Questions tagged [terminology]
Clarification and disambiguation of terminology in order to focus on clear, consistent, distinct, and easily recognized usages for databases and database technology.
107
questions
1
vote
1answer
33 views
Is a 'block' and a 'page' the same thing in PostgreSQL?
I've seen many blogs and videos talking about Postgres 'blocks'. Are these the same as 'pages' in other database management system implementations?
15
votes
1answer
1k views
What exactly is the 'online' in OLAP and OLTP?
I'm a bit confused because I'm questioning the definition of 'online' in OLTP and OLAP. I used to think that 'online' here means that we want our answer in bounded time and based on the data available ...
2
votes
1answer
48 views
What is the strict difference between key and constraint in SQL Server?
In SQL Server, the 'keys' folder includes primary, foreign and unique keys, while the 'constraints' folder, for example, check and default. But unique can also be considered a constraint, so why it is ...
4
votes
3answers
99 views
Most common way to express cardinality in ascii
I know that there are several symbols to express the cardinality between entities.
But is there a pragmatic common way to express cardinality in ascii?
Example: User -- Group. One user can have ...
2
votes
1answer
40 views
What's an “object”?
The Postgres documentation frequently uses the term "object". For instance, the descriptions of various \d commands at https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-psql.html (like \dt for listing ...
1
vote
1answer
415 views
What is a “PARTITIONED OUTER JOIN”?
This just came up in a question on Reddit, and I'm wondering
What is a PARTITIONED OUTER JOIN in Oracle? (definition)
What does a simple example look like? (use)
How would you write it in terms of ...
-2
votes
1answer
81 views
Do “Oracle Streams” have anything to do with the “Oracle Stream Class”?
Oracle has a concept call "Oracle Streams" which is extensively documented. Does this have any relation to the "Stream Class". My assumption is no, and that they're entirely distinct but ...
3
votes
1answer
85 views
Does the term “page” have the same meaning in DBMS and OS jargons?
I am learning the data format of DBMS and found we have a term: page.
Pages are the fetched data in main memory from external storage (eg. a disk, SSD) and several pages would be "cached" firstly ...
2
votes
2answers
365 views
What does it mean to “materialize”?
While learning about "data layout", I came across the term "materialize", which does not have a clear definition and explanation. What is materialize and what does materialize do?
This question is ...
-1
votes
1answer
115 views
Is SQL Server Profiler different from SQL Trace?
In this source it is written something like this
I want to know what is SQL Trace? Does it refer here to Traces inside SQL Profiler or this is a different tool. I try to search it but can't find any ...
2
votes
1answer
145 views
What is the meaning of “minimal key”?
In the definition, it says minimal key is a minimal set of attributes needed to identify the table. Does the "minimal" part mean "minimal number of attributes" or "cannot be eliminated"?
For example:
...
9
votes
1answer
447 views
What is the difference between Federated and Decentralized Data Warehouse?
I can not find any clear definitions or explanations of any of these. Both seem decentralized. It appears that in Federated DWH, the data is distributed and not integrated into a single repository and ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
Is there a particular name for the type of structure of this database?
I'm trying to set up a data structure for an internal database of skills within a company, but I'm not entirely sure what "model" this fits as I'm quite new to databases and data structuring in ...
3
votes
2answers
187 views
What is the industry term for superset of “metrics” and “dimensions”? [closed]
If I want to refer to measures/metrics and dimensions with a single term, what would be a good industry-accepted expression?
Metrics is used commonly in UIs as well such as Google Analytics or ...
2
votes
4answers
196 views
What is a DBA's definition of “batch”?
I've heard it being used in relation to SQLite sometimes but never completely understood what it means.
0
votes
1answer
75 views
What is the technical meaning of “Bulk” in the “Bulk-Logged Recovery Model” and why this name?
With this model there are certain bulk operations such as BULK INSERT, CREATE INDEX, SELECT INTO, etc... that are not fully logged in the transaction log and therefore do not take as much space in the ...
0
votes
1answer
63 views
What is meant by “nonclustered legacy instance of SQL Server”?
When I research nonclustered legacy instance in SQL Server, all I get is some results about indexes. This is obviously not related to or affiliated with indexes, so what is meant by "clustered ...
0
votes
1answer
109 views
Difference between an endpoint and a port in SQL Server
While I know why are ports used in SQL Server, I wonder what is the difference between an endpoint and a port. Ports can be managed using Configuration Manager, is it also possible to manage endpoints ...
0
votes
1answer
97 views
What is meant by “Stand-Alone Instance of SQL Server”
I am cloning a server to perform an in-place upgrade and I will have to change the name of that server - which has a SQL Server with just one instance (default instance) installed on it.
I am ...
-2
votes
1answer
880 views
What is a “clob” or Character Large Object?
I see in this post on listagg — Rows to Delimited Strings talking about SQL's LISTAGG() clause ON OVERFLOW
The return type of listagg is either varchar or clob with an implementation defined length ...
0
votes
1answer
333 views
What does MBRContains and MBRWithin test? What does “contains” and “within” mean?
MBRContains(g1, g2) is defined as,
Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the minimum bounding rectangle of g1 contains the minimum bounding rectangle of g2. This tests the opposite relationship as ...
4
votes
2answers
214 views
What are “Invisible Columns” and how are they used?
I saw a new feature Invisible Columns in MariaDB 10.3.x. What are practical use cases for DBA and web developer? When to use this feature?
Columns can be given an INVISIBLE attribute in a CREATE ...
4
votes
1answer
106 views
What is this expression changing process?
Consider this table definition:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Post]
(
[Id] INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[PostType] VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT [CK_Post_PostType] CHECK ([PostType] IN ('...
0
votes
0answers
15 views
Name of attributes that are indirectly related to entity
If I have a set of data that relate to an entity directly and some that do not, is there a standard name for these two types of attributes?
example, Employee:
employeeID firstname lastname manager ...
5
votes
1answer
208 views
What is an “ACCESS METHOD”?
In the context of the CREATE ACCESS METHOD DDL in PostgreSQL,
CREATE ACCESS METHOD name
TYPE access_method_type
HANDLER handler_function
What is a a high level description of what an "access ...
7
votes
7answers
135 views
Term for non transaction save actions
If you only look at the database everything is fine. You have transactions and if somethings goes wrong everything gets rolled back. That's nice - I like this.
BUT: I want to send mails. Now I am in ...
1
vote
1answer
35 views
What does SPJ stand for in MySQL parlance?
MySQL has a lot of references to SPJ in MySQL including in official Oracle slides but I can't find what it actually stands for. I see it show up in a few blogs too.
I looked in the source and found ...
-1
votes
1answer
36 views
What does FHQT or FQA mean?
I was reading this post by Andres Pascal, and I came accross a few new acronyms,
As I understand, you need to search strings by similarity (using levenshtein or any other metric distance). In that ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
Difference between UPSERT and MERGE?
From the PostgreSQL wiki,
MERGE is typically used to merge two tables, and was introduced in the 2003 SQL standard. The REPLACE statement (a MySQL extension) or UPSERT sequence attempts an UPDATE, ...
2
votes
1answer
29 views
Whats the name for columns which purpose is not to identify?
I have a contacts table.
Columns are:
id
user_id
provider_id
title
phone_number
phone_ext
I want to know if there's a word that refers to the columns that make up the meat of the table. ie. (title, ...
2
votes
1answer
87 views
Name for table with metric_name and metric_value columns
A typical database table might look something like this:
date-------geography---clicks---cost---conversions
___________________________________________________
1/1/2010---Kansas------56-------12-----...
0
votes
1answer
68 views
Heap-Organized Tables and 'Heap' the Data Structure
AFAIK, heap-organized tables, which are default in Oracle and PostgreSQL, are just tables without any clustered index.
I'm wondering where the term 'heap' got its name. It's just a pile of data, not ...
-1
votes
1answer
57 views
Authorized, all privileged DB user and a DB instance with the same name - does it have a name? [closed]
Is there a term that encompasses an authorized, all-privileged DB user and a DB instance with the same name?
Should I call this a DB stack / DB unit / DB packet / something else?
Does this "stack" ...
1
vote
2answers
189 views
What is the formal definition of a Primary Index and Primary Key?
The below is from Fundamentals of Database Systems (7th Edition)
17.1 Types of Single-Level Ordered Indexes
There are several types of ordered indexes. A primary index is specified on the ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Standard Meaning of “Bounce the Database” [closed]
I have been hearing the term "bounce the database" lately, and researching it, it seems that people take it to mean different things.
Most recently is was an Oracle DBA saying:
"not even the DBAs ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
In PostgreSQL, what is the difference between a “Stored Procedure” and other types of functions?
I understand the distinction between:
Scalar functions
Set-Returning-Functions (SRF)s
Internal functions
Window functions
Aggregate functions of all sorts
User-Implemented functions (which in ...
1
vote
1answer
450 views
What is MySQL's “Implicit Default Value” and how does it work with “strict mode”?
From this question comments,
In the documentation (dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/insert.html), inserting with INSERT INTO tbl_name () VALUES(); is mentioned. It is allowed except for what the doc ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
What is a SQL Server “GDR”?
Microsoft provides hosts two repos,
https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/mssql-server-2017-gdr-xenial/
https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/mssql-server-2017-xenial/
What does GDR stand for in that ...
2
votes
1answer
567 views
What is a SQL Server “lop”?
The tool ldfreader.exe has an option called -lopFilter
-lopFilter Dump only records with these LOP. (short form: -l)
But, I don't see anything explaining what a LOP is. What is known about "...
5
votes
2answers
446 views
Is there a name for the class of characters represented by [] in SQL Server?
I am interested in the terminology for the characters you can put around table names, column names, etc. when referencing them in a query. A name that in Microsoft SQL Server would be for []s and in ...
4
votes
2answers
179 views
Is combining independent tables called normalisation?
So, at workplace, we currently store our audit logs in different tables, depending on what it is e.g. login/access info, configuration changes, etc.
These are all independent data with no foreign ...
4
votes
1answer
92 views
Are PostgreSQL clusters and servers the same thing?
From the official documentation (emphasis mine):
Chapter 22. Managing Databases
Every instance of a running PostgreSQL server manages one or more databases. Databases are therefore the topmost ...
19
votes
3answers
2k views
What is it called when you search the middle of a string instead of the beginning?
I am trying to polish up my vocabulary to better communicate with my fellow developers. We have several places in the site where we are debating if we should search for a string from the beginning '...
2
votes
2answers
130 views
Definition of “table variable” and “base table”
When reading SQL standard text (SQL:2003), I can not get the meaning of following sentence (in "Cluase 4.3 Tables" in SQL:2003-1):
SQL-data consists entirely of table variables, called base tables.
...
7
votes
2answers
4k views
PostgreSQL: Immutable, Volatile, Stable
I'm unclear about the true meaning in the definitions for IMMUTABLE, VOLATILE and STABLE functions.
I read the documentation, specifically the definitions of each.
IMMUTABLE indicates that the ...
4
votes
3answers
732 views
Scale vs. Precision - Why this definition?
From the Microsoft documentation concerning T-SQL / SQL Server:
Precision is the number of digits in a number. Scale is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point in a number. For ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
What's the name for a table that does not hold “mutable” data?
Let's say I have a users table, and each user has a different level of privilege. I have a privileges table with four rows that looks like this:
id | level
---+-----------
1 | viewer
2 | editor
3 |...
3
votes
2answers
77 views
What are the names of these Postgres concepts?
What are the names for the concepts highlighted in the following SQL table? If Postgres has particular names for them then I'd prefer those, otherwise the general SQL names would be helpful.
I'm ...
0
votes
2answers
87 views
Using Structured Filetypes as Databases
In having a debate with a coworker it was posed that a flat file, in this case a CSV, could be considered a database. This would include XML and JSON as well. I'm interested in differing views on this....
0
votes
2answers
72 views
Common term for tenant-based keys [closed]
Assume the following schema:
ID | TENANT | TENANT_CUSTOM_ID
346 | 101 | 1
347 | 102 | 1
348 | 101 | 2
349 | 101 | 3
350 | 101 | 4
351 | 102 | 2
352 | 103 | 1
What ...
