Databases Intermediate

What is ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)?

A technique that lets you interact with a database using object-oriented code instead of writing raw SQL queries.

ORMs map database tables to classes and rows to objects, abstracting SQL behind a programmatic interface. Instead of writing "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id=1", you write User.find(1) or similar.

Popular ORMs include SQLAlchemy (Python), Eloquent (PHP/Laravel), ActiveRecord (Ruby), Hibernate (Java), and Prisma (JavaScript). ORMs improve productivity but can hide performance issues — knowing SQL remains important.

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PostgreSQL Administration & Performance Tuning

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Related Terms

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

A data pipeline process that extracts data from sources, transforms it into a suitable format, and loads it into a destination system.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE

A PostgreSQL command that shows the execution plan of a query along with actual runtime statistics for performance tuning.

An SQL operation that combines rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them.

Database Sharding

A horizontal scaling strategy that distributes data across multiple database servers based on a partition key.

Structured Query Language — the standard language for managing and querying data in relational databases.

Write-Ahead Log (WAL)

A technique where changes are first written to a log before being applied to the database, ensuring crash recovery and data integrity.

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