ECS 165A:

Introduction to Database Systems

Todd J. Green

based on material and slides by

Michael Gertz and Bertram Ludäscher

Winter 2011

Dept. of Computer Science UC Davis

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1. Introduction to Relational Databases

What is a Database System?

• In this class we will learn about Databases (DBs) and Database

Management Systems (DBMSs)
• A Database is a (typically very large) integrated collection of
interrelated data which are stored in a persistent format (files).
Data describe information and activities about one or more
related organizations (portion of the real world). For example,
a university database might contain information about
– entities (e.g., students, courses, faculties, . . . )
– relationships among entities (e.g., ’Bill is taking ECS 165A’)

• A Database Management System is a collection of software

packages designed to store, access, and manage databases. It
provides users and applications with an environment that is
convenient, efficient, and reliable.

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File System versus DBMS

File processing approach: prominent approach supported by

conventional Operating Systems for data intensive application
programs in the 60’s and 70’s (and even sometimes today).

In the file processing approach, each application uses its own files:

Applications Applications

Products Products
Customers Suppliers

Drawbacks:
• Data are stored redundantly in many files using different
formats ( =⇒ inconsistencies among data, because changes
are not coordinated)
• No transaction management and concurrency control to
support multiple users
• Difficult to access data (no high-level query languages)
• No security mechanisms (OS file permissions are not enough!)
• No recovery mechanisms
• Program–data dependence ( =⇒ high maintenance costs)
• Poor data modeling concepts
• ...

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Purpose of a Database System

• Data Integration All data are uniformly managed.

• Efficient Data Access Database languages are provided to
store, access and manage data.
• Data Dictionary Contains all data about objects and structures
of the database (metadata)
• User/Application-Views Different views for different users and
applications
• Integrity Constraints are enforced by the DBMS.
• Security Mechanisms to protect data from security threats
• Transactions combine sets of operations on data into logical
atomic units
• Synchronization of concurrent user transactions
• Recovery of data after system crash
• ad-hoc queries, report generation, interfaces to other database
systems, interfaces for application programming, . . .

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Trends in Database Systems

Some Database Application Settings

• EOS – NASA’s Earth Observation System: Petabyte-sized
databases, thousands of customers and applications
• E-Commerce and Financial Applications: Integration of
heterogeneous information sources (e.g., catalogs)
• Health-Care Information Systems and Electronic Patient
Record: Integration of heterogeneous forms of legacy data
• Digital Libraries & Digital Publishing: Management and
delivery of large bodies of textual and multimedia data
• Collaborative Work and Design: Integration of heterogeneous
information sources, concurrency control, workflows

Trends that Affect Database Management Systems

• Record-based data has been joined by various kinds of
semistructured and multimedia data
• Information Superhighway: Web = Constantly growing
collection of heterogeneous information sources
• High bandwidth, more storage capacity, high performance
computing . . .

Challenges
• Data management in sensor networks (e.g., RFID)
• Grid computing
• Integration of multimedia objects and “standard” data
• User interfaces development, information visualization
• Distribution, heterogeneity, complexity of data; security and
privacy; data integration and conversion; data quality, . . .

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Why Study Database Systems?

• Shift from DBS as a specialized application to central

component of modern computing environments (“Data and
Information Science”)
• Shift from computation to information
– at the low end, we have a very messy Web space containing
hundreds of thousands of information sources
– at the high end, we have various needs for scientific
applications
• Datasets are increasing in diversity, complexity, and volume
– Digital Libraries, E-, Human Genome Project, . . .
– The need for (advanced) DBMS is exploding . . . !!!
• Database Systems encompass most of CS topics
– Operating Systems (file management, process management, . . . )
– Theory (languages, algorithms, computation, complexity, . . . )
– Artificial Intelligence (knowledge based systems, intelligent search, . .
– Software Engineering (application development, GUIs, . . . )
– Multimedia (video on demand, audio, movies, . . . )
– Logic (query languages, query optimization, . . . )

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Databases are Ubiquitous

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Different Views of Data

A major purpose of a DBMS is to provide users with an abstract
view of data, i.e. it hides details of how data are stored and
maintained on a computer.

View 1 View 2 ...... View n

degree of abstraction
Logical (or Conceptual ) Level

Physical Level

Levels of Abstraction in a DBMS

• Physical Level describes how data records are actually stored

and how files and indexes are organized and used
• Logical Level (sometimes also called Conceptual Level)
describes what data are stored in the DBS in terms of entities
and relationships; emphasis on logical structure of the database
• View Level describes how users and applications see the data

; Abstraction is achieved by describing each level in terms of a

database schema, which, in turn, is based on a data model

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Data Models, Schemas, and Instances

• A Data Model is a collection of concepts for describing

– data and relationships among data
– data semantics and data constraints

• Object-Based logical Models

– Entity-Relationship (ER) Model
– Object-Oriented (OO) Model

• Record-Based logical Models

– Relational Model
– Network Model
– Hierarchical Model

• A database schema is a description of a particular collection

of data, using a given data model.
An instance of a database schema is the actual content of the
database at a particular point in time.

• Schemas exist at different levels of abstraction

– Conceptual (or Logical) Schema: typically builds the basis
for designing a database (main focus in this course)
– View (or External) Schemas: typically determined during
requirements analysis (often require integration into one
conceptual schema)
– Physical Schema: storage structures associated with
relations

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Example: University Database

• Conceptual Schema: can be based on Entity-Relationship,

Object-Oriented, or Relational Model.
Example of an Entity-Relationship schema:

major address

sid name dob grade cid cname credits

Students Enrolled Courses

• Relational schema:
Students(sid : integer, name : string, major : string,
address : string, dob : date)
Courses(cid : integer, cname : string, credits : integer)
Enrolled(sid : integer, cid : integer, grade : string)
• Physical Schema:
– Relations are stored as unordered files
– Index on first column of Students
• External Schemas (Views):
– Course Info(cid : integer, enrollment : integer)

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Data Independence

• Ability to modify definition of schema at one level without

affecting a schema definition at a higher level

• Achieved through the use of three levels of data abstraction

(also called three level schema architecture)
– Logical Data Independence: Ability to modify logical
schema without causing application programs to be
rewritten
– Physical Data Independence: Ability to modify physical
schema without causing logical schema or applications to be
rewritten (occasionally necessary to improve performance)

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Database Languages

A Database Management System offers two different types of

languages
• Data Definition Language (DDL)
– Specification language (notation) for defining a database
schema; includes syntax and semantics
– DDL compiler generates set of tables stored in the DBMS’s
data dictionary (contains metadata, i.e. data about data )
– Data storage and definition language – special type of DDL
in which storage structures and access methods used by
the DBS are specified
– Data Definition in SQL (Structured Query Language):
create table students(
sid number,
name char(70),
major char(50),
dob date,
address char(100));

• Data Manipulation Language (DML)

– Language for accessing and manipulating the data that is
organized according to underlying data model
– Two classes of languages
Procedural – user specifies how required data is retrieved
Declarative – user specifies what data is required without
specifying how to get those data
(declarative =ˆ non-procedural)

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Transaction Management

• A transaction is an atomic sequence of database operations

that perform a logical function in a database application.
• Transaction-management component of DBMS ensures that
the DB remains in a consistent (correct) state despite system
failures (e.g., system crash, power failure) and transaction
failures.
• Concurrency control manager controls interaction among
concurrent user transactions to ensure the (read) consistency
of the database.

Storage Management

• The storage manager is a DBMS software component that

implements interface between low-level data stored in a
database (files) and the application programs and queries
submitted to the system.
• The storage manager is responsible for the following tasks:
– interaction with the operating system’s file manager
– efficient storage, retrieval, and update of the data

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Database Administrator

• Coordinates all the activities with respect to the design and

implementation of the database on a DBMS; has a good
understanding of the enterprise’s information resources and
needs.
• Database administrator’s (sometimes designer’s) duties
include:
– Schema definition (conceptual schema, external schema)
– Specifying integrity constraints
– Specifying storage structures and access method (physical
schema)
– Modifying the schema and physical organization
– Granting user privileges and managing user roles (security)
– Monitoring performance and responding to changes in
requirements

Database Users
• Users are differentiated by the way they interact with the
system
• Application programmers: interact with system through DML
and DDL calls
• Sophisticated users: formulate requests in a database query
language
• Specialized users: write specialized database applications that
do not fit into the traditional data processing framework
• Naive users: invoke one of the permanent application programs
that have been written previously

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Anatomy of a DBMS

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