Re: What is a tuple?

I've always wondered that myself! And this is the answer I came up with in
my head:

Tuple is an abstract term. You can use it when discussing a set of data.

Row is a physical term, referring to a row in a database table.

So, when talking about any row in any table (which may or may not be
physical), it is appropriate to use the term "tuple". But when speaking of a
database in a non-abstract sense, it is better just to say "row".

Hope my input helps. :)

- Daryl.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Siebert [mailto:dsiebert@eclipsecat.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 9:17 AM
> To: Martijn van Oosterhout
> Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] What is a tuple?
> 
> 
> Tuple = row... Why not just use row? I know what a tuple is 
> but it seems
> like a word to impress more than inform.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org
> [mailto:pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Martijn van
> Oosterhout
> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 10:54 PM
> To: Elaine Lindelef
> Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] What is a tuple?
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jun 25, 2002 at 02:40:03PM -0700, Elaine Lindelef wrote:
> > My apologies for the stupid question, but before I started using
> > postgres I never came across the word "tuple" quite in this context
> > before. I know  a "tuple" as "a data object containing two or more
> > components" ... but I'm not sure of its precise meaning in the
> > postgres universe. Is a tuple a row, a field value, a field value
> > paired with its datatype, what? If someone asks me the size of my
> > largest tuple, how do I calculate it? It seems to be related deeply
> > to the structure of postgres somehow.
> 
> A tuple is a row. Isn't this in the glossary somewhere?
> --
> Martijn van Oosterhout      
> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> > There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those that can do binary
> > arithmetic and those that can't.
> 
> 
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