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Comparing flat and relational databases

Comparing flat and relational databases - FileMaker Pro Tutorial

From the course: FileMaker Pro 13 Essential Training

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Comparing flat and relational databases

So what makes storing data in an application like FileMaker different than just storing your data in a spreadsheet? Well, first of all, there's many different ways that you can store your data on your computer. For example, in a spreadsheet or even a word processing document. But those are examples of what, what are called, in database circles, a flat file. A database, on the other hand, is a collection of data that are organized into different tables. These tables provide a systematic way of accessing, managing, and updating the data that's stored within them. And within databases, a relational database is one that contains multiple tables that all relate to each other through the use of special key fields. Now, we're going to be talking about those later on in this title. Now, back to the flat file, the flat file design puts all the data base information into one single table or list, and it still has fields that represent all the different parameters, however. But there are some…

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