Teradata vocabulary

When discussing Teradata, it's essential to understand its specific vocabulary. Here's a breakdown of key terms:

Core Teradata Concepts:

• Teradata Vantage:
  • This is Teradata's data analytics platform. It's designed for large-scale data warehousing and analytics.
• Data Dictionary (DBC):
  • This is a set of system tables and views that store metadata about the Teradata system. It contains information about databases, tables, columns, users, and other database objects.
• Primary Index (PI):
  • This is a crucial concept in Teradata. It determines how rows of a table are distributed across the system's processing units (AMPs). A well-chosen primary index is essential for performance.
• AMPs (Access Module Processors):
  • These are the parallel processing units that make up the Teradata system. Data is distributed across AMPs, allowing for parallel processing of queries.
• Fallback:
  • Teradata's built-in redundancy feature. It creates a duplicate copy of data on a different AMP, ensuring data availability in case of hardware failure.
• Join Index:
  • A special type of index that pre-joins tables, improving the performance of join queries.
• NoPI (No Primary Index) Tables:
  • Tables that do not have a primary index. These tables are used for specific purposes, and data distribution is handled differently.
• Data Warehousing:
  • Teradata is heavily used for data warehousing, which involves storing and analyzing large volumes of historical data for business intelligence.
• Temporal Tables:
  • Tables that store data with a time dimension, allowing you to track changes over time.

SQL-Related Terms:

• Reserved Words:
  • Like any SQL database, Teradata has reserved words that cannot be used as identifiers (e.g., table or column names).
• Views:
  • Virtual tables based on the result-set of an SQL statement.
• Macros:
  • Stored SQL statements that can be executed as a single unit.
• Stored Procedures:
  • Precompiled SQL code that can be executed on the database server.
• User-Defined Functions (UDFs):
  • Functions created by users to extend the functionality of SQL.

Key Resources:

• Teradata Documentation:
  • Teradata provides extensive documentation on its website, which is an excellent source for detailed information.

Understanding these terms will help you navigate the Teradata environment more effectively.

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By Jerry Ramonyai