Database Glossary
Under construction.
Note: please also see my Object Orientation Glossary.
| Item | Description |
|---|
| A | |
| Access | |
| Attribute | a named column of a relation |
| Authorisation | passwords, access |
| B | |
| BCNF | |
| Boyce-Codd Normal Form | |
| C | |
| Candidate Key | |
| Cardinality | the number of rows/tuples |
| Cold Fusion | |
| Column | |
| Commit | |
| Concurrency control | only one can update at a time |
| Control | |
| D | |
| Data | |
| Database | |
| Data Communication | |
| Data Independency | e.g. adding or subtracting department/schema should not affect existing ones |
| Data Integrity | quality in terms of constraints - e.g. max |
| Data Mining | |
| Data Warehouse | |
| Data Webhouse | |
| DB2 | |
| dBase | |
| DBMS | Database Management System |
| Degree | the number of attributes |
| Delphi | |
| Domain | a set of allowable values for 1 or more attributes |
| Duplication | |
| E | |
| Enterprise | |
| Entity | |
| Entity-Relationship Diagram | |
| ERD | Entity-Relationship Diagram |
| ERM | Entity/relationship model |
| eXtensible Markup Language | See XML |
| F | |
| FileMaker Pro | |
| First Normal Form | |
| Flat File | |
| Foreign Key | A column or columns in one table which reference(s) a primary key column or columns in another table. |
| Form | |
| Fourth Normal Form | |
| FoxPro | |
| Functional Dependency | |
| G | |
| H | |
| Hierarchical Database | |
| Hybrid DBMS | typically Object-Relational |
| I | |
| Inconsistency | |
| Index | |
| Information | |
| INGRES | |
| Insert | |
| IS | Information System |
| Integration | |
| J | |
| Join | |
| K | |
| Key | |
| Knowledge | |
| L | |
| Lock | |
| M | |
| Metadata | |
| MySQL | |
| N | |
| Network Database | |
| Normalisation | |
| Null | |
| O | future: object > 2 dimensions, good for updates |
| Object-Oriented Database management System | |
| ODBMS | Object-Oriented Database management System |
| Oracle | |
| P | |
| Paradox | |
| PL/SQL | |
| Postgres | |
| Primary Key | unique identifier for each row |
| Q | |
| Query | |
| R | |
| RDBMS | Relational Database Management System |
| Record | |
| Recovery | |
| Redundancy | |
| Relation | a table with columns and rows |
| Relational Database | A collection of normalised relations with disctinct relation names. Data 2-dimensional |
| Replication | |
| Report | |
| Repository | |
| Rollback | |
| Row | |
| S | |
| Second Normal Form | |
| Select | |
| SQL | |
| SQL Server | |
| Structured Query Language | |
| T | |
| Table | |
| Third Normal Form | |
| Two-phase commit | |
| Transaction | |
| Tuple | a row of a relation |
| U | |
| Update | |
| Utility | DBA functions., e.g. importing, statistics |
| V | |
| W | |
| X | |
| XML | |
| Y | |
| Z | |
| | |
| 1NF | |
| 2NF | |
| 3NF | |
| 4NF | |
