LECTURE 1 ADDITION

What is Data?
Data is nothing but facts and statistics stored or free flowing over a network, generally it's
raw and unprocessed. For example: When you visit any website, they might store you IP
address, that is data, in return they might add a cookie in your browser, marking you that
you visited the website, that is data, your name, it's data, your age, it's data.
Data becomes information when it is processed, turning it into something meaningful. Like,
based on the cookie data saved on user's browser, if a website can analyse that generally
men of age 20-25 visit us more, that is information, derived from the data collected.

What is a Database?
A Database is a collection of related data organised in a way that data can be easily
accessed, managed and updated. Database can be software based or hardware based,
with one sole purpose, storing data.
During early computer days, data was collected and stored on tapes, which were mostly
write-only, which means once data is stored on it, it can never be read again. They were
slow and bulky, and soon computer scientists realised that they needed a better solution to
this problem.
Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle was amongst the first few, who realised the need
for a software based Database Management System.

What is DBMS?
A DBMS is a software that allows creation, definition and manipulation of database,
allowing users to store, process and analyse data easily. DBMS provides us with an
interface or a tool, to perform various operations like creating database, storing data in it,
updating data, creating tables in the database and a lot more.
DBMS also provides protection and security to the databases. It also maintains data
consistency in case of multiple users.
Here are some examples of popular DBMS used these days:

 MySql
 Oracle
 SQL Server
 IBM DB2
 PostgreSQL
 Amazon SimpleDB (cloud based) etc.

Characteristics of Database Management

System
A database management system has following characteristics:

1. Data stored into Tables: Data is never directly stored into the database. Data is stored
into tables, created inside the database. DBMS also allows to have relationships
between tables which makes the data more meaningful and connected. You can easily
understand what type of data is stored where by looking at all the tables created in a
database.
2. Reduced Redundancy: In the modern world hard drives are very cheap, but earlier
when hard drives were too expensive, unnecessary repetition of data in database was a
big problem. But DBMS follows Normalisation which divides the data in such a way
that repetition is minimum.
3. Data Consistency: On Live data, i.e. data that is being continuosly updated and added,
maintaining the consistency of data can become a challenge. But DBMS handles it all
by itself.
4. Support Multiple user and Concurrent Access: DBMS allows multiple users to work
on it(update, insert, delete data) at the same time and still manages to maintain the data
consistency.
5. Query Language: DBMS provides users with a simple Query language, using which
data can be easily fetched, inserted, deleted and updated in a database.
6. Security: The DBMS also takes care of the security of data, protecting the data from
un-authorised access. In a typical DBMS, we can create user accounts with different
access permissions, using which we can easily secure our data by restricting user
access.
7. DBMS supports transactions, which allows us to better handle and manage data
integrity in real world applications where multi-threading is extensively used.

Advantages of DBMS
 Segregation of applicaion program.
 Minimal data duplicacy or data redundancy.
 Easy retrieval of data using the Query Language.
 Reduced development time and maintainance need.
 With Cloud Datacenters, we now have Database Management Systems capable of
storing almost infinite data.
 Seamless integration into the application programming languages which makes it very
easier to add a database to almost any application or website.

Disadvantages of DBMS
 It's Complexity
 Except MySQL, which is open source, licensed DBMSs are generally costly.
 They are large in size.

Components of DBMS
The database management system can be divided into five major components, they are:
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Data
4. Procedures
5. Database Access Language

Let's have a simple diagram to see how they all fit together to form a database management
system.

DBMS Components: Hardware

When we say Hardware, we mean computer, hard disks, I/O channels for data, and any
other physical component involved before any data is successfully stored into the memory.
When we run Oracle or MySQL on our personal computer, then our computer's Hard Disk,
our Keyboard using which we type in all the commands, our computer's RAM, ROM all
become a part of the DBMS hardware.
DBMS Components: Software
This is the main component, as this is the program which controls everything. The DBMS
software is more like a wrapper around the physical database, which provides us with an
easy-to-use interface to store, access and update data.
The DBMS software is capable of understanding the Database Access Language and
intrepret it into actual database commands to execute them on the DB.

DBMS Components: Data

Data is that resource, for which DBMS was designed. The motive behind the creation of
DBMS was to store and utilise data.
In a typical Database, the user saved Data is present and meta data is stored.
Metadata is data about the data. This is information stored by the DBMS to better
understand the data stored in it.
For example: When I store my Name in a database, the DBMS will store when the name
was stored in the database, what is the size of the name, is it stored as related data to
some other data, or is it independent, all this information is metadata.

DBMS Components: Procedures

Procedures refer to general instructions to use a database management system. This
includes procedures to setup and install a DBMS, To login and logout of DBMS software, to
manage databases, to take backups, generating reports etc.

DBMS Components: Database Access Language

Database Access Language is a simple language designed to write commands to access,
insert, update and delete data stored in any database.
A user can write commands in the Database Access Language and submit it to the DBMS
for execution, which is then translated and executed by the DBMS.
User can create new databases, tables, insert data, fetch stored data, update data and
delete the data using the access language.
Users
 Database Administrators: Database Administrator or DBA is the one who manages
the complete database management system. DBA takes care of the security of the
DBMS, it's availability, managing the license keys, managing user accounts and access
etc.
 Application Programmer or Software Developer: This user group is involved in
developing and desiging the parts of DBMS.
 End User: These days all the modern applications, web or mobile, store user data. How
do you think they do it? Yes, applications are programmed in such a way that they
collect user data and store the data on DBMS systems running on their server. End
users are the one who store, retrieve, update and delete data.

Understanding DBMS Architecture

A Database Management system is not always directly available for users and applications
to access and store data in it. A Database Management system can be centralised(all the
data stored at one location), decentralised(multiple copies of database at different
locations) or hierarchical, depending upon its architecture.
1-tier DBMS architecture also existS, this is when the database is directly available to the
user for using it to store data. Generally, such a setup is used for local application
development, where programmers communicate directly with the database for quick
response.
Database Architecture is logically of two types:

1. 2-tier DBMS architecture

2. 3-tier DBMS architecture

2-tier DBMS Architecture

2-tier DBMS architecture includes an Application layer between the user and the DBMS,
which is responsible to communicate the user's request to the database management
system and then send the response from the DBMS to the user.
An application interface known as ODBC(Open Database Connectivity) provides an API
that allow client side program to call the DBMS. Most DBMS vendors provide ODBC drivers
for their DBMS.

Such an architecture provides the DBMS extra security as it is not exposed to the End User
directly. Also, security can be improved by adding security and authentication checks in the
Application layer too.

3-tier DBMS Architecture

3-tier DBMS architecture is the most commonly used architecture for web applications.

It is an extension of the 2-tier architecture. In the 2-tier architecture, we have an application

layer which can be accessed programatically to perform various operations on the DBMS.
The application generally understands the Database Access Language and processes end
users requests to the DBMS.
In 3-tier architecture, an additional Presentation or GUI Layer is added, which provides a
graphical user interface for the End user to interact with the DBMS.
For the end user, the GUI layer is the Database System, and the end user has no idea
about the application layer and the DBMS system.
If you have used MySQL, then you must have seen PHPMyAdmin, it is the best example of
a 3-tier DBMS architecture.
DBMS Database Models
A Database model defines the logical design and structure of a database and defines how
data will be stored, accessed and updated in a database management system. While
the Relational Model is the most widely used database model, there are other models too:

 Hierarchical Model
 Network Model
 Entity-relationship Model
 Relational Model

Hierarchical Model
This database model organises data into a tree-like-structure, with a single root, to which all
the other data is linked. The heirarchy starts from the Root data, and expands like a tree,
adding child nodes to the parent nodes.
In this model, a child node will only have a single parent node.
This model efficiently describes many real-world relationships like index of a book, recipes
etc.
In hierarchical model, data is organised into tree-like structure with one one-to-many
relationship between two different types of data, for example, one department can have
many courses, many professors and of-course many students.
Network Model
This is an extension of the Hierarchical model. In this model data is organised more like a
graph, and are allowed to have more than one parent node.
In this database model data is more related as more relationships are established in this
database model. Also, as the data is more related, hence accessing the data is also easier
and fast. This database model was used to map many-to-many data relationships.
This was the most widely used database model, before Relational Model was introduced.

Entity-relationship Model
In this database model, relationships are created by dividing object of interest into entity and
its characteristics into attributes.
Different entities are related using relationships.
E-R Models are defined to represent the relationships into pictorial form to make it easier for
different stakeholders to understand.
This model is good to design a database, which can then be turned into tables in relational
model(explained below).
Let's take an example, If we have to design a School Database, then Student will be
an entity with attributes name, age, address etc. As Address is generally complex, it can
be another entity with attributes street name, pincode, city etc, and there will be a
relationship between them.
Relationships can also be of different types. To learn about E-R Diagrams in details, click
on the link.
Relational Model
In this model, data is organised in two-dimensional tables and the relationship is
maintained by storing a common field.
This model was introduced by E.F Codd in 1970, and since then it has been the most widely
used database model, infact, we can say the only database model used around the world.
The basic structure of data in the relational model is tables. All the information related to a
particular type is stored in rows of that table.
Hence, tables are also known as relations in relational model.
In the coming tutorials we will learn how to design tables, normalize them to reduce data
redundancy and how to use Structured Query language to access data from tables.
Basic Concepts of ER Model in
DBMS
As we described in the tutorial Database models, Entity-relationship model is a model used
for design and representation of relationships between data.
The main data objects are termed as Entities, with their details defined as attributes, some
of these attributes are important and are used to identity the entity, and different entities are
related using relationships.
In short, to understand about the ER Model, we must understand about:

 Entity and Entity Set

 What are Attributes? And Types of Attributes.
 Keys
 Relationships

Let's take an example to explain everything. For a School Management Software, we will
have to store Student information, Teacher information, Classes, Subjects taught in each
class etc.

ER Model: Entity and Entity Set

Considering the above example, Student is an entity, Teacher is an entity,
similarly, Class, Subjectetc are also entities.
An Entity is generally a real-world object which has characteristics and holds relationships
in a DBMS.
If a Student is an Entity, then the complete dataset of all the students will be the Entity Set

ER Model: Attributes
If a Student is an Entity, then student's roll no., student's name, student's age,
student's gender etc will be its attributes.
An attribute can be of many types, here are different types of attributes defined in ER
database model:
1. Simple attribute: The attributes with values that are atomic and cannot be broken down
further are simple attributes. For example, student's age.
2. Composite attribute: A composite attribute is made up of more than one simple
attribute. For example, student's address will contain, house no., street
name, pincode etc.
3. Derived attribute: These are the attributes which are not present in the whole database
management system, but are derived using other attributes. For example, average age
of students in a class.
4. Single-valued attribute: As the name suggests, they have a single value.
5. Multi-valued attribute: And, they can have multiple values.

ER Model: Keys
If the attribute roll no. can uniquely identify a student entity, amongst all the students, then
the attribute roll no. will be said to be a key.
Following are the types of Keys:

1. Super Key
2. Candidate Key
3. Primary Key

We have covered Keys in details here in Database Keys tutorial.

ER Model: Relationships
When an Entity is related to another Entity, they are said to have a relationship. For
example, A Class Entity is related to Student entity, becasue students study in classes,
hence this is a relationship.
Depending upon the number of entities involved, a degree is assigned to relationships.
For example, if 2 entities are involved, it is said to be Binary relationship, if 3 entities are
involved, it is said to be Ternary relationship, and so on.
In the next tutorial, we will learn how to create ER diagrams and design databases using ER
diagrams.

Working with ER Diagrams

ER Diagram is a visual representation of data that describes how data is related to each
other. In ER Model, we disintegrate data into entities, attributes and setup relationships
between entities, all this can be represented visually using the ER diagram.
For example, in the below diagram, anyone can see and understand what the diagram
wants to convey: Developer develops a website, whereas a Visitor visits a website.

Components of ER Diagram
Entitiy, Attributes, Relationships etc form the components of ER Diagram and there are
defined symbols and shapes to represent each one of them.
Let's see how we can represent these in our ER Diagram.

Entity
Simple rectangular box represents an Entity.
Relationships between Entities - Weak and Strong
Rhombus is used to setup relationships between two or more entities.

Attributes for any Entity

Ellipse is used to represent attributes of any entity. It is connected to the entity.

Weak Entity
A weak Entity is represented using double rectangular boxes. It is generally connected to
another entity.

Key Attribute for any Entity

To represent a Key attribute, the attribute name inside the Ellipse is underlined.
Derived Attribute for any Entity
Derived attributes are those which are derived based on other attributes, for example, age
can be derived from date of birth.
To represent a derived attribute, another dotted ellipse is created inside the main ellipse.

Multivalued Attribute for any Entity

Double Ellipse, one inside another, represents the attribute which can have multiple values.

Composite Attribute for any Entity

A composite attribute is the attribute, which also has attributes.
ER Diagram: Entity
An Entity can be any object, place, person or class. In ER Diagram, an entity is
represented using rectangles. Consider an example of an Organisation- Employee,
Manager, Department, Product and many more can be taken as entities in an Organisation.

The yellow rhombus in between represents a relationship.

ER Diagram: Weak Entity

Weak entity is an entity that depends on another entity. Weak entity doesn't have anay key
attribute of its own. Double rectangle is used to represent a weak entity.
ER Diagram: Attribute
An Attribute describes a property or characterstic of an entity. For
example, Name, Age, Address etc can be attributes of a Student. An attribute is
represented using eclipse.

ER Diagram: Key Attribute

Key attribute represents the main characterstic of an Entity. It is used to represent a Primary
key. Ellipse with the text underlined, represents Key Attribute.

ER Diagram: Composite Attribute

An attribute can also have their own attributes. These attributes are known
as Composite attributes.
ER Diagram: Relationship
A Relationship describes relation between entities. Relationship is represented using
diamonds or rhombus.

There are three types of relationship that exist between Entities.

1. Binary Relationship
2. Recursive Relationship
3. Ternary Relationship
ER Diagram: Binary Relationship
Binary Relationship means relation between two Entities. This is further divided into three
types.

One to One Relationship

This type of relationship is rarely seen in real world.

The above example describes that one student can enroll only for one course and a course
will also have only one Student. This is not what you will usually see in real-world
relationships.

One to Many Relationship

The below example showcases this relationship, which means that 1 student can opt for
many courses, but a course can only have 1 student. Sounds weird! This is how it is.
Many to One Relationship
It reflects business rule that many entities can be associated with just one entity. For
example, Student enrolls for only one Course but a Course can have many Students.

Many to Many Relationship

The above diagram represents that one student can enroll for more than one courses. And
a course can have more than 1 student enrolled in it.

ER Diagram: Recursive Relationship

When an Entity is related with itself it is known as Recursive Relationship.
ER Diagram: Ternary Relationship
Relationship of degree three is called Ternary relationship.
A Ternary relationship involves three entities. In such relationships we always consider two
entites together and then look upon the third.

For example, in the diagram above, we have three related

entities, Company, Product and Sector. To understand the relationship better or to define
rules around the model, we should relate two entities and then derive the third one.
A Company produces many Products/ each product is produced by exactly one company.
A Company operates in only one Sector / each sector has many companies operating in it.
Considering the above two rules or relationships, we see that although the complete
relationship involves three entities, but we are looking at two entities at a time.