# CRUD

> CRUD stands for create, read, update and delete — the four operations that cover almost everything an application does with stored data. The term is used as…

Source: https://northerngo.com/glossary/crud/
Language: en
Updated: 2026-08-28

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**CRUD stands for create, read, update and delete — the four operations that cover almost everything an application does with stored data. The term is used as shorthand for the basic data layer of an app: if users can add records, see them, change them and remove them, you have built CRUD.**

### The same four ideas in three vocabularies

The value of the acronym is that it maps cleanly across layers:

- **Create** — SQL `INSERT`, HTTP `POST`.
- **Read** — SQL `SELECT`, HTTP `GET`.
- **Update** — SQL `UPDATE`, HTTP `PUT` for a full replacement or `PATCH` for a partial one.
- **Delete** — SQL `DELETE`, HTTP `DELETE`.

A [REST API](/glossary/rest-api/) is essentially CRUD expressed over HTTP. In a NorthernGo app the same operations appear as `window.NorthernGoDB.save(collection, data)`, `.get(collection)` and `.delete(collection, field, value)` — create, read and delete, with an update expressed as a save over an existing record.

### Where CRUD stops being enough

Two failure modes are worth naming.

**Deleting is rarely as simple as it sounds.** Most production systems soft delete — set a `deleted_at` timestamp and filter it out — because real deletion breaks foreign keys, destroys audit trails and cannot be undone after a misclick. But if the data is personal, a soft delete does not satisfy a request for erasure under [GDPR](/glossary/gdpr/); the record still exists. Deciding which rows are recoverable and which must really disappear is a design decision, not an implementation detail.

**Not everything is a record edit.** "Cancel a subscription", "publish an article", "refund an order" each involve state transitions, side effects and rules about what is permitted from the current state. Modelling them as a bare update on a status column tends to scatter that logic across the codebase. This is the point where teams reach for domain-specific endpoints or an event-based model instead.

### The misconception

CRUD is a description, not an architecture. Saying an app is "just CRUD" usually undersells it: validation, permissions, concurrent edits, pagination and audit history are where the real work lives, and all four letters look trivial until two users update the same row at the same time.

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