Database Management System

MODULE-1
Q1- Discuss the main characteristics of database approach. How it differ from
traditional database.
Ans-

FILE ORIENTED APPROACH:A DBMS utilizes a variety of sophisticated techniques to store and
retrieve data efficiently. This feature is especially important if the data is stored on external
storagedevices.

Data Integrity and Security:

If data is always accessed through the DBMS, the DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on the data. For
example, before inserting salary information for an employee, the DBMS can check that the department
budget is not exceeded. Also, the DBMS can enforce access controls that govern what data is visible to
different classes of users.

Concurrent Access and Crash Recovery:

A database system allows several users to access the database concurrently. Answering
different questions from different users with the same (base) data is a central aspect of an
information system. Such concurrent use of data increases the economy of a system.
An example for concurrent use is the travel database of a bigger travel agency. The
employees of different branches can access the database concurrently and book journeys for
their clients. Each travel agent sees on his interface if there are still seats available for a specific
journey or if it is already fully booked.
A DBMS also protects data from failures such as power failures and crashes etc. by
the recovery schemes such as backup mechanisms and log filesetc.
Data Administration:
When several users share the data, centralizing the administration of data can offer
significant improvements. Experienced professionals, who understand the nature of the data
being managed, and how different groups of users use it, can be responsible for organizing the
data representation to minimize redundancy and fine-tuning the storage of the data to make
retrieval efficient.
Reduced Application Development Time:
The earliest business computer systems were used to process business records and
produce information. They were generally faster and more accurate than equivalent manual
systems. These systems stored groups of records in separate files, and so they were called file
processing systems.

1. File system is a collection of data. Any management with the file system, user has
to write theprocedures.
 2. File system gives the details of the data representation and Storage ofdata.
3. In File system storing and retrieving of data cannot be doneefficiently.
4. Concurrent access to the data in the file system has many problems like a
Reading the file while other deleting some information, updating someinformation
5. File system doesn’t provide crash recoverymechanism.
Eg. While we are entering some data into the file if System crashes then content of
the file is lost.
6. Protecting a file under file system is verydifficult.
The typical file-oriented system is supported by a conventional operating system.
Permanent records are stored in various files and a number of different application programs
are written to extract records from and add records to the appropriate files.

DISADVANTAGES OF FILE-ORIENTED SYSTEM:

The following are the disadvantages of File-Oriented System:

Data Redundancy and Inconsistency:

Since files and application programs are created by different programmers over a long
period of time, the files are likely to be having different formats and the programs may be
written in several programming languages. Moreover, the same piece of information may be
duplicated in several places. This redundancy leads to higher storage and access cost. In
addition, it may lead to data inconsistency.

Difficulty in Accessing Data:

The conventional file processing environments do not allow needed data to be retrieved
in a convenient and efficient manner. Better data retrieval system must be developed for
general use.

Data Isolation:

Since data is scattered in various files, and files may be in different formats, it is
difficult to write new application programs to retrieve the appropriate data.

Concurrent Access Anomalies:

In order to improve the overall performance of the system and obtain a faster response
time, many systems allow multiple users to update the data simultaneously. In such an
environment, interaction of concurrent updates may result in inconsistent data.

Security Problems:

Not every user of the database system should be able to access all the data. For
example, in banking system, payroll personnel need only that part of the database that has
 information about various bank employees. They do not need access to information about
customer accounts. It is difficult to enforce such security constraints.

Integrity Problems:

The data values stored in the database must satisfy certain types of consistency
constraints. For example, the balance of a bank account may never fall below a prescribed
amount. These constraints are enforced in the system by adding appropriate code in the various
application programs. When new constraints are added, it is difficult to change the programs to
enforce them. The problem is compounded when constraints involve several data items for different
files.

Atomicity Problem:

A computer system like any other mechanical or electrical device is subject to failure.
In many applications, it is crucial to ensure that once a failure has occurred and has been
detected, the data are restored to the consistent state existed prior to the failure

Example:

Consider part of a savings-bank enterprise that keeps information about all customers
and savings accounts. One way to keep the information on a computer is to store it in operating
system files. To allow users to manipulate the information, the system hasa number of
application programs that manipulate the files,including:

A program to debit or credit an account

A program to add a new account
A program to find the balance of an account
A program to generate monthly statements
Programmers wrote these application programs to meet the needs of the bank. New
application programs are added to the system as the need arises. For example, suppose that
the savings bank decides to offer checkingaccounts.
As a result, the bank creates new permanent files that contain information about all the
checking accounts maintained in the bank, and it may have to write new application programs
to deal with situations that do not arise in savings accounts, such as overdrafts. Thus, as time
goes by, the system acquires more files and more application programs. The system stores
permanent records in various files, and it needs different
Application programs to extract records from, and add records to, the appropriate files.
Before database management systems (DBMS) came along, organizations usually stored
information in such systems. Organizational information in a file-processing system has a
number of majordisadvantages:
1. Data Redundancy andInconsistency:

The address and telephone number of a particular customer may appear in a file that
consists of savings-account records and in a file that consists of checking-account records. This
redundancy leads to higher storage and access cost. In, it may lead to data inconsistency; that is,
the various copies of the same data may no longer agree. For example, a changed customer
address may be reflected in savings-account records but not elsewhere in the system.

2. Difficulty in AccessingData:

Suppose that one of the bank officers needs to find out the names of all customers
who live within a particular postal-code area. The officer asks the data-processing department
to generate such a list. Because there is no application program to generate that. The bank
officer has now two choices: either obtain the list of all customers and extract the needed
information manually or ask a system programmer to write the necessary application program.
Both alternatives are obviouslyunsatisfactory.

3. DataIsolation:

Because data are scattered in various files and files may be in different formats,
writing new application programs to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult.

4. Integrity Problems:

The balance of a bank account may never fall below a prescribed amount (say, $25).
Developers enforce these constraints in the system by adding appropriate code in the various
application programs. However, when new constraints are added, it is difficult to change the
programs to enforce them. The problem is compounded when constraints involve several data
items from different files.

5. Atomicity Problems:
A computer system, like any other mechanical or electrical device, is subject to failure.
In many applications, it is crucial that, if a failure occurs, the data be restored to the consistent
state that existed prior to the failure. Consider a program to transfer $50 from account A to
account B. If a system failure occurs during the execution of the program, it is possible that the
$50 was removed from account A but was not credited to account B, resulting in an inconsistent
database state. Clearly, it is essential to database consistency that either both the credit and
debit occur, or that neither occur. That is, the funds transfer must beatomic—it must happen in
its entirety or not at all. It is difficult to ensure atomicity in a conventional file-
processingsystem.
6. Concurrent-AccessAnomalies:

For the sake of overall performance of the system and faster response, many systems
allow multiple users to update the data simultaneously. In such an environment, interaction of
concurrent updates may result in inconsistent data. Consider bank account A, containing
$500. If two customers withdraw funds (say $50 and $100 respectively) from account A at
about the same time, the result of the concurrent executions may leave the account in an
incorrect (or inconsistent) state. Suppose that the programs executing on behalf of each
withdrawal read the old balance, reduce that value by the amount being withdrawn, and write
the result back. If the two programs run concurrently, they may both read the value $500, and
write back $450 and $400, respectively. Depending on which one writes the value last, the
account may contain $450 or $400, rather than the correct value of $350. To guard against
this possibility, the system must maintain some form of supervision. But supervision is difficult
to provide because data may be accessed by many different application programs that have not
been coordinated previously.

7. Security Problems:

Not every user of the database system should be able to access all the data. For example,
in a banking system, payroll personnel need to see only that part of the databasethat has
information about the various bank employees. They do not need access to information about
customer accounts. But, since application programs are added to the system in an ad hoc
manner, enforcing such security constraints is difficult. These difficulties, among others,
prompted the development of databasesystems.
ADVANTAGES OF A DBMS OVER FILE SYSTEM:

Using a DBMS to manage data has many advantages:

Data Independence:

Application programs should be as independent as possible from details of data

representation and storage. The DBMS can provide an abstract view of the data to insulate
application code from such details.

Efficient Data Access:

DBMS supports many important functions that are common to many applications
accessing data stored in the DBMS. This, in conjunction with the high-level interface to the
data, facilitates quick development of applications. Such applications are also likely to be
more robust than applications developed from scratch because many important tasks arehandled
by the DBMS instead of being implemented by theapplication.
Q2-Describe the three schema architecture. What are the problems associated
with three schema architecture.

Three Schema Architecture:

The goal of this architecture is to separate the user applications and the physical
database. In this architecture, schemas can be defined at the following threelevels:

1. The internal level has an internal schema, which describes the physical storage structure
of the database. The internal schema uses a physical data model and describes the complete
details of data storage and access paths for thedatabase.

2. The conceptual level has a conceptual schema, which describes the structure of the whole
database for a community of users. The conceptual schema hides the details of physical
storage structures and concentrates on describing entities, data types, relationships, user
operations, and constraints. A high-level data model or an implementation data model can
be used at thislevel.

3. The external or view level includes a number of external schemas or user views. Each
external schema describes the part of the database that a particular user group is interested
in and hides the rest of the database from that user group. A high-level data model or an
implementation data model can be used at thislevel.
Q3- Explain the component modules of DBMS and their interaction, with the
help of a diagram.
Ans-DATABASE SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT ( DBMS COMPONENT MODULES)

A database system is partitioned into modules that deal with each of the responsibilities
of the overall system. The functional components of a database system can be broadly divided
into the storage manager and the query processorcomponents.

The storage manager is important because databases typically require a large amountof
storage space. Some Big organizations Database ranges from Giga bytes to Tera bytes. So the
main memory of computers cannot store this much information, the information is stored on
disks. Data are moved between disk storage and main memory asneeded.

The query processor also very important because it helps the database system simplify and
facilitate access to data. So quick processing of updates and queries is important. It is the job of the
database system to translate updates and queries written in a nonprocedurallanguage,
StorageManager:

A storage manager is a program module that provides the interface between the
low level data stored in the database and the application programs and queries submitted
to the system. The storage manager is responsible for the interaction with the file manager.
The storage manager translates the various DML statements into low-level file-system
commands. Thus, the storage manager is responsible for storing, retrieving, and updating
data in the database.

Storage Manager Components:

Authorization and integrity manager which tests for the satisfaction of

integrity constraints and checks the authority of users to access data.

Transaction manager which ensures that the database itself remains in a

consistent state despite system failures, and that concurrent transaction executions
proceed withoutconflicting.

File manager: which manages the allocation of space on disk storage and
the data structures used to represent information stored on disk.

Buffer manager which is responsible for fetching data from disk storage into main
memory. Storage manager implements several data structures as part of the physical
system implementation. Data files are used to store the database itself. Data dictionary is
used to stores metadata about the structure of the database, in particular the schema of the
database.

Query Processor Components:

DDL interpreter: It interprets DDL statements and records the definitions in the data
dictionary.

DML compiler: It translates DML statements in a query language into an evaluation plan
consisting of low-level instructions that the query evaluation engine understands.

Query evaluation engine: It executes low-level instructions generated by the DML

compiler.

Application Architectures:
 Most users of a database system today are not present at the site of the database
system, but connect to it through a network. We can therefore differentiate between
client machines,on which remote database users’ work, and server machines, on which the
database system runs. Database applications are usually partitioned into two or three parts.
They are:

1- Two Tier architecture

2-Three Tier Architecture

Q4-What is the difference between logical independence and physical

data independence ?
Ans-DATA INDEPENDENCE:

A very important advantage of using DBMS is that it offers Data Independence.

The ability to modify a scheme definition in one level without affecting a

scheme definition in a higher level is called data independence.

There are two kinds:

1. Physical Data Independence

2. Logical DataIndependence

Physical Data Independence:

The ability to modify the physical schema without causing application programs
to be rewritten
Modifications at this level are usually to improve performance.

Fig: Data Independence

 Logical Data Independence:

The ability to modify the conceptual schema without causing application programs
to be rewritten
Usually done when logical structure of database is altered.
Logical data independence is harder to achieve as the application programs are
usually heavily dependent on the logical structure of the data.

Q5- Entity –Relationship Diagrams

(i) University Database
(ii) Movie Database
(iii) Bank Database
Q6-Explain the Basic concepts of ER models(Diagrams) in DBMS

Ans-Entity-relationship model is a model used for design and representation of relationships

between data.
The main data objects are termed as Entities, with their details defined as attributes, some of
these attributes are important and are used to identify the entity, and different entities are related
using relationships.
In short, to understand about the ER Model, we must understand about:

● Entity and Entity Set

● What are Attributes? And Types of Attributes.
● Keys
● Relationships
For a School Management Software, we will have tostore
Student information, Teacher information, Classes, Subjects taught in each class etc.ER
Model: Entity and Entity Set
Considering the above example, Student is an entity, Teacher is an entity, similarly,
Class, Subject etc are also entities.
An Entity is generally a real-world object which has characteristics and holds
relationships in a DBMS.
If a Student is an Entity, then the complete dataset of all the students will be the Entity Set.

ER Model: Attributes
If a Student is an Entity, then student's roll no., student's name, student's age, student's
gender etc will be its attributes.
An attribute can be of many types, here are different types of attributes defined in ER
database model:

1. Simple attribute: The attributes with values that are atomic and cannot be broken
down further are simple attributes. For example, student's age.
2. Composite attribute: A composite attribute is made up of more than one simple
attribute. For example, student's address will contain, house no., street name, pin
code etc.
3. Derived attribute: These are the attributes which are not present in the whole
database management system, but are derived using other attributes. For
example, average age of students in a class.
4. Single-valued attribute: As the name suggests, they have a single value.
5. Multi-valued attribute: they can have multiple values.

ER Model: Keys
If the attribute roll no. can uniquely identify a student entity, amongst all the students, then
the attribute roll no. will be said to be a key.
Following are the types of Keys:

1. Super Key
2. Candidate Key
3. Primary Key

ER Model: Relationships
When an Entity is related to another Entity, they are said to have a relationship. For
example, A Class Entity is related to Student entity, because students study in classes, hence
this is a relationship.
Depending upon the number of entities involved, a degree is assigned to relationships.
For example, if 2 entities are involved, it is said to be Binary relationship, if 3 entities are
involved, it is said to be Ternary relationship, and so on.
Working with ER Diagrams
ER Diagram is a visual representation of data that describes how data is related to each other.
In ER Model, we disintegrate data into entities, attributes and setup relationships between
entities, all this can be represented visually using the ER diagram.
For example, in the below diagram, anyone can see and understand what the diagram wants
to convey: Developer develops a website, whereas a Visitor visits a website.

Components of ER Diagram
Entitiy, Attributes, Relationships etc form the components of ER Diagram and there are
defined symbols and shapes to represent each one of them.
Let's see how we can represent these in our ER Diagram.
Entity
Simple rectangular box represents an Entity.

Relationships between Entities - Weak and Strong

Rhombus is used to setup relationships between two or more entities.

Attributes for any Entity
Ellipse is used to represent attributes of any entity. It is connected to the entity.

Weak Entity
A weak Entity is represented using double rectangular boxes. It is generally connected to
another entity.

Key Attribute for any Entity

To represent a Key attribute, the attribute name inside the Ellipse is underlined.

Derived Attribute for any Entity

Derived attributes are those which are derived based on other attributes, for example, age can
be derived from date of birth.
To represent a derived attribute, another dotted ellipse is created inside the main ellipse.

Multivalued Attribute for any Entity

Double Ellipse, one inside another, represents the attribute which can have multiple values.

Composite Attribute for any Entity

A composite attribute is the attribute, which also has attributes.
ER Diagram: Entity
An Entity can be any object, place, person or class. In ER Diagram, an entity is represented
using rectangles. Consider an example of an Organisation- Employee, Manager, Department,
Product and many more can be taken as entities in an Organisation.

The yellow rhombus in between represents a relationship.

ER Diagram: Weak Entity

Weak entity is an entity that depends on another entity. Weak entity doesn't have any key
attribute of its own. Double rectangle is used to represent a weak entity.

ER Diagram: Attribute
An Attribute describes a property or characteristic of an entity. For
example, Name, Age, Address etc can be attributes of a Student. An attribute is represented
using eclipse.
ER Diagram: Key Attribute
Key attribute represents the main characteristic of an Entity. It is used to represent a Primary
key. Ellipse with the text underlined, represents Key Attribute.
ER Diagram: Composite Attribute
An attribute can also have their own attributes. These attributes are known
as Composite attributes.

ER Diagram: Relationship
A Relationship describes relation between entities. Relationship is represented using
diamonds or rhombus.

There are three types of relationship that exist between Entities.

1. Binary Relationship
2. Recursive Relationship
3. Ternary Relationship

ER Diagram: Binary Relationship

Binary Relationship means relation between two Entities. This is further divided into three
types.
One to One Relationship
This type of relationship is rarely seen in real world.
The above example describes that one student can enroll only for one course and a course
will also have only one Student. This is not what you will usually see in real-world
relationships.

One to Many Relationship

The below example showcases this relationship, which means that 1 student can opt for many
courses, but a course can only have 1 student. Sounds weird! This is how it is.

Many to One Relationship

It reflects business rule that many entities can be associated with just one entity. For example,
Student enrolls for only one Course but a Course can have many Students.
Many to Many Relationship

The above diagram represents that one student can enroll for more than one courses. And a
course can have more than 1 student enrolled in it.

ER Diagram: Recursive Relationship

When an Entity is related with itself it is known as Recursive Relationship.

ER Diagram: Ternary Relationship

Relationship of degree three is called Ternary relationship.
A Ternary relationship involves three entities. In such relationships we always consider two
entites together and then look upon the third.
For example, in the diagram above, we have three related
entities, Company, Productand Sector. To understand the relationship better or to define
rules around the model, we should relate two entities and then derive the third one.
A Company produces many Products/ each product is produced by exactly one company.
A Company operates in only one Sector / each sector has many companies operating in it.
Considering the above two rules or relationships, we see that although the complete
relationship involves three entities, but we are looking at two entities at a time.
The Enhanced ER Model
As the complexity of data increased in the late 1980s, it became more and more difficult to
use the traditional ER Model for database modelling. Hence some improvements or
enhancements were made to the existing ER Model to make it able to handle the complex
applications better.
Hence, as part of the Enhanced ER Model, along with other improvements, three new
concepts were added to the existing ER Model, they were:

1. Generalization
2. Specialization
3. Aggregation

Generalization
Generalization is a bottom-up approach in which two lower level entities combine to form a
higher level entity. In generalization, the higher level entity can also combine with other
lower level entities to make further higher level entity.
It's more like Super class and Subclass system, but the only difference is the approach, which
is bottom-up. Hence, entities are combined to form a more generalised entity, in other words,
sub-classes are combined to form a super-class.
For example, Saving and Current account types entities can be generalised and an entity
with name Account can be created, which covers both.

Specialization
Specialization is opposite to Generalization. It is a top-down approach in which one higher
level entity can be broken down into two lower level entity. In specialization, a higher level
entity may not have any lower-level entity sets, it's possible.
 Aggregation
Aggregation is a process when relation between two entities is treated as a single entity.

In the diagram above, the relationship between Center and Course together, is acting as an
Entity, which is in relationship with another entity Visitor. Now in real world, if a Visitor or
a Student visits a Coaching Center, he/she will never enquire about the center only or just
about the course, rather he/she will ask enquire about both.

Q7-Difference between Traditional file system and DBMS Approach.

Ans- Difference between File system & DBMS:

File system DBMS

Filesystemis acollection ofdata. Any 1. DBMS is a collection
of data and user is
1.management not
required to write the procedures for managing
withthefilesystem,userhastowritetheprocedures The
database.
File system gives the details of
2. the data 2. DBMS provides an abstract view of data that hides
representation and Storage of data. the details.
 InFile system storing and retrieving of data 3. DBMS is efficient use since there are
3.cannot to wide
varieties of techniquesto store
be done efficiently. sophisticated and
retrieve the data.
Concurrent access to the data in the file system
4.has 4. DBMS takes care of Concurrent access using some
many problems like : Reading the file while other form of locking.
deleting some information, updatingsome
information
File system doesn’t provide
crash 5. DBMS has crash recovery mechanism, DBMS
5. recovery protects user from the effects of system failures.
mechanism.
Eg. While we are entering some data into the file if
System crashes then content of the file is lost
6.Protectingafileunderfilesystemisverydifficult. 6. DBMS has a good protection mechanism.

Q8- Explain the classification of DBMS.

Ans-The Evolution of Database systems are

as follows:
1.File Management System 2.Hierarchical
database System 3.Network Database System
4.Relational database System
File Management System:

The file management system also called as FMS in short is one in which all data
is stored on a single large file. The main disadvantage in this system is searching arecord
or data takes a long time. This lead to the introduction of the concept, of indexing in this
system. Then also the FMS system had lot of drawbacks to name a few like updating or
modifications to the data cannot be handled easily, sorting the records took long time and
so on. All these drawbacks led to the introduction of the Hierarchical DatabaseSystem.

Hierarchical Database System:

The previous system FMS drawback of accessing records and sorting records
which took a long time was removed in this by the introduction of parent-child
relationship between records in database. The origin of the data is called the root from
which several branches have data at different levels and the last level is called the leaf.
The main drawback in this was if there is any modification or addition made to the structure
then the whole structure needed alteration which made the task a tedious one. In order to
avoid this next system took its origin which is called as the Network DatabaseSystem.

Fig: Hierarchical Database System

Network Database System:

In this the main concept of many-many relationships got introduced. But this also
followed the same technology of pointers to define relationships with a differencein this
made in the introduction if grouping of data items as sets.

Relational Database System:

In order to overcome all the drawbacks of the previous systems, the Relational
Database System got introduced in which data get organized as tables and each record
forms a row with many fields or attributes in it. Relationships between tables are also
formed in this system.
Q9.What are different database schema languages and interfaces?
Ans-

Database Language.
o A DBMS has appropriate languages and interfaces to express database queries and updates.
o Database languages can be used to read, store and update the data in the database.

Types of Database Language:

(i)DDL

(ii)DML

(iii)DCL

(iv)TCL

1. Data Definition Language

o DDL stands for Data Definition Language. It is used to define database structure or pattern.
o It is used to create schema, tables, indexes, constraints, etc. in the database.
o Using the DDL statements, you can create the skeleton of the database.
o Data definition language is used to store the information of metadata like the number of
tables and schemas, their names, indexes, columns in each table, constraints, etc.

2. Data Manipulation Language

DML stands for Data Manipulation Language. It is used for accessing and manipulating data in a
database. It handles user requests.

Here are some tasks that come under DML:

o Select: It is used to retrieve data from a database.

o Insert: It is used to insert data into a table.
o Update: It is used to update existing data within a table.
o Delete: It is used to delete all records from a table.
o Merge: It performs UPSERT operation, i.e., insert or update operations.
o Call: It is used to call a structured query language or a Java subprogram.
o Explain Plan: It has the parameter of explaining data.
o Lock Table: It controls concurrency.

3. Data Control Language

o DCL stands for Data Control Language. It is used to retrieve the stored or saved data.
o The DCL execution is transactional. It also has rollback parameters.

(But in Oracle database, the execution of data control language does not have the feature of
rolling back.)

Here are some tasks that come under DCL:

 o Grant: It is used to give user access privileges to a database.
o Revoke: It is used to take back permissions from the user.

There are the following operations which have the authorization of Revoke:

CONNECT, INSERT, USAGE, EXECUTE, DELETE, UPDATE and SELECT.

4. Transaction Control Language

TCL is used to run the changes made by the DML statement. TCL can be grouped into a logical
transaction.

Here are some tasks that come under TCL:

o Commit: It is used to save the transaction on the database.

o Rollback: It is used to restore the database to original since the last Commit.

Interfaces in DBMS

A database management system (DBMS) interface is a user interface which allows for
the ability to input queries to a database without using the query language itself.

User-friendly interfaces provide by DBMS may include the following:

1. Menu-Based Interfaces for Web Clients or Browsing –

These interfaces present the user with lists of options (called menus) that lead the
user through the formation of a request. Basic advantage of using menus is that they
removes the tension of remembering specific commands and syntax of any query
language, rather than query is basically composed step by step by collecting or
picking options from a menu that is basically shown by the system. Pull-down menus
are a very popular technique in Web based interfaces. They are also often used in
browsing interface which allow a user to look through the contents of a database in
an exploratory and unstructured manner.
2. Forms-Based Interfaces –
A forms-based interface displays a form to each user. Users can fill out all of the form
entries to insert a new data, or they can fill out only certain entries, in which case the
DBMS will redeem same type of data for other remaining entries. This type of forms
are usually designed or created and programmed for the users that have no expertise
in operating system. Many DBMSs have forms specification languages which are
special languages that help specify such forms.
Example: SQL* Forms is a form-based language that specifies queries using a form
designed in conjunction with the relational database schema.
3. Graphical User Interface –
A GUI typically displays a schema to the user in diagrammatic form.The user then can
specify a query by manipulating the diagram. In many cases, GUI’s utilize both menus
and forms. Most GUIs use a pointing device such as mouse, to pick certain part of the
displayed schema diagram.
4. Natural language Interfaces –
These interfaces accept request written in English or some other language and
 attempt to understand them. A Natural language interface has
its own schema, which is similar to the database conceptual
schema as well as a dictionary of important words.
The natural language interface refers to the words in its schema as
well as to the set of standard words in a dictionary to interpret
the request.If the interpretation is
successful, the interface generates a high-level query
corresponding to the natural language and submits it to the DBMS
for processing, otherwise a dialogue is started with the user to
clarify any provided condition or request. The main disadvantage
with this is that the capabilities of this type of interfaces are not
that much advance.

5. Speech Input and Output –

There is an limited use of speech say it for a query or an answer
to a question or being a result of a request it is becoming
commonplace Applications with limited vocabularies such as
inquiries for telephone directory, flight arrival/departure, and
bank account information are allowed speech for input and
output to enable ordinary folks to access this information.
The Speech input is detected using a predefined words and used
to set up theparameters that are supplied to the queries. For output,
a similar conversion from textor numbers into speech take place.

Interfaces for DBA –

Most database system contains privileged commands that can be
used only by the DBA’s staff. These include commands for creating
accounts, setting system parameters,granting account
authorization, changing a schema, reorganizing the storage
structuresof a databases.