Database management system

A database management system (DBMS) is a computer software application which allows user (and other applications) to manage a database.

Description

A general-purpose DBMS is designed to allow the definition, creation, querying, update, and administration of databases.

Well-known DBMSs include MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, SAP HANA, and IBM DB2.

A database is not generally portable across different DBMSs, but different DBMS can interoperate by using standards such as SQL and ODBC or JDBC to allow a single application to work with more than one DBMS.

Database management systems are often classified according to the database model that they support, notably the relational model.

Sometimes a DBMS is loosely referred to as a 'database'.

See also

• Comparison of database tools
• Comparison of object database management systems
• Comparison of object-relational database management systems
• Comparison of relational database management systems
• Data hierarchy
• Data bank
• Data store
• Database theory
• Database testing
• Database-centric architecture
• Outline of databases
• Question-focused dataset
• SQL

External links

• Database @ Wikipedia