From the course: Learning FileMaker 16
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Comparing flat vs. relational databases - FileMaker Pro Tutorial
From the course: Learning FileMaker 16
Comparing flat vs. relational databases
- [Instructor] So what makes storing data in an application like FileMaker different than just storing your data in a spreadsheet? Well, there are so many different ways that you can store data on your computer, for example in a spreadsheet or even a word processing document, but these are examples of what we call in database circles a flat file. A database, on the other hand, is a collection of data that are organized into these things that we call tables. These tables provide a systematic way of managing and updating data. A relational database is one that contains multiple tables that all relate to each other through special key fields and we'll be talking about those at length later on in this course. Now that flat file design that we talked about before puts all the database information into a single table or list, instead of compartmentalizing it into its own tables. Now although it's nice to have all your data in one place just like you do with databases, there are some…
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