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A relational database (RDB) is a collective set of multiple data sets organized by tables, records and columns. RDBs establish a well-defined relationship between database tables. Tables communicate and share information, which facilitates data searchability, organization and reporting.
RDBs use Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standard user application that provides an easy programming interface for database interaction.
RDB is derived from the mathematical function concept of mapping data sets and was developed by Edgar F. Codd.
RDBs organize data in different ways. Each table is known as a relation, which contains one or more data category columns. Each table record (or row) contains a unique data instance defined for a corresponding column category. One or more data or record characteristics relate to one or many records to form functional dependencies. These are classified as follows:
RDB performs "select", "project" and "join" database operations, where select is used for data retrieval, project identifies data attributes, and join combines relations.
RDBs have many other advantages, including:
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