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The following is provided as an overview of and topical guide to databases: Database – organized collection of data, today typically in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality (for example, the availability of rooms in hotels), in a way that supports processes requiring this information (for example, finding a hotel with vacancies).
Formally, a "database" refers to a set of related data accessed through the use of a "database management system" (DBMS), which is an integrated set of computer software that allows users to interact with one or more databases and provides access to all of the data contained in the database (although restrictions may exist that limit access to particular data).
A basic objective of the first normal form defined by Codd in 1970 was to permit data to be queried and manipulated using a "universal data sub-language" grounded in first-order logic. [1] An example of such a language is SQL , though it is one that Codd regarded as seriously flawed.
Codd's twelve rules [1] are a set of thirteen rules (numbered zero to twelve) proposed by Edgar F. Codd, a pioneer of the relational model for databases, designed to define what is required from a database management system in order for it to be considered relational, i.e., a relational database management system (RDBMS).
Database theory encapsulates a broad range of topics related to the study and research of the theoretical realm of databases and database management systems.. Theoretical aspects of data management include, among other areas, the foundations of query languages, computational complexity and expressive power of queries, finite model theory, database design theory, dependency theory, foundations ...
The terms data dictionary and data repository indicate a more general software utility than a catalogue. A catalogue is closely coupled with the DBMS software. It provides the information stored in it to the user and the DBA, but it is mainly accessed by the various software modules of the DBMS itself, such as DDL and DML compilers, the query optimiser, the transaction processor, report ...
By contrast, column-oriented DBMS store all data from a given column together in order to more quickly serve data warehouse-style queries. Correlation databases are similar to row-based databases, but apply a layer of indirection to map multiple instances of the same value to the same numerical identifier.
The database schema is the structure of a database described in a formal language supported typically by a relational database management system (RDBMS). The term "schema" refers to the organization of data as a blueprint of how the database is constructed (divided into database tables in the case of relational databases).