- Files and Objects
- Files and objects can be used interchangeably to describe the components of external object storage. Each file or object contains records in which the data itself is held.
- Foreign Table
- Foreign tables carry information about the location of the external object storage and other definitional information, and are the main vehicle within Analytics Database for reading external data. A foreign table may support access to the entire external object storage, or a subset of an external object storage.
- Key and Path
- A key in external object storage data is the unique identifier for an object and may contain multiple logical levels.
Path names are identifiers or pointers to an object; a path name is the entire key.
A path prefix is a subset of the path. For example, if the path of an object is /td-usgs/bucket/a/b/c/d/object1, then a path prefix can be any of the following, amongst others:- a/b/c
- a/b
- a/b/c/d/object1
- Object and Objects stores
- Objects are the discrete units that compose external object storage. Objects can be organized with shared names called prefixes.
Every object has a unique key or path. However, objects may be identified by or share a common path prefix. For example, /a/b/c/d can contain hundreds of objects.
- Records and Rows
- Row is a relational concept that refers to part of a table.