One of the biggest misconceptions in software engineering is the question: Which database is the best? Rather than ask this, the question should be: Which database best fits the problem we're trying to solve?
Every database represents a series of engineering trade-offs.
A design optimized for financial transactions is rarely the best choice for caching.
A database optimized for search is rarely the best choice for transactional consistency.
Understanding databases means understanding the constraints they were designed to optimize.
Relational databases exist to preserve data integrity in systems where correctness is more important than flexibility.
Examples include:
They organize information into:
Relationships between pieces of information are explicitly defined using keys and constraints.
Best Use Cases