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Source: Izenda
Published: October 2019
Relational vs Non-Relational Databases
Circulated: May 22, 2020
Relational databases
Think of an Excel Spreadsheet
Fits nicely into rows and columns (i.e. schema)
Stores data in tables
Called Structured Query Language (SQL) databases
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Non-relational databases
Think of a Word Document
Does not use a tabular schema of rows and columns
More flexible because data doesn’t have to fit into a pre-defined schema
Called Not Only SQL databases (NoSQL)
Four types
- Document-oriented databases
- Key-Value stores
- Wide-Column stores
- Graph storesA good rule of thumb: the bigger the data set, the more likely a non-relational database is a better fit.
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