SQL and NoSQL: key differences
A guide to the two most common types of database systems
An introduction to the topic
For developers designing a DBMS (Database Management System), one of the first questions that arises is: which type of databases should be used, SQL or NoSQL?
SQL or relational databases first came into play in the 1970s in a paper called “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks” published by Edgar Frank Codd, an IBM researcher (Codd, 1970).
On the other hand, NoSQL databases appeared twenty years later, in the 1990s, and were developed to meet the need for processing vast amounts of unstructured data that came with the big data era (Stonebraker, 2010).
At the moment, SQL is still the clear winner, even if NoSQL has gained ground since the last 20 years.
Differences between SQL and NoSQL databases
Data Schema
SQL databases are databases made of a set of tables which are relationally linked based on keys common to each. They have a predefined and rigid schema…
