn, makes it cheaper to store.
  • Simplicity – RDMS, also known as SQL databases, have been around for so long that many tools and resources have been made to help people get started with relational databases and use them. SQL’s English-like syntax also makes it possible for people who are not developers to use the data to make reports and queries.

Non Relational Databases

NoSQL databases are completely different from SQL databases and work differently. It has to deal with semi-structured or unstructured data. Rather than containing tables, it consists of files within various folders. They can possess any kind of data, whether JSON, XML, etc. So, creating and managing data in NoSQL is easy and faster.

There are various types of Non-relational databases like:

  • Documents Databases.
  • Graph Databases.
  • Wide Column Databases.
  • Key-value Databases.

Eg: MongoDB, Apache Cassandra, Redis, Couchbase, Neo4

Advantages of Non relational databases

  • These databases can store both structured and unstructured data, whereas relational databases can only store data in a structured format.
  • These databases are scalable to accommodate any type of data while remaining cost-effective.
  • Performance and Rapid These types of databases are optimised for performance and contain unstructured data, whereas relational databases store data in tables, making data access somewhat slower.