Database designDatabase design is the organization of data according to a database model. The designer determines what data must be stored and how the data elements interrelate. With this information, they can begin to fit the data to the database model. A database management system manages the data accordingly. Database design involves classifying data and identifying interrelationships. This theoretical representation of the data is called an ontology. The ontology is the theory behind the database's design.
Column (database)In a relational database, a column is a set of data values of a particular type, one value for each row of the database. A column may contain text values, numbers, or even pointers to files in the operating system. Columns typically contain simple types, though some relational database systems allow columns to contain more complex data types, such as whole documents, images, or even video clips. A column can also be called an attribute. Each row would provide a data value for each column and would then be understood as a single structured data value.
Message passingIn computer science, message passing is a technique for invoking behavior (i.e., running a program) on a computer. The invoking program sends a message to a process (which may be an actor or object) and relies on that process and its supporting infrastructure to then select and run some appropriate code. Message passing differs from conventional programming where a process, subroutine, or function is directly invoked by name. Message passing is key to some models of concurrency and object-oriented programming.
Memory hierarchyIn computer organisation, the memory hierarchy separates computer storage into a hierarchy based on response time. Since response time, complexity, and capacity are related, the levels may also be distinguished by their performance and controlling technologies. Memory hierarchy affects performance in computer architectural design, algorithm predictions, and lower level programming constructs involving locality of reference. Designing for high performance requires considering the restrictions of the memory hierarchy, i.
Commit (data management)In computer science and data management, a commit is the making of a set of tentative changes permanent, marking the end of a transaction and providing Durability to ACID transactions. A commit is an act of committing. The record of commits is called the commit log. In terms of transactions, the opposite of commit is to discard the tentative changes of a transaction, a rollback. The transaction, commit and rollback concepts are key to the ACID property of databases.