synonym

synonyms (plural)
synonime (alternative obsolete)
synonyme (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English sinonyme, from Latin synōnymum, from Ancient Greek συνώνυμον (sunṓnumon), neuter singular form of συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos, “synonymous”), from σύν (sún, “with”) + ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”). By surface analysis, syn- + -onym.

Synonyms are part of the SQL standard and are used frequently by Oracle DBAs. Note that Oracle includes both private and public synonyms.

2011, Paul Nielsen, Uttam Parui, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Bible:

(databases) An alternative (often shorter) name defined for an object in a database.


index

en-noun

index (plural indexes or indices or (obsolete, in use in the 17th century) index's)

indexes (plural)
indices (plural)
index's (obsolete plural)

⇒ Chinese: 引得 (yǐndé)

→ Japanese: インデックス (indekkusu)

From Latin index (“a discoverer, informer, spy; of things, an indicator, the forefinger, a title, superscription”), from indicō (“point out, show”); see indicate.

der

(computing, especially programming and databases) An integer or other key indicating the location of data, e.g. within an array, vector, database table, associative array, or hash table.

индекс

programming: key indicating location of data

(computing, databases) A data structure that improves the performance of operations on a table.


cold

en-adj

cold (comparative colder, superlative coldest)

colder (comparative)
coldest (superlative)

Sranan Tongo: kowru
Aukan: koo

From Middle English cold, from Anglian Old English cald. The West Saxon form, ċeald (“cold”), survived as early Middle English cheald, cheld, or chald. Both descended from Proto-West Germanic *kald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldaz, a participle form of *kalaną (“to be cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots cald, cauld (“cold”), Saterland Frisian koold (“cold”), West Frisian kâld (“cold”), Dutch koud (“cold”), Low German kold, koolt, koold (“cold”), German kalt (“cold”), Danish kold (“cold”), Norwegian kald (“cold”), Swedish kall (“cold”).

faire froid (idiom in French; there is no translation for the adjective alone)

κάνει κρύο (kánei krýo) (idiom in Greek; there is no translation for the adjective alone)

хо́лодно (xólodno) (+ dative, “to be cold”)

olla kylmä (to feel cold; subject in the adessive case)

avoir froid (idiom in French; there is no translation for the adjective alone)

avere freddo (idiom in Italian; there is no translation for the adjective alone)

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

cold as a witch's tit

cold as a witch's teat, cold as a witch's tit in a brass bra

make someone's blood run cold

make the blood run cold, one's blood runs cold

(databases) Rarely used or accessed, and thus able to be relegated to slower storage.


SQL

Structured Query Language
w:Structured Query Language

(computer languages, databases) Initialism of Structured Query Language.

SQL

pronounced эс-ку-э́ль (es-ku-élʹ) or эс-кью-э́л (es-kʹju-él)


clause

From Middle English clause, claus, borrowed from Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa (Latin diminutive clausula (“close, end; a clause, close of a period”)), from Latin clausus, past participle of claudere (“to shut, close”). See close, its doublet.

en:component of a statement or query, in databases

(databases) A constituent (component) of a statement or query.


join

en-verb

join (third-person singular simple present joins, present participle joining, simple past and past participle joined)

joins (present singular third-person)
joining (participle present)
joined (participle past)
joined (past)
join (infinitive)
join (first-person present singular)
joined (first-person past singular)
join (present second-person singular)
joinest (archaic present second-person singular)
joined (past second-person singular)
joinedst (archaic past second-person singular)
joins (present singular third-person)
joineth (archaic present singular third-person)
joined (past singular third-person)
join (plural present)
joined (past plural)
join (present subjunctive)
joined (past subjunctive)
join (imperative present)
joining (participle present)
joined (participle past)
joyn (alternative obsolete)
joyne (alternative obsolete)
joyen (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English joinen, joynen, joignen, from Old French joindre, juindre, jungre, from Latin iungō (“join, yoke”, verb), from Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to join, unite”). Cognate with Old English iucian, iugian, ġeocian, ġyċċan (“to join; yoke”). More at yoke.

der

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

By joining the Customer table on the Product table, we can show each customer's name alongside the products they have ordered.

(computing, databases, transitive) To produce an intersection of data in two or more database tables.


join

joins (plural)
joyn (alternative obsolete)
joyne (alternative obsolete)
joyen (alternative obsolete)

(computing, databases) An intersection of data in two or more database tables.


vacuum

en-verb

vacuum (third-person singular simple present vacuums, present participle vacuuming, simple past and past participle vacuumed)

vacuums (present singular third-person)
vacuuming (participle present)
vacuumed (participle past)
vacuumed (past)
vacuüm (alternative rare)

Borrowed from Latin vacuum (“an empty space, void”), noun use of neuter of vacuus (“empty”), related to vacare (“be empty”).

bor+

But the advantage of an auto-vacuumed database is that when B-tree pages are no longer needed, they are moved to the end of the database file and then the database file is truncated, thus returning the unused pages back to the filesystem.

2010, Ivan Litovski, Richard Maynard, Inside Symbian SQL: A Mobile Developer's Guide to SQLite, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 337:

(transitive, databases) To optimise a database or database table by physically removing deleted tuples.


key

From Middle English keye, kaye, keiȝe, from Old English cǣġ (“key, solution, experiment”) (whence also Scots key and kay (“key”)), of uncertain origin. The only sure cognates are Saterland Frisian Koai (“key”), West Frisian kaai (“key”), and North Frisian kay (“key”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *kēgaz, *kēguz (“stake, post, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵogʰ-, *ǵegʰ-, *ǵegʰn- (“branch, stake, bush”), which would make it cognate with Middle Low German kāk (“whipping post, pillory”), and perhaps to Middle Dutch keige (“javelin, spear”) and Middle Low German keie, keige (“spear”). For the semantic development, note that medieval keys were simply long poles (ending in a hook) with which a crossbar obstructing a door from the inside could be removed from the outside, by lifting it through a hole in the door. Liberman has noted, however, "The original meaning of *kaig-jo- was presumably '*pin with a twisted end.' Words with the root *kai- followed by a consonant meaning 'crooked, bent; twisted' are common only in the North Germanic languages."

шпи́лка

object used to maintain the orientation between two others

Key in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

(databases) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).

sleutel

computing: field of a database constrained to be unique

sleutel

computing: field in a record used as a search argument


coalesce

en-verb

coalesce (third-person singular simple present coalesces, present participle coalescing, simple past and past participle coalesced)

coalesces (present singular third-person)
coalescing (participle present)
coalesced (participle past)
coalesced (past)

/ˌkəʊ.əˈlɛs/

From Latin coalēscō, from co- + alēscō (“grow up”).

You can improve the display by coalescing the ID columns. As I note in Chapter 9, the COALESCE expression takes on the value of the first non-null value in a list of values.

2018, Allen G. Taylor, SQL For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

(databases, SQL) To convert a null value to a defined value.


fact

en-noun

fact (countable and uncountable, plural facts)

From Old French fact, from Latin factum (“an act, deed, feat, etc.”); also Medieval Latin for “state, condition, circumstance”; neuter of factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faciō (“do, make”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, set”). Old/Middle French later evolved it into faict and fait. Doublet of feat.

der

(databases) An individual value or measurement at the lowest level of granularity in a data warehouse.


scrub

en-verb

scrub (third-person singular simple present scrubs, present participle scrubbing, simple past and past participle scrubbed)

scrubs (present singular third-person)
scrubbing (participle present)
scrubbed (participle past)
scrubbed (past)

From Middle English scrobben (“groom a horse with a currycomb”); from Middle Dutch schrobben (“clean by scrubbing”).

der

The street segment data from the National Post Office will need to be scrubbed before it can be integrated into our system.

(databases, transitive) To eliminate or to correct data from a set of records to bring it inline with other similar datasets


view

model

antonym(s) of “part of computer program”

→ Japanese: ビュー (byū)

→ Korean: 뷰 (byu)

→ Persian: ویو (viyu)

From Middle English vewe, from Anglo-Norman vewe, from Old French veue f (French vue f), feminine past participle of veoir (“to see”) (French voir). Cognate with Italian vedere, as well as Portuguese and Spanish ver. Doublet of veduta and vista.

(computing, databases) A virtual or logical table composed of the result set of a query in relational databases.


crosswalk

(databases) A mapping between equivalent elements (fields) in different database schemas.


crosswalk

en-verb

crosswalk (third-person singular simple present crosswalks, present participle crosswalking, simple past and past participle crosswalked)

crosswalks (present singular third-person)
crosswalking (participle present)
crosswalked (participle past)
crosswalked (past)
xwalk (alternative)

(databases) To map equivalent elements (fields) in different database schemas.


DML

DML consists of four commonly used statements: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and MERGE.

2015, Miguel Cebollero, Michael Coles, Jay Natarajan, Pro T-SQL Programmer's Guide, Apress, →ISBN, page 4:

(databases) Initialism of Data Manipulation Language.


snowflake

snowflake (third-person singular simple present snowflakes, present participle snowflaking, simple past and past participle snowflaked)

snowflakes (present singular third-person)
snowflaking (participle present)
snowflaked (participle past)
snowflaked (past)
snow-flake (alternative)

From snow + flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”), Dutch sneeuwvlok, Luxembourgish Schnéiflack, German Schneeflocke.

cog

(computing, databases) To arrange (data) into a snowflake schema.


table

tables (plural)
tyebble (alternative Geordie)

→ Assamese: টেবুল (tebul)

→ Bengali: টেবিল (ṭebil)

→ Gujarati: ટેબલ (ṭebal)

→ Japanese: テーブル (tēburu)

→ Korean: 테이블 (teibeul)

→ Maori: tēpu

→ Nepali: टेबुल (ṭebul)

→ Odia: ଟେବଲ୍ (ṭebal)

→ Sylheti: ꠐꠦꠛꠥꠟ (ṭebul)

→ Telugu: టేబులు (ṭēbulu)

Inherited from Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). The sense of “piece of furniture” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board. Doublet of tabula and tavla.

der

(computing, chiefly databases) A lookup table, most often a set of vectors.


entity

From the Medieval Latin entitās, from ēns (“being”) (stem: ent-) + -tās (compare essentia), see there for more information.

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 1. Existence

(databases) Anything about which information or data can be stored in a database; in particular, one item in an organised array or set of individual elements or parts of the same type.

資料物件 /资料物件

computing: anything about which data can be stored


cursor

cursors (plural)
cursour (alternative obsolete)

Borrowed from Latin cursor (“runner”), from currō (“run”) + -or (agentive suffix). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.

(databases) A reference to a row of data in a table, which moves from row to row as data is retrieved by way of it.


select

en-verb

select (third-person singular simple present selects, present participle selecting, simple past and past participle selected)

selects (present singular third-person)
selecting (participle present)
selected (participle past)
selected (past)
select (infinitive)
select (first-person present singular)
selected (first-person past singular)
select (present second-person singular)
selectest (archaic present second-person singular)
selected (past second-person singular)
selectedst (archaic past second-person singular)
selects (present singular third-person)
selecteth (archaic present singular third-person)
selected (past singular third-person)
select (plural present)
selected (past plural)
select (present subjunctive)
selected (past subjunctive)
select (imperative present)
selecting (participle present)
selected (participle past)

From Latin sēlēctus, perfect passive participle of sēligō (“choose out, select”), from sē- (“without; apart”) + legō (“gather, select”).

(databases) To obtain a set of data from a database using a query.


time travel

(databases) The ability to access previous states of a database.


database

databases (plural)
data base (alternative dated)
data-base (alternative dated)

→ Danish: database

→ Dutch: database

→ Hindi: डेटाबेस (ḍeṭābes)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: database

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: database

[ˈdæɾəˌbeɪs]

/ˈɖeːʈaːˌbeːs/

I have a database of all my contacts in my personal organizer.

(general) A collection of (usually) organized information in a regular structure, usually but not necessarily in a machine-readable format accessible by a computer.

The "books" database will have three tables, and the "customers" database will have two tables.

(computing) A set of tables and other objects (queries, reports, forms) in the form of a structured data set.

Which database do you use: MySQL or Oracle?

(computing, loosely, metonymic) A software program (application) for storing, retrieving and manipulating such a structured data set.

(computing, loosely, metonymic) A combination of such data sets and the programs for using them.


database

database (third-person singular simple present databases, present participle databasing, simple past and past participle databased)

databases (present singular third-person)
databasing (participle present)
databased (participle past)
databased (past)
data base (alternative dated)
data-base (alternative dated)

[ˈdæɾəˌbeɪs]

/ˈɖeːʈaːˌbeːs/

The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning, etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found).

2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5:

(transitive) To enter (data) into a database.


selection

en-noun

selection (countable and uncountable, plural selections)

From Latin sēlēctiō (“the act of choosing out, selection”), from sēlēctus, perfect passive participle of sēligō (“choose out, select”), from sē- (“apart”) + legō (“gather, select”).

der

(databases) A set of data obtained from a database using a query.


relation

en-noun

relation (countable and uncountable, plural relations)

From Middle English relacion, relacioun, from Anglo-Norman relacioun and Old French relacion (whence French relation), from Latin relātiō, noun of process form from perfect passive participle relātus (“related”), from verb referō (“I refer, I relate”), from prefix re- (“again”) + ferō (“I bear, I carry”). By surface analysis, relate + -ion. Doublet of relazione.

This relation uses the customer's social security number as a key.

(databases) A set of ordered tuples retrievable by a relational database; a table.

關係 /关系

mathematics: set of ordered tuples, a Boolean function of two or more arguments

關係 /关系

set of ordered tuples retrievable by a database


surrogate

→ Dutch: surrogaat

From Latin surrogātus, perfect passive participle of surrogō (“ask”); a variant of subrogō, from sub (“under”) + rogō (“ask”).


schema

Unadapted borrowing from Latin schēma, from Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “form, shape”). Doublet of scheme.

der

(databases) A formal description of the structure of a database: the names of the tables, the names of the columns of each table, and the data type and other attributes of each column.

skeema

Formal description of the structure of a database


isolation

en-noun

isolation (countable and uncountable, plural isolations)

/ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/

First attested in 1800. From French isolation, from isolé, placed on an island (thus away from other people). Equivalent to isolate + -ion.

(databases) A database property that determines when and how changes made in one transaction are visible to other concurrent transactions.

isolamento

computing: visibility of concurrent transactions


latch

en-verb

latch (third-person singular simple present latches, present participle latching, simple past and past participle latched or (obsolete) laught)

latches (present singular third-person)
latching (participle present)
latched (participle past)
latched (past)
laught (obsolete participle past)
laught (obsolete past)

From Middle English lacchen (“to seize, catch, grasp”, verb), from Old English læċċan (“to grasp, take hold of, catch, seize”), from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną, *lakwijaną, *lakkijaną (“to seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₂g-, *(s)leh₂gʷ- (“to take, seize”). Cognate with Middle Dutch lakken (“to grasp, catch”).

inh

(databases) To use a latch (kind of lightweight lock).


latch

latches (plural)
lech (alternative)
letch (alternative)

From Middle English latche, lacche (“a latch; a trap”), from lacchen (“to seize, catch, grasp”), from Old English læċċan (“to grasp, take hold of, catch, seize”). See above for more.

(databases) A lightweight lock to protect internal structures from being modified by multiple concurrent accesses.


database transaction

en-noun

database transaction (plural database transactions)

Technically, a database transaction is sequence of operations that is treated as a single unit (an atomic unit). All of the operations in a transaction have to be completed before the database changes are made permanent.

2007, Ian Sommerville, Software Engineering, Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 298:

database management system
database management system

(databases) A unit of interaction in a database management system.


database management system

database management system (plural database management systems)

(databases) A suite of interrelated computer programs designed to manage message processing and database update in a tightly controlled manner.


DBMS

database management system
database management system#English

(databases, software) Initialism of database management system.


query

queries (plural)
quæry (alternative archaic)

An anglicisation of quere, an obsolete variant form of Latin quaere, second-person singular present active imperative of quaerō (“seek, look for; ask”). Cognate with French quérir, Italian chiedere, Portuguese querer, Romanian cere, and Spanish querer. Compare question.

The database admin switched on query logging for debugging purposes.

(computing, databases) A set of instructions passed to a database.

اِسْتِعْلام

computing: set of instructions passed to a database


query

en-verb

query (third-person singular simple present queries, present participle querying, simple past and past participle queried)

queries (present singular third-person)
querying (participle present)
queried (participle past)
queried (past)
quæry (alternative archaic)

Linked tables can be accessed, queried, combined and reorganised much more flexibly and in a number of ways that may not be immediately predictable when the database is under construction.

1999, Luciano Floridi, Philosophy and computing: an introduction, page 104:

(computing, databases) To pass a set of instructions to a database to retrieve information from it.


commit

commit (third-person singular simple present commits, present participle committing, simple past and past participle committed)

commits (present singular third-person)
committing (participle present)
committed (participle past)
committed (past)

→ German: committen

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-commit.wav

Borrowed from Latin committō (“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com- (“together”) + mittō (“to send”). See mission.

bor

When all SQL statements in the transaction are executed successfully, the transaction is committed and all the work that the SQL statements performed is made a permanent part of the database.

2005, Thearon Willis, Beginning Visual Basic 2005 Databases, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 343:

We can commit all unstaged files with one command: […]

2014, Wlodzimierz Gajda, Git Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, Apress, →ISBN, page 86:

(transitive, computing, databases) To make a set of changes permanent.

(Programm-)Änderungen als dauerhaft erklären


commit

→ German: Commit

→ Russian: комми́т (kommít)

To support locking and process synchronization independently of transaction commits, the server provides semaphore objects[…]

1988, Klaus R Dittrich, Advances in Object-Oriented Database Systems: 2nd International Workshop:

Every Git commit represents a single, atomic changeset with respect to the previous state.

2009, Jon Loeliger, Version Control with Git:

(computing, databases) The act of committing (e.g. a database transaction), making it a permanent change; such a change.

vahvistus

(computing) act of committing, making a permanent change


rollback

en-noun

rollback (countable and uncountable, plural rollbacks)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rollback.wav

The noun is a deverbal from roll back. The verb is a back-formation from the noun despite being redundant to roll back.

(databases) An operation which returns a database, or group of records in a database, to a previous state (normally to the previous commit point).

回滾 /回滚

(computing) operation to return the database to the previous commit point


rollback

en-verb

rollback (third-person singular simple present rollbacks, present participle rollbacking, simple past and past participle rollbacked)

rollbacks (present singular third-person)
rollbacking (participle present)
rollbacked (participle past)
rollbacked (past)

The server is unstable, we need to rollback the changes.

(transitive, computing, databases) To return to the previous state.


commit point

(databases) In a DBMS, a point in time at which all updates to a database, or group of records in a database, are guaranteed to have been written to disk, and the journal or log records of that action have also been so committed. Future updates may be undone to that point if necessary.


hint

→ Danish: hint

→ Dutch: hint

→ Japanese: ヒント (hinto)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: hint

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: hint

→ Swedish: hint

From Middle English hinten, hynten, variant of henten (“to lay hold of, catch”), from Old English hentan (“to seize, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *hantijan, from Proto-Germanic *hantijaną. Doublet of hent. Related also to hunt.

(databases) An instruction to the database engine as to how a query should be executed, for example whether to use an index or not.


upsert

upsert (third-person singular simple present upserts, present participle upserting, simple past and past participle upserted)

upserts (present singular third-person)
upserting (participle present)
upserted (participle past)
upserted (past)

Each entity event is upserted into the key/value table, such that the most recently read event for a given key is represented.

2020, Adam Bellemare, Building Event-Driven Microservices, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 25:

(databases, transitive) To insert rows into a database table if they do not already exist, or update them if they do.


upsert

The upsert option lets you specify whether the update should be an upsert—that is, it tells MongoDB to update the record if it exists, and create it if it doesn't.

2013, David Hows, Eelco Plugge, Peter Membrey, Tim Hawkins, The Definitive Guide to MongoDB, Apress, →ISBN, page 66:

(databases) An operation that inserts rows into a database table if they do not already exist, or updates them if they do.


constraint

en-noun

constraint (countable and uncountable, plural constraints)

From Middle English constreynt, constreynte, from Old French constreinte, past participle of constreindre (“to constrain”), from Latin cōnstringō (corresponding to the past participle cōnstrictus).

(databases) A linkage or other restriction that maintains database integrity.


CK

(computing, databases) Initialism of candidate key.


DCL

DCL (countable and uncountable, plural DCLs)

data control language
w:data control language

(databases) Initialism of data control language.


data mining

→ Japanese: データマイニング (dēta mainingu)

data-mining (alternative)
datamining (alternative)

Serious application of data mining involves thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of individual cases.

2005, Ian H. Witten, Eibe Frank, Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, 2nd edition, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 10:

(databases) A technique for searching large-scale databases for patterns; used mainly to find previously unknown correlations between variables that may be commercially useful.


partition

partition (countable and uncountable, plural partitions)

/pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən/

/pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃɪn/

Recorded c.1430, "division into shares, distinction," from Middle English particioun, from Old French particion (modern partition), from Latin partitio, partitionem (“division, portion”), from partitus, the past participle of partire (“to split (up), part(ition)”).

der

(databases) A division of a database or one of its constituting elements such as tables into separate independent parts.


PK

en-noun

PK (countable and uncountable, plural PKs)

(computing, databases) Initialism of primary key.


data warehouse

Coined by IBM researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy in 1988.

(computing) A collection of data, from a variety of sources, organized to provide useful guidance to an organization's decision-makers.


DBA

database analyst
database analyst#English

(databases) Initialism of database analyst.

database administrator
database administrator#English

(databases) Initialism of database administrator.


blob

(databases) Alternative spelling of BLOB.


tuple

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tuple.wav

From the ending of the words quintuple, sextuple; from Latin -plus.

(databases) A single row in a relational database.


cardinality

cardinality (countable and uncountable, plural cardinalities)

(data modeling, databases) The property of a relationship between a database table and another one, specifying whether it is one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many.


shard

From Middle English shard, scherd, scheard, schord, from Old English sċeard (“a broken piece; shard”), from Proto-West Germanic *skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“notch; nick”), from *skardaz (“damaged; nicked; scarred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Akin to Scots schaird (“shard”), French écharde (“splinter”), Dutch schaarde (“tear; notch; fragment”), German Scharte (“notch”), Old Norse skarð (“notch, hack”) ( > Danish skår).
The database sense is perhaps derived from the online gaming sense or from SHARD (System for Highly Available Replicated Data), name of a 1980s database product.

cog

(databases) A component of a sharded distributed database.


collation

en-noun

collation (countable and uncountable, plural collations)

From Middle English collacioun, collation, from Old French collation, from Latin collatiō, from the participle stem of cōnferō (“to bring together”).

(computing, databases) The specification of how character data should be treated stored and sorted.


normalization

normalization (countable and uncountable, plural normalizations)

normalizations (plural)
normalisation (alternative UK)

[ˌnoː.məˌlɑɪˈzæɪ.ʃn̩]

From normal + -ization or normalize + -ation.

Meronym: atomization

(databases) In relational database design, a process that breaks down data into record groups for efficient processing, by eliminating redundancy.

atomization

separating data into an optimized relational data model


first normal form

Abbreviation: 1NF

(databases) A stage in the normalization of a relational database in which repeating groups and attributes have been eliminated by putting each into a separate table connected by a primary-key/foreign-key relationship.


second normal form

second normal form (plural second normal forms)

(databases) A stage in the normalization of a relational database in which it is in first normal form and every non-key attribute is dependent upon the entire primary key.


third normal form

third normal form (plural third normal forms)

(databases) A stage in the normalization of a relational database in which a database is in second normal form and all non-key attributes are mutually independent (no transient dependencies.)


Boyce-Codd normal form

Developed in 1974 by Raymond F. Boyce and Edgar F. Codd.

(databases) A stage in the normalization of a relational database in which a database is in third normal form and all determinants are candidate keys.


fourth normal form

Boyce-Codd normal form
Boyce-Codd normal form

functional dependencies
functional dependencies

(databases) A stage in the normalization of a relational database in which a database is in Boyce-Codd normal form and all multi-valued dependencies are functional dependencies.


fifth normal form

(databases) A stage in the normalization of a relational database in which a database is in fourth normal form and every join dependency is implied by the candidate keys.


relational database

relational database (plural relational databases)

From the use of relation to denote a set of ordered tuples, i.e. a table in the context of a relational database.

(databases) A database consisting of separate tables, having explicitly defined relationships, and whose elements may be selectively combined as the results of queries.


hierarchical database

hierarchical database (plural hierarchical databases)

(databases) A database whose records are linked in a tree-like structure, each child record having a single primary parent.


SSB

SSB (countable and uncountable, plural SSBs)

(databases) Initialism of star schema benchmark.


trigger

Originally tricker, from Dutch trekker (“pull”, noun, as in drawer-pull, bell-pull), from Dutch trekken (“to drag, draw, pull”).

bor

referential integrity
referential integrity

(databases) An SQL procedure that may be initiated when a record is inserted, updated or deleted; typically used to maintain referential integrity.


exogenous

(databases, of a key) Having no meaning in itself, such as an automatically generated sequential identifier.


ACID

SQLite relies on native file locking and page journaling to implement ACID properties.

2007, Sibsankar Haldar, Inside SQLite, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 31:

database transaction
database transaction

(databases) Acronym of atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability, a set of properties that guarantee database transactions are processed reliably.


clustered

(databases, of a primary key) Used as the clustering key of a clustered index.


ERD

en-noun

ERD (countable and uncountable, plural ERDs)

entity-relationship diagram
entity-relationship diagram#English

(databases) Initialism of entity-relationship diagram.


database administrator

database administrator (plural database administrators)

database administrators (plural)
as DBA (abbreviation)

(databases) A person who is responsible for the logical and physical design of databases, and normally for all aspects of their recoverability, integrity, security, availability and performance.


database analyst

database analyst (plural database analysts)

(computing) a person who is responsible for the logical and physical design of databases


flashback

→ German: Flashback

→ Spanish: flashback

→ Norwegian: flashback

→ Portuguese: flashback

As noted, that method provides limited support for multi-table flashbacks.

2004, Kevin Loney, Oracle Database 10g The Complete Reference, page 497:

[…] less used and specialized types of queries, including composite queries, hierarchical queries, version flashbacks, and parallel queries.

2004, Gavin J. T. Powell, Carol McCullough-Dieter, Oracle SQL: Jumpstart with Examples, page xxv:

(databases) A query that operates against data from an earlier time, before it was changed.


DMS

DMS (countable and uncountable, plural DMSs)

Database Management System
database management system#English

(uncountable, databases) Initialism of Database Management System.


bookmark

From Middle English *boke-merk, *boke-merke (attested only in the bare form merk (“bookmark”)), equivalent to book + mark. Cognate with Danish bogmærke (“bookmark”), Swedish bokmärke (“bookmark”), Norwegian bokmerke (“bookmark”), Icelandic bókamerki (“bookmark”). Eclipsed non-native Old English æstel (“bookmark”), from Old Irish astal, from Latin hastula (“little spear, splint”).

(databases) A pointer found in a nonclustered index to a row in a clustered index or a table heap


Cartesian product

Cartesian product (plural Cartesian products)

Cartesian products (plural)
cartesian product (alternative)

From Cartesian + product, after French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist René Descartes (1596–1650), whose formulation of analytic geometry gave rise to the concept.

(databases) All possible combinations of rows between all of the tables listed.


normalize

en-verb

normalize (third-person singular simple present normalizes, present participle normalizing, simple past and past participle normalized)

normalizes (present singular third-person)
normalizing (participle present)
normalized (participle past)
normalized (past)
normalise (alternative UK)

palauttaa

rail transport, transitive: to return to the normal position

palautua

rail transport, intransitive: to return to the normal position

(computing, databases, transitive) To subject to normalization; to eliminate redundancy in (a model for storing data).


MDX

MultiDimensional eXpressions
w:MultiDimensional eXpressions

(databases) Initialism of MultiDimensional eXpressions.


habtm

(databases) Acronym of has and belongs to many, a many-to-many relationship in a database.


identifier

authenticator

an identifier asserts identity; an authenticator verifies it


USP

stored procedure
stored procedure#English

(computing, databases) Initialism of user stored procedure.


textbase

(databases) A database containing a corpus of text for use by lexicographers etc.


data table

(databases) A table stored in, or derived from, a database.


relational

en-adj

relational (comparative more relational, superlative most relational)

more relational (comparative)
most relational (superlative)

From relation + -al. The database sense is from the definition of relation as a set of ordered tuples.

(databases) Of a database technology using tables and adhering to Codd’s 12 rules.

relační

relating to, using, or being a method of organizing data in a database


RAC

(computing, databases) Initialism of Real Application Cluster.


analytic function

en-noun

analytic function (plural analytic functions)


skyline

skyline operator
skyline operator#English

(databases) Ellipsis of skyline operator.


skyline

en-verb

skyline (third-person singular simple present skylines, present participle skylining, simple past and past participle skylined)

skylines (present singular third-person)
skylining (participle present)
skylined (participle past)
skylined (past)

(databases, transitive) To filter by means of the skyline operator.


materialize

materialize (third-person singular simple present materializes, present participle materializing, simple past and past participle materialized)

tlb

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

materializes (present singular third-person)
materializing (participle present)
materialized (participle past)
materialized (past)
materialise (alternative)

(transitive, databases) To perform materialization; to save the results of a database query as a temporary table or materialized view.


savepoint

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-savepoint.wav

(databases) A point during a transaction at which changes are committed, and to which the user can roll back if necessary.


crow's foot

en-noun

crow's foot (plural crow's feet or crows' feet)

crow's feet (plural)
crows' feet (plural)
crow's-foot (alternative)
crowsfoot (alternative)

The crow's-foot notation similarly represents relationships.

1999, Robert J Muller, Database Design for Smarties:

Each crow's foot in your ER diagram indicates the need for a foreign key.

2007, Geoff Coffey, Susan Prosser, Filemaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual:

(databases) A symbol, resembling a bisected equilateral triangle, used in database diagrams to indicate plurality.


subjoin

(databases) A subordinate or secondary join.


foreign key

(databases) A column (or group of columns) in a relational table that identifies another table, so that items in the two tables can be conceptually linked.


query language

(databases, programming) Any of several generalized computer languages in which users may extract data from selected records in a database


materialization

materialization (countable and uncountable, plural materializations)

materializations (plural)
materialisation (alternative)

From material + -ization and materialize + -ation.

(databases) The creation of a temporary table containing the results of a database query.


query processing

(databases) Processing to extract data from a database and present it for use.


databank

databanks (plural)
data bank (alternative)

The FBI, in cooperation with states' crime laboratories, has established its own databank called Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

1997, Paul G. Stimson, Curtis A. Mertz, Forensic dentistry, →ISBN, page 58:

A database (collection of organized information in a regular structure)


primary key

(computing, databases) In the design of a database table, the primary key (abbreviated PK) is selected among the non-empty set of candidate keys. The PK is a column (or an irreducible group of columns) able to identify every row of the table.


parameterize

en-verb

parameterize (third-person singular simple present parameterizes, present participle parameterizing, simple past and past participle parameterized)

parameterizes (present singular third-person)
parameterizing (participle present)
parameterized (participle past)
parameterized (past)
parameterise (alternative UK)
parametrise (alternative UK)
parametrize (alternative US)

Parameterized queries are crucial for avoiding SQL injection.

(databases, programming, transitive) To rewrite (a database query, etc.) as a template into which parameters can be inserted.

parametrizar

to write (a database query, etc.) as a template into which parameters can be inserted


subquery

(databases) A query embedded within a more extensive query, relating only to the data returned by the parent query.


subquery

subquery (third-person singular simple present subqueries, present participle subquerying, simple past and past participle subqueried)

subqueries (present singular third-person)
subquerying (participle present)
subqueried (participle past)
subqueried (past)

We subqueried the customer data to retrieve only customers based in Europe.

(databases, transitive) To run a subquery upon.


curation

en-noun

curation (countable and uncountable, plural curations)

/kjəˈɹeɪʃən/

/kjʊˈɹeɪʃən/

From Middle English curacioun, curacion, from Old French curacion, from Latin cūrātiō.

Manual database curation involves the following steps: (1) finding articles of interest; (2) finding and extracting facts (relations, events, associations, etc.) relevant to the database focus; and (3) converting extracted information into predefined standardized form.

2009, David Edwards, Jason Stajich, David Hansen, Bioinformatics: Tools and Applications:

(databases) The manual updating of information in a database.


termbase

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-termbase.wav

(translation studies, software) A database of terminology, usually in a multilingual format.


database engine

database engine (plural database engines)

(databases) The underlying component that a database management system uses to create, retrieve, update and delete data.


knowledge base

knowledge bases (plural)
knowledgebase (alternative)

knowledge management
knowledge management

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

A database designed to meet the complex storage and retrieval requirements of computerized knowledge management, especially in support of artificial intelligence or expert systems.


filegroup

(databases) A collection of files that, in some database systems, are managed together as a group.


data model

(databases) A result of applying a data modeling to some particular application, using a database model such as relational.

datový model

(databases) A database model, such as relational or hierarchical.


BLOB

Formed as a backronym. See Object storage#Origins.

I've added a BLOB so that we can store pictures.

binary large object
binary large object#English

(databases) Acronym of binary large object.


image copy

(databases, IBM) A backup copy of a database in a format that may be used, along with incremental logs, to recreate the database after a hardware failure


JDBC

(databases, Java programming language) Initialism of Java Database Connectivity.


sharding

sharding (countable and uncountable, plural shardings)

A storage volume with many different potential shardings is analyzed more rapidly by the reuse of calculations made on neighboring vertices in the directed graph.

2006, A Merchant, M Kallahalla, R Swaminathan, Sharding method and apparatus using directed graphs, US Patent 7,043,621:

2007, T Brants, AC Popat, P Xu, FJ Och, J Dean, "Large Language Models in Machine Translation", in Proceedings of the 2007 Conference on Empirical Methods in
A sharding function determines which shard (chunk of data in the MapReduce framework) the pair is sent to.

(databases) A decomposition of a database into multiple smaller units that can handle requests individually.


stored procedure

stored procedure (plural stored procedures)

I think the overflow bug is in your stored procedure.

(databases) A named program or routine stored in a database.


QID

The Wikidata Q prefix is from Uzbek Qamarniso.

Due to the absence of unique entity identifiers across different databases, it is required to use the commonly available quasi-identifiers (QIDs), such as names and addresses, for linking records from those databases.

2020, Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro, Guillermo Navarro-Arribas, Jordi Herrera-Joancomarti, editors, Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology […] , Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 36:

(databases) Initialism of quasi-identifier.


datahub

(computing) An administrative building centre with access to multiple, independent (often remote) databases


referential integrity

(computing, databases) The property of a relational database that enforces valid relationships between tables, such that no foreign key can contain a value that does not match a primary key in the corresponding linked table.


superdatabase

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superdatabase.wav

1998, IEEE, 1998 Index to IEEE Publications
A technological and infrastructural challenge: a superdatabase for accessing all electronically published science and technology articles at once...

Every 30 databases are grouped into a superdatabase.

1999, Susan Gauch, Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Information Knowledge:

But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run...

2008 December 31, Alan Travis, Richard Norton-Taylor, “Private firm may track all email and calls”, in The Guardian:

(databases) A large or composite database.


prewrite

(computing, databases) A write operation that is buffered instead of being applied directly to the database.


keyspace

keyspace (countable and uncountable, plural keyspaces)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-keyspace.wav

(databases) A NoSQL object that includes column families.


OLTP

OLTP (countable and uncountable, plural OLTPs)

online transaction processing
w:online transaction processing

(computing, databases) Initialism of online transaction processing.


autojoin

autojoin (countable and uncountable, plural autojoins)

(databases, countable) A type of join from a table to itself.


denormalize

en-verb

denormalize (third-person singular simple present denormalizes, present participle denormalizing, simple past and past participle denormalized)

denormalizes (present singular third-person)
denormalizing (participle present)
denormalized (participle past)
denormalized (past)

Some developers regularly denormalize portions of the database in an attempt to improve performance.

2011, Paul Nielsen, Uttam Parui, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Bible, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 516:

(transitive, databases) To add redundancy to (a database schema), the opposite of normalization, typically in order to optimize its performance.


denormalized

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-denormalized.wav

(databases, of a schema) Containing redundant data to improve performance.


keyset

(computing, databases) A set of keys (unique identifiers) used to distinguish the rows of data being traversed by a cursor.


functional dependency

en-noun

functional dependency (plural functional dependencies)

(database normalization) Given a relation R and two sets of attributes X,Y⊆R, a constraint X→Y where each X value in R is associated with precisely one Y value in R.

函數依賴 /函数依赖

constraint between two sets of attributes in a relation


relvar

Contraction of relation variable, coined by Christopher J. Date.

(databases, nonstandard) A variable that contains a relation, as distinguished from the relation itself.


superkey

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superkey.wav

(databases) Any set of attributes of a relation variable (relvar) that serve to identify a single tuple or row, no other tuple having the same value for every attribute in the set.


database model

Any fundamental way of organizing data in a database, such as the hierarchical model, the network model or the relational model.


varchar

From the data type name, a shortening of variable character.

Be aware that varchars will in general provide slower updates but faster selects. By definition, the amount of storage they use is variable.

1999, David K. Rensin, Andrew M. Fedorchek, William C. Amo, Microsoft SQL Server 7 secrets:

With a varchar, the storage is always the actual number of characters you have stored plus 2 bytes. So a varchar(20) with a 5-character word will take up 7 bytes, with the extra 2 bytes holding a size reference for SQL Server.

2008, Eric Johnson, Joshua Jones, A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server:

(computing, databases) A text field of indeterminate length in a database, as opposed to the traditional fixed-length field.


multijoin

(computing, databases) Of or pertaining to more than one join (intersection of data).


normal form

(databases) Any of various forms of a relational database providing criteria for determining a table's degree of vulnerability to logical inconsistencies and anomalies.

normaalimuoto

databases: form of a relational database


cursorless

(databases) Without a cursor or cursors.


triplestore

(databases) A database designed for the storage and retrieval of RDF (Resource Description Framework) metadata in the form of triples.


databased

As the players sit around the playing table, the casino is able to get database images and then use the technology to set off an alert when a face scan of a known cheater matches that of a databased image.

2004, Howard Safir, Ellis Whitman, Security: Policing Your Homeland, Your State, Your City, New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page unknown:

Now, the Bug Closet has one of the largest completely databased collections in the world. Shawn Kelly, the collection manager, said the collection currently contains more than 500,000 specimens that have been pinned, labeled and archived.

2016 June 8, Joshua Lim, “UCF's Bug Closet: One of the largest databased collections in the world”, in Orlando Sentinel:

Familial DNA database searching is one of them. It is based on near matches between a crime stain and a databased person, who could be a near relative of the true perpetrator (Maguire, McCallum, Storey, & Whitaker, 2014).

2021, Nina Amelung, Rafaela Granja, Helena Machado, Modes of Bio-Bordering: The Hidden (Dis)integration of Europe, Singapore: Palgrave Pivot, →ISBN, page 62:


datasheet

datasheets (plural)
data sheet (alternative)

(computing, databases) A display of the records in a table, arranged in rows and columns.


FK

(computing, databases) Initialism of foreign key.


subtransaction

(databases) A transaction making up part of a larger transaction.


bitemporal

(databases) Keeping track of two timelines


geodatabase

(geography, databases) A database containing geographical and spatial data


DDL

(databases) Initialism of Data Definition Language.


recordset

recordsets (plural)
record set (alternative)
record-set (alternative)

(databases) A data structure consisting of a group of database records.


tablebase

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tablebase.wav

(chess) A computerized database that contains precalculated exhaustive analysis of a chess endgame position, typically used by a computer chess engine during play.


antijoin

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(algebra, databases) A type of join, denoted by ▷, such that R▷S yields only those tuples in R for which S has no corresponding tuple of the same value.


pseudorelational

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(databases) Having certain elements of a relational database.


SDL

(databases) Initialism of Schema Definition Language.


multischema

Use caution when granting public synonyms, especially in a multischema environment.

2009, Ryan K. Stephens, Ronald R. Plew, Arie Jones, Sams Teach Yourself SQL in One Hour a Day, page 567:

(databases) Of or pertaining to more than one (database) schema.


ORM

object-oriented programming
object-oriented programming

object–relational mapping
w:object–relational mapping

(object-oriented programming, databases) Initialism of object–relational mapping.


sargable

(databases, of a query) Able to use indexes to speed up execution.


RRD

RRD (countable and uncountable, plural RRDs)

Round-Robin Database
w:Round-Robin Database

(computing, databases) Initialism of Round-Robin Database.


showplan

The showplan provides insight about how SQL Server is going to process a SQL statement. If you know what to look for in a showplan, the information it provides can be useful for tuning queries.

2002, Mark Spenik, Orryn Sledge, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DBA Survival Guide, page 526:

(databases) A text or graphical summary of how the system plans to optimize the execution of a query.


equijoin

equijoins (plural)
equi-join (alternative)

(databases) A join whose predicate uses only equality comparisons.


metadatabase

(databases) A database that serves to catalogue and classify other databases.


LOB

(databases) Abbreviation of large object.


intraquery

intraquery parallelism


interquery

interquery parallelism

(databases) Between more than one query.


subdatabase

(databases) A database making up part of a larger database.

sous-base de données

A database that is part of a larger database


CTE

CTE (countable and uncountable, plural CTEs)

A recursive CTE is where an initial CTE is built and then the results from that are called recursively in a UNION statement returning subsets of data until all the data is returned. This gives you the ability to create data in a hierarchical fashion, as you will see in the next example.

2008, Robin Dewson, Beginning SQL Server 2008 Express for Developers, Apress, →ISBN, page 433:

common table expression
w:common table expression

(databases, countable) Initialism of common table expression.


VOB

versioned object base
versioned object base#English

(databases) Abbreviation of versioned object base.


clustered index

clustered index (plural clustered indices or clustered indexes)

clustered indices (plural)
clustered indexes (plural)

(databases) a type of database index that physically sorts the data in a table on the disk to match the criteria specified by the index.


nonclustered index

nonclustered index (plural nonclustered indices or nonclustered indexes)

nonclustered indices (plural)
nonclustered indexes (plural)

(databases) a type of database index that contains a series of sorted pointers pointing to the physical data rows, which are organized either in a heap or in the sort order specified by a clustered index, on the disk

index non-cluster

Index that contains a series of sorted pointers


reindex

en-verb

reindex (third-person singular simple present reindexes, present participle reindexing, simple past and past participle reindexed)

reindexes (present singular third-person)
reindexing (participle present)
reindexed (participle past)
reindexed (past)

(computing, databases) To index again or anew.


tablespace

The tablespace provides a layer of abstraction between physical and logical data.

(databases) A storage location where the actual data underlying the objects in a database can be kept.


resultset

resultsets (plural)
result set (alternative)

(databases) A set, often of tabulated data, that is the result of the querying of a database or a similar act.


coercibility

(databases) The ability of a string to override the collation of another string.


NoSQL

From no + SQL; more recently sometimes explained as short for not only SQL.

(computing, databases) A broad class of database management systems that differ from traditional relational databases in not using SQL as a primary query language and in omitting some common features to enhance scalability.


nonrelational

Most nonrelational databases are hierarchical in structure.

However we understand the defect, most divine determinists will likely wish to say that the relation of inconformity between act and law obtains (when it does obtain) merely in virtue of the intrinsic natures of the relata. In other words, the relation of inconformity follows merely upon the nonrelational characteristics of the relata

2019, Peter Furlong, The Challenges of Divine Determinism: A Philosophical Analysis, page 94:


HQL

Hibernate Query Language
w:Hibernate Query Language

(databases, Java programming language) Initialism of Hibernate Query Language.


surrogate key

We weren't sure which columns in the table would have unique values, so we used a separate surrogate key as the primary key.

(databases) A unique identifier for an entity or object, not derived from application data.


DBaaS

(databases, computing) Acronym of database as a service.


CLOB

character large object
character large object#English

(databases) Acronym of character large object, a collection of character data in a database management system.


cross join

(computing, databases) A join that returns a Cartesian product.


subselect

(databases) A select query inside another select query.


unpivot

unpivot (third-person singular simple present unpivots, present participle unpivoting, simple past and past participle unpivoted)

unpivots (present singular third-person)
unpivoting (participle present)
unpivoted (participle past)
unpivoted (past)

Unpivoting a cross tab reconstructs a table in a relational format from a cross-tab data source.

2005, Rick Dobson, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications, page 243:

(transitive, computing, databases) To convert columns into rows, so as to undo a pivot operation.


CRUD

database management system
database management system

(databases, programming) Acronym of create, read, update, delete, the basic operations of a database management system.


semijoin

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-semijoin.wav

(algebra, databases) A type of join in relational algebra, denoted by ⋉ or ⋊.


big data

/ˌbɪɡ ˈdeɪtə/

/ˌbɪɡ ˈdeɪdə/

In 2000, economist Francis X. Diebold published the first version of a paper titled “Big Data Dynamic Factor Models for Macroeconomic Measurement and Forecasting.” After being interviewed on his use of the term “big data” by NYTimes.com blogger Steve Lohr, Diebold undertook his own investigation, in which he concluded: “The term ‘Big Data,’ which spans computer science and statistics/econometrics, probably originated in the lunch-table conversations at Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) in the mid 1990s, in which John Mashey figured prominently.”

The insights gained from big data can be used to improve products and customer service, but they can also be used in ways that creep out customers and make them feel uncomfortable or watched.

2009 February, Roger Magoulas, Ben Lorica, “Big Data: Technologies and Techniques for Large-Scale Data”, in Release 2.0, number 11, O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISSN, page 5:

As we’ll discuss in more detail, the big data of this revolution is far more powerful than the analytics that were used in the past. We can measure and therefore manage more precisely than ever before. We can make better predictions and smarter decisions.

2012 October 1, Andrew McAfee, Erik Brynjolfsson, “Big Data: The Management Revolution”, in Harvard Business Review, →ISSN:

Big data has the potential to revolutionise the global healthcare system, but barriers to its adoption mean progress is slow.

2015 October 23, Oliver Balch, “How much medical information would you share in the name of big data?”, in The Guardian, image caption:

James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti’s enchanting and exhilarating annotated atlas of animal movements[…]is a product of ‘big data’ methodology.

2016 November, Richard Smyth, “Bird's-Eye Viewing”, in Literary Review:

Data on a very large scale, such that it can only be gathered or processed with computers, especially with reference to its potential to allow for new breakthroughs or understanding in a particular field of study.


relational model

en-noun

relational model (plural relational models)

(databases) A database model that is based on first-order predicate logic.


RMAN

(databases, Oracle) Acronym of Recovery Manager.


data lake

Coined by Pentaho CEO James Dixon in 2010.

coin

Data Lake? Cute! RT @mattcasters: Great intro to Pentaho Hadoop int. by Will @wpgorman "Battlebricks" Gorman : http://vimeo.com/14641559

2010 September 21, Jos van Dongen, Twitter:

Based on the requirements above and the problems of the traditional solutions we have created a concept called the Data Lake to describe an optimal solution. If you think of a datamart as a store of bottled water – cleansed and packaged and structured for easy consumption – the data lake is a large body of water in a more natural state. The contents of the data lake stream in from a source to fill the lake, and various users of the lake can come to examine, dive in, or take samples.

2010 October 14, James Dixon, “Pentaho, Hadoop, and Data Lakes”, in James Dixon’s Blog:

Perhaps the most transformative aspect of an analytics architecture that incorporates a data lake is that users do not need to have the possible answers in mind when they ask the questions.

2013, Juergen Klenk, Yugal Sharma, Jeni Fan, “Saving Lives with Big Data: Unlocking the Hidden Potential in Electronic Health Records”, in Jay Liebowitz, editor, Big Data and Business Analytics, CRC Press, page 122:

The difference between a data lake and a data warehouse is that in a data warehouse, the data is pre-categorized at the point of entry, which can dictate how it’s going to be analyzed.

2013, Soumendra Mohanty, Madhu Jagadeesh, Harsha Srivatsa, Big Data Imperatives […] , Apress, page 43:

The data lake, in turn, supports a two-step process to analyze the data.

2014, Pethuru Raj, Ganesh Chandra Deka, editors, Handbook of Research on Cloud Infrastructures for Big Data Analytics, IGI Global, page 105:

One phrase in particular has become popular for describing the massing of data into Hadoop, the “Data Lake”, and indeed, this term has been adopted by Pivotal for their enterprise big data strategy.

2014 January 14, Edd Dumbill, “The Data Lake Dream”, in Forbes:

A massive, easily accessible data repository built on inexpensive computer hardware for storing big data.


firehose cursor

en-noun

firehose cursor (plural firehose cursors)

(computing, databases, dated) A cursor that permits fast enumeration of rows but can only move forward.


RDBMS

database management system
database management system#English

(databases) Initialism of relational database management system.


SSIS

„SSIS is a platform for data integration and workflow applications. It features a fast and flexible data warehousing tool used for data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL). The tool may also be used to automate maintenance of SQL Server databases and updates to multidimensional cube data.“

(databases, Microsoft) Initialism of SQL Server Integration Services.


BIDS

„BIDS functionality can be augmented with BIDS Helper, a Visual Studio add-in with features that extended and enhance business intelligence development functionality in SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2 BI Development Studio (BIDS) and SQL Server 2012 SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). BIDS Helper is hosted on Microsoft's open source project hosting website CodePlex.“

Business Intelligence Development Studio#English

(databases, Microsoft) Acronym of Business Intelligence Development Studio.


SSDT

"BIDS functionality can be augmented with BIDS Helper, a Visual Studio add-in with features that extended and enhance business intelligence development functionality in SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2 BI Development Studio (BIDS) and SQL Server 2012 SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). BIDS Helper is hosted on Microsoft's open source project hosting website CodePlex."

(databases, Microsoft) Abbreviation of SQL Server Data Tools.


SSRS

SQL Server Reporting Services
w:SQL Server Reporting Services

(databases, Microsoft) Initialism of SQL Server Reporting Services.


GTID

(computing, databases) Initialism of global transaction identifier.


transitive dependency

transitive dependency (plural transitive dependencies)

(databases) An attribute of a relation that depends on a key but also on a third attribute which is not a key; this is a violation of third normal form.


candidate key

(computing, databases) In the design of a database table, a column (or an irreducible group of them) able to identify every row of the table. One of the candidate keys (abbreviated CKs) will be the primary key.


T-SQL

(computer languages, databases) Clipping of Transact-SQL.


PL/SQL

(computer languages) Initialism of Procedural Language/Structured Query Language.


BCNF

Boyce-Codd normal form
Boyce-Codd normal form#English

(databases) Initialism of Boyce-Codd normal form.


outer join

(databases) A join yielding a set of records that combines every record from a set of tables.


inner join

(databases) A join yielding a set of records that combines only the matching records from a set of tables.


HSQLDB

(databases, software) Initialism of Hyper SQL Database, a relational database management system written in Java.


Transact-SQL

(computing, databases) Acronym of Transact-Structured Query Language.


MVCC

multiversion concurrency control
w:multiversion concurrency control

programming language
programming language

transactional memory
transactional memory

(databases, programming) Initialism of multiversion concurrency control, a concurrency control method commonly used by database management systems to provide concurrent access to the database and in programming languages to implement transactional memory.


MGCC

(databases, programming) Synonym of MVCC (multigenerational concurrency control)


anti-index

(databases) A listing of records used to prune them during requests.


NewSQL

(computing, databases) A class of relational database management systems that seek to provide the scalability of NoSQL for online transaction processing (OLTP) read-write workloads while still maintaining the ACID guarantees of a traditional database.


ODBC

(databases) Initialism of Open Database Connectivity.


data record

/ˈdeɪtə ˈɹɛkɔːd/

(databases) A section of the database consisting of several uniquely named components known as data fields.


BFILE

(databases) LOB datatype accessible directly from the operating system, without using the DBMS.


pseudocolumn

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pseudocolumn.wav

(databases) A column that yields a value when selected, but is not an actual column of the table.


natural join

(databases) A join between two tables on a field which has the same name.


WAL

In HBase, logs are appended to the WAL before any edit operations (put and increment) are persisted to disk.

2012, Eric Redmond, Jim Wilson, edited by Jacquelyn Carter, Seven Databases in Seven Weeks, Pragmatic Bookshelf, →ISBN:

write-ahead logging
write-ahead logging#English

(databases) Acronym of write-ahead logging or write-ahead log.


multitable

en-adj

multitable (comparative more multitable, superlative most multitable)

more multitable (comparative)
most multitable (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-multitable.wav

Involving multiple tables (in various senses).

(databases) Encompassing or affecting multiple tables.


aggregate function

en-noun

aggregate function (plural aggregate functions)

(databases) A function that takes input from various rows at once and returns a single value.


soft deletion

soft deletion (countable and uncountable, plural soft deletions)

(databases) An operation in which a flag is used to mark data as unusable, without erasing the data itself from the database.


hard deletion

hard deletion (countable and uncountable, plural hard deletions)

(databases) An operation in which data is erased from the database.


eager load

en-verb

eager load (third-person singular simple present eager loads, present participle eager loading, simple past and past participle eager loaded)

eager loads (present singular third-person)
eager loading (participle present)
eager loaded (participle past)
eager loaded (past)
eager-load (alternative)

(programming, databases) To fetch data as early as possible, before it used.


lazy load

lazy load (third-person singular simple present lazy loads, present participle lazy loading, simple past and past participle lazy loaded)

lazy loads (present singular third-person)
lazy loading (participle present)
lazy loaded (participle past)
lazy loaded (past)
lazy-load (alternative)

Collection-valued relationships lazy load by default, so the EAGER fetch type must be explicitly applied to those mappings if eager loading is desired.

2006, Mike Keith, Merrick Schincariol, Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API, Apress, →ISBN, page 151:

(programming, databases) To fetch data only when it is absolutely required.


VLDB

(databases) Initialism of very large database.


subdatasheet

(computing, databases) A datasheet embedded within another datasheet, showing child records relating to a parent table.


dynaset

(computing, databases) A data set taken from a larger database and linked back to it, so that local changes to the data are propagated back to the parent database.


O/RM

object-oriented programming
object-oriented programming

(object-oriented programming, databases) Alternative form of ORM.


CUD

(databases, programming) Acronym of create, update, delete, the basic operations of a database management system.


QL

(computer languages, databases) Initialism of query language.


role-based

en-adj

role-based (comparative more role-based, superlative most role-based)

more role-based (comparative)
most role-based (superlative)

(computing, databases) based on a special given role to access a content; used usually in cloud computing, databases, or other complex systems.


prepared statement

en-noun

prepared statement (plural prepared statements)

(databases) A database query that has parameters which are replaced by values when it is executed, instead of the values being part of the statement itself.


mutating table

(databases) A table whose modification has fired a trigger.


clustering key

(databases) A database field whose values serve as the keys of a clustered index.


generalized search tree

generalized search tree (plural generalized search trees)

generalized search trees (plural)
generalised search tree (alternative)

(databases) A type of search tree that features data and query extensibility.


write-ahead logging

(databases) The technique of writing all database modifications to a log before they are applied.


write-ahead log

write-ahead log (plural write-ahead logs)

(databases) A log where all database modifications are stored before they are applied.


autovacuum

en-verb

autovacuum (third-person singular simple present autovacuums, present participle autovacuuming, simple past and past participle autovacuumed)

autovacuums (present singular third-person)
autovacuuming (participle present)
autovacuumed (participle past)
autovacuumed (past)

(databases) To vacuum (physically remove deleted tuples from) a table or database automatically.


window function

en-noun

window function (plural window functions)

(databases) A function that performs a calculation using values from several rows, but does not group them into a single row.


reshard

en-verb

reshard (third-person singular simple present reshards, present participle resharding, simple past and past participle resharded)

reshards (present singular third-person)
resharding (participle present)
resharded (participle past)
resharded (past)

The separation of values into those partitions is performed on fixed boundaries: you have to set fixed rules ahead of time to route values to their appropriate store. With it comes the inherent difficulty of having to reshard the data when one of the horizontal partitions exceeds its capacity.

2011, Lars George, HBase: The Definitive Guide: Random Access to Your Planet-Size Data:

(transitive, databases) To redivide (a database) into shards.


composite key

(databases) A key constituted by several fields, including one which is not a superkey.


compound key

(databases) A key which is constituted by several fields.


stale read

(databases, distributed computing) A read operation that fetches an incorrect value from a source that has not synchronised an update operation to the value.


document-oriented

(databases) Storing data in documents without a schema, which allows for arbitrary structuring of the data.


capped collection

en-noun

capped collection (plural capped collections)

(databases) In MongoDB, a fixed-size collection that, once the size limit has been reached, replaces the oldest record whenever a new one is added.


wide column store

wide column store (plural wide column stores)

wide column stores (plural)
wide-column store (alternative)

(databases) A type of database that allows different rows to have arbitrary sets of columns.


transaction block

transaction block (plural transaction blocks)

(computing, especially databases) An atomic sequence of instructions.


autocommit

en-verb

autocommit (third-person singular simple present autocommits, present participle autocommitting, simple past and past participle autocommitted)

autocommits (present singular third-person)
autocommitting (participle present)
autocommitted (participle past)
autocommitted (past)
auto-commit (alternative)

(databases) To commit (“to make a set of changes permanent”) automatically.


varray

Blend of variable + array, or v (standing for variable) + array.

(databases) An array whose number of elements can vary, up to a pre-defined maximum.


DRI

en-noun

DRI (countable and uncountable, plural DRIs)

declarative referential integrity
w:declarative referential integrity

(databases) Initialism of declarative referential integrity.


hyperindex

hyperindex (plural hyperindexes or hyperindices)

hyperindexes (plural)
hyperindices (plural)


hyperbase

(databases) A kind of database that structures the data by means of hyperlinks.


skip-level

(databases) Having the form of a hierarchy, but with some of the intermediate levels omitted.


TOAST

(databases) Initialism of The Oversized-Attribute Storage Technique: a mechanism in PostgreSQL that allows rows of data to exceed the normal maximum size by splitting off part of the data into an auxiliary table.


tailable

(databases) Of a cursor: not closed when the end of the resultset is reached, but able to be used as further documents are added to the collection.


golden record

(databases) A single authoritative record on an individual customer etc. that draws from various other data sources.


SSDL

The SOAP Service Description Language (SSDL) [20] describes a message exchange from the point of view of a single service...

2008, Nitzsche J. et al.: WSDL 2.0 message exchange patterns: limitations and opportunities, page 1:

In [13], Parastatidis and Webber propose SSDL (SOAP Service Description Language) as a language to describe Web services...

2008, Rosenberg et al.: Integrated metadata support for web service runtimes, page 1:

2005, Parastatidis et al.: The SOAP Service Description Language (SSDL) is a SOAP-centric contract definition language for Web Services, abstract:

SOAP Service Description Language
w:SOAP Service Description Language

(computer languages, databases) Initialism of SOAP Service Description Language.


left join

(databases) Ellipsis of left outer join.


right join

right outer join
right outer join#English

(databases) Ellipsis of right outer join.


left outer join

left outer join (plural left outer joins)

(databases) A join yielding a set of records for two tables, where all rows of the "left" table are enlisted with all rows of the "right" table, even if the join condition does not find any matching row on the "right".


right outer join

right outer join (plural right outer joins)

(databases) A join yielding a set of records for two tables, where all rows of the "right" table are enlisted with all rows of the "left" table, even if the join condition does not find any matching row on the "left".


full outer join

full outer join (plural full outer joins)

(databases) A join yielding a set of records for two tables, where all rows of the "left" table are enlisted with all rows of the "right" table, even if the join condition does not find any matching row on the "left" or on the "right" table.


full join

(databases) Ellipsis of full outer join.


SQS

Spatial Query Server
w:Spatial Query Server

(databases) Initialism of Spatial Query Server, Boeing's spatial database.


skyline operator

skyline operator (plural skyline operators)

From the concept of selecting buildings on the Manhattan skyline by visibility, based on height and distance.

(databases) A proposed operator, for use in database queries, that filters out results that are worse than others according to multiple criteria.


business key

Named from its relevance to the business domain being modelled.


natural key

(databases) A unique key formed from attributes that relate to the external world being modelled, rather than being an internally generated surrogate key.


sargability

(databases) The property of being sargable.


OPMN

(databases, Oracle) Abbreviation of Oracle Process Management and Notification.


denormalizer

(databases) A process or algorithm that denormalizes.


Armstrong's axioms

Developed by William W. Armstrong in a 1974 paper.

functional dependencies
functional dependency

(databases) A set of references (or, more precisely, inference rules) used to infer all the functional dependencies on a relational database.


variabilize

en-verb

variabilize (third-person singular simple present variabilizes, present participle variabilizing, simple past and past participle variabilized)

variabilizes (present singular third-person)
variabilizing (participle present)
variabilized (participle past)
variabilized (past)
variablize (alternative)

(programming, databases, transitive) Rewrite (a database query, etc.) as a variable.


star schema

From the resemblance to a star shape with a fact table at its center.

(databases, data warehousing) A denormalized database schema consisting of one or more fact tables referencing any number of dimension tables.


fact table

(databases, data warehousing) A database table consisting of the measurements, metrics or facts of a business process.


query plan

(databases) The sequence of steps used to execute a given query in a SQL-based database.


QBE

(databases) Initialism of Query by Example.


binary large object

en-noun

binary large object (plural binary large objects)

(databases) A data type that allows storage of binary data often of indeterminate length, used for example to embed multimedia within a database table.


(databases, transaction processing) Initialism of two-phase locking.


data lakehouse

Blend of data lake + data warehouse. Coined by American company Databricks in 2020 in a corporate whitepaper.

coinage

In examples of data lakes or data lakehouse architectures, you will often see bronze/silver/gold or raw, curated, optimized layers, which serve as both reference points within the transformation process that happens to data and for data that might have been referred to as staging tables in older data warehouse terminology.

2023, Greg Beaumont, Power BI Machine Learning and OpenAI […] , Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 27:

(databases) A hybrid architecture combining data lake and data warehouse principles.


TSDB

time series database
w:time series database

(databases) Initialism of time series database.


WMS

warehouse management system
w:warehouse management system

(databases) Initialism of warehouse management system.


theta join

(databases) A join between tables based on some relationship other than equality.


SCD

slowly changing dimension
w:slowly changing dimension

(databases) Initialism of slowly changing dimension.


database key

database management system
database management system

(computing, databases) A unique identifier in the database management system IDMS, which indicates the record occurrence's physical location in the database.


unique key

(computing, databases) A set of one or more than one columns or fields of a table that uniquely identifies a record in a database table.


before image journal

en-noun

before image journal (plural before image journals)

The before image journal is used for undoing the effects of aborted transactions, and for recovery from system crashes.

1990, Sayyed M. Deen (editor), Practical Database Techniques, page 58:

The location of the before image journal. An AI journal records changes to a file so that the journal can be used to roll a backup copy of the file forward.

1990, Kirby McCoy, VMS file system internals, page 49:

The process of recording all operations applied to a database. The type of information recorded depends on whether an after-image or a before-image journal file is created.

1991, Lilian Hobbs, Ken England, Comprehensive Guide to RDB-VMS, page 334:

This capability is based on a transaction log used with a before-image journal and after-image journal.

2006, David L. Cannon, Timothy S. Bergmann, Brady Pamplin, CISA Certified Information Systems Auditor Study Guide, page 236:

(computing, databases) A transaction log acting as a version of a database entry before an update is recorded.


after image journal

after image journal (plural after image journals)

The -RESTORE attribute can only be set if the system's after image journal is open.

1990, Operator's Manual Automated Data Processing System AN/MYQ-4A, (NSN 7010-01-158-5397), page 117:

There may be one or multiple AIJ files, but whichever method is used there will only be one after-image journal file open at any time for an individual database.

1999, Lilian Hobbs, Ian Smith, Ken England, Rdb, A Comprehensive Guide, page 260:

'After' image journaling - taking an image (copy) of the record after a transaction and storing in 'after image' journal table.

2005, Nicholas Sherwood, Enterprise Security Architecture, A Business-Driven Approach, page 335:

(computing, databases) A transaction log acting as a version of a database entry after an update is recorded.


transaction time

transaction time (countable and uncountable, plural transaction times)

(computing, databases) The time during which a fact stored in the database, represented by all the information in a row, is considered to be true and in effect.


valid time

valid time (countable and uncountable, plural valid times)

(computing, databases) The time period during which a database fact is valid in the modeled reality.


tritemporal

(databases) Keeping track of three timelines


relational attribute

relational attribute (plural relational attributes)

(databases) A column in a relational database that specifies a data type and stores information.


timestamp-based concurrency control

timestamp-based concurrency control (usually uncountable, plural timestamp-based concurrency controls)

timestamp-based concurrency controls (plural)

(computing, databases) A method that uses timestamps to manage transactions in databases.


upsertion

upsertion (countable and uncountable, plural upsertions)

Preparing the data for upsertion

2024, Denis Rothman, RAG-Driven Generative AI, page 190:


junction table

The EmployeeCategory table is a junction table associating each employee with zero or more categories.

(databases) A table whose rows represent connections between items in other tables.


reverse image search

reverse image search (countable and uncountable, plural reverse image searches)

(Internet) The querying of the origin of an image by inputting the file into a search engine or database.


metastore

(databases) An area set aside in certain database systems for the storage of metadata.


dependency theory

dependency theory (countable and uncountable, plural dependency theories)

(databases) A subfield of database theory which studies implication and optimization problems related to logical constraints.


optimistic concurrency

optimistic concurrency (countable and uncountable, plural optimistic concurrencies)

(computing, databases) A database model that allows multiple users to update data simultaneously without locking rows.


pessimistic concurrency

pessimistic concurrency (countable and uncountable, plural pessimistic concurrencies)

(computing, databases) A database management system strategy that locks data in order to prevent conflicts between transactions.


mirror server journal

mirror server journal (plural not attested)

(computing, databases, rare) A mechanism used to maintain data consistency and support recovery by recording any changes that are made in data.


columnstore

The HPDB is the functional repository for time-series market data. Unlike a standard database, which reads rows of data, HPDBs are columnstore databases.

2011, Paul Zubulake, Sang Lee, The High Frequency Game Changer: How Automated Trading Strategies Have Revolutionized the Markets, illustrated edition, John Wiley & Sons, page 112:

In order to achieve optimal performance, PolyBase is capable of dynamically creating columnstore tables, parallalizing data extraction from Hadoop and Azure sources, or pushing computations on Hadoop-based data to Hadoop clusters where necessary.

2017 November 30, Drazena Gaspar, Ivica Coric, editors, Bridging Relational and NoSQL Databases (Advances in Data Mining and Database Management), Coric, page 219:

When first introduced, batch mode execution was closely integrated with the columnstore storage format.

2024, Pedro Lopes, Pam Lahoud, Learn T-SQL Querying: A guide to developing efficient and elegant T-SQL code, 2 edition, Packt Publishing Ltd, page 75:

(databases, data management) A database storage method that stores data tables by columns rather than rows, optimizing for analytical query performance.


rowstore

This is in contrast to most common database systems, “rowstores", where values of different attributes from the same tuple are stored consecutively.

2013 September 20, Milko Marinov, Vladimir Tochev, EXTENSION OF HYPERTABLE QUERY LANGUAGE WITH AGGREGATE OPERATIONS, in PROCEEDINGS of the International Conference InfoTech-2013, Bulgaria, page 55:

Now available in Beta for invited users, MemSQL 7.0 SingleStore functionality differentiates MemSQL from other data solutions by reducing the pain of choosing between a rowstore or a columnstore for workloads, eliminating some of the hard tradeoffs and added complexity of typical data management.

2019 September 24, “Announcing MemSQL Helios: The World’s First SingleStore, System of Record Cloud Database”, in Regional Business News (article), sourced from Business Wire (English), bizwire.bw31991875:

(databases, data management) A database storage method that organizes data by rows, storing all fields of a record together. This design is best for transactional workloads where entire records are frequently accessed or modified.


covering index

covering index (plural covering indexes)

Ordinarily, using a covering index will save one disk read (GAIN: 6/8). The gain is automatic but only if the columns in the select list exactly match the columns in the covering index.

2003, Peter Gulutzan, Trudy Pelzer, SQL Performance Tuning, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 232:

(databases) A database table index that contains all the columns needed to fulfill the query.