MENU
What type of database uses parent-child relationships?
Hierarchical databases use a parent-child relationship model. In this type of database, data is organized into a tree-like structure that implies a single-parent for each record. This model allows the representation of data in a hierarchy which is very much like a family tree. Each parent can have multiple children, but each child has only one parent (also known as a one-to-many relationship).
The hierarchical database model was one of the first database models, historically used with mainframe computers. In this model, records contain information about their groups of parent/child relationships, similar to a family tree. If we consider a database of employees, each department would be a parent node, and each employee within that department would be a child node of the department.