CHAPTER1 : FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVES OF

A DATABASE

I- Data base systems

Database:
A database is organized collection of related data of an organization stored in
formatted way which is shared by multiple users.

The data in a database is organized according to a database model. The relational model is
the most common.

A Database Management System ( D BMS) consists of software that organizes the storage of
data. A DBMS controls the creation, maintenance, and use of the database storage structures
of organizations and of their end users

There are Database Management Systems (DBMS), such as:

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Oracle
• Sybase
• dBase
• Microsoft Access
• MySQL from Sun Microsystems (Oracle)
• DB2 from IBM
• etc.
The main feature of data in a database are:
1. It must be well organized
2. It is related
3. It is accessible in a logical order without any difficulty
4. It is stored only once
For example consider the roll no, name, address of a student stored in a student file. It
is collection
of related data with an implicit meaning. Data in the database may be persistent,
integrated and
shared.
Persistent:
If data is removed from database due to some explicit request from user to remove.
Integrated:
A database can be a collection of data from different files and when any redundancy
among those
files are removed from database is said to be integrated data.
Sharing Data:
The data stored in the database can be shared by multiple users simultaneously without
affecting the
correctness of data.
Why Database:
In order to overcome the limitation of a file system, a new approach was required.
Hence a database
approach emerged. A database is a persistent collection of logically related data. The
initial attempts
were to provide a centralized collection of data. A database has a self describing
nature. It contains
not only the data sharing and integration of data of an organization in a single
database.
A small database can be handled manually but for a large database and having
multiple users it is
difficult to maintain it. In that case a computerized database is useful.
The advantages of database system over traditional, paper based methods of record
keeping are:
 Compactness: No need for large amount of paper files
 Speed: The machine can retrieve and modify the data more faster way then human
being
 Less drudgery: Much of the maintenance of files by hand is eliminated
 Accuracy: Accurate, up-to-date information is fetched as per requirement of the
user at any
time.
Database Management System (DBMS):
A database management system consists of collection of related data and refers to a set
of programs
for defining, creation, maintenance and manipulation of a database.

Function of DBMS:
1. Defining database schema: it must give facility for defining the database structure also
specifies access rights to authorized users.
2. Manipulation of the database: The dbms must have functions like insertion of record into
database, updation of data, deletion of data, retrieval of data
3. Sharing of database: The DBMS must share data items for multiple users by maintaining
consistency of data.
4. Protection of database: It must protect the database against unauthorized users.
5. Database recovery: If for any reason the system fails DBMS must facilitate data base
recovery.
Advantages of DBMS:
Reduction of redundancies:
Centralized control of data by the DBA avoids unnecessary duplication of data and effectively
reduces the total amount of data storage required avoiding duplication in the elimination of
the
inconsistencies that tend to be present in redundant data files.
Sharing of Data:
A database allows the sharing of data under its control by any number of application
programs or
users.
Data Integrity:
Data integrity means that the data contained in the database is both accurate and consistent.
Therefore data values being entered for storage could be checked to ensure that they fall
with in a
specified range and are of the correct format.
Data Security:
The DBA who has the ultimate responsibility for the data in the dbms can ensure that proper
access
procedures are followed including proper authentication to access to the DataBase System
and
additional check before permitting access to sensitive data.
Conflict Resolution:
DBA resolve the conflict on requirements of various user and applications. The DBA chooses
the
best file structure and access method to get optional performance for the application.
Data Independence:
Data independence is usually considered from two points of views; physically data
independence
and logical data independence.
Physical Data Independence allows changes in the physical storage devices or organization
of the
files to be made without requiring changes in the conceptual view or any of the external
views and
hence in the application programs using the data base.
Logical Data Independence indicates that the conceptual schema can be changed without
affecting
the existing external schema or any application program.

Disadvantage of DBMS:
1. DBMS software and hardware (networking installation) cost is high
2. The processing overhead by the dbms for implementation of security, integrity and sharing
of
the data.
3. Centralized database control
4. Setup of the database system requires more knowledge, money, skills, and time.
5. The complexity of the database may result in poor performance.

II- TREE LEVEL ARCHITECTURE OF DBMS

I.1 Data base Basics:
Data Item:
The data item is also called as field in data processing and is the smallest unit
of data that has
meaning to its users.
Eg: “e101”, ”sumit”
Entities and attributes:
 An entity is a thing or object in the real world that is distinguishable from all
other objects
Eg: Bank, employee, student
Attributes are properties are properties of an entity.
Eg: Empcode, ename, rolno, name
Logical data and physical data :
Logical data are the data for the table created by user in primary memory.
Physical data refers to the data stored in the secondary memory.
Schema and sub-schema :
A schema is a logical data base description and is drawn as a chart of the types
of data that are used.
It gives the names of the entities and attributes and specify the relationships
between them.
A database schema includes such information as :
 Characteristics of data items such as entities and attributes.
 Logical structures and relationships among these data items.
 Format for storage representation.
 Integrity parameters such as physical authorization and back up policies.
A subschema is derived schema derived from existing schema as per the user
requirement. There
may be more then one subschema create for a single conceptual schema.

III- Three Level Architecture of DBMS

A database management system that provides three level of data is said to follow three-level
architecture .
 External level
 Conceptual level
 Internal level
External Level :
The external level is at the highest level of database abstraction . At this level, there will be
many
views define for different users requirement. A view will describe only a subset of the
database. Any
number of user views may exist for a given global schema(coneptual schema).
For example, each student has different view of the time table. the view of a student of BTech
(CSE) is different from the view of the student of Btech (ECE). Thus this level of abstraction
is
concerned with different categories of users.
Each external view is described by means of a schema called sub schema.
Conceptual Level :
At this level of database abstraction all the database entities and the relationships among them
are
included. One conceptual view represents the entire database. This conceptual view is defined
by
the conceptual schema.
The conceptual schema hides the details of physical storage structures and concentrate on
describing entities, data types, relationships, user operations and constraints.
It describes all the records and relationships included in the conceptual view. There is only
one
conceptual schema per database. It includes feature that specify the checks to relation data
consistency and integrity.
Internal level :
It is the lowest level of abstraction closest to the physical storage method used. It indicates
how the
data will be stored and describes the data structures and access methods to be used by the
database.
The internal view is expressed by internal schema.
The following aspects are considered at this level:
1. Storage allocation e.g: B-tree, hashing
2. Access paths eg. specification of primary and secondary keys, indexes etc
3. Miscellaneous eg. Data compression and encryption techniques, optimization of the
internal
structures.
Database Users :
Naive Users :
Users who need not be aware of the presence of the database system or any other system
supporting
their usage are considered naïve users . A user of an automatic teller machine falls on this category.
Typical Data base Application Architecture

Three Common Acronyms

• SQL – Structured Query Language
• CRUD – Create, Read, Update, Delete
The 4 major operations performed on the database.
• ACID – Atomicity, Concurrency, Integrity and Durability (transaction)

First Acronym – ACID

4 essential properties that a DBMS has to implement to effectively interact with a database
Atomicity – transactions are either all or none (commit/rollback)
Consistency – only valid data is saved
Isolation – transactions would not affect each other
Durability – written data will not be lost
Good example : bank transaction
Most of challenges of ACID compliance come from multiple users/concurrent
using of database
Disadvantage of conventional flat file
▫ Redundancy - same data may store in many different copies
▫ Inconsistency – data regarding to same business entity may appear in
different forms, for example, state name, phone number, etc. This made it
hard to modify data and keep clean track of change; even loss of data
▫ Mixture of all data together – not clear in logical relationships between the
data columns, thus hard to understand and manage once the data
structure gets complex
▫ Hard to maintain and manage
▫ No concurrency support (only one can operate on the file)