Build Bright University

Advanced Database
Systems
Chapter 01
Yoeun Sambath, CEO
Zenith Solutions Pte Ltd
October 2003 1
 Introduction
Purpose of Database Systems
View of Data
Data Models
Data Definition Language
Data Manipulation Language
Transaction Management
Storage Management
Database Administrator
Database Users
Overall System Structure

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 Database Management System
(DBMS)
Collection of interrelated data
Set of programs to access the data
DBMS contains information about a particular enterprise
DBMS provides an environment that is both convenient and
efficient to use.
Database Applications:
 Banking: all transactions

 Airlines: reservations, schedules

 Universities: registration, grades

 Sales: customers, products, purchases

 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain

 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions

Databases touch all aspects of our lives

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Purpose of Database System
In the early days, database applications were built on top of file
systems
Drawbacks of using file systems to store data:
 Data redundancy and inconsistency

Multiple file formats, duplication of information in different

files
 Difficulty in accessing data

Need to write a new program to carry out each new task

 Data isolation — multiple files and formats

 Integrity problems

Integrity constraints (e.g. account balance > 0) become

part of program code
Hard to add new constraints or change existing ones

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Purpose of Database Systems
(Cont.)
Drawbacks of using file systems (cont.)
 Atomicity of updates

Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with

partial updates carried out
E.g. transfer of funds from one account to another should
either complete or not happen at all
 Concurrent access by multiple users

Concurrent accessed needed for performance

Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to
inconsistencies
 E.g. two people reading a balance and updating it at the

same time
 Security problems

Database systems offer solutions to all the above problems

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 Levels of Abstraction
Physical level describes how a record (e.g., customer) is
stored.
Logical level: describes data stored in database, and the
relationships among the data.
type customer = record
name : string;
street : string;
city : integer;
end;
View level: application programs hide details of data types.
Views can also hide information (e.g., salary) for security
purposes.

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 View of Data
An architecture for a database system

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 Instances and Schemas
Similar to types and variables in programming languages
Schema – the logical structure of the database
 e.g., the database consists of information about a set of customers and
accounts and the relationship between them)
 Analogous to type information of a variable in a program
 Physical schema: database design at the physical level
 Logical schema: database design at the logical level
Instance – the actual content of the database at a particular point in time
 Analogous to the value of a variable
Physical Data Independence – the ability to modify the physical schema
without changing the logical schema
 Applications depend on the logical schema
 In general, the interfaces between the various levels and components
should be well defined so that changes in some parts do not seriously
influence others.

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 Data Models
A collection of tools for describing
 data
 data relationships
 data semantics
 data constraints
Entity-Relationship model
Relational model
Other models:
 object-oriented model
 semi-structured data models
 Older models: network model and hierarchical model

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 Entity-Relationship Model
Example of schema in the entity-relationship model

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 Entity Relationship Model
(Cont.)
E-R model of real world
 Entities (objects)

E.g. customers, accounts, bank branch

 Relationships between entities

E.g. Account A-101 is held by customer Johnson

Relationship set depositor associates customers with
accounts
Widely used for database design
 Database design in E-R model usually converted to

design in the relational model (coming up next) which is

used for storage and processing

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 Relational Model Attributes

Example of tabular data in the relational model

customer- customer- customer- account-
Customer-id
name street city number

192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-101
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-215
192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-201
321-12-3123 Jones
Main Harrison A-217
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-201

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A Sample Relational Database

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 Data Definition Language
(DDL)
Specification notation for defining the database schema
 E.g.

create table account (

account-number char(10),
balance integer)
DDL compiler generates a set of tables stored in a data dictionary
Data dictionary contains metadata (i.e., data about data)
 database schema
 Data storage and definition language

language in which the storage structure and access methods

used by the database system are specified
Usually an extension of the data definition language

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Data Manipulation Language
(DML)
Language for accessing and manipulating the data
organized by the appropriate data model
 DML also known as query language

Two classes of languages

 Procedural – user specifies what data is required

and how to get those data

 Nonprocedural – user specifies what data is

required without specifying how to get those data

SQL is the most widely used query language

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 SQL
SQL: widely used non-procedural language
 E.g. find the name of the customer with customer-id 192-83-7465

select customer.customer-name
from customer
where customer.customer-id = ‘192-83-7465’
 E.g. find the balances of all accounts held by the customer with

customer-id 192-83-7465
select account.balance
from depositor, account
where depositor.customer-id = ‘192-83-7465’ and
depositor.account-number = account.account-number
Application programs generally access databases through one of
 Language extensions to allow embedded SQL

 Application program interface (e.g. ODBC/JDBC) which allow SQL

queries to be sent to a database

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 Database Users
Users are differentiated by the way they expect to interact with the
system
Application programmers – interact with system through DML calls
Sophisticated users – form requests in a database query language
Specialized users – write specialized database applications that
do not fit into the traditional data processing framework
Naïve users – invoke one of the permanent application programs
that have been written previously
 E.g. people accessing database over the web, bank tellers,

clerical staff

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 Database Administrator
Coordinates all the activities of the database system; the database
administrator has a good understanding of the enterprise’s
information resources and needs.
Database administrator's duties include:
 Schema definition

 Storage structure and access method definition

 Schema and physical organization modification

 Granting user authority to access the database

 Specifying integrity constraints

 Acting as liaison with users

 Monitoring performance and responding to changes in

requirements

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 Transaction Management
A transaction is a collection of operations that
performs a single logical function in a database
application
Transaction-management component ensures that
the database remains in a consistent (correct) state
despite system failures (e.g., power failures and
operating system crashes) and transaction failures.
Concurrency-control manager controls the interaction
among the concurrent transactions, to ensure the
consistency of the database.

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 Storage Management
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 to the
following tasks:
 interaction with the file manager
 efficient storing, retrieving and updating of data

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Overall System Structure

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 Application Architectures

Two-tier architecture: E.g. client programs using ODBC/JDBC to

communicate with a database
Three-tier architecture: E.g. web-based applications, and
applications built using “middleware”

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