It is a different from this question, because as I explain in my own post, my purpose is to find out why databases don't use pointers instead of keys and what are the other options to implement its functionality.
As I read the implementation of relational database, there isn't anything with the concept of pointer in it.
Here is my questions:
- Why there isn't any pointer in the relational model?
Many databases use technical IDs that one could call pointers. It's like generating a number (like an address) with which to find the record in the table.
Say you have a table of orders and another of customers. The customers table would contain some customer ID. A record in the orders table would also contain a customer ID. So an order (a record in the order table) would thus point to the related customer (a record in the customers table).
I can't think of any. Both systems can be used to store, organize, find, copy, move, backup, and versionize files.