Introduction to databases

Lecture 1
 Overview
• Introduction
• Why study databases?
• What is a database?
• Database systems
• File systems
• What are the different parts of a database?
• Evolution of databases
• When not to use a database
 Introduction
• To be able to function, an organisation needs
information, e.g. list of books in a library,
customer details in a retail business,
specifications of cars and their components for
a car manufacturer
• Information may be defined as data
represented in a meaningful form. Same data
shown in different ways will provide different
information to different viewers
 Introduction cont…
• A major requirement of any computer system
is to store and retrieve data in a way that is
meaningful to the end user – so the core of
any Information System is data, which is to be
transformed into information through data
modelling
• What is the difference between data and
information?
• Where can one find data?
• What does information management entail?
 Introduction cont…
But what is data? And where is it now?

Data is factual information about objects and

concepts, such as:
• measurements
• statistics

Data can be defined in many ways. Information science defines data as

unprocessed information.

You can find it in:

 filing cabinets, spreadsheets, folders, ledgers, lists, piles of papers on your desk
 Introduction cont…
What is Information?
– Information is data that have been organised and
communicated in a coherent and meaningful
manner.
– Data is converted into information, and
information is converted into knowledge.
– Knowledge; information evaluated and organised
so that it can be used purposefully.
 Introduction cont…
What does “managing information”
mean?
• Making information work for us

• Making information useful

• Avoiding "accidental disorganisation”

• Making information easily accessible and

integrated with the rest of our work
 Introduction cont…
Managing as re-organising
We often need to access and re-sort data for
various uses. These may include:

o Creating mailing lists

o Writing management reports
o Generating lists of selected news stories
o Identifying various client needs

Can you add to the list?

 Introduction cont…
Managing as re-processing
The processing power of a database allows it to:
 Sort
 Match
 Link
 Aggregate
 Skip fields
 Calculate
 Arrange
 Demonstration of
data and information
management
Data in context
Summarised data
 Why study databases
• Databases are useful
– Many computing applications deal with large
amounts of information
– Database systems give a set of tools for storing,
searching and managing this information
 Why study databases cont…
• Databases in IT
– Databases are a ‘core topic’ in IT
– Basic concepts and skills with database systems
are part of the skill set you will be assumed to
have as a IT graduate
 What is a database?
• A database is any organised
collection of data. Some examples of
databases you may encounter in your
daily life are:
– a telephone book
– T.V. Guide
– airline reservation system
– motor vehicle registration records
– papers in your filing cabinet
– files on your computer hard drive.
Databases everywhere!

Because of the versatility of databases,

we find them powering all sorts of
projects:
 A web site that is capturing registered users
 A client tracking application for social service organisations
 A medical record system for a health care facility
 Your personal address book in your e-mail client
 A collection of word processed documents
 A system that issues airline reservations
 Database Systems
• A database system consists of
– Data (the database)
– Software (the DBMS)
– Hardware
– Users
• Database systems allow users to
– Store
– Update
– Retrieve
– Organise
– Protect
their data.
Database systems components:
Data
• Data is the factual information about
objects and concepts
• A school database will contain data
about students, teachers, classes,
e.t.c
Database systems components:
Software
• A database management system
(DBMS) is the software than controls
that the operations of a database.
• Examples of DBMSes include:
– Oracle
– DB2 (IBM)
– MS SQL Server
– MS Access
– Ingres
– PostgreSQL
– MySQL
Database systems components:
Software cont…
Functions of the DBMS
• Provides users with
– Data definition language (DDL)
– Data manipulation language (DML)
– Data control language (DCL)
• Often these are all the same language
• DBMS provides
– Persistence, Concurrency
– Integrity,Security
– Data independence
– Data Dictionary which describes the database itself
 Database systems components:
People in the database environment
• End users
– Use the database system to achieve some goal
• Application developers
– Write software to allow end users to interface with
the database system
• Database Administrator (DBA)
– Designs & manages the database system
• Database systems programmer
– Writes the database software itself

TASK: Find out about all the people involved in the

database environment and their functions
 Advantages of database
systems
• Minimal Data Redundancy/Improved Consistency
• Data Integration
• Multiple Relationships
• Data Independence/Reduced Maintenance
• Improved Data Sharing
• Increased Application Development Productivity
• Enforcement of Standards
• Improved Data Quality (Constraints)
• Better Data Accessibility/ Responsiveness
• Security, Backup/Recovery, Concurrency
 Disadvantages of database
systems
• New, Specialised Personnel required
• Installation Management Cost and Complexity
• Conversion Costs
• Need for Explicit Backup and Recovery
• Organisational Conflict
 File-based systems
• Data is stored in files
• Each file has a specific format
• Programs that use these files depend on
knowledge about that format
 Problems in the File-based
systems
• Program-Data Dependence – file descriptions are
stored within each application that accesses file, so
change to file structure requires changes to all file
descriptions in all programs.
• Data Redundancy (Duplication of data) – wasteful,
inconsistent, loss of metadata integrity (same data
has different names in different files, or same name
may be used for different data in different files).
 Problems in the File-based
systems cont…
• Limited Data Sharing – users have little opportunity to
share data outside their own applications.
• Lengthy Development Times – little opportunity to re-
use previous development efforts.
• Excessive Program Maintenance – factors above
combine to create heavy maintenance load
 Different parts of a database

• Fields
• Records
• Queries
• Reports
 Fields

• Database storage smallest units

• Generic elements of content
Exercise 1: Breaking down content
into fields
Use the table below to break each content
type into fields.
 Records

• A record is a complete set of fields for a

given entity e.g. student record showing
personal details
• Generic elements of content
 Records
A simple table showing fields (columns) and records(rows):

And as part of an MS Access database table:

 Queries
• Queries are the information retrieval
requests you make to the database
• Your queries are all about the information
you are trying to gather
 Reports
• If the query is a question...
...then the report is its answer
• Reports can be tailored to the needs of the
data-user, making the information they
extract much more useful
 Evolution of database
systems
• 1960’s – file processing systems: punch cards,
paper tape, magnetic tape – sequential access
and batch processing
• 1970s - Hierarchical and Network (legacy, some
still used today) – difficulties = hard to access
data (navigational record-at-a-time
procedures), limited data independence, no
widely accepted theoretical model (unlike
relational)
 Evolution of database
systems
• 1980s - Relational – E.F. Codd and others
developed this theoretically well-founded
model – all data represented in the form of
tables – Oracle, DB2, Ingres
• 1990s - Object-oriented, some organisations
have to handle large amounts of both
structured and unstructured data, so Object-
relational databases were developed.
• 2000 and beyond – multi –tier, client-server,
distributed environments, web-based, content-
addressable storage, data mining
 When not to use a database
• Think of situations where it might not be
appropriate to use a database.

• Also think about the uses of databases in

sports.