1 Introduction
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Introduction
Dr P Sreenivasa Kumar
Professor
CS&E Department
I I T Madras
What is a Database?
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tuple
In RDBMS context:
Schema – table names, attribute names with their data
types for each table and constraints etc.
View Level(VL)
V1 V2 V3 … Vm Set of views
scheme
VL ⇔ LL mapping LDI
Logical Level(LL)
scheme R1 R2 … Rn Set of relations
LL ⇔ PL mapping PDI
Physical Level(PL) Data: set
F1 F2 … Fp
Scheme of files/index files
Remarks
• Views are optional
- Can be set up if the DB system is very large and if
easily identifiable user-groups exist
• The logical scheme is essential
• Modern RDBMS’s hide details of the physical layer
Prof P Sreenivasa Kumar 13
Department of CS&E, IITM
Physical Data Independence
The ability to modify physical level schema without
affecting the logical or view level schema.
Performance tuning – modification at physical level
creating a new index etc.
Three-schema Architecture
Application Programmers
• Embed SQL in a high-level language and develop programs
to handle functional requirements of an IS
• Should thoroughly understand the logical schema or relevant
views
• Meticulous testing of programs - necessary