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This series of blogs introduces the basic data structures for storing data, including OLTP and OLAP databases.
- Types of Data Storage Structures (this blog)
- Comparison of the Two Storage Methods
- Cubes in SQL Server Analysis Services
- Summary of Jargon in SQL Server Analysis Services
Posted by Andy Brown on 16 May 2011
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Types of Data Storage Structures
There are two main types of storage structure used in the database world: relational databases and multi-dimensional models.
Relational Databases
The following is a sample relational database of films, containing 3 tables:
Relational databases are good at fast, day-to-day transactions: entering, editing and deleting records one at a time.
Unified Dimensional Model (UDM)
Another way to look at the same data is dimensionally:
Here the dimensions are;
- Types of Data Storage Structures (this blog)
- Comparison of the Two Storage Methods
- Cubes in SQL Server Analysis Services
- Summary of Jargon in SQL Server Analysis Services