Description of the properties

ACID stands for

 Atomicity
 Consistency
 Isolation
 Durablity

Atomicity
Modification on the data in the database either fails or succeed. The beginning of such a modification
starts with a transaction and ends when a transaction finishes (either by a commit or a rollback). A
software crash entails an implicit rollback.

Consistency
Only valid data (valid according to integrity constraints) may be commited.
Integrity Constraints:
Not Null, Primary Key, Unique Key, <>, Foreign Key Relation

Isolation
One transaction does not interfere with another. The 'executor' of a transaction has the feeling that he
has the entire database for himeself.

Durablity
A committed transaction will not be lost

Atomicity

Atomicity requires that database modifications must follow an "all or nothing" rule. Each transaction is
said to be atomic. If one part of the transaction fails, the entire transaction fails and the database state
is left unchanged. It is critical that the database management system maintain the atomic nature of
transactions in spite of any application, DBMS (Database Management System), operating system or
hardware failure.

Consistency

It ensures the truthfulness of the database.

The consistency property ensures that any transaction the database performs will take it from one
consistent state to another.

The consistency property does not say how the DBMS should handle an inconsistency other than ensure
the database is clean at the end of the transaction. If, for some reason, a transaction is executed that
violates the database’s consistency rules, the entire transaction could be rolled back to the pre-
transactional state - or it would be equally valid for the DBMS to take some patch-up action to get the
database in a consistent state. Thus, if the database schema says that a particular field is for holding
integer numbers, the DBMS could decide to reject attempts to put fractional values there, or it could
round the supplied values to the nearest whole number: both options maintain consistency.

Isolation

Isolation refers to the requirement that other operations cannot access data that has been modified
during a transaction that has not yet completed. The question of isolation occurs in case of concurrent
transactions (multiple transactions occurring at the same time). Each transaction must remain unaware
of other concurrently executing transactions, except that one transaction may be forced to wait for the
completion of another transaction that has modified data that the waiting transaction requires. If the
isolation system does not exist, then the data could be put into an inconsistent state. This could happen,
if one transaction is in the process of modifying data but has not yet completed, and then a second
transaction reads and modifies that uncommitted data from the first transaction.

Durability

Durability is the ability of the DBMS to recover the committed transaction updates against any kind of
system failure (hardware or software). Durability is the DBMS's guarantee that once the user has been
notified of a transaction's success the transaction will not be lost, the transaction's data changes will
survive system failure, and that all integrity constraints have been satisfied, so the DBMS won't need to
reverse the transaction. Many DBMSs implement durability by writing transactions into a transaction
log that can be reprocessed to recreate the system state right before any later failure. A transaction is
deemed committed only after it is entered in the log.
A relational database is a set of tables containing data fitted into predefined categories. Each table
(which is sometimes called a relation) contains one or more data categories in columns. Each row
contains a unique instance of data for the categories defined by the columns. For example, a typical
business order entry database would include a table that described a customer with columns for name,
address, phone number, and so forth. Another table would describe an order: product, customer, date,
sales price, and so forth. A user of the database could obtain a view of the database that fitted the user's
needs. For example, a branch office manager might like a view or report on all customers that had
bought products after a certain date. A financial services manager in the same company could, from the
same tables, obtain a report on accounts that needed to be paid.

The relational database model was a huge step forward, as it allowed files to be related by
means of a common field. In order to relate any two files, they simply need to have a common
field, which makes the model extremely flexible

A DBMS is essentially a suite of programs that act as the interface between the human operator and the
data held in the database. Using the DBMS, it is possible to retrieve useful information, update or delete
obsolete information and add new information to the database. As well as data entry and retrieval, the
DBMS plays an important role in maintaining the overall integrity of the data in the database. The
simplest example of is ensuring that the values entered into the database conform to the data types
that are specified. For example, in the telephone book database, the DBMS might have to ensure that
each phone number entered conforms to a set format of XXX-XXXXXXX where X represents an integer.

Basic Terms

An understanding of relational databases requires an understanding of some of the basic terms.

 Data are the values stored in the database. On its own, data means very little. "43156" is an
example.
 Information is data that is processed to have a meaning. For example, "43156" is the population
of the town of Littlewood.
 A database is a collection of tables.
 Each table contains records, which are the horizontal rows in the table. These are also called
tuples.
 Each record contains fields, which are the vertical columns of the table. These are also called
attributes. An example would be a product record.
 Fields can be of many different types. There are many standard types, and each DBMS (database
management system, such as Oracle or MySQL) can also have their own specific types, but
generally they fall into at least three kinds - character, numeric and date. For example, a product
description would be a character field, a product release date would be a date field, and a
product quantity in stock would be a numeric field.
 The domain refers to the possible values each field can contain (it's sometimes called a field
specification). For example, a field entitled "marital_status" may be limited to the values
"Married" and "Unmarried".
 A field is said to contain a null value when it contains nothing at all. Fields can create
complexities in calculations and have consequences for data accuracy. For this reason, many
fields are specifically set not to contain NULL values.
 A key is a logical way to access a record in a table. For example, in the product table, the
product_id field could allow us to uniquely identify a record. A key that uniquely identifies a
record is called a primary key.
 An index is a physical mechanism that improves the performance of a database. Indexes are
often confused with keys. However, strictly speaking they are part of the physical structure,
while keys are part of the logical structure.
 A view is a virtual table made up of a subset of the actual tables.
 A one-to-one (1:1) relationship occurs where, for each instance of table A, only one instance of
table B exists, and vice-versa. For example, each vehicle registration is associated with only one
engine number, and vice-versa
 A one-to-many (1:m) relationship is where, for each instance of table A, many instances of the
table B exist, but for each instance of table B, only once instance of table A exists. For example,
for each artist, there are many paintings. Since it is a one-to-many relationship, and not many-
to-many, in this case each painting can only have been painted by one artist.
 A many to many (m:n) relationship occurs where, for each instance of table A, there are many
instances of table B, and for each instance of table B, there are many instances of the table A.
For example, a poetry anthology can have many authors, and each author can appear in many
poetry anthologies.
 A mandatory relationship exists where, for each instance of table A, one or more instances of
table B must exist. For example, for a poetry anthology to exist, there must exist at least one
poem in the anthology. The reverse is not necessarily true though, as for a poem to exist, there
is no need for it to appear in a poetry anthology.
 An optional relationship is where, for each instance of table A, there may exist instances of table
B. For example, a poet does not necessarily have to appear in a poetry anthology. The reverse
isn't necessarily true though, for example for the anthology to be listed, it must have some
poets.
 Data integrity describes the accuracy, validity and consistency of data. An example of poor
integrity would be where a poet's name is stored differently in two different places.