Row-Oriented Storage
Row-oriented storage is a data storage format where data is organized and stored by rows, meaning all values for a single record (or row) are stored contiguously on disk. This approach is optimized for transactional workloads, such as online transaction processing (OLTP), where operations often involve reading or writing entire rows. It allows for efficient retrieval of complete records but can be less efficient for analytical queries that require scanning specific columns across many rows.
Developers should learn and use row-oriented storage when building applications with frequent transactional operations, such as e-commerce systems, banking applications, or any scenario requiring fast inserts, updates, and deletes of entire records. It is particularly beneficial in relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL, where row-based storage supports ACID compliance and quick access to individual rows for real-time data processing.