hierarchical database

(database)

A kind of database management system that links records together like a family tree such that each record type has only one owner, e.g. an order is owned by only one customer. Hierarchical structures were widely used in the first mainframe database management systems. However, due to their restrictions, they often cannot be used to relate structures that exist in the real world.

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hierarchical database

A database organization method that is structured in a hierarchy. All access to data starts at the top of the hierarchy and moves downward; for example, from customer to orders, vendor to purchases, etc. Contrast with relational database and network database.

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References in periodicals archive

Interestingly, had relational database systems not been popularized, CODASYL and hierarchical database systems would, today, face similar problems to those which Baker attempts to attribute exclusively to the relational realm.

ACM forum

Initial mechanisms for extracting fixed length records from 'flat files' or hierarchical databases gave way in the 1980s to relational database querying through the Structured Query Language (SQL).

Enterprise search tools

Hierarchical databases also have a physical location dependency that requires related data to be bilocated, while relational databases depend on the use of identifiers to relate data.

RDF: an introduction

Computers store data in diverse and often incompatible forms: structured, unstructured, relational or hierarchical databases, in flat files or as multimedia objects.

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