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Data warehouse vs database
Short answer
Databases (OLTP) store current, detailed, normalized data for transactions; data warehouses store historical, summarized, denormalized data for analysis. Warehouses are subject-oriented, larger (GB-TB), support complex queries by few users; databases are application-oriented, smaller (MB-GB), handle many short transactions.
Differentiate between Data Warehouse and Database.
A database (operational/OLTP database) stores current data for day-to-day transactions. A data warehouse stores integrated historical data for analysis and decision making.
| Point | Operational database (OLTP) | Data warehouse |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Day-to-day transactions | Analysis and decision support |
| Data | Current, detailed | Historical, summarised and detailed |
| Orientation | Application-oriented | Subject-oriented |
| Update | Frequent insert/update/delete | Periodic bulk load, read-mostly |
| Design | Normalised (ER model) | Denormalised (star/snowflake) |
| Query | Short, simple, predefined | Complex, ad hoc, aggregate |
| Users | Clerks, DBAs (thousands) | Managers, analysts (few) |
| Size | MB to GB | GB to TB |
Example: a bank's database records every deposit and withdrawal as it happens; its warehouse stores 10 years of summarised transactions to analyse customer behaviour.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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