• Ramez Elmasri , Shamkant B.

Navathe(2016) Fundamentals of Database Systems

(7th Edition) ,pearson, isbn 10: 0-13-397077-9;isbn-13:978-0-13-397077-7.

• Chapter 2:
Database System
Concepts and Architecture

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Chapter 2: Database System Concepts and Architecture
Outline
• 1. Data Models, Schemas and Instances
• 2. Three-Schema Architecture
• 3. Data Independence
• 4. DBMS Languages and Interfaces
• 5. Database System Utilities and Tools
• 6. Centralized and Client-Server Architectures
• 7. History of Data Models

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1. Data Models, Schemas and Instances

• 1. Data model: defines the data structure, operations and constraints

of the database (consisting of the data elements, their data types,
relationships).
• Example data models are the relational data model, entity-
relationship (ER) model for defining entities and relationships.
• Example operations for retrievals and updates of the database.
• Example constraint is that to take a course, you need to be a student.

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances
2. Data Model Categories (Four types)
• i. Conceptual (high-level, semantic) data models:
• Example is ER-model which describes data in concepts close to how users
perceive data. Data are defined in terms of entities, attributes and
relationships.
• An entity: represents a real- world object such as an employee or a project
from the mini world in the database.
• An attribute: represents some property of interest that describes an entity
(e.g.: employee’s name, salary, birthdate.)
• A relationship: among two or more entities represents an association among
the entities. For example, the fact as “each employee works on one or more
project” is represented as a works on relationship between an employee and
a project. The entity-relationship model is used during database design to
define this conceptual model of data.
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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances
• ii. Physical (low-level, internal) data models:
• Provide concepts that describe details of how data is stored in the computer as files
by showing record formats, orderings, access paths such as indexing structure for
data retrieval.
• iii. Implementation (representational) data models:
• Provide concepts that fall between the above two, used by many commercial DBMS
implementations (e.g. relational data models used in many commercial systems).
• iv. Self-Describing Data Models:
• Combine the description of data with the data values. Examples include XML, key-
value stores and some NOSQL systems. Used to cater for non-traditional data types
like posts, long character blobs, and web data.

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances
• 3. Schemas and Instances
• Database Schema:
• is the description of the database and is made up of all the schemas of the
tables or filse in the whole database. For example, the schema diagram for
the student record database of Fig. 1.2 is given as Fig 2.1 on next slide.
• Schema Diagram:
• An illustrative display of (most aspects of) a database schema
• Schema Construct:
• A component of the schema or an object within the schema, e.g., STUDENT,
COURSE is called a schema construct.

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances

Figure 2.1 Schema diagram for the database in Figure 1.2.

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances
• 3. Schemas and Instances
• Database State:
• The actual data stored in a database at a particular moment in time. This
includes the collection of all the data in the database.

• Also called database instance (or occurrence or snapshot).

• The term instance is also applied to individual database components, e.g.
record instance, table instance, entity instance

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances
• 3. Schemas and Instances ( Database State Versus Schema)
• Database State:
• Refers to the content of a database at a moment in time.

• Initial Database State:

• Refers to the database state when it is initially loaded into the system.

• Valid State:
• A state that satisfies the structure and constraints of the database.

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances
 3. Schemas and Instances ( Database State Versus Schema)
• Distinction
• The database schema changes very infrequently. Example is Fig. 2.1
• The database state changes every time the database is updated. Example of a
database state is Fig. 1.2 shown on next slide.

• Schema is also called intension.

• State is also called extension.

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1. Data Model, Categories, Schemas and Instances:
Example of a Database State
Figure 1.2 A database that stores student and course information.

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2. Three-Schema Architecture
• DBMS uses 3-schema architecture to achieve:
• data-program separation,
• data independence,
• use of catalogue for data description of the schema,
• and support for multiple user views.

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2. Three-Schema Architecture
• DBMS uses 3-schema level architecture to achieve data-program
separation, data independence, use of catalogue for data description
schema and support for multiple user views. The 3 levels consist of
• a) The external schemas for end users (e.g.: external views and
different user views of data through queries) at the external level.
• b) The conceptual schemas at the conceptual level representing the
whole database for a community of users using a conceptual or
implementation data model such as relational.
• c) The internal schemas at the internal level which describe physical
storage structures and access paths of the database (e.g., indexes).
See Fig 2.2 next.
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2. Three-Schema Architecture

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3. Data Independence
• This is the ability of the DBMS to change the schema at a lower level
of DB system without having to change the schema at the next higher
level.
• Only the mappings between this schema and higher-level schemas
need to be changed in a DBMS that fully supports data independence.
• Hence, the application programs need not be changed since they
refer to the external schemas
• DBMS provides the following two types of data independence.
• 1. Logical data independence
• 2. Physical data independence
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3. Data Independence
• 1. Logical data independence:

• The ability to change the conceptual schema (e.g. get names

of students with GPA>85%; and get names and address of
students in year 2) without having to change the external
schema or application program (when student has an
addition attribute “address” for example)

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3. Data Independence
●2. Physical data independence: It has the ability to change the
internal schema without having to change the conceptual schema.
● For example an access path to improve retrieval speed of SECTION
records by semester and year should not require a query like “list all
sections offered in fall 2008”to be changed.

● All 3 levels of abstraction represent data descriptions only.

● However, the actual data are stored only at the physical level.
The process of transforming requests and results between levels
are called mapping and done by the DBMS.
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4. DBMS Languages and Interfaces
• 1. Data definition language (DDL):
• The DDL is used to define both the conceptual (e.g., relational) and
external (e.g., views) schemas.

• SQL is used in the relational model for the DDL tasks which have three
subtasks for each of the three levels:
• of physical (as storage definition language-SDL done by DBA), conceptual
(DDL) and external (as view definition language –VDL).

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4. DBMS Languages and Interfaces
• 2. Data manipulation language (DML):
• SQL database language is used for DML operations of data insertion,
deletion, modification and retrieval in the relational model.
• a) Standalone DML query language interface: can be non-prodcedural and
used on its own for complex database operations. Example: Oracle
SQLPlus. This is called query language.
• b) Programmer interfaces for embedding DML in programming languages:
• i. Embedded Approach: DML can be embedded in programming language like C as
with Oracle Pro*C.
• ii. Procedure Call Approach: A library of functions can also be provided to access the
DBMS from a programming language like JAVA, C++ (e.g. through JDBC and ODBC
connectivities).

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4. DBMS Languages and Interfaces
• iii. Database Programming Language Approach: e.g. ORACLE has PL/SQL, a
programming language based on SQL; language incorporates SQL and its data
types as integral components
• iv. Scripting Languages: PHP (client-side scripting) and Python (server-side
scripting) are used to write database programs.
• c) Other user-friendly interfaces for interaction with DML built with
computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools like Sybase
Powerbuilder, Borland Jbuilder, Oracle forms and JDeveloper, e.g.,
• i. Menu-based, forms-based, graphics-based, etc.
• ii. Forms-based, designed for naïve users used to filling in entries on a form

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4. DBMS Languages and Interfaces

• iii. Graphics-based including Point and Click, Drag and Drop,

etc., Specifying a query on a schema diagram
• iv. Natural language: requests in written English
• v. Combinations of the above: including natural language,
speech, web browser with keyword search, parametric
interfaces with function keys, eg, used by bank tellers.

• d) Mobile Interfaces:interfaces allowing users to perform

transactions using mobile apps

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4. DBMS Languages and Interfaces
• Interfaces for the DBA:
• Creating user accounts, granting authorizations
• Setting system parameters
• Changing schemas or access paths

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5. Database System Utilities and Tools
• In addition to the DBMS modules shown in Fig 2.3 on next slide, the
DB system provides utilities that help the DBA manage the database
system. The utilities include:
• 1.Loading data stored in files into a database. Includes data conversion tools.
• 2.Backing up the database periodically on tape.
• 3. Reorganizing database file structures.
• 4. Performance monitoring utilities.
• 5. Report generation utilities.
• 6. Other functions, such as sorting, user monitoring, data compression, etc.

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5. Database System Utilities and Tools

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5. Database System Utilities and Tools
• Other Tools provided by the DB system include:
• 1. Data dictionary / repository:
• Used to store schema descriptions and other information such as design
decisions, application program descriptions, user information, usage
standards, etc.
2. Application Development Environments and CASE (computer-aided software
engineering) tools like Forms, JBuilder, Jdeveloper, etc.

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6. Centralized and Client-Server Architectures

• Centralized DBMS:
• Combines everything into single system including- DBMS software,
hardware, application programs, and user interface processing
software.
• User can still connect through a remote terminal – however, all
processing is done at centralized site.

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6. Centralized and Client-Server Architectures

• Basic 2-tier Client-Server Architectures

• Specialized Servers with Specialized functions provide database query
and transaction services to the clients. Example servers are:
• Print server
• File server
• DBMS server
• Web server
• Email server
• Clients (PCs or workstations) can access the specialized servers
(Workstations or PCs) as needed through a client software module
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7. History of Data Models
• Network Model
• Hierarchical Model
• Relational Model
• Now in several commercial products (e.g. DB2, ORACLE, MS SQL Server,
SYBASE, INFORMIX).
• Several free open source implementations, e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL
• Currently most dominant for developing database applications.
• Object-oriented Data Models
• Object-Relational Models

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