mple, there might be a customers table whose rows represent individual customers and whose columns represent different attributes of each customer like name, address or customer ID. The customers table might be related to an orders table which contains rows of orders. Each order row might have a date, product ID and customer ID column. The two tables woulDon't you dread talking to those arrogant nerds in IT? You can't avoid doing it, so the next best thing might be to learn a little about what they (and you) work with every day: databases. When they start throwing terms around like schema, SQL, transaction processing or relational design, wouldn't you like to understand what they're talking about? In this article, I'll explain the basic fundamentals of databases in a way that will allow you to interact intelligently with IT personnel and maybe even improve your own workload throughput.

Probably the most fundamental of database concepts is the type or model of the database. This has to do primarily with how data is related or stored with other data. One way of storing data is in a spreadsheet (aka flat-file), which is a common practice in small businesses. But this model offers no ability to connect or relate the data in any way, unlike the most common one in use today: the relational model. In a relational database, data is "connected" with other data through a schema, using things called primary keys and foreign keys.

In order to efficiently organize data, a way of relating or connecting it must be designed. A database schema is the design of a database based on its model. In a relational model, data is organized into fields (columns), records(rows) and tables. A table contains many rows and each row contains a certain number of columns. For example, there might be a customers table whose rows represent individual customers and whose columns represent different attributes of each customer like name, address or customer ID. The customers table might be related to an orders table which contains rows of orders. Each order row might have a date, product ID and customer ID column. The two tables would

article, I'll explain the basic fundamentals of databases in a way that will allow you to interact intelligently with IT personnel and maybe even improve your own workload throughput.

Probably the most fundamental of database concepts is the type or model of the database. This has to do primarily with how data is related or stored with other data. One way of storing data is in a spreadsheet (aka flat-file), which is a common practice in small businesses. But this model offers no ability to connect or relate the data in any way, unlike the most common one in use today: the relational model. In a relational database, data is "connected" with other data through a schema, using things called primary keys and foreign keys.

In order to efficiently organize data, a way of relating or connecting it must be designed. A database schema is the design of a database based on its model. In a relational model, data is organized into fields (columns), records(rows) and tables. A table contains many rows and each row contains a certain number of columns. For example, there might be a customers table whose rows represent individual customers and whose columns represent different attributes of each customer like name, address or customer ID. The customers table might be related to an orders table which contains rows of orders. Each order row might have a date, product ID and customer ID column. The two tables woul

ne way of storing data is in a spreadsheet (aka flat-file), which is a common practice in small businesses. But this model offers no ability to connect or relate the data in any way, unlike the most common one in use today: the relational model. In a relational database, data is "connected" with other data through a schema, using things called primary keys and foreign keys.

In order to efficiently organize data, a way of relating or connecting it must be designed. A database schema is the design of a database based on its model. In a relational model, data is organized into fields (columns), records(rows) and tables. A table contains many rows and each row contains a certain number of columns. For example, there might be a customers table whose rows represent individual customers and whose columns represent different attributes of each customer like name, address or customer ID. The customers table might be related to an orders table which contains rows of orders. Each order row might have a date, product ID and customer ID column. The two tables woul

and foreign keys.

In order to efficiently organize data, a way of relating or connecting it must be designed. A database schema is the design of a database based on its model. In a relational model, data is organized into fields (columns), records(rows) and tables. A table contains many rows and each row contains a certain number of columns. For example, there might be a customers table whose rows represent individual customers and whose columns represent different attributes of each customer like name, address or customer ID. The customers table might be related to an orders table which contains rows of orders. Each order row might have a date, product ID and customer ID column. The two tables woul

mple, there might be a customers table whose rows represent individual customers and whose columns represent different attributes of each customer like name, address or customer ID. The customers table might be related to an orders table which contains rows of orders. Each order row might have a date, product ID and customer ID column. The two tables would be related by common data values in each table's customer ID column. The customer ID column in the customers table would be a primary key - since we're dealing with a single customer - while the customer ID column in an orders row would be a foreign key because there could logically be several order rows for the one customer ID. With a good relational design comes easy data access and look-ups using a query language.

No doubt you've come across the term "SQL". Whether you've heard it pronounced "see-quell" or "ess que el" (no, it's not Spanish!), SQL is THE query language. It has a long history and has been standardized to a degree. Programmers use it to get data, update it, create it and delete it. SQL "programs" are called queries, which makes sense if you're getting data but not much if you're deleting it! Some examples of SQL queries:

SELECT Name, Address FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = 23

UPDATE Customers SET Name = 'Fred' WHERE CustomerID = 23

INSERT INTO Customers (Name, Address) VALUES ('Tom','123 Sycamore Ln')

DELETE FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = 23

Note how English-like the queries are. They're so clear I don't think I even have to explain their purpose. But, at the same time, SQL queries can be very complicated. They can also be used to create tables, columns, rows and even the database itself! SQL queries are essential for manipulating and creating data,