Introduction to Database

Database is a collection of information in a structured way. We can say that it is a collection of a

group of facts and processed information’s. Databases store information in fields, records, and
files. A field is a single piece of information—a customer’s first name, for example. A record is
one complete set of fields—the customer’s first name, last name, address, phone number, and
account information. And a file is a collection of records—a complete list of all customers.

File System

The file system that comes with your computer is a very primitive kind of database management
system. Data are kept in big unstructured named clumps calledfiles. A flat file database is a
database designed around a single table. The flat file design puts all database information in one
table, or list, with fields to represent all parameters. A flat file may contain many fields, often, with
duplicate data that are prone to data corruption. If you decide to merge data between two flat files,
you need to copy and paste relevant information from one file to the other. There is no automation
between flat files.

Database Management System (DBMS)

To use information contained in a database, you need a Database Management System (DBMS), a
collection of software programs that let you to enter, organize, and select information stored in the
database. Each column in a database table contains a different type of attribute and each row
corresponds to a single record. For example, in a table of customers, the columns might include
name, address, phone number, and account information; each row is a separate customer.
The most typical DBMS is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). An RDBMS
stores information in tables of rows and columns. The relationships between table data can be
collated, merged and displayed in database forms. Most relational databases offer functionality to
share data across networks over the Internet

DBMS vs. File Systems

Databases management systems (DBMS's -- Oracle, SQL,) have certain features that you can't get
with a flat file.
1.Speed. Modern DBMS's have very advanced routines for getting you data as quickly as
possible.
2.Management of relational entities. DBMS's are good at storing data about multiple,
related entities.
3.Transaction and update guarantees. DBMS's allow you to protect your data -- back it
up, be able to roll back unwanted transactions, ensure that a set of operations on data executes
atomically, etc.
4. Data Security. Database provide different level of securities by having password to access
different level of database which is not provided with file systems
5. Data Administration. You can administrate the values being entered in the database by having
various constraints on the data field. For example, you may allow only numeric fields in salary field.
6. Concurrent Access. Multiple users can access the database at a same time and by using lock
system u can manage the updating of the database on the same field.
7. Crash recovery. In case your database crashes, it has a special mechanism by using you can
recover your database on the last saved state.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
1.Data independence - application programs are insulated from changes in the way data is structured
and stored which allows dynamic changes and provides growth potential.
2. Efficient data access -
3. Data administration - centralized
4. Data integrity & security -
5. Concurrent access and crash recovery
6. Reduced application development time

Disadvantages
7. Problems associated with centralization
8. Cost of software/hardware and migration
9. Complexity of backup and recovery

In reality, centralized databases are applicable only to small operations. Companies are bought,
sold, and merge often necessitating interaction between distributed databases. An enterprise
database is constructed from the distributed databases.
Components of DBMS

The components of a database system include:

 Data:
 Database: data that is stored more-or-less permanently in a computer.
 Database management system (DBMS): software which allows the user to use or modify
 the database.
 DBMS Facilities
 Data definition language (DDL): used to define the conceptual scheme. The
scheme is compiled and stored in the data dictionary.
 Data manipulation language (DML): query sublanguage (retrieval), maintenance
sublanguage (insertion, deletion, modification).
 Structure of DBMS
 DDL compiler: Compiles conceptual schemes to tables stored in the data dictionary.
 Database manager: translates query into file operations
 Query Processor:
 File manager: often a general purpose file system provided by the operating system.
 Disk manager
 Telecommunication system
 Data files
 Data dictionary: structure and usage of data contained in the database.
 Access aids: indexes
 Users:
 Database application programmers: develop programs or interfaces for naive and
online users which are precompiled queries.
 Database implementers
 Database administrator (DBA): oversee and manage resources
 Design of the conceptual and physical schemas
 Security and authorization:
 Data availability and recovery from failures - backups and repairing damage
due to hardware or software failures or misuse.
 Database tuning: performance and database evolution
 Database Designers
  End users
 Casual end users
 Naive or parametric end users
 Sophisticated end users
 Stand-alone users
Data Model

A data models is a collection of concepts that can be used to describe the structure of a database. By
structure of a database we mean the data types relationships and constrains that should hold on the
data. The following are the various types of data models used:

Semantic Data model

Firstly we should be clear on what both terms means:

Semantics – way of linking the entity and the information we have about the data to help us get a
good understanding of the system
Data Model – Data models are made up of:
1) Structures used to create the model (building blocks)
2) Operators we can use on the structures
3) Integrity rules, both explicit and implicit

A Widely used semantic data model is called as the Entity Relationship (ER) model.

Relational Model
TheRelation is the basic element in a relational data model

A relation is subject to the following rules:

1. Relation (file, table) is a two-dimensional table.

2. Attribute (i.e. field or data item) is acolumn in the table.
3. Each column in the table has a unique name within that table.
4. Each column is homogeneous. Thus the entries in any column are all of the same type (e.g.age,
name, employee-number, etc).
5. A Tuples (i.e. record) is a row in the table.
6. The order of the rows and columns is not important.
7. Values of a row all relate to some thing or portion of a thing.
8. Duplicate rows are not allowed (candidate keys are designed to prevent this).
DBMS Architecture
The three levels of the architecture are three different views of the data:
1. Internal - physical or storage view
The internal view is the view about the actual physical storage of data. It tells us what data is
stored in the database and how. At least the following aspects are considered at this level:
Storage allocation. e.g. B-trees, hashing and etc.
Access pathse.g. specification of primary and secondary keys, indexes and pointers and
sequencing.
Miscellaneous e.g. Data compression and encryption techniques, optimization of the internal
structures.

2. Conceptual - community user view

The conceptual view is the information model of the enterprise and contains the view of the
whole enterprise without any concern for the physical implementation. The conceptual view is
the overall community view of the database and it includes all the information that is going to
be represented in the database. The conceptual view is defined by the conceptual schema which
includes definitions of each of the various types of data.

3. External - individual user view

The external level is the view that the individual user of the database has. The same database
may provide a number of different views for different classes of users. In general, the end users
and even the applications programmers are only interested in a subset of the database. For
example, a department head may only be interested in the departmental finances and student
enrolments but not the library information. The librarian would not be expected to have any
interest in the information about academic staff. The payroll office would have no interest in
student enrolments.

Queries
Queries are the primary mechanism for retrieving information from a database and consist of
questions presented to the database in a predefined format. Many database management systems
use the Structured Query Language (SQL) standard query format. SQL is standard computer
language for accessing and manipulating database systems. SQL statements are used to retrieve
and update data in a database. SQL works with database programs like MS Access, DB2, Informix,
MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc.

SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)

The Data Definition Language (DDL) part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted.
We can also define indexes (keys), specify links between tables, and impose constraints between
database tables.

The most important DDL statements in SQL are:

 CREATE TABLE- creates a new database table
 ALTER TABLE - alters (changes) a database table
 DROP TABLE- deletes a database table

SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)

 SQL (Structured Query Language) is syntax for executing queries. But the SQL language also
includes syntax to update, insert, and delete records. These query and update commands together
form the Data Manipulation Language (DML) part of SQL:

 SELECT- extracts data from a database table

 UPDATE- updates data in a database table
 DELETE- deletes data from a database table
 INSERT INTO- inserts new data into a database table