Database management systems organize and retrieve information. There are four types: hierarchical, network, relational, and object-oriented. Hierarchical and network use parent-child relationships, while relational allows for flexibility in creating relationships between databases. Object-oriented organizes multimedia elements with descriptive object names and miniature programs.
Database management systems allow users to store bits of information, organize them, and retrieve some or all of them as needed. Each of the major types of database management systems requires a software program that creates records to organize the data and creates reports from that data. Database software programs create one of four common types: hierarchical databases, network databases, relational databases, or object-oriented databases.
The hierarchical database is one of the oldest types of database management systems. It is most commonly used on mainframe computers. The database creator predefines the relationship between each record and its data. The design requires a root, or parent, record from which the database designer creates a parent-child relationship for every bit of data entering the database.
A network database also organizes data using defined parent-child relationships. Like a real family, the network database structure allows a data classified as a child to have more than one parent. This is an improvement over the hierarchical types of database management systems. It allows users to link information in one database to another dataset via parent record and child record.
The relational database management system has become increasingly popular due to its flexibility and ease of use. It allows the database designer to use single information to create relationships between separate databases without the restriction of parent or owner relationships. Information in one database that links it to data in another is a unique identifier, such as an employee identification number.
Relational database management systems allow database designers to create a database to store employee payroll and salary information. The designer creates a separate database for personal information such as home addresses and telephone numbers. Different users could insert and update records in each database. Reports extract data from records in any database where the matching employee identification number is found.
Object-oriented types of database management systems provide a way to organize data other than numbers and text. Designers use them to host multimedia elements such as photos, music and videos. This database management system uses two identifiers for each item. The former is a descriptive object name, and the latter is a miniature program with instructions or methods that the computer executes during storage and retrieval. The two parts become an object that database users can organize as they can with text or numbers.
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