Record in database is a collection of data that is stored in a database table. This data can be accessed by the user through an application program, such as a web browser.
A record is composed of fields, which are columns in the table. Each field has a name and a type. The name is used by the application to refer to the field, while the type determines how much space it takes up and what operations can be performed on it (for example, numeric or character).
Each record has an identifier that uniquely identifies its row within the table. It may also have other data associated with it, such as comments or additional information about its contents or usage.
What Is Record In Database With Example
A record is a collection of items or data that is organized in a group of fields within a table that are related to a specific topic or theme. For example, police departments keep records of criminals and the crimes for which they were arrested and charged. These police records often contain other pertinent information, such as the date and time of arrest, court dates associated with the criminal’s case, and any fines or penalties that were imposed on the criminal. These such records are often stored within a large database, which often includes multiple tables of records.
Records are often stored in spreadsheets, like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. In a spreadsheet, the rows generally represent individual records and the columns contain relevant information pertaining to each record. Consider the following example:
| Criminal Name | Crime Committed | Date of Crime | Date of Birth | Penalty or Fine |
| John Doe | Robbery | January 14th, 2001 | September 8th, 1979 | One year in state penitentiary |
| Jane Doe | Tax Fraud | February 1st, 2001 | November 20th, 1987 | $5,000 and six months of probation |
In the previous example, each name represents a separate record and describes individual criminal cases. Each column contains data related to each criminal record. Tables like this make it easier to organize, analyze, and disseminate large amounts of information.
What Is a Record in a Database?
As previously mentioned, a record in a database is a collection of information organized in a table that pertains to a specific topic or category. Another name for a database record is a tuple. A set of records can be referred to as a data set, a data file, and a table. The data in the table can come in a variety of forms. It can be numeric, such as an individual’s weight or financial records related to a company’s yearly spending. The data may also include non-numeric information, such as an individual’s name and a person’s job title.
The database itself contains a few important elements:
- Rows represent individual records. These run horizontal across a spreadsheet.
- Columns represent categories of data pertaining to each record. Another name for the columns is attributes. These run vertically across a spreadsheet.
- Fields are each individual piece of data that is entered into the database. Consider the previous example of the database that contains criminal records. Each record contains five separate fields of data, including the criminal’s name, the crime that was committed, the date of the crime, the criminal’s date of birth, and the penalty or fine of the criminal offense.
- Primary keys are unique pieces of data that cannot be repeated in the database. For example, a criminal’s name in the aforementioned criminal database is a primary key that can only be used once in the database. Other pieces of data can be used repeatedly, such as the type of crime committed and the date of the crime.
types of records in dbms
A database is a collection of data or records. Database management systems are designed to manage databases. A database management system (DBMS) is a software system that uses a standard method to store and organize data. The data can be added, updated, deleted, or traversed using various standard algorithms and queries.
Types of Database Management Systems
There are several types of database management systems. Here is a list of seven common database management systems:
- Hierarchical databases
- Network databases
- Relational databases
- Object-oriented databases
- Graph databases
- ER model databases
- Document databases
- NoSQL databases
Hierarchical Databases
In a hierarchical database management system (hierarchical DBMSs) model, data is stored in a parent-children relationship node. In a hierarchical database, besides actual data, records also contain information about their groups of parent/child relationships.
In a hierarchical database model, data is organized into a tree-like structure. The data is stored in the form of a collection of fields where each field contains only one value. The records are linked to each other via links into a parent-children relationship. In a hierarchical database model, each child record has only one parent. A parent can have multiple children.
To retrieve a field’s data, we need to traverse through each tree until the record is found.
The hierarchical database system structure was developed by IBM in the early 1960s. While the hierarchical structure is simple, it is inflexible due to the parent-child one-to-many relationship. Hierarchical databases are widely used to build high-performance and availability applications usually in the banking and telecommunications industries.
The IBM Information Management System (IMS) and Windows Registry are two popular examples of hierarchical databases.
Advantage
A hierarchical database can be accessed and updated rapidly. As shown in the figure above, its model structure is like a tree and the relationships between records are defined in advance. This feature is a double-edged sword.
Disadvantage
This type of database structure is that each child in the tree may have only one parent. Relationships or linkages between children are not permitted, even if they make sense from a logical standpoint. Hierarchical databases are like this in their design. Adding a new field or record requires that the entire database be redefined.
Network Databases
Network database management systems (Network DBMSs) use a network structure to create a relationship between entities. Network databases are mainly used on large digital computers. Network databases are hierarchical databases, but unlike hierarchical databases where one node can have a single parent only, a network node can have a relationship with multiple entities. A network database looks more like a cobweb or interconnected network of records.
In network databases, children are called members and parents are called occupiers. The difference between each child or member is that it can have more than one parent.
The approval of the network data model is similar to a hierarchical data model. Data in a network database is organized in many-to-many relationships.
The network database structure was invented by Charles Bachman. Some of the popular network databases are the Integrated Data Store (IDS), IDMS (Integrated Database Management System), Raima Database Manager, TurboIMAGE, and Univac DMS-1100.
Relational Databases
In a relational database management system (RDBMS), the relationship between data is relational and data is stored in tabular form of columns and rows. Each column of a table represents an attribute and each row in a table represents a record. Each field in a table represents a data value.
Structured Query Language (SQL) is the language used to query RDBMS, including inserting, updating, deleting, and searching records. Relational databases work on each table that has a key field that uniquely indicates each row. These key fields can be used to connect one table of data to another.
Relational databases are the most popular and widely used databases. Some of the popular DDBMS are Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite, and IBM DB2.
The relational database has two major advantages:
- Relational databases can be used with little or no training.
- Database entries can be modified without specifying the entire body.
Properties of Relational Tables
In a relational database, we have to follow the properties given below:
- Values are Atomic
- Each Row is alone.
- Column Values are the same thing.
- Columns are undistinguished.
- Sequence of Rows is Insignificant.
- Each Column has a common name.
Object-Oriented Model
In this Model, we have to discuss the functionality of object-oriented Programming. It takes more than the storage of programming language objects. Object DBMS’s increase in the semantics of C++ and Java. It provides full-featured database programming capabilities while containing native language compatibility. It adds the database functionality to object programming languages. This approach is analogical of the application and database development into a constant data model and language environment. Applications require less code, use more natural data modeling, and code bases are easier to maintain. Object developers can write complete database applications with a decent amount of additional effort.
The object-oriented database derivation is the integrity of object-oriented programming language systems and consistent systems. The power of object-oriented databases comes from the cyclical treatment of both consistent data, as found in databases, and transient data, as found in executing programs.
Object-oriented databases use small, recyclable separated from software called objects. The objects themselves are stored in the object-oriented database.
Each object contains two elements:
- A piece of data (e.g., sound, video, text, or graphics).
- Instructions, or software programs called methods, for what to do with the data.
Object-oriented database management systems (OODBMs) were created in the early 1980s. Some OODBMs were designed to work with OOP languages such as Delphi, Ruby, C++, Java, and Python. Some popular OODBMs are TORNADO, Gemstone, ObjectStore, GBase, VBase, InterSystems Cache, Versant Object Database, ODABA, ZODB, Poet. JADE, and Informix.
Disadvantages of Object-oriented databases
- Object-oriented databases are more expensive to develop.
- Most organizations are unwilling to abandon and convert from those databases.
Benefits of Object-oriented databases
The benefits of object-oriented databases are compelling. The ability to mix and match reusable objects provides the incredible multimedia capability.
Graph Databases
Graph Databases are NoSQL databases and use a graph structure for semantic queries. The data is stored in the form of nodes, edges, and properties. In a graph database, a Node represents an entity or instance such as a customer, person, or car. A node is equivalent to a record in a relational database system. An Edge in a graph database represents a relationship that connects nodes. Properties are additional information added to the nodes.
The Neo4j, Azure Cosmos DB, SAP HANA, Sparksee, Oracle Spatial and Graph, OrientDB, ArrangoDB, and MarkLogic are some of the popular graph databases. Graph database structure is also supported by some RDBMS including Oracle and SQL Server 2017 and later versions.
ER Model Databases
An ER model is typically implemented as a database. In a simple relational database implementation, each row of a table represents one instance of an entity type, and each field in a table represents an attribute type. In a relational database, a relationship between entities is implemented by storing the primary key of one entity as a pointer or “foreign key” in the table of another entity.
The entity-relationship model was developed by Peter Chen in 1976.
Document Databases
Document databases (Document DB) are also NoSQL databases that store data in the form of documents. Each document represents the data, its relationship between other data elements, and attributes of data. Document database store data in a key-value form.
Document DB has become popular recently due to their document storage and NoSQL properties. NoSQL data storage provides a faster mechanism to store and search documents.
Popular NoSQL databases are Hadoop/Hbase, Cassandra, Hypertable, MapR, Hortonworks, Cloudera, Amazon SimpleDB, Apache Flink, IBM Informix, Elastic, MongoDB, and Azure DocumentDB.
NoSQL Databases
NoSQL databases are databases that do not use SQL as their primary data access language. Graph database, network database, object database, and document databases are common NoSQL databases. This article answers the question, what is a NoSQL database.
NoSQL database does not have predefined schemas, which makes NoSQL databases a perfect candidate for rapidly changing development environments.
NoSQL allows developers to make changes on the fly without affecting applications.
NoSQL databases can be categorized into the following five major categories, Column, Document, Graph, Key-value, and Object databases.
Here is a list of 10 popular NoSQL databases:
- Cosmos DB
- ArangoDB
- Couchbase Server
- CouchDB
- Amazon DocumentDB
- MongoDB, CouchBase
- Elasticsearch
- Informix
- SAP HANA
- Neo4j