DBMS & SQL NOTES
Database: A database is a collection of related data which represents some aspect of the real
world. A database system is designed to be built and populated with data for a certain task.
Database Management System (DBMS) is a software for storing and retrieving users' data while
considering appropriate security measures. It consists of a group of programs which 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 to store and retrieve data.
Database management systems were developed to handle the following difficulties of
typical File-processing systems supported by conventional operating systems.
1. Data redundancy and inconsistency
2. Difficulty in accessing data
3. Data isolation – multiple files and formats
4. Integrity problems
5. Atomicity of updates
6. Concurrent access by multiple users
7. Security problems
ER diagram:
● ER diagram or Entity Relationship diagram is a conceptual model that gives the
graphical representation of the logical structure of the database.
● It shows all the constraints and relationships that exist among the different components.
● An ER diagram is mainly composed of following three components- Entity Sets,
Attributes and Relationship Set.
● Roll_no is a primary key that can identify each entity uniquely.
● Thus, by using a student's roll number, a student can be identified uniquely.
Entity Set:
An entity set is a set of the same type of entities.
● Strong Entity Set:
A strong entity set is an entity set that contains sufficient attributes to uniquely
o
identify all its entities.
o In other words, a primary key exists for a strong entity set.
o Primary key of a strong entity set is represented by underlining it.
● Weak Entity Set:
o A weak entity set is an entity set that does not contain sufficient attributes to
uniquely identify its entities.
o In other words, a primary key does not exist for a weak entity set.
o However, it contains a partial key called a discriminator.
o Discriminator can identify a group of entities from the entity set.
o Discriminator is represented by underlining with a dashed line.
Relationship:
A relationship is defined as an association among several entities.
● Unary Relationship Set - Unary relationship set is a relationship set where only one
entity set participates in a relationship set.
● Binary Relationship Set - Binary relationship set is a relationship set where two entity
sets participate in a relationship set.
● Ternary Relationship Set - Ternary relationship set is a relationship set where three
entity sets participate in a relationship set.
● N-ary Relationship Set - N-ary relationship set is a relationship set where ‘n’ entity sets
participate in a relationship set.
Cardinality Constraint:
Cardinality constraint defines the maximum number of relationship instances in which an entity
can participate.
● One-to-One Cardinality - An entity in set A can be associated with at most one entity in
set B. An entity in set B can be associated with at most one entity in set A.
● One-to-Many Cardinality - An entity in set A can be associated with any number (zero or
