Database Glossary - T

T

Table

Synonymous with relation. A collection of data organized into records and fields (aka rows and columns), with fields being descriptions of the kinds of information contained in each record (attributes); and records being specific instances usually referring to specific objects or persons (entities).
See also: Relation and Attribute.

Table, Child

A table that is linked directly or indirectly to a primary or parent table in a set of tables; often in a many-to-one relationship (e.g. a child table of customer transactions is linked in a many-to-one relationship with a parent table containing customers).
See also: Table, Parent.

Table, Master

The table being acted upon (i.e. altered) during an operation. Some operations involve only the master table, while others, such as posting, may also involve a transaction table that provides input data for the operation.

Table, Parent

The table to which a child table is linked; often in a one-to-many relationship (e.g. a parent table of customers is linked in a one-to-many relationship with a child table containing customer transactions).
See also: Table, Child.

Table, Transaction

A table that contains data used in changing or updating (i.e. by adding, subtracting or replacing) field values in another table; usually called the master table. Transaction tables are typically used in posting operations or as lookup tables.
See also: Table, Master.

Table, Virtual

Synonymous with view.
See also: View.

Tactics

1) A plan for attaining a particular goal or achieving the objectives set by a strategy
2) The method(s) used in the implementation of a strategy.
See also: Strategy.

Task [DB Asst]

1) DB Assistant’s term for operation.
2) The operation itself.
See also: Operation.

Template, Transformation [DB Asst]

A user defined, reusable template that defines how a field value will be transformed, scrubbed, cased or updated during the transformation process.

Template, Validation [DB Asst]

A user defined, reusable template that defines a field value’s constraints.

Transaction

1) The fundamental unit of change in many (transaction-oriented) databases. A single transaction may involve changes in several tables, all of which must be made simultaneously in order for the database to be internally consistent and correct.
2) A real-life event which is modeled by the changes to the database; 3) The sequence of SQL statements whose effect is not accessible to other transactions until all of its statements have been executed.

Transactional Database

A transactional database is a DBMS where write operations on the database are able to be rolled back if they re not completed properly. If a transactional database system loses electrical power half-way through a transaction, the partially completed transaction will be rolled back and the database will be restored to the state it was in before the transaction started.

Transaction Field

See: Field, Transaction.

Transaction Table

See: Table, Transaction.

Transformation

See: Data Transformation.

Transformation Template [DB Asst]

See: Template, Transformation [DB Asst].

Transitive Dependency

The value of one non-key field is dependent on the value of one or more other non-key fields.

Tuple

Used as a synonym for record or row in some (particularly older) database management systems.
See also: Record.

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