Module 1 Introduction 8/25/2023

DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Data Vs Information
Data Vs Information
The term “Data” means any representation of facts, figures, symbols,
concepts or instructions which is communicated interpreted or processed
by human or electronic machine. Data is represented with the help of
characters like alphabets (A-Z, a-z), digits (0-9) or special characters (+,-
, /,*, <,>, = etc.).
Information is processed or structured data which has some meaningful
values for the system or human. Information is the derived data on which
decisions and actions are based. For the decision to be meaningful, the
processed data must meet the following characteristics:
Timely - Information should be available when required.
Accuracy - Information should be accurate.
Completeness - Information should be complete.

Examples of Data and Information

The area and population of different cities of a
country is data. If this data is organized and
analysed to find out the population densities of cities,
then that is information.

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What is Data
• The history of temperature readings all over the world for the past 50
years is data. If this data is organized and analysed to find that global
temperature is rising, then that is information.

Data Information

Information is processed, organized,

Data is raw, unprocessed facts and figures.
structured or presented data.

Data is used as input to process for the Information is the output of processed
computer system. data.
Data does not depend on information. Information depends on data.
Data does not have any meaning and useful Information can be meaningful and useful
until it is organized. when it is organized by data.

Data is always correct – it is a piece of Information is processed or derived from

truth, a thing that has happened. data that can be wrong.

Example of information:
Example of data:
The average marks of a class or of the
Each student's examination marks is one
entire college is information that can be
part of data.
derived from the given data.

What is Database?
• A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can be easily
accessed, managed and updated.

• A database can be as simple as an alphabetical arrangement of names in an address book

or as complex as a database that provides information in a combination of formats.

• Traditional databases are organized

by fields, records, and files. A field is a basic unit
of data storage and contains information related
to an attribute of the entity described by the
database; a record is one complete set of fields;
and a file is a collection of records. Generally, a
database is stored as a file or a set of files on
magnetic disk or tape, optical disk, or some other
secondary storage device.

• For example, a telephone book is similar to a file.

It contains a list of records, each of which consists
of three fields: name, address, and telephone
number.

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What is Database?
• A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored
electronically in a computer system. A database is usually controlled by a database
management system (DBMS). Together, the data and the DBMS, along with the
applications that are associated with them, are referred to as a database system, often
shortened to just database.

• A database is a data structure that stores organized information. Most databases contain
multiple tables, which may each include several different fields. For example, a company
database may include tables for products, employees, and financial records. Each of these
tables would have different fields that are relevant to the information stored in the table.

Traditional File System

Traditional file processing system or simple file processing system refers
to the first computer-based approach
of handling the commercial or business applications. That is why it is also
called a replacement of the manual file system.

Before the use computers, the data in the offices or business was
maintained in the files manually. Obviously, it was very laborious, time-
consuming, inefficient task especially in large organizations. Computers
were initially designed for engineering & scientific applications. Since they
helped in efficient management of data in files, file processing
environment simply transformed manual file work to computers. So,
processing becomes fast and efficient.

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Traditional File System

The concept of conventional file processing system is shown in figure,
which consists of three applications namely Inventory, Order Entry, and
Accounts/Received programs. These programs process the data stored in
different files such as Customer File and Product File.

As file processing systems were used, their problems were also realized
and some of them are very severe.

Traditional File System

Most explicit and major disadvantages of file system when compared to
database management systems are as follows:
• Data Redundancy
• Data Inconsistency
• Difficulty in Accessing Data
• Data Isolation
• Integrity Problems
• Security and access control
• Concurrency Problems

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Traditional File System Vs DBMS

A database management system coordinates both the physical and the
logical access to the data, whereas a file-processing system coordinates
only the physical access.
A database management system reduces the amount of data duplication
by ensuring that a physical piece of data is available to all programs
authorized to have access to it, whereas data written by one program in a
file-processing system may not be readable by another program.
A database management system is designed to allow flexible access to
data (i.e., queries), whereas a file-processing system is designed to allow
predetermined access to data (i.e., compiled programs).
A database management system is usually designed to allow one or more
programs to access different data files at the same time. In a file-
processing system, a file can be accessed by two programs concurrently
only if both programs have read-only access to the file.
Redundancy is control in DBMS, but not in file system.

Unauthorized access is restricted in DBMS but not in file system.

DBMS provide backup and recovery. When data is lost in file system then
it not recover.
DBMS provide multiple user interfaces. Data is isolated in file system.

What is DBMS?
A Database Management System (DBMS) is software designed to store, retrieve, define, and
manage data in a database.

Database Management System (DBMS) is a software for storing and retrieving users' data
while considering appropriate security measures. It consists of a group of programs which
manipulate the database.

A database management system (DBMS) is system software for creating and

managing databases. A DBMS makes it possible for end users to create, read, update and
delete data in a database. The most prevalent type of data management platform, the DBMS
essentially serves as an interface between databases and end users or application programs,
ensuring that data is consistently organized and remains easily accessible.

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Functions of DBMS?
DBMS performs several important functions that guarantee the integrity
and consistency of the data in the database. The most important functions
of Database Management System are

(i) Data Storage Management: It provides a mechanism for management

of permanent storage of the data. The internal schema defines how the
data should be stored by the storage management mechanism and the
storage manager interfaces with the operating system to access the
physical storage.

A modern DBMS system provides storage not only for the data, but also
for related data entry forms or screen definitions, report definitions, data
validation rules, procedural code, structures to handle video and picture
formats, and so on.

Data storage management is also important for database performance

tuning. Performance tuning relates to the activities that make the
database perform more efficiently in terms of storage and access speed.
So, the data storage management is another important function of
Database Management System.

Functions of DBMS?
(ii) Data Manipulation Management: A DBMS furnishes users with the
ability to retrieve, update and delete existing data in the database.

(iii) Data Definition Services: The DBMS accepts the data definitions such
as external schema, the conceptual schema, the internal schema, and all
the associated mappings in source form.

(iv) Data Dictionary/System Catalog Management: The DBMS provides a

data dictionary or system catalog function in which descriptions of data
items are stored and which is accessible to users. The data dictionary is
full of “Metadata”, Database about a database.
A data dictionary defines the structure of the database itself and is used
in control and maintenance of large databases.
A data dictionary contains the following items-
 The definitions of all schema objects in the database (tables, views,
indexes, clusters, synonyms, sequences, procedures, functions,
packages, triggers, and so on).
 Space allotted and used by schema objects.
 Types of relationships between data elements.
 Access rights and frequency of access.
 All the users information.

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Functions of DBMS?
(v) Database Communication Interfaces: The end-user's requests for
database access are transmitted to DBMS in the form of communication
messages.

(vi) Authorization / Security Management: The DBMS protects the

database against unauthorized access, either international or accidental.
It furnishes mechanism to ensure that only authorized users an access the
database.
Database security refers to the use of the DBMS features and other
related measures to prevent data from unauthorized access, loss,
corruption, or mishandling.
DBMS has some features to provide security to database. Those features
are
• Data encryption,
• Authentication,
• Authorization and
• Data views.

Functions of DBMS?
Encryption is a process to covert data into unreadable format.
Unauthorized person cannot read and understand this encrypted data.
Only authorized use will be able to read it.

Authentication is the process by which the system validates a user's logon

information. A user's name and password are compared to an authorized
list, and if the system detects a match, access is granted to the extent
specified in the permission list for that user.

Authorization is any process by which someone is allowed to access the

database by given user id and password, if password is not successfully
entered, the user will be denied for accessing database.

In DBMS, sometimes it is required to provide partial information of

database to some users and restrict them to access other part of
database.

Data Views may be defined by DBA to allow user to access the database
tables partially and hide other part of the tables or fields for them.

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Functions of DBMS?
(vii) Backup and Recovery Management: The DBMS provides mechanisms
for backing up data periodically and recovering from different types of
failures. This prevents the loss of data

The DBMS provides mechanisms for backing up data periodically and

recovering from different types of failures. This ensures data safety, data
integrity and prevents the loss of data.

A Data Backup is a copy of data. This copy can include important parts of
the database, such as the control file and data files. A backup is a
safeguard against unexpected data loss and application errors. If you lose
the original data due to any reason, then you can reconstruct it by using a
backup.

The reasons for data loss can be divided into five main groups:
 Program errors
 Administrator (human) errors
 Computer failures (system crash)
 Disk failures
 Catastrophes (fire, earthquake) or theft

Functions of DBMS?
Recovery Management
If database is damaged due to any reason, the DBMS restore a physical
backup of a data file or control file to the correct state of the database
and this process is called Data Recovery. It is very important to backup
data periodically for proper recovery.

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Functions of DBMS?
(viii) Concurrency Control Service: Since DBMSs support sharing of data
among multiple users, they must provide a mechanism for managing
concurrent access to the database. When more than one transactions are
running simultaneously there are chances of a conflict to occur which can
leave database to an inconsistent state. To handle these conflicts we need
concurrency control in DBMS, which allows transactions to run
simultaneously but handles them in such a way so that the integrity of
data remains intact.

Problems of concurrency control

Several problems can occur when concurrent transactions are executed in
an uncontrolled manner. Following are the three problems in concurrency
control.
 Lost updates
 Dirty read
 Unrepeatable read

Functions of DBMS?
Concurrency Control Protocols
Different concurrency control protocols offer different benefits between
the amount of concurrency they allow and the amount of overhead that
they impose.
 Lock-Based Protocols
 Two Phase
 Timestamp-Based Protocols
 Validation-Based Protocols

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Functions of DBMS?
(ix) Transaction Management: A transaction is a series of database
operations, carried out by a single user or application program, which
accesses or changes the contents of the database. Therefore, a DBMS must
provide a mechanism to ensure either that all the updates corresponding to
a given transaction are made or that none of them is made.

A transaction is a sequence of database operations, carried out by a single

user or application program, which accesses or updates the contents of the
database. DBMS provide a mechanism to ensure either that all the updates
corresponding to a given transaction are made or that none of them is
made.

Functions of DBMS?
In order to fully maintain data integrity and ensure good transactional
behaviour, DBMS supports the ACID properties:
1) Atomicity: If any part of a transaction fails, the database state is left
unchanged.
2) Consistency: Any transaction will leave the database in a consistent
state.
3) Isolation: During a transaction, modified data cannot be accessed by
other operations.
4) Durability: The DBMS can always recover the results of a committed
transaction.

(x) Database Access and Application Programming Interfaces: All DBMS

provide interface to enable applications to use DBMS services. They
provide data access via Structured Query Language (SQL). The DBMS
query language contains two components: (a) a Data Definition Language
(DDL) and (b) a Data Manipulation Language (DML).

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Functions of DBMS?
(xi) Data Integrity
 Data integrity refers to the overall completeness, accuracy and
consistency of data and is an important feature of a database system.
 Data integrity means that the data contained in the database is
accurate and reliable. Data integrity is a set of rules and standard
procedures and enforced during the database design phase.
 Data integrity can be maintained through the use of various error
checking methods and validation procedures.

DBMS supports basic types of database integrity constraints are:

1) Entity integrity, not allowing multiple rows to have the same identity
within a table.
2) Domain integrity, restricting data to predefined data types, e.g.: dates.
3) Referential integrity, requiring the existence of a related row in another
table, e.g. a Student for a given RegNo.

Advantages & Disadvantages of DBMS

Advantages
1) Reduction of Redundancies
2) Shared Data
3) Data Integrity
4) Security
5) Conflict Resolution or Concurrency Control
6) Transaction Management
7) Data Independence
8) Backup and Recovery

Disadvantages
1) Costly
2) Degradation of System Performance due to processing overhead
3) Backup and Recovery operations are complex

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Structure of DBMS
The database system is divided into
three components:
• Query Processor,
• Storage Manager, and
• Disk Storage
1. Data Definition Language Interpreter
It execute the low-level statements and
records them in a set of tables that
having metadata.

2. Data Manipulation Language

Compiler
It converts DML statements in source
form of query language into necessary
object form (i.e. low-level instructions)
that query evaluation engine
understands.

3.Embedded DML Precompiler

It converts DML statements embedded
in application program to normal
procedure calls in host language. To
generate appropriate code, it must
interacts with DML Compiler.

Structure of DBMS
4. Query Evaluation Engine
It executes the low-level instruction generated by DML compiler.
5. Transaction Manager
It ensure that the database remains in consistent state despite the system failure, and
concurrent transaction executions proceed without conflicting.
6. Buffer Manager
It is responsible for data fetching from disk storage into main memory and deciding what data
to cache in memory.

7. File Manager
It manages allocation of space on disk storage and data structure used to represent
information that stored on disk.

Some of the Data Structure are needed as the part of physical system for implementation:
i. Indices: These provide fast access to the data items that hold particular values.
ii. Statistical Data: This store statistical information about data in database. To execute a
query, this information is used by query processor.
iii. Data Files: These are actual files that store the data in database, i.e. these are database
files.
iv. Data Dictionary: This stores metadata about each and every entity of the database along
with the security and entity constraints.

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Database Applications Architectures

Database Applications are partitioned into 2-tier and 3-tier parts as shown
in figure.
1. Two-tier Architecture: In the two-tier architecture, the application is
partitioned into a component that resides at the client machine and calls
the database system functionality at the server machine using query
language statements. Application program interface standards like ODBC
and JDBC are used for interaction between the client and the server.
2. Three-tier Architecture: In three-tier architecture, the client machine
contains a form interface and does not contain any direct database calls.
It communicates with an application server which in turn communicates
with the database system. Thus, the required functionalities are not
distributed among the multiple clients. This architecture is appropriate
for large applications that run on the World Wide Web.

Database Applications Architectures

The Business Logic of the application, which says what actions to carry out
under what conditions, is embedded in the application server, instead on
being distributed across multiple clients. 3-tier architecture is more
appropriate for large organizations, and for applications that run on the
World Wide Web.

Java Applet or
Client Machine
Java HTML Browser
Applications Client Machine
HTML, RMI, CORBA and Other Calls
JDBC

Application Server
Java
DBMS – Proprietary Protocol Server Machine
JDBC (Business Logic)

DBMS Database Server DBMS – Proprietary Protocol

2-tier DBMS Application Architecture DBMS Database Server

3-tier DBMS Application Architecture

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File Organizations
The File Organization is the physical organization of the records of a file for
the convenience of storage and retrieval of data records. System designer
basically choose to organize, access and process the records of the various
files in different ways, depending upon the type of the application and
needs of the uses are:
1. Ease of Retrieval
2. Convenience of Updates
3. Economy of Storage
4. Reliability
5. Security
6. Integrity

There are some commonly used file organizations are-

A. Serial File
B. Sequential File
C. Index Sequential File
D. Direct File
E. Multilist File
F. Tree based File

File Organizations
Serial File
• Records in a file are stored and accessed one after another.
• The records are not stored in any way on the storage medium this
type of organization is mainly used on magnetic tapes.
• The records on a serial file are not in any particular sequence, and so
this type of organisation would not be used for a master file as there
would be no way to find a particular record except by reading
through the whole file, starting at the beginning, until the right
record was located. Serial files are used as temporary files to store
transaction data.
Advantages
• It is simple
• It is cheap
Disadvantages
• It is cumbersome to access because you have to access all
proceeding records before retrieving the one being searched.
• Wastage of space on medium in form of inter-record gap.
• It cannot support modern high speed requirements for quick record
access.

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File Organizations
Sequential File
• Storing and sorting in contiguous block within files on tape or disk is
called as sequential access file organization.
• In sequential access file organization, all records are stored in a
sequential order. The records are arranged in the ascending or
descending order of a key field.
• Sequential file search starts from the beginning of the file and the
records can be added at the end of the file.
• In sequential file, it is not possible to add a record in the middle of
the file without rewriting the file.
• Searching of a record requires, on average, access to half the records
in the file.
Advantages
• It is simple to program and easy to design.
• Sequential file is best use if storage space.
Disadvantages
• Sequential file is time consuming process.
• It has high data redundancy.
• Random searching is not possible.

File Organizations
Direct File or Random Access File
• Direct access file is also known as random access or relative file
organization.
• In direct access file, all records are stored in direct access storage device
(DASD), such as hard disk. The records are randomly placed throughout
the file.
• The records does not need to be in sequence because they are updated
directly and rewritten back in the same location.
• This file organization is useful for immediate access to large amount of
information. It is used in accessing large databases.
• It is also called as hashing.
Advantages
• Direct access file helps in online transaction processing system (OLTP)
like online railway reservation system.
• In direct access file, sorting of the records are not required.
• It accesses the desired records immediately.
• It updates several files quickly.
• It has better control over record allocation.
Disadvantages
• Direct access file does not provide back up facility.
• It is expensive.
• It has less storage space as compared to sequential file.

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File Organizations

File Organizations
Indexed Sequential File
An indexed sequential file consists of records that can be accessed
sequentially. Direct access is also possible. It consists of two parts −
 Data File contains records in sequential scheme.
 Index File contains the primary key and its address in the data file.
Following are the key attributes of sequential file organization −
 Records can be read in sequential order just like in sequential file
organization.
 Records can be accessed randomly if the primary key is known. Index file
is used to get the address of a record and then the record is fetched from
the data file.
 Sorted index is maintained in this file system which relates the key value
to the position of the record in the file.
 Alternate index can also be created to fetch the records.

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File Organizations
Advantages
• Sequential file and random file access is possible.
• It accesses the records very fast if the index table is properly organized.
• It provides quick access for sequential and direct processing.
• It reduces the degree of the sequential search.
Disadvantages
• Indexed sequential access file requires unique keys and periodic
reorganization.
• It requires more storage space.
• It is expensive because it requires special software.
• It is less efficient in the use of storage space as compared to other file
organizations.

Schema, Subschema and Instance

Schema
• Schema is a the logical description of the database.
• The overall design of the database is called Database Schema.
• In database terms, a schema (pronounced “skee-muh” or “skee-mah”) is
the organisation and structure of a database.
Both schemas and schemata can be used as plural forms.
• A schema contains schema objects, which could be tables, columns, data
types, views, stored procedures, relationships, primary keys, foreign
keys, etc.
• A database schema can be represented in a visual diagram, which shows
the database objects and their relationship with each other.

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Schema, Subschema and Instance

Schema and Database are the same things or different?
Part of the reason for the confusion is that database systems tend to
approach schemas in their own way.
 MySQL Documentation
A schema is synonymous with a database. Therefore, a schema and a
database are the same thing.

 Oracle Database Documentation

Certain objects can be stored inside a database but not inside a schema.
Therefore, a schema and a database are two different things.

 SQL Server Technical Article

A schema is a separate entity inside the database. So, they are two
different things.

Schema, Subschema and Instance

Schema
Schema is a the logical description of the database.
The overall design of the database is called Database Schema.
Database system has several schemas and partitioned according to the
levels of abstractions. There are three level of schemas in database system.
1. Internal Schema or Physical Schema
It describes that how data are actually stored in the blocks of storage
devices such as hard disk.
2. Logical Schema or Conceptual Schema
It describes the structure of the database to the database designer.
Programmers and database administrators work at this level, at this level
data can be described as certain types of data records gets stored in data
structures
3. External Schema or Subschema
It is a subset of main schema having
the same properties as schema. It
describes the different parts, sets,
records and data names of the
database to the end users. It allows
users to view only the parts of the
main database.

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Schema, Subschema and Instance

Database Instance
The data stored in database at a particular moment of time is called
instance of database. Database schema defines the variable declarations in
tables that belong to a particular database; the value of these variables at a
moment of time is called the instance of that database.

A database schema is variable declarations in a program. Variable has

particular value at a given instant. Then, the value of variable at particular
instant is called database instance.

3-Level schema Architecture

 The three schema architecture is also called ANSI/SPARC architecture or three-
level architecture.
 This framework is used to describe the structure of a specific database system.
 The three schema architecture is also used to separate the user applications and
physical database. The three schema architecture contains three-levels. It breaks
the database down into three different categories.
Figure shows the DBMS architecture.
Mapping is used to transform the request and response between various database
levels of architecture. Mapping is not good for small DBMS because it takes more
time. In External / Conceptual mapping, it is necessary to transform the request from
external level to conceptual schema. In Conceptual / Internal mapping, DBMS
transform the request from the conceptual to internal level.

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3-Level schema Architecture

Internal level:
 This is the lowest level of data abstraction.
 It describes How the data are actually stored on storage devices.
 It is also known as physical level.
 It provides internal view of physical storage of data.
 It deals with complex low level data structures, file structures and access
methods in detail.
 It also deals with Data Compression and Encryption techniques, if used.

Conceptual level:
 This is the next higher level than internal level of data abstraction.
 It describes What data are stored in the database and What relationships exist
among those data.
 It is also known as Logical level.
 It hides low level complexities of physical storage.
 Database administrator and designers work at this level to determine What data to
keep in database.
 Application developers also work on this level.

External Level:
 This is the highest level of data abstraction.
 It describes only part of the entire database that a end user concern.
 It is also known as an view level.
 End users need to access only part of the database rather than entire database.
 Different user need different views of database. And so, there can be many view
level abstractions of the same database.

3-Level schema Architecture

Advantages of Three-tier Architecture:
 The main objective of it is to provide data abstraction.
 Same data can be accessed by different users with different customized views.
 The user is not concerned about the physical data storage details.
 Physical storage structure can be changed without requiring changes in internal
structure of the database as well as users view.
 Conceptual structure of the database can be changed without affecting end users.

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Data Independence
A Database stores data about data i.e. Metadata. Metadata itself follows a layered
architecture, so that when we change data at one layer, it does not affect the data at
another level. This data is independent but mapped to each other.

Data independence can be explained using the three-schema architecture.

Data independence refers characteristic of being able to modify the schema at one
level of the database system without altering the schema at the next higher level.

Logical Data Independence

Logical data is data about database, that is, it stores information about how data is
managed inside.

Logical data independence is used to separate the external level from the conceptual
view.

If we do any changes in the conceptual view of the data, then the user view of the
data would not be affected.

Logical data independence occurs at the user interface level.

For example, a table (relation) stored in the database and all its constraints, applied
on that relation.
Logical data independence is a kind of mechanism, which liberalizes itself from actual
data stored on the disk. If we do some changes on table format, it should not change
the data residing on the disk.

Data Independence
Physical Data Independence
 All the schemas are logical, and the actual data is stored in bit format on the disk.
Physical data independence is the power to change the physical data without
impacting the schema or logical data.

 If we do any changes in the storage size of the database system server, then the
Conceptual structure of the database will not be affected.

 Physical data independence is used to separate conceptual levels from the internal
levels.

 Physical data independence occurs at the logical interface level.

For example, in case we want to change or upgrade the storage system itself −
suppose we want to replace hard-disks with SSD − it should not have any impact on
the logical data or schemas.

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Data Abstraction
Database systems are made-up of complex data structures. To ease the user
interaction with database, the developers hide internal irrelevant details from users.
This process of hiding irrelevant details from user is called data abstraction..
We have three levels of abstraction:
Physical level: This is the lowest level of data abstraction. It describes how data is
actually stored in database. You can get the complex data structure details at this
level.

Logical level: This is the middle level of 3-level data abstraction architecture. It
describes what data is stored in database.

View level: Highest level of data abstraction. This level describes the user interaction
with database system.

Example: Let’s say we are storing customer information in a customer table.

At physical level these records can be described as blocks of storage (bytes,
gigabytes, terabytes etc.) in memory. These details are often hidden from the
programmers.
At the logical level these records can be described as fields and attributes along with
their data types, their relationship among each other can be logically implemented.
The programmers generally work at this level because they are aware of such things
about database systems.
At view level, user just interact with system with the help of GUI and enter the
details at the screen, they are not aware of how the data is stored and what data is
stored; such details are hidden from them.

Mapping
Mapping is a process of converting one level to another level. In this process, the
data in one level is related to the data at another level.

There are two level of Mapping:

 From the Conceptual Level to Internal Level
 From the External Level to Conceptual Level

Conceptual to Internal Mapping

 It defines the correspondence
between the conceptual view and
stored data.
 It specifies that how conceptual
records and fields are
represented at internal level.
 If the structure of stored data is
changed, then conceptual-
internal mapping must be
changed.
 It is the responsibility of DBA to
manage such changes.
External to Conceptual Mapping
 It defines the correspondence between a particular external views and conceptual
view.
 The difference between these two levels is similar to the difference between
Conceptual Level and Internal Level.

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Database Languages
A DBMS must provide appropriate languages and interfaces for each category of
users to express database queries and updates. Database languages are used to
read, update and store data in a database. There are large numbers of database
languages like Oracle, MySQL, MS Access, dBase, FoxPro etc. SQL (Structured Query
Language) is commonly used in Oracle and MS Access can be categorized as data
definition language (DDL), data control language (DCL) and data manipulation
language (DML).

Database Languages
Data Definition Language (DDL)
DDL is used for specifying the database schema. It is used for creating tables,
schema, indexes, constraints etc. in database. Lets see the operations that we can
perform on database using DDL:
 To create the database instance – CREATE
 To alter the structure of database – ALTER
 To drop database instances – DROP
 To delete tables in a database instance – TRUNCATE
 To rename database instances – RENAME
 To drop objects from database such as tables – DROP
 To Comment – Comment
All of these commands either defines or update the database schema that’s why they
come under Data Definition language.

Data Manipulation Language (DML)

DML is used for accessing and manipulating data in a database. The following
operations on database comes under DML:
 To read records from table(s) – SELECT
 To insert record(s) into the table(s) – INSERT
 Update the data in table(s) – UPDATE
 Delete all the records from the table – DELETE

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Database Languages
Data Control language (DCL)
DCL is used for granting and revoking user access on a database –
 To grant access to user – GRANT
 To revoke access from user – REVOKE

Transaction Control Language(TCL)

The changes in the database that we made using DML commands are either
performed or roll backed using TCL.
 To persist the changes made by DML commands in database – COMMIT
 To rollback the changes made to the database – ROLLBACK

In practical data definition language, data manipulation language and data control
languages are not separate language, rather they are the parts of a single database
language such as SQL.

Different types of Database Users

Any person who uses the database and takes the benefits from the Database is
considered as Database User. They can be programmer, scientist, engineers,
businessman or can be any employee.
Database Administrator
 It is a person or team, who is responsible for overall management of the Database
Management System design.
 It’s a leader of the database; it is also like the superuser of the system.
 It is responsible for the administration of all 3 levels of database.
 He has all the privileges on the database; he can also assign or remove the
privileges from the other database users.
• Each database requires at least one database administrator (DBA). A Database
system can be large and can have many users. Therefore, database administration
is sometimes not a one-person job, but a job for a group of DBAs who share
responsibility.
• A database administrator's responsibilities can include the following tasks:
 Installing and upgrading the Oracle Database server and application tools
 Allocating system storage and planning future storage requirements for the
database system
 Creating primary database storage structures (tablespaces) after application
developers have designed an application
 Creating primary objects (tables, views, indexes) once application developers have
designed an application
 Modifying the database structure, as necessary, from information given by

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Different types of Database Users

 Controlling and monitoring user access to the database
 Monitoring and optimizing the performance of the database
 Planning for backup and recovery of database information
 Maintaining archived data on tape
 Backing up and restoring the database
 Contacting Oracle for technical support
Application Programmers
 They are the developers who interact with the database by means of DML queries.
 These DML queries are written in the application programs like C, C++, JAVA,
Pascal etc.
 These queries are converted into object code to communicate with the database.
 For example, writing a C program to generate the report of employees who are
working in particular department will involve a query to fetch the data from
database. It will include a embedded SQL query in the C Program.

Sophisticated Users
 They interact with the system without writing programs.
 They form requests by writing queries in a database query language. These are
submitted to a query processor that breaks a DML statement down into
instructions for the database manager module.
 They directly interact with the database by means of query language like SQL.
 These users will be scientists, engineers, analysts who thoroughly study SQL
and DBMS to apply the concepts in their requirement. In short, we can say this
category includes designers and developers of DBMS and SQL.

Different types of Database Users

Specialized Users
 These are also sophisticated users, but they write special database application
programs.
 They are the developers who develop the complex programs to the requirement.
These may be CADD systems, knowledge-based and expert systems, complex
data systems (audio/video), etc.

Native Users
 These are the users who use the existing application to interact with the database.
 For example, online library system, ticket booking systems, ATMs etc which has
existing application and users use them to interact with the database to fulfill their
requests.

System Analyst
 He/she analyses the requirements of the end users, especially naïve users and
parametric end users. They are responsible for the design, structure and
properties of the database.
 The main concerns of the system analyst is on feasibility, economic aspects and
technical aspects.
 Analysts are one among the sophisticated users. They use the tools to perform
their task such as:
1. Online analytical processing (OLAP) - It helps the analysts to view them the
summaries of the data in different ways.
2. Data Mining Tools – It helps the analysts find a certain kind of pattern in the
given data.

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