Person

Edgar F. Codd

Edgar F. Codd was a British computer scientist at IBM who proposed the relational model for large shared databases.

Period
1923–2003
Known for
Relational model of data
Historical contribution

What Codd contributed

Codd’s 1970 paper argued that users should work with relations and values rather than follow physical storage links. The model separated the logical structure of data from many details of its storage and access paths.

Why it mattered

Relational databases supported declarative querying, stronger data independence and a large ecosystem of database systems used in administration, commerce and the Web.

Connected topics

Where this fits in ITEM

Evidence

Sources and further reading

  1. A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks

    E. F. Codd · 1970

    Open source ↗

  2. Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System

    P. G. Selinger · 1979

    Open source ↗

  3. System R: Relational Approach to Database Management

    M. M. Astrahan · 1976

    Open source ↗

  4. Support for Repetitive Transactions and Ad Hoc Queries in System R

    D. D. Chamberlin · 1981

    Open source ↗