6

I am studying in a database development course at the moment and I am having trouble getting my head this!

My course notes describe a tuple as: A tuple is a row of a relation

From what I have understood since working with MySQL you search for row(s). Or when browsing through a database you are looking through rows in a table.

And from what I understood a record is information within a row.

Is there any distinct differences between the three?

I know someone has posted something similar but I couldn't really understand his answer.

Thanks for all help in advnce!

Peter

Peter Stuart
  • 2,362
  • 7
  • 42
  • 73
  • [What does the term tuple mean in relational databases](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/751264/what-does-the-term-tuple-mean-in-relational-databases/679449), [Tuples vs Records](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4212265/tuples-vs-records/679449) – Kermit Oct 24 '12 at 21:03
  • *I know someone has posted something similar but I couldn't really understand his answer.* Can you show us what you're referring to? – Kermit Oct 24 '12 at 21:04
  • 1
    it's kind of weird that moderators feel that this is a question that can not get fact based answers. It shows a sad state of education in the stackoverflow community. – Mordechai Jun 23 '19 at 16:55

3 Answers3

4

In your context they are different words to mean exactly the same thing.

A tuple, in general, means an ordered list with possibly repeated elements (as contrasted to a set, which has all unique elements and is not ordered)

sampson-chen
  • 45,805
  • 12
  • 84
  • 81
  • Would that mean that a row is unordered, and each row is unique? – Peter Stuart Oct 24 '12 at 21:09
  • 1
    @PeterStuart In the context of DBMS, just think of a tuple as a row of data - that means you shouldn't assume any order on the elements. As for uniqueness of each row, that depends on whether the relation has a superkey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superkey You'll understand these better once they teach you super key / candidate key / primary key – sampson-chen Oct 24 '12 at 21:25
  • We have done primary key, which I know is always unique, and we are covering candidate keys as we speak. Thanks for your help. I am just going to go with my notes, that way they can't fail me lol! – Peter Stuart Oct 24 '12 at 21:36
0

They are the same.

A row—also called a record or tuple—represents a single, implicitly structured data item in a table.

Dennis
  • 3,962
  • 7
  • 26
  • 44
0

They mean exactly same thing: tuple, rows or records.

Your SELECT query will generate results that may contain 0 or more rows/records or tuples. A SELECT query can span 1 or more tables

Vikram
  • 4,162
  • 8
  • 43
  • 65