In this chapter, we will discuss the various types of database tables and cover when you might want to use each type (i.e., when one type of table is more appropriate than another). We will concentrate on the physical storage characteristics of the tables: how the data is organized and stored.
Once upon a time, there was only one type of table, really: a normal table. It was managed in the same way a heap of stuff is managed (the definition of which appears in the next section). ...