A foreign key is a column or columns of data in one table that refers to the unique data values -- often the primary key data -- in another table. Foreign keys link together two or more tables in a ...

Which makes for a better primary key: natural data points or meaningless values? Database developers have strong opinions on this facet of primary key design. This article settles the debate once and ...

Databases store sets of data about products, customers, orders and other facets of business operations for use in transaction processing or BI and analytics applications. A database management system ...

It's good to be back writing for Intelligent Enterprise after a long break. I was writing for Intelligent Enterprise before it was Intelligent Enterprise. Let me explain. In the early '90s, I had a ...

If you’ve worked with relational database systems for any length of time, you’ve probably participated in a discussion (argument?) about the topic of this month’s column, surrogate keys. A great ...

Conventional wisdom states that relational databases are not scalable or robust enough to handle the huge numbers of connections, the massive throughput, and all the cool tricks required to master IoT ...

If you want to know what’s what in Big Data analytics today, you’ve got to know the basics of NoSQL databases, and how appropriate NoSQL databases facilitate Big Data analytics. What are the most ...

Often one reads a book or hears a presenter making a pun about relational theory being called “relational” because of entities being “related.” Such references are nothing but misplaced puns.