REVISION FOR JULY/AUG SERIES

TYPES OF DATABASE USERS IN DBMS

 Database administrator
 Naïve/parametric end users
 System analyst
 Sophisticated users
 Database designers
 Casual/temporary users

SCHEMA IN DBMS
Represents the logical configuration of all part of a relational database
Types of schema
 Logical
 Physical
 View
Physical

Course Student

Course_id Student_id

Course_name Student_name

Department Course_id

Section

Student_id

Section_id

Course_id

DATA REPLICATION
Data Replication is the process of storing data in more than one site or node. It is
useful in improving the availability of data. It is simply copying data from
a database from one server to another server so that all the users can share the
same data without any inconsistency.
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN UNION AND RENAME OPERATOR IN RELATIONAL
ALGEBRA

Union operator is denoted by ∪ symbol and it is used to select all the

rows (tuples) from two tables (relations).
Syntax of Union Operator (∪)

table_name1 ∪ table_name2

Rename (ρ) operation can be used to rename a relation or an attribute

of a relation.
Rename (ρ) Syntax:
ρ(new_relation_name, old_relation_name)

CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH DATABASE MAY ACHIEVE THE

FOLLOWING PROPERTIES

 Atomicity − This property states that a transaction must be treated

as an atomic unit, that is, either all of its operations are executed or
none. There must be no state in a database where a transaction is left
partially completed. States should be defined either before the
execution of the transaction or after the execution/abortion/failure of
the transaction.
 Consistency − No transaction should have any adverse effect on the
data residing in the database. If the database was in a consistent
state before the execution of a transaction, it must remain consistent
after the execution of the transaction as well.
 Durability − If a transaction updates a chunk of data in a database
and commits, then the database will hold the modified data. If a
transaction commits but the system fails before the data could be
written on to the disk, then that data will be updated once the system
springs back into action.
 Isolation − In a database system where more than one transaction
are being executed simultaneously and in parallel, the property of
isolation states that all the transactions will be carried out and
executed as if it is the only transaction in the system. No transaction
will affect the existence of any other transaction.

ILLUSTRATE THE ALL STATES OF TRANSACTIONS

States of Transactions
A transaction in a database can be in one of the following states −
 The UNIQUE constraint ensures that all values in a column are different. Both
the UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints provide a guarantee for uniqueness for a
column or set of columns.

The CHECK constraint is used to limit the value range that can be placed in a column. If
you define a CHECK constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain columns based on
values in other columns in the row. ...

The DEFAULT constraint is used to set a default value for a column. The default value
will be added to all new records, if no other value is specified.

Top 10 considerations when choosing a Database Management system

 1) Usability. Consider how user-friendly the system will be for all those members of staff
required to use it. ...
 2) Visualisation & Reporting. ...
 3) Security. ...
 4) Functionality. ...
 5) Support & Development. ...
 6) Integration. ...
 7) Scalability. ...
 8) Cost and Suitability.

1) Usability
Consider how user-friendly the system will be for all those members of
staff required to use it. In some organisations those may include
Marketing professionals, the IT department, Database Developers and
others. Look at the suitability from everyone’s perspective, and
consider if you can set different levels of permission for different
teams or personnel.
Many systems offer drag-and-drop execution, which makes for an
intuitive working methodology. Importantly, however the system
works, make sure it is usable for your whole team.

2) Visualisation & Reporting

Review the ease of visually analysing and displaying results for any
queries you run on your data, while making selections and deciding
segments. Also, check how the software displays campaign results if
you feed this information back into the database.

You should look for visual displays that will help you show selections
and results to colleagues (likely other teams or managers/directors) in
a way that they will be able to understand quickly and easily.

3) Security
Security of your data is an essential aspect of any database
implementation. Business-sensitive data and any personal information
you hold must be stored securely to adhere to regulations and to
protect it from loss or theft.

It is important to consider both the physical risk to data (e.g. the risk
from fire, theft, etc.) and the risks from hacking, or from unintentional
corruption of data through human error. Any system you implement
must address the issue of keeping your data secure.
 4) Functionality
Confirm that the modules available in the data analysis software meet
your business requirements. The functionality or modules you should
be looking for include:

 Extract and filter data

 Insight and analysis
 Segmentation and modelling
 Automation
 Forecasting strategy
 Results visualisation
 Campaign planning and ROI management.

5) Support & Development

Think about the support service the software company offers for its
solution. Is this available during the hours you are likely to need
support? Is the support offered by email, phone, other?

Ensure there is a development plan for the selected software so that

you can be confident it will grow with emerging technologies. Make
sure you will receive upgrades to the most recent version and that you
will be supported for as long as you use that software.
6) Integration
Does the system you are considering integrate with your other
software systems such as your Email Marketing platform and CRM
system? This may be a direct integration to the specific software of
there may be an open source code available for integrations.

7) Scalability
Ensure that the system has the capacity to grow with your data and
your business. Remember you are likely to be adding to the data all
the time, so even though your requirement may not be huge right now,
this can grow very quickly if you are gathering and updating your data
regularly as planned. Essentially…can it easily manage millions of
rows of data?

8) Cost and Suitability

Whilst cost is obviously a factor in any business expenditure, it is wise
to ensure that – as far as possible – your decision is based on the
software being fit for purpose.

It could be a costly mistake to take on a system that you then invest

time in building, only to find – too late – that it is not advanced enough
for your needs. Equally there is no need to opt for the most expensive
software available, if you are unlikely to need much of the functionality
it offers.

9) Hosting
Where is your system going to be located (physically)? Will you take
the system in-house or engage the services of a company to host the
data and the software system for you. This could have implications for
support, cost (including any additional hardware you would require),
security, and possibly speed.

10) Updates
The two most important factors regarding updates to the database are
frequency and automation.

Do you need data to be live and constantly in sync with your other
systems, or would daily or even weekly updates to the database be
sufficient? Consider that in order to automate the update process, you
will typically need a consistent data source, i.e. the field types, and the
files supplied each time must be the same. You should consider how
often source data is likely to change, if you are ever going to import
additional data and if so how your chosen software will deal with this.

For more insights into and information on best practice data

management, explore our Knowledge Hub. Otherwise, get in touch
 with one of our friendly experts to discuss how Data HQ’s database
management services can help you and your business.

SQL | DDL, DQL, DML, DCL and TCL Commands

 Difficulty Level : Easy
 Last Updated : 15 Jul, 2021

Structured Query Language(SQL) as we all know is the database

language by the use of which we can perform certain operations on the
existing database and also we can use this language to create a
database. SQL uses certain commands like Create, Drop, Insert, etc. to
carry out the required tasks.
These SQL commands are mainly categorized into four categories as:

1. DDL – Data Definition Language

2. DQl – Data Query Language
3. DML – Data Manipulation Language
4. DCL – Data Control Language
Though many resources claim there to be another category of SQL
clauses TCL – Transaction Control Language. So we will see in
detail about TCL as well.
1.DDL(Data Definition Language) : DDL or Data Definition
Language actually consists of the SQL commands that can be used to
define the database schema. It simply deals with descriptions of the
database schema and is used to create and modify the structure of
database objects in the database.

Examples of DDL commands:

 CREATE – is used to create the database or its objects (like table,
index, function, views, store procedure and triggers).
 DROP – is used to delete objects from the database.
 ALTER-is used to alter the structure of the database.
 TRUNCATE–is used to remove all records from a table, including all
spaces allocated for the records are removed.
 COMMENT –is used to add comments to the data dictionary.
 RENAME –is used to rename an object existing in the database.
2.DQL (Data Query Language) :
DQL statements are used for performing queries on the data within
schema objects. The purpose of the DQL Command is to get some
schema relation based on the query passed to it.
Example of DQL:
 SELECT – is used to retrieve data from the database.
3.DML(Data Manipulation Language): The SQL commands that
deals with the manipulation of data present in the database belong to
DML or Data Manipulation Language and this includes most of the SQL
statements.

Examples of DML:
 INSERT – is used to insert data into a table.
 UPDATE – is used to update existing data within a table.
 DELETE – is used to delete records from a database table.
4.DCL(Data Control Language): DCL includes commands such as
GRANT and REVOKE which mainly deal with the rights, permissions and
other controls of the database system.
Examples of DCL commands:
 GRANT-gives users access privileges to the database.
 REVOKE-withdraw user’s access privileges given by using the
GRANT command.
TCL(transaction Control Language): TCL commands deal with
the transaction within the database.
Examples of TCL commands:
 COMMIT– commits a Transaction.
 ROLLBACK– rollbacks a transaction in case of any error occurs.
 SAVEPOINT–sets a savepoint within a transaction.
 SET TRANSACTION–specify characteristics for the transaction.

Key Terms
application programmer: user who implements specific application programs to access the
stored data
application user: accesses an existing application program to perform daily tasks.
database administrator (DBA): responsible for authorizing access to the database, monitoring
its use and managing all the resources to support the use of the entire database system
end user: people whose jobs require access to a database for querying, updating and generating
reports
sophisticated user: those who use other methods, other than the application program, to access
the database

OUTLINE THE ADVANTAGES OF USING VIEWS IN A DATABASE