What is a columnar database?

Question

I have been working with warehousing for a while now.

I am intrigued by Columnar Databases and the speed that they have to offer for data retrievals.

I have mul

Answer 1

To understand what is column oriented database, it is better to contrast it with row oriented database.

Row oriented databases (e.g. MS SQL Server and SQLite) are designed to efficiently return data for an entire row. It does it by storing all the columns values of a row together. Row-oriented databases are well-suited for OLTP systems (e.g., retail sales, and financial transaction systems).

Column oriented databases are designed to efficiently return data for a limited number of columns. It does it by storing all of the values of a column together. Two widely used Column oriented databases are Apache Hbase and Google BigTable (used by Google for its Search, Analytics, Maps and Gmail). They are suitable for the big data projects. A column oriented database will excel at read operations on a limited number of columns, however write operation will be expensive compared to row oriented databases.

For more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column-oriented_DBMS