Writers' FIrst Review Draft: (2WX6)
Term (2XXS)
Relational Table (2XXT)
Origin/Source for Inclusion of the Term (2XXU)
Data Reference Model http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DataReferenceModel_09_2004/TheGlossary_DRM_VolIv1 (2XXV)
OMB Context Definition (2XXW)
Reference/URL OMB Context Definition (2XXX)
Business Definition (2XXY)
Set of elements within a database that organizes data in a meaningful way (2XXZ)
Reviewer Comment: A relational table can be the basic component of a relational database (RDB). It has a number of records (rows) and fields (columns), similar to a spreadsheet), and can be manipulated using SQL commands . (2XY0)
Reviewer Comment: Proper definition of relational table uses terms "tuples" (instead of rows) and "attributes" (instead of columns). "Rows" and "columns" may imply that there is information inherent in the ordering of the rows or columns, whereas in relational model, there is no information inherent in order of rows (tuples) or columns (attributes). Also, relational model is independent of SQL; it is somewhat an accident of history that SQL has become the standard query language for relational databases. See generally "A Relational Model for Large Shared Data Banks", E.F. Codd, originally published in Communications of the ACM, Vol. 13, No. 6, June 1970, currently available online at http://www.acm.org/classics/nov95/ . (2ZRC)
Reference/URL for Business Definition (2XY1)
Reviewer Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_%28database%29 - The refernce indicated above defines "reational table" as indicated in Context definition 1 (2XY2)
Reviewer comment: Additional text at wikipedia (referenced above) includes: "In terms of the relational model of databases, a table can be considered a convenient representation of a relation, but the two are not interchangeable. For instance, an SQL table can potentially contain duplicate rows, whereas a true relation cannot contain duplicate tuples (the equivalent of rows); similarly, representation as a table implies a particular ordering to the rows and columns, whereas a relation is explicitly unordered. (306H)
An equally valid representation of a relation is as an n-dimensional graph, where n is the number of attributes (a table's columns). For example, a relation with 2 attributes and 3 values can be represented as a table with 2 columns and 3 rows, or as a 2-dimensional graph with 3 points. Clearly, the table and graph representations are only equivalent if the ordering of rows is not significant, and the table has no duplicate rows." (306I)
Reference/URL Technical Definition (2XY4)
Context Definition 1 (2XY5)
Reviewer Comment: Set of elements within a database that organizes data in a meaningful way (2XY6)
Reference/URL Context Definition 1 (2XY7)
Reviewer Comment: http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DataReferenceModel_09_2004/TheGlossary_DRM_VolIv1#nid2K8V (2XY8)
Context Definition 2 (2XY9)
Reference/URL for Context Definition 2 (2XYA)
Context Definition 3 (2XYB)
Reference/URL for Context Definition 3 (2XYC)
See Also Related Terms (2XYD)