Row based database stores the data on disk row-by-row, whereas columnar database stores the data column by column. Each method has its own advantages. The row-based is very fast and efficient for the operations on rows and column based is fast and efficient for the operations on columns, for example aggregating large volumes of data for a subset of columns. The operations that need the complete row are writing operations for example INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, etc. The operations that need columns are typically read operations for example SELECT, GROUP BY, JOIN, etc. From the above we can say that columnar database is good for analytical operations and row database is good for transaction processing.