NoSQL Databases
NoSQL Databases
NoSQL is composed of several database technologies that were developed for today’s demand. There are different types of NoSQL databases which include document databases, graph databases, key-value databases, and wide-column databases. Document databases stores and retrieve documents such as XML, JSON, and BSON to name a few. Graph databases stores information of data and how they are connected. In other words they store entities and relationships between the entities similar to the ERD models we did in class. Key-value databases are the most simplest out of all the databases. Every entry stored in the key-value database is saved as an attribute name or “key” with their corresponding value. Wide-column databases are databases that stores information in column families as rows that has several columns associated with a row key. Column families can be accessed together so for instance for a customer, you can access their profile information at the same time. A big advantage of NoSQL databases are their dynamic schemas. In a regular SQL database you need to pre-define a table to insert information about a customer such as their phone number, address, city, state and etc. Therefore, if you want to add in something that was not pre-defined in the table such as the customer’s email, you would not be able to unless you make a new table that has the email included. With NoSQL you have the ability to add the email to the customer without having to make a brand new table.
In class we learned how a database has thousands of information in it. Learning SQL language is very important for NoSQL/SQL databases. Everything learned in class from writing codes to fetch out information to writing codes to insert information into the database can be used for these databases.
NoSQL databases can be used for content managing systems, blogging platforms, web analytics, and real-time analytics.
References
“NoSQL Databases Explained.” MongoDB. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <https://www.mongodb.com/nosql-explained>.
Sadalage, Pramod. “NoSQL Databases: An Overview.” ThoughtWorks. N.p., 02 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/nosql-databases-overview>.