Working with non-relational data on Azure (25% - 30%) Flashcards
Why would you choose a non-relational database over a relational database?
A relational database restructures data into a fixed format designed to answer specific queries. If the data needs to be ingested quickly, or the query is unknown and unconstrainted, a non-relational database would be better.
What is a key-value store?
An associative array with a key that acts as a unique identifier to retrieve a specific value. Those values can be anything, from a strong or number, to a complex object like a JSON file.
What are 4 types of NoSQL database?
Documents, key/value stores, column family database and graph databases.
What is unstructured data?
Data without any structure, like video and audio files.
What is semi-structured data?
Data that doesn’t reside in a relational database, but still has some structure. (Microsoft Learn defines it as data that contains fields.)
What is a document database?
A NoSQL database the stores and queries data as JSON-like documents. Each document has its own unique ID.
What is a column family database?
A database that groups related data into columns. The data for a single entity in that spans multiple columns has the same row key in each column.
What is a graph database?
A database that stores entities as nodes and the relationships between them as edges.
What is NoSQL?
NoSQL is a general term that means non-relational.
When would you use a key/value store?
When you need to ingest data quickly and don’t care about or need to query it.
When would you use a document database?
When you need ingest data faster than a relational database can, but need better query capabilities than a key/value store.
When would you use a graph database?
When an application needs to efficiently query entities and their relationships, and to analyse the relationships between entities.
When would you use a column family database?
When you need to find an entity’s related data (e.g. get a customer’s address or order info) quickly and efficiently.
What are Azure’s non-relational data services?
Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Table Storage, Azure Blob Storage and Azure File Storage.
What is a document?
A collection of fields, identified by a key. The number of fields can vary, and a field can contain child documents.
