Relational vs Non-Relational Data Modeling - what's the difference

Question

I\'m new to databases and I\'ve never worked with any RDBMS. However I get the basic idea of relational databases. At least I think I do ;-)

Let\'s say I have a user dat

Answer 1

Your understanding of the concept of the relational database is flawed. Relational databases organize their data in relations which contain a set of tuples of the same type. To rephrase, data is stored in tables with each row containing the same number of fields with the same types in the same order.

The example you provided which utilizes a foreign key demonstrates database normalization. This is a concept that can apply to relational as well as other types of databases.

Sorry, I can't answer your questions about Google's storage system, but hopefully this will clarify your understanding enough to find out.