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Thus, the "relation" in "relational database" refers to the various tables in the database; a relation is a set of tuples. The columns enumerate the various attributes of the entity (the employee's name, address or phone number, for example), and a row is an actual instance of the entity (a specific employee) that is represented by the relation.
In the relational model of databases, a primary key is a designated attribute that can reliably identify and distinguish between each individual record in a table.The database creator can choose an existing unique attribute or combination of attributes from the table (a natural key) to act as its primary key, or create a new attribute containing a unique ID that exists solely for this purpose ...
A view is defined by giving a name to such an expression, such that the name can subsequently be used as a variable name. (Note that the expression must then mention at least one base relation variable.) By using a Data Definition Language (DDL), it is able to define base relation variables. In SQL, CREATE TABLE syntax is used to define base ...
A foreign key is a set of attributes in a table that refers to the primary key of another table, linking these two tables. In the context of relational databases, a foreign key is subject to an inclusion dependency constraint that the tuples consisting of the foreign key attributes in one relation, R, must also exist in some other (not necessarily distinct) relation, S; furthermore that those ...
In this example, the three lines next to the song entity indicate that an artist can have many songs. The two vertical lines next to the artist entity indicate songs can only have one performer. In the real world, data modeling is critical because as the data grows voluminous, tables linked by keys must be used to speed up programmed retrieval ...
An example of a database that has not enforced referential integrity. In this example, there is a foreign key (artist_id) value in the album table that references a non-existent artist — in other words there is a foreign key value with no corresponding primary key value in the referenced table.
For example, imagine a database where a Building has one or more Rooms, and these Rooms hold zero or more Computers. One might expect to query the model to list all Computers in a Building. However, if a Computer is temporarily not assigned to a Room (perhaps under repair or stored elsewhere), it won't be included in the query results.
In a database, a table is a collection of related data organized in table format; consisting of columns and rows. In relational databases, and flat file databases, a table is a set of data elements (values) using a model of vertical columns (identifiable by name) and horizontal rows, the cell being the unit where a row and column intersect. [1]