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.

Related Terms

A virtual table defined by a SQL query that provides a simplified or restricted view of data from one or more tables.

Time-Series Database

A database optimized for storing and querying timestamped data points like metrics, sensor readings, and event logs.

Materialized View

A database object that stores the precomputed result of a query, offering faster reads at the cost of periodic refresh.

Full-Text Search

A technique for searching natural language text in databases using word stemming, ranking, and relevance scoring.

Row-Level Security (RLS)

A database feature that restricts which rows a user can access in a table based on security policies.

Window Function

An SQL function that performs calculations across a set of rows related to the current row without collapsing the result set.

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