Explain the difference between physical and logical databases

Logical Database Design has a low-level description of entities that are defined and how they are related to each other and what kind of data is to be stored. This model determines if all the requirements of the business have been gathered.

Physical Database Design deals with how the data will be stored in the database using suitable DBMS and this design is generally created by database administrators and developers.

Differences

The major differences between logical database design and physical database design are as follows −

Logical Database Design	Physical Database Design
That describes the data without regard to how they will be physically implemented in the database.	That represents how the actual database is built.
Defines the data elements and their relationship.	Developing the actual database.
Simpler than the Physical database design.	Complex than the Logical database design.

Note

The main difference between logical database design and physical database design is that logical database design helps to define the data elements and their relationships, but physical database design helps to design the actual database based on the requirements gathered during the logical data design.

Let us see the pictorial representation of the logical design as compared to the physical design. This is given below −