Islamic Online University

Course: Introduction to computing.

Module 16:
Introduction to Database Management System.
 Objectives

• Obtain an understanding of general concepts database.

• Become familiar with the concept of database design

• To understand the characteristics of a database

• Learn more about various types of database.

 Content.
1. What is data base.

2. Data management.

3. Introduction to Database Management System.

4. Data Model and types of data model.

 What is database.
• Data
• This is a collection of facts represented in the form of numbers, letters or words

• Information
• The processed data organized in a meaningful way which are useful to people
who receive them. Thus data are sometimes referred to raw materials from which
information is generated.

• General:
• A database is any collection of related data.

• Restrictive:
• A database is a persistent, logically coherent collection of inherently meaningful
data, relevant to some aspects of the real world.
 Why do we need data.
• Data can do the following for us:

• Confirm problems or issues

• Change how we deliver programs, allocate resources, and decide what programs
we offer
• Validate what we already know
• Encourage inquiry and further exploration of issues
• Question what we assume is working or not working
• Provide reliable information for accountability issues
• Guide continuous improvement
• Build a community of lifelong learners
 Data Management.
• Data management consist of the following tasks:

• Data capture: Which is the task associated with gathering the data as and when
they originate.

• Data classification: Captured data has to be classified based on the nature and
intended usage.

• Data storage: The segregated data has to be stored properly.

• Data arranging: It is very important to arrange the data properly

• Data retrieval: Data will be required frequently for further processing, Hence it
is very important to create some indexes so that data can be retrieved easily
 Data Management.
• Data management consist of the following tasks:
• Data maintenance: Maintenance is the task concerned with keeping the data up
to-date.

• Data Verification: Before storing the data it must be verified for any error.

• Data Coding: Data will be coded for easy reference.

• Data Editing: Editing means re-arranging the data or modifying the data for
presentation.

• Data transcription: This is the activity where the data is converted from one
form into another.

• Data transmission: This is a function where data is forwarded to the place where
it would be used further.
 Method of Data Management.
• Data management can be done using the concept of:

• File System.

• A file system: is used to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a
file system, information placed in a storage area would be one large body of
data with no way to tell where one piece of information stops and the next
begins. By separating the data into individual pieces, and giving each piece a
name, the information is easily separated and identified.

• Database Management System.

 Introduction to database management system.
• A database-management system (DBMS) is a collection of interrelated data and a
set of programs to access those data.

• The collection of data, usually referred to as the database, contains information

relevant to an enterprise. The primary goal of a DBMS is to provide a way to store
and retrieve database information that is both convenient and efficient.

• By data, we mean known facts that can be recorded and that have implicit meaning.
For example, consider the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of the people
you know.

• You may have recorded this data in an indexed address book, or you may have stored
it on a diskette, using a personal computer and software such as DBASE IV or V,
Microsoft ACCESS, or EXCEL.
 Introduction to database management system.
• A datum – a unit of data – is a symbol or a set of symbols which is used to represent
something. This relationship between symbols and what they represent is the essence
of what we mean by information.

• Database systems are designed to manage large bodies of information. Management

of data involves both defining structures for storage of information and providing
mechanisms for the manipulation of information.

• In addition, the database system must ensure the safety of the information stored,
despite system crashes or attempts at unauthorized access. If data are to be shared
among several users, the system must avoid possible anomalous results.
 Difference between File system and DBMS
File System DBMS
File system is a collection of data. Any DBMS is a collection of data and user is
management with the file system, user not required to write the procedures for
has to write the procedures managing the database.
File system gives the details of the data DBMS provides an abstract view of data
representation and Storage of data that hides the details.
In File system storing and retrieving of DBMS is efficient to use since there are
data cannot be done efficiently. wide varieties of sophisticated techniques
to store and retrieve the data
Concurrent access to the data in the file DBMS takes care of Concurrent access
system has many problems like a. using some form of locking.
Reading the file while other deleting
some information, updating some
information
 Difference between File system and DBMS
File System DBMS
File system doesn’t provide crash DBMS has crash recovery mechanism,
recovery mechanism. Eg. While we are DBMS protects user from the effects of
entering some data into the file if System system failures.
crashes then content of the file is lost.
Protecting a file under file system is very DBMS has a good protection mechanism.
difficult.
 Advantages of database management system.

• Data independency: Application program should not be exposed to details of data

representation and storage DBMS provides the abstract view that hides these details.

• Efficient data access: DBMS utilizes a variety of sophisticated techniques to store

and retrieve data efficiently.

• Data integrity and security: Data is accessed through DBMS, it can enforce
integrity constraints. E.g.: Inserting salary information for an employee.

• Data Administration: When users share data, centralizing the data is an important
task, Experience professionals can minimize data redundancy and perform fine
tuning which reduces retrieval time.
 Advantages of database management system.

• Concurrent access and Crash recovery: DBMS schedules concurrent access to the
data. DBMS protects user from the effects of system failure.

• Reduced application development time: DBMS supports important functions that

are common to many applications.
 Disadvantages of database management system.
• Danger of a Overkill: For small and simple applications for single users a database
system is often not advisable.

• Complexity: A database system creates additional complexity and requirements. The

supply and operation of a database management system with several users and
databases is quite costly and demanding.

• Qualified Personnel: The professional operation of a database system requires

appropriately trained staff. Without a qualified database administrator nothing will
work for long.

• Costs: Through the use of a database system new costs are generated for the system
itself but also for additional hardware and the more complex handling of the system.
 Disadvantages of database management system.

• Lower Efficiency: A database system is a multi-use software which is often less

efficient than specialized software which is produced and optimized exactly for one
problem.
 Function of database management system.
• Data Definition: The DBMS provides functions to define the structure of the data in
the application. These include defining and modifying the record structure, the type
and size of fields and the various constraints to be satisfied by the data in each field.

• Data Manipulation: Once the data structure is defined, data needs to be inserted,
modified or deleted. These functions which perform these operations are part of
DBMS.

• Data Security & Integrity: The DBMS contains modules which handle the security
and integrity of data in the application.
 Function of database management system.

• Data Recovery and Concurrency: Recovery of the data after system failure and
concurrent access of records by multiple users is also handled by DBMS.

• Data Dictionary Maintenance: Maintaining the data dictionary which contains the
data definition of the application is also one of the functions of DBMS.

• Performance: Optimizing the performance of the queries is one of the important

functions of DBMS.
 Data Model.
• A model is an abstraction process that hides superfluous details.

• Data modeling is used for representing entities of interest and their relationship in the
database.

• Data model and different types of Data Model Data model is a collection of concepts
that can be used to describe the structure of a database which provides the necessary
means to achieve the abstraction.

• Communications tool to facilitate interaction among the designer, the applications

programmer, and the end user

• Good database design uses an appropriate data model as its foundation

 Types of Data Model.
• A model is an abstraction process that hides superfluous details.

• Data modeling is used for representing entities of interest and their relationship in the
database.

• Data model and different types of Data Model Data model is a collection of concepts
that can be used to describe the structure of a database which provides the necessary
means to achieve the abstraction.

• The types of data model are:

• Hierarchical
• Network
• Relational
• Entity relationship
• Object oriented
 The Entity-Relationship Model .
• The entity-relationship (E-R) data model is based on a perception of a real world that
consists of a collection of basic objects, called entities, and of relationships among
these objects.

• An entity is a “thing” or “object” in the real world that is distinguishable from other
objects.

• For example, each person is an entity, and bank accounts can be considered as
entities.

• Entities are described in a database by a set of attributes. For example, the attributes
Student Number and Grade may describe one particular student record in a school,
and they form attributes of the student entity set. Similarly, attributes student-name,
student-street address and student-city may describe a student entity.
 The Entity-Relationship Model .
• An extra attribute student-id is used to uniquely identify student (since it may be
possible to have two student with the same name, street address, and city).

• A unique student identifier must be assigned to each student.

• A relationship is an association among several entities. For example, a course

registration relationship associates a student with each subject that she has registered
for.

• The set of all entities of the same type and the set of all relationships of the same
type are termed an entity set and relationship set, respectively.

• The overall logical structure (schema) of a database can be expressed graphically by

an E-R diagram.
 The Entity-Relationship Model .
• An extra attribute student-id is used to uniquely identify student (since it may be
possible to have two student with the same name, street address, and city).

• A unique student identifier must be assigned to each student.

• A relationship is an association among several entities. For example, a course

registration relationship associates a student with each subject that she has registered
for.

• The set of all entities of the same type and the set of all relationships of the same
type are termed an entity set and relationship set, respectively.

• The overall logical structure (schema) of a database can be expressed graphically by

an E-R diagram.
 The Entity-Relationship Model .
• Key things to know in an ER Diagram:

• Rectangles represent entity sets.

• Diamonds represent relationship sets

• Lines link attributes to entity sets and entity sets to relationship sets

• Ellipses represent attributes – Double ellipses represent multivalued attributes –

Dashed ellipses denote derived attributes

• Underline indicates primary key attributes

The Entity-Relationship Model .
The Entity-Relationship Model .
 Entity-Relationship Model .
• Advantages.
• Exceptional conceptual simplicity
• Visual representation
• Effective communication tool
• Integrated with the relational data model

• Disadvantages
• Limited constraint representation
• Limited relationship representation
• No data manipulation language
• Loss of information content
 Relational Model .
• The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent both data and the
relationships among those data.

• Each table has multiple columns, and each column has a unique name.

• The data is arranged in a relation which is visually represented in a two dimensional

table. The data is inserted into the table in the form of tuples (which are nothing but
rows).

• A tuple is formed by one or more than one attributes, which are used as basic
building blocks in the formation of various expressions that are used to derive a
meaningful information.

• There can be any number of tuples in the table, but all the tuple contain fixed and
same attributes with varying values.
 Relational Model .
• The relational model is implemented in database where a relation is represented by a
table, a tuple is represented by a row, an attribute is represented by a column of the
table, attribute name is the name of the column such as ‘identifier’, ‘name’, ‘city’
etc., attribute value contains the value for column in the row.

• Constraints are applied to the table and form the logical schema. In order to facilitate
the selection of a particular row/tuple from the table, the attributes i.e. column names
are used, and to expedite the selection of the rows some fields are defined uniquely
to use them as indexes, this helps in searching the required data as fast as possible.

• All the relational algebra operations, such as Select, Intersection, Product, Union,
Difference, Project, Join, Division, Merge etc. can also be performed on the
Relational Database Model. Operations on the Relational Database Model are
facilitated with the help of different conditional expressions, various key attributes,
pre-defined constraints etc.
Relational Model .
 Relational Model .
• Advantages

• Structural independence
• Improved conceptual simplicity
• Easier database design, implementation, management, and use
• Ad hoc query capability
• Powerful database management system

• Disadvantages

• Substantial hardware and system software overhead

• Can facilitate poor design and implementation
• May promote “islands of information” problems
 Summary.
• Understood the concept of database and data management

• The need for data

• The methods of data management

• Discussed data base management system.

• Difference between file system and DBMS

• Advantages and disadvantages of DBMS

• Data Model and type of data model - ER Model and Relational Model