What Is The Difference Between Flat-file Database And Relational Databases?
Suppose we start with a database of customers and their purchases. A flat-file database will have all the customer details and the first purchase all in one record. To record another purchase will mean duplicating the customer details and inserting new purchase information. After a while this means a ton of redundant data and the possibility of losing information, for instance, if the customer details are updated but not updated in every record of that customer. Along comes the relational database. Here we split the customer details from the purchase details. The customer gets given an unique identifier and this is used as the key into the purchases database. Now each time a purchase is made the only file that increases in size is the purchases database, and the customer information is not repeated.
