Understanding the differences between NoSQL and SQL

Azure Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database, so to get the best value from Cosmos DB, we need to understand what NoSQL is and how it differs from traditional SQL databases.

SQL databases are built around the concept of tables, and within each table, you have rows of data split into cells. Each cell contains an individual piece of data within a record, and each row is an entire record.

A key difference from SQL databases is that the table and cell definition, known as the schema, must be defined before you can enter data into it. So, if you want to store a customer record containing a name and address, first, you need to create a table with each of the columns defined for each data type, such as the first name, address line, city, country, and so on.

Traditionally, SQL tables are built so that they're relational. This means that rather than having large records containing all the required information, you split the records into...