What is the difference between DBMS and RDBMS?
After reading some answers on different websites I am confused now. So, it would be helpful to mention the key difference between DBMS and RDBMS and any relation between them.
Answer
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Key Difference between DBMS and RDBMS:
The key difference is that RDBMS (relational database management system) applications store data in a tabular form, while DBMS applications store data as files.
Does that mean there are no tables in a DBMS?
There can be, but there will be no “relation” between the tables, like in a RDBMS. In DBMS, data is generally stored in either a hierarchical form or a navigational form. This means that a single data unit will have one parent node and zero, one or more children nodes. It may even be stored in a graph form, which can be seen in the network model.
In a RDBMS, the tables will have an identifier called primary key. Data values will be stored in the form of tables. The relationships between these data values will be stored in the form of a table as well. Every value stored in the relational database is accessible. This value can be updated by the system. The data in this system is also physically and logically independent.
You can say that a RDBMS is an extension of a DBMS, even if there are many differences between the two. Most software products in the market today are both DBMS and RDBMS compliant. Essentially, they can maintain databases in a (relational) tabular form as well as a file form, or both. This means that today a RDBMS application is a DBMS application, and vice versa. However, there are still major differences between a relational database system for storing data and a plain database system.