What is the relational data model?
The relational data model is a conceptual approach used to represent a database as a group of relations. Most web applications are highly data-driven. Developers have to deal with either code-level data storage, in the case of a data structure, or find a way to persistently store data in an RDBMS, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
In an RDBMS, you can refer to a table as a relation. Therefore, a relational model represents data as a collection of relations or tables. Breaking down the database structure further, you then have rows and columns making up a table. Then, you have a record, which consists of a combination of rows and columns.
Let’s take a look at a hypothetical table named customers
that depicts the structure of a typical table for clarity:
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