Navigational database

A navigational database is a type of database in which records or objects are found primarily by following references from other objects. They were a common type of database in the era when data was stored on magnetic tape; the navigational references told the computer where the next record on the tape was stored, allowing fast-forwarding (and in some cases, reversing) through the records without having to read every record along the way to see if it matched a given criterion.

The introduction of low-cost hard drives that provided semi-random access to data led to new models of database storage better suited to these devices. Among these, the relational database and especially SQL became the canonical solution from the 1980s through to about 2010. At that time a reappraisal of the entire database market began, the various NoSQL concepts, which has led to the navigational model being reexamined. Offshoots of the concept, especially the graph database, are finding new uses in modern transaction processing workloads.

Navigational interfaces are usually procedural, though some modern systems like XPath can be considered to be simultaneously navigational and declarative.

Navigational access is traditionally associated with the network model and hierarchical model of database interfaces, and some have even acquired set-oriented features. Navigational techniques use "pointers" and "paths" to navigate among data records (also known as "nodes"). This is in contrast to the relational model (implemented in relational databases), which strives to use "declarative" or logic programming techniques that ask the system for what to fetch instead of how to navigate to it.

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