We live in a data-driven world. Think for a moment about all the data that exists about you, in computers around the world.
Your name
Birth date and information
Your hobbies
Purchases you've made
The identity of your friends
Your place of employment
The examples are endless. Next, multiply that amount of data by the number of people in the world. The result is a truly staggering amount of information. How is it possible that all this data can be organized and retrieved? In today's data-centric world, it is databases that make this possible. These Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) are primarily controlled by a programming language called Structured Query Language (SQL).
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
Discussing the purpose of relational database management systems
Understanding the use of the relational paradigm
Examining the use of Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs)
Looking at the structure of tables
Introducing Structured Query Language (SQL)
Reviewing commonly-used query tools
Introducing the SQL Developer tool