What is Data ?

It is the unorganised facts which need to be compiled to form meaningful

information

What is Information ?

Once the data is processed and made into a structured context, it is called
information.

What is DBMS (Database Management System ) ?

A collection of information which is managed such that it can be updated and

easily accessed is called a database. A software package which can be used to
manipulate, validate and retrieve this database is called a Database
Management System.

For example, Airlines use this software package to book tickets and confirm
reservations which are then managed to keep a track of the schedule.

How many types of Database ?

There are majorly four types of database:

 Network Database: When the details of multiple members can be linked

to the files of multiple owners and vice versa, it is called a network
database.
 Hierarchical Database: When the data stored in the form of records and
is connected to each other through links is called hierarchical database.
Each record comprises fields and each field comprises only one value.
 Relational Database: When the data is organised as a set of tables
comprising rows and columns with a pre-defined relationship with one
another, it is called a relational database.
 Object-oriented Database – the information is represented as objects,
with different types of relationships possible between two or more
objects. Such databases use an object-oriented programming language
for development.
What is Meta data ?

Metadata – This is the data of the data, i.e., managing the data required to
enter the information
Write down the Advantage of DBMS

Given below are a few advantages of using a Database Management System:

 Securing the data is easy. The administrator can restrict the usage of the
database to a few people only. Thus, access to the database is restricted
only to the administering team of an Organisation or Business which can
keep the data safe
 A single file can manage the entire database which is why duplicity and
redundancy cannot happen. This makes the data more consistent and
easy to update
 Since tables can be created in DBMS, interrelating the data and elements
with each other is convenient
 The backup and recovery of data is managed by the software, which
ensures that the database is secure at all times
 It allows multi-users to operate the database at a single time, making it
more efficient

What does a DBA do?

 Creating and maintaining database standards and policies

 Supporting database design, creation, and testing activities
 Managing the database availability and performance, including incident
and problem management
 Designing database backup, archiving, and storage strategy

What is Data Dictionary ?

In the relational database system, it maintains all information of a relation or

table, from its schema to the applied constraints. All the metadata is stored. In
general, metadata refers to the data about data. So, storing the relational
schemas and other metadata about the relations in a structure is known
as Data Dictionary or System Catalog.

What is Database Instance?

Instance or extension or database state is a collection of information that
stored in a database at a particular moment is called an instance of the
database.

Data Models

Data Model is the modeling of the data description, data semantics, and
consistency constraints of the data. It provides the conceptual tools for
describing the design of a database at each level of data abstraction. Therefore,
there are following four data models used for understanding the structure of
the database:

ER (Entity Relationship) Diagram in DBMS

o ER model stands for an Entity-Relationship model. It is a high-level data model.
This model is used to define the data elements and relationship for a specified
system.
o It develops a conceptual design for the database. It also develops a very simple
and easy to design view of data.
o In ER modeling, the database structure is portrayed as a diagram called an
entity-relationship diagram.

Component of ER Diagram
Symbols of ER-Diagram Model

 Rectangle – It represents entity in the ER Model.

 Ellipse – It represents attribute in the ER Model.
 Diamond – It represents relationship between entity and
attribute.
  Line – It links attribute(s) to entity set(s) and entity set(s) to
relationship set(s).
 Doubles Ellipses – It represents multivalued attributes.
 Dashed Ellipses – It denotes derived attributes.
 Double lines – It indicates total participation of an entity in a
relationship set.
 Double Rectangle – It represents weak entity set.
 Double Diamonds – It represents weak relationships.
 Multiple ellipses connected to single ellipse using lines – It
represents composite attribute
 Ellipse with line inside it – It represents single values attributes

Entity:
An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In the ER diagram, an
entity can be represented as rectangles.

Weak Entity

An entity that depends on another entity called a weak entity. The weak entity
doesn't contain any key attribute of its own. The weak entity is represented by
a double rectangle.

Strong Entity
Strong Entity is independent to any other entity in the schema. A strong entity
always have a primary key. In ER diagram, a strong entity is represented by
rectangle. Relationship between two strong entities is represented by a
diamond. A set of strong entities is known as strong entity set.

Attribute
The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity. Eclipse is used to
represent an attribute.

Types of Attributes
 Simple attribute − Simple attributes are atomic values, which cannot be
divided further. For example, a student's phone number is an atomic
value of 10 digits.
  Composite attribute − Composite attributes are made of more than one
simple attribute. For example, a student's complete name may have
first_name and last_name.
 Derived attribute − Derived attributes are the attributes that do not
exist in the physical database, but their values are derived from other
attributes present in the database. For example, average_salary in a
department should not be saved directly in the database, instead it can
be derived. For another example, age can be derived from data_of_birth.
 Single-value attribute − Single-value attributes contain single value. For
example − Social_Security_Number.
 Multi-value attribute − Multi-value attributes may contain more than
one values. For example, a person can have more than one phone
number, email_address, etc.

Key Attribute
The key attribute is used to represent the main characteristics of an entity. It
represents a primary key. The key attribute is represented by an ellipse with
the text underlined.

Relationship
A relationship is used to describe the relation between entities. Diamond or
rhombus is used to represent the relationship.

One-to-One Relationship

When a single element of an entity is associated with a single element of

another entity, it is called a one-to-one relationship.

For example, a student has only one identification card and an identification
card is given to one person.

One-to-Many Relationship

When a single element of an entity is associated with more than one element of
another entity, it is called a one-to-many relationship

For example, a customer can place many orders, but an order cannot be placed
by many customers.
Many-to-One Relationship

When more than one element of an entity is related to a single element of

another entity, then it is called a many-to-one relationship.

For example, students have to opt for a single course, but a course can have
many students.

Many-to-Many Relationship

When more than one element of an entity is associated with more than one
element of another entity, this is called a many-to-many relationship.

For example, you can assign an employee to many projects and a project can
have many employees.

Keys
Key is an attribute or a collection of attributes that uniquely identifies
an entity. Various types of keys are discussed below:

o Super key - a set of attributes ( one or more ) that collectively

identifies an entity
o Composite key- a key requiring more than one attribute
o Candidate key - a minimal super key is called candidate key. An
entity set may have more than one candidate key.
o Primary key - the candidate key chosen to be used for identifying
entities and accessing records. Key by default means primary key.
o Alternate key - a candidate key not used for primary key
o Secondary key - attribute or set of attributes commonly used for
accessing records but not necessarily unique
o Foreign key - is a term used in relational databases (not ER
model) for an attribute that is primary key of another table and is
used to establish a relationship with that table

Difference Between Primary Key and Foreign Key

 S.No. Primary Key Foreign Key

1 A primary key generally focuses on the uniqueness of the A foreign key is generally used to build a
table. It assures the value in the specific column is unique. relationship between the two tables.

2 The table allows only one primary key. Tables can allow more than one foreign key.

3 The primary key doesn’t allow null values. The foreign key accepts multiple null values.

4 It can identify the record uniquely in the database table. A foreign key is a field in the table that is the
primary key in another table.

5 In the primary key, the value cannot be removed from the In this, the value can be deleted from the
parent table. child table.

6 Its restriction can be completely defined on the temporary Its restriction cannot be defined on the
tables. global or local temporary tables.

What is Degree and Cardinality of dbms ?

Degree refers to the number of attributes or columns in a table.

Cardinality refers to the number of tuples or rows in a table