How can relational databases help you with your research?
Relational databases can be extremely helpful for my research once I start using large data sets. So far, my data is pretty manageable since I am only working with climate data and output from the model I am using. Fortunately, this data is already in a netCDF format which makes things easier for me. I do not have so spend so much time organizing my data into tables in Excel or any other format. Maybe a relational database would be more helpful for me when I start getting more models involved or doing field work and need a better way to organize my data.
Is there any aspect of them that makes them a poor fit for you?
Right now, my data is not classified as “Big Data”. Therefore, I don’t believe that I would need to use a relational database to organize and analyze my data. Like I previously mentioned above, once my data set grows, a relational database might be more suitable.
What other types of databases are there?
As mentioned in the article, there are also NoSQL data bases, or other known as non-relational databases. The purpose of these are to handle “fast-growing data” or “data that does not fit easily within uniform structures”.