The Table family

A Database table

It  is a basic unit of data storage in database which organizes the data in rows(Tuples) and columns(Attributes/fields). Each row contains one record and it simply refers to a two dimensional representation of your data using rows and columns. A table has a specified number of columns, but can have any number of rows. In short, a table is the only thing for storing data in the database.

Rows(Tuples)

Each row in a table contains one record and we can have any number of rows in a table. You can have a table without rows. But we cannot create a table without columns.

A row oriented database is a database in which the data of a particular record is organized in a row. The above data will be arranged as below if it is in row oriented database.

1,AAA,Manager,80000

2,BBB,Project Lead,60000

3,CCC,Team Lead,40000

4,DDD,Senior Associate,20000

5,EEE,Associate,10000

Columns(fields)

Each column in a table stores the data which are of same data type. Column names in a table must be unique. We can have limited number of columns in a table based on database.

A column oriented database is a database in which the data of a particular record is organized in a column. The above data will be arranged as below if it is column oriented database.

1,2,3,4,5

AAA,BBB,CCC,DDD,EEE

Manager,Project Lead,Team Lead,Senior Associate,Associate

80000,60000,40000,20000,10000