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Software Engineering vocabulary · Databases and Persistence

Schema

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈskiːmə/nounCore term

In software engineering, schema means: The structure of a database: its tables, columns, data types, keys and relationships. In some products it is also a named group of tables inside a database.

In Turkish: şema

How it is used

Two meanings are common. 'Schema change' or 'schema design' refers to the structure. In PostgreSQL and SQL Server a schema is also a namespace like public or dbo, while in MySQL 'schema' and 'database' mean the same thing. You design, change, migrate and version a schema.

Example sentences

  1. Any schema change on the production database must go through a migration script.

  2. The new reporting tables live in a separate schema called analytics.

Common collocations

  • schema change
  • database schema
  • schema design
  • schema migration
  • schemaless
  • tableA structure in a relational database that stores data about one kind of thing in rows and columns, for example all customers or all orders.
  • migrationA versioned script that changes a database schema in a controlled way, or, more broadly, a project to move data from one database or system to another.
  • ER diagramA drawing of a database design that shows the entities (usually tables), their attributes and the relationships between them, such as one-to-many.
  • DDLData definition language: the SQL statements that create, change and remove database objects, such as CREATE, ALTER and DROP.
  • normalizationThe process of organizing tables so that each fact is stored in only one place, which reduces repeated data and prevents update mistakes.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Databases and Persistence

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