What is the difference between tablespace and datafile?

Question

An Oracle database consists of one or more logical storage units called tablespaces, which collectively store all of the database's data. Each tablespace in an Oracle database consists of one or more files called datafiles, which are physical structures that conform to the operating system in which Oracle is running.

How many datafiles can a tablespace have?

A smallfile tablespace is a traditional Oracle tablespace, which can contain 1022 datafiles or tempfiles, each of which can contain up to approximately 4 million (222) blocks. Dependent on the operating system. An external table can be composed of multiple files.

What tablespace means?

A tablespace is a storage location where the actual data underlying database objects can be kept. It provides a layer of abstraction between physical and logical data, and serves to allocate storage for all DBMS managed segments.

What is difference between table and tablespace?

The tablespace is where tables gets stored. It links the physical storage layer (files on disks) and the logical storage layer (tables, indexes).

What is datafile in database?

Data files are the operating system files that store the data within the database. The data is written to these files in an Oracle proprietary format that cannot be read by other programs. Tempfiles are a special class of data files that are associated only with temporary tablespaces.

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