What are the similarities and differences between Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server?
Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server, to my opinion, are both relational databases because they match most of the Codd’s twelve rules for a relational database. Many databases in the market today are claiming to be relational databases when in fact they are not. A good example of a non-relational system which claims to be relational is XBase. Xbase is a flat file system. Unfortunately those claiming to be relational databases and are considered to be relational by most people, if evaluated using the Codd’s twelve rules, will not qualify to be relational. In fact not one of the databases in the market today is relational if we strictly follow all the twelve rules. But for the purpose of this discussion, we will classify Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access and other database such as IBM’s DB2, Oracle, Informix and others, as relational database because they satisfy most of Codd’s twelve rules. The rules that they follow are: All data must be contained in a table (rule no. 1) P
