Unit 1 – Introduction to Database Management System

A database is an ordered collection of related data that is built for a specific purpose. A
database may be organized as a collection of multiple tables, where a table represents a
real world element or entity. Each table has several different fields that represent the
characteristic features of the entity.
For example, a company database may include tables for projects, employees,
departments, products and financial records. The fields in the Employee table may be
Name, Company_Id, Date_of_Joining, and so forth.

What is DBMS?
A database management system is a collection of programs that enables creation and
maintenance of a database. DBMS is available as a software package that facilitates
definition, construction, manipulation and sharing of data in a database. Definition of a
database includes description of the structure of a database. Construction of a database
involves actual storing of the data in any storage medium. Manipulation refers to the
retrieving information from the database, updating the database and generating reports.
Sharing of data facilitates data to be accessed by different users or programs.

Database Management System is software for storing and retrieving users’ data while
considering appropriate security measures. It consists of a group of programs that
manipulate the database. The DBMS accepts the request for data from an application and
instructs the operating system to provide the specific data. In large systems, a DBMS helps
users and other third-party software store and retrieve data.
DBMS allows users to create their own databases as per their requirements. The term
“DBMS” includes the user of the database and other application programs. It provides an
interface between the data and the software application.
Example of a DBMS
Let us see a simple example of a university database. This database is maintaining
information concerning students, courses, and grades in a university environment. The
database is organized as five files:
 The STUDENT file stores the data of each student
 The COURSE file stores contain data on each course.
 The SECTION stores information about sections in a particular course.
 The GRADE file stores the grades which students receive in the various sections
 The FACULTY file contains information about each professor.

To define DBMS:
 We need to specify the structure of the records of each file by defining the different
types of data elements to be stored in each record.
 We can also use a coding scheme to represent the values of a data item.
 Basically, your Database will have 5 tables with a foreign key defined amongst the
various tables.

History of DBMS
 1960 – Charles Bachman designed the first DBMS system
 1970 – Codd introduced IBM’S Information Management System (IMS)
 1976- Peter Chen coined and defined the Entity-relationship model, also known as
the ER model
 1980 – Relational Model becomes a widely accepted database component
 1985- Object-oriented DBMS develops.
 1990s- Incorporation of object-orientation in relational DBMS.
 1991- Microsoft ships MS access, a personal DBMS, and that displaces all other
personal DBMS products.
 1995: First Internet database applications
 1997: XML applied to database processing. Many vendors begin to integrate XML
into DBMS products.
Characteristics of DBMS
 Provides security and removes redundancy
 Self-describing nature of a database system
 Insulation between programs and data abstraction
 Support of multiple views of the data
 Sharing of data and multiuser transaction processing
 Database Management Software allows entities and relations among them to form
tables.
 It follows the ACID concept ( Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability).
 DBMS supports a multi-user environment that allows users to access and
manipulate data in parallel.
DBMS vs. File
DBMS File Management System
Multi-user access It does not support multi-user access
Design to fulfill the need of small and large
It is only limited to smaller DBMS systems.
businesses
Remove redundancy and Integrity. Redundancy and Integrity issues
Expensive. But in the long term Total Cost of
It’s cheaper
Ownership is cheap
Easy to implement complicated transactions No support for complicated transactions

Users of DBMS
Following are the various categories of users of DBMS
Component Name Task
The Application programmers write programs
Application Programmers in various programming languages to interact
with databases.
Database Admin is responsible for managing
Database Administrators the entire DBMS system. He/She is called
Database admin or DBA.
The end users are the people who interact
with the database management system. They
End-Users
conduct various operations on databases like
retrieving, updating, deleting, etc.
Popular DBMS Software
Here is the list of some popular DBMS systems:
 MySQL  SQLite
 Microsoft Access  IBM DB2
 Oracle  LibreOffice Base
 PostgreSQL  MariaDB
 dBASE  Microsoft SQL Server
 FoxPro

Application of DBMS
Sector Use of DBMS
For customer information, account activities, payments, deposits,
Banking
loans, etc.
Airlines For reservations and schedule information.
Universities For student information, course registrations, colleges, and grades.
Telecommunication It helps to keep call records, monthly bills, maintain balances, etc.
For storing information about stock, sales, and purchases of financial
Finance
instruments like stocks and bonds.
Sales Use for storing customer, product & sales information.
It is used to manage the supply chain and track the production of
Manufacturing
items. Inventories status in warehouses.
For information about employees, salaries, payroll, deduction,
HR Management
generation of paychecks, etc.
Advantages of DBMS
 DBMS offers a variety of techniques to store & retrieve data
 DBMS serves as an efficient handler to balance the needs of multiple applications
using the same data
 Uniform administration procedures for data
 Application programmers are never exposed to details of data representation and
storage.
 A DBMS uses various powerful functions to store and retrieve data efficiently.
 Offers Data Integrity and Security
 The DBMS implies integrity constraints to get a high level of protection against
prohibited access to data.
 A DBMS schedules concurrent access to the data in such a manner that only one user
can access the same data at a time
 Reduced Application Development Time
Disadvantage of DBMS
DBMS may offer plenty of advantages, but it has certain flaws-
 The cost of Hardware and Software of a DBMS is quite high, which increases the
budget of your organization.
 Most database management systems are often complex, so training users to use the
DBMS is required.
 In some organizations, all data is integrated into a single database that can be
damaged because of electric failure or corruption in the storage media.
 Using the same program at a time by multiple users sometimes leads to data loss.
 DBMS can’t perform sophisticated calculations
 Drawbacks of using file system to store data:-
File processing system does not provide adequate security on data. In some situations, it is
required to provide different types of access to data for different users. For example, a data
entry operator should only be allowed to enter data.
 Inconsistency in data format.
 The same information being kept in several different places (files)
 Data inconsistency, a situation where various copies of the same data are conflicting,
wastes storage space and duplicates effort.

Disadvantages of File Processing System:

 Slow access time – Direct access of files is very difficult and one needs to know the
entire hierarchy of folders to get to a specific file.
 Presence of redundant data
 Inconsistent Data
 Data Integrity Problems
 Difficulty in recovery of corrupt data

Comparison of File Processing system & DBMS:-

Basis DBMS File Processing System

Meaning DBMS is a collection of data. In DBMS, The file system is a collection of data.
the user is not required to write the In this system, the user has to write
procedures. the procedures for managing the
database.

Sharing of data Due to the centralized approach, data Data is distributed in many files, and
sharing is easy. it may be of different formats, so it
isn't easy to share data.

Data Abstraction DBMS gives an abstract view of data The file system provides the detail of
that hides the details. the data representation and storage
of data.

Security and DBMS provides a good protection It isn't easy to protect a file under the
Protection mechanism. file system.

Recovery DBMS provides a crash recovery The file system doesn't have a crash
Mechanism mechanism, i.e., DBMS protects the mechanism, i.e., if the system crashes
user from system failure. while entering some data, then the
content of the file will be lost.

Manipulation DBMS contains a wide variety of The file system can't efficiently store
Techniques sophisticated techniques to store and and retrieve the data.
retrieve the data.

Concurrency DBMS takes care of Concurrent access In the File system, concurrent access
Problems of data using some form of locking. has many problems like redirecting
the file while deleting some
information or updating some
information.

Where to use Database approach used in large File system approach used in large
systems which interrelate many files. systems which interrelate many files.

Cost The database system is expensive to The file system approach is cheaper
design. to design.

Data Due to the centralization of the In this, the files and application
Redundancy and database, the problems of data programs are created by different
Inconsistency redundancy and inconsistency are programmers so that there exists a
controlled. lot of duplication of data which may
lead to inconsistency.

Structure The database structure is complex to The file system approach has a
design. simple structure.

Data In this system, Data Independence In the File system approach, there
Independence exists, and it can be of two types. exists no Data Independence.
Logical Data Independence
Physical Data Independence

Integrity Integrity Constraints are easy to apply. Integrity Constraints are difficult to
Constraints implement in file system.

Data Models In the database approach, 3 types of In the file system approach, there is
data models exist: no concept of data models exists.
Hierarchal data models
Network data models
Relational data models

Flexibility Changes are often a necessity to the The flexibility of the system is less as
content of the data stored in any compared to the DBMS approach.
system, and these changes are more
easily with a database approach.

Examples Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase etc. Cobol, C++ etc.

Summary
 DBMS definition: A database is a collection of related data which represents some
aspect of the real world
 The full form of DBMS is Database Management System. DBMS stands for Database
Management System. It is software for storing and retrieving users’ data by considering
appropriate security measures.
 DBMS Provides security and removes redundancy
 DBMS has many advantages over traditional Flat File management system
 Some Characteristics of DBMS are Security, Self-describing nature, Insulation between
programs and data abstraction, Support of multiple views of the data, etc.
 End-Users, Application Programmers, and Database Administrators are the type of
users who access a DBMS
 DBMS is widely used in Banking, Airlines, Telecommunication, Finance, and other
industries
 DBMS serves as an efficient handler to balance the needs of multiple applications using
the same data
 The cost of Hardware and Software of a DBMS is quite high, which increases the budget
of your organization.