“RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System. RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft Access. RDBMS store the data into collection of tables, which might be related by common fields (database table columns). RDBMS also provide relational operators to manipulate the data stored into the database tables. An important feature of RDBMS is that a single database can be spread across several tables. This differs from flat-file databases, in which each database is self-contained in a single table. The most popular data model in DBMS is the Relational Model. It is more scientific a model than others. This model is based on first-order predicate logic and defines a table as an n-ary relation. The main highlights of this model are:

• Data is stored in tables called relations.
• Relations can be normalized.
• In normalized relations, values saved are atomic values.
• Each row in a relation contains a unique value.
• Each column in a relation contains values from a same domain.”

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LATEST PUBLICATIONS (order from PAPERS and BOOKS pages)
- 08/19 Logical Symmetric Access, Data Sub-language, Kinds of Relations, Database Redundancy and Consistency, paper #2 in the new UNDERSTANDING THE REAL RDM series.
- 02/18 The Key to Relational Keys: A New Understanding, a new edition of paper #4 in the PRACTICAL DATABASE FOUNDATIONS series.
- 04/17 Interpretation and Representation of Database Relations, paper #1 in the new UNDERSTANDING THE REAL RDM series.
- 10/16 THE DBDEBUNK GUIDE TO MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DATA FUNDAMENTALS, my latest book (reviewed by Craig Mullins, Todd Everett, Toon Koppelaars, Davide Mauri).

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The Misconceptions

• While SQL was initially intended as a relational data sublanguage, it is riddled with violations of the RDM, it is not just a data sublanguage, and is a poorly designed language. SQL DBMSs are not, therefore, RDBMSs.
• True relational databases consist of relations -- a special kind of mathematical set adapted for and applied to database management; database relations can be visualized on physical media as R-tables (tuples and attributes as rows and columns) -- not to be confused with SQL tables -- that play no part in the RDM. Neither RDBMSs, nor SQL DBMSs store data as tables.
• Database relations are logical model objects, "flat files" are physical implementation objects. Using them interchangeably confuses levels of representation referred to as logical-physical confusion (LPC). The RDM supports physical independence (PI): a database relation can be implemented as one or more multiple file(s), multiple relations can be implemented as one file.
• Relational databases represent several types of real world relationships as constraints on single and multiple relations. The conventional wisdom to date was that one type -- M:1 relationships among entity groups -- are represented by referential constraints (not "common columns"), while M:N relationships are represented by association relations and referential constraints on both referencing and referenced relations. According to a new understanding of the RDM, all such relationships -- both M:1 and M:N, 1:1 being just a special case thereof) -- are represented by association relations and corresponding referential constraints.
• The RDM is an adaptation of simple set theory (SST) expressible in first order predicate logic (FOPL) applied to database management, and it is this formal theoretical foundation that confers scientific status. Among multiple practical advantages is system-guaranteed logical validity and by-design semantic consistency.
• The data model concept is poorly understood in the industry. The RDM is the only formally well defined and complete data model, but it is routinely confused with conceptual, logical, and physical models, all of which are referred to as "data models". When practitioners refer to RDM, they mean SQL, which has no formally well-defined, complete, or relational data model.
• As already mentioned, the RDM does not "define a table as a n-ary relation". According to the new understanding of the RDM database relations are both normalized (in 1NF) and fully normalized (in 5NF) by definition, otherwise they are not relations. For all the relational advantages to materialize database design must adhere to three formal design principles that jointly imply full normalization. Explicit normalization and full normalization are necessary only to repair poor designs due to failure to adhere to these principles.
• 1NF means that relations have attributes defined on simple domains, the values of which are treated by a relational data sublanguage as atomic. Each attribute is a simple function (1:1 mapping) of the domain.
• Each tuple of a relation is a set of values -- each drawn from a domain -- at least one of which is a PK value that uniquely identifies the tuple within the relation.

The Correct Answer