Definition: A relational database is a data system that is organized through combinations between different sets of data organized in tables. It is a database that has many interconnected elements that interact with each other to organize the information properly.
What Does Relational Database Mean?
These relational databases (RBD) are built within a framework of different elements such as tables, rows, columns and records. Tables are the essential piece, since they gather all the information about a particular element. That element has many different categories or fields that are also organized trough columns and each of these attributes have values that are recorded in rows.
These records are also known as Tuples and the way they relate to other records located in different tables across the database is classified as One to One, One to Many, Many to One and Many to Many. These relationships are established to determine how the data interacts and how it will be displayed and organized when a consultation procedure is executed.
Finally, these RBDs are built on an interface called Structured Query Language (SQL). In business, these databases are frequently employed to develop administrative systems to handle all the company’s financial information and Customer Relationship Management software to manage client’s relationships.
Example
A small company that manufactures paper bags wants to organize the details about its operations more professionally. In order to do that, they studied relational databases to develop a simple MS Excel-based system that allows them to have updated information about customers, inventory and orders. They started by identifying each of these 3 as tables. The customer table, containing all personal data about the client; the inventory table containing all data about products, quantities and prices; and finally, the order table containing all transactions.
Each of these tables will have different categories, like the inventory one has name of the product, size, color, historical cost and price and each of these columns will be filled with data about each of the products sold by the company. Finally, these elements will relate between each other properly to have a working system that allows them to make consultations about the businesses’ progress.
