Common Field Types

Customer ID

LastName

FirstName

Primary Key

Address

City

Foreign Key

Order ID

Customer ID

State

Zipcode

Descriptive
Fields
OrderDate

Referential Integrity

CUSTOMER (Customer ID, LastName, FirstName, Address, City, State, Zipcode)

ORDER (Order ID, Customer ID, OrderDate)

Field Sequencing
Customer ID

State

Address

LastName

Zipcode

City

FirstName

FirstName

Address

City

State

Zipcode

WRONG

RIGHT

Customer ID LastName

Fixed Length Record with Provision for

Multiple Vendors
Field Number Field Identifier
1

Product ID

Description

Qty On Hand

Qty On Order

Reorder Qty

Vendor ID

Vendor Unit Price

Vendor Price Break Qty

Vendor ID

10

Vendor Unit Price

11

Vendor Price Break Qty

12

Vendor ID

13

Vendor Unit Price

14

Vendor Price Break Qty

Potentially
Wasted
Storage
Space

Variable Length Record with Provision for

Multiple Vendors
Field Number Field Identifier
1

Product ID

Description

Qty On Hand

Qty On Order

Reorder Qty

Number of Listed Vendors

Vendor ID

10

Vendor Unit Price

11

Vendor Price Break Qty

Indicator for
number of
Vendor Fields

Blocking Factor
Sector
Without
Blocking

Record
1

Unused Storage Space

512 bytes
Sector
With
Blocking

Record
1

Record
2

Record
3

Record
4

Record
5

Record Spanning

Sector 1

Record
1

Record
2

Record
Record
Record
Unused
Storage
Space
4
3
5

Record
6
Part 1

512 bytes

Sector 2

Record
6
Part 2

Record
7

Record
8

Record
9

Record
10

Record
11
Part 1

Sequential File Organization

Physical Record Position in
File

Record 1

Record 2

Record 3

Record 4

Record 5

Record 6

432751

472982

475631

599874

763216

76327

Record Primary Key

Indexed File Organization

Cylinder
Index

Track Index

500

127

1000

275

1500

500

Master Index

Track 1
Track 2
661
703
717

1500

1800

583

2501

2200

729

722

3317

2501

1000

726

719
723
727
729

2873

1179

3161

1320

3317

1500

Track 3

Division Remainder Hashing Algorithm

The general computation for determining a relative storage address slot for a
particular record is:
Relative slot address = 1 + Remainder of

Primary Key Value

_
Total Number of Reserved Address Slots

Assume a PRODUCT file with 4, 500 unique records. The storage allocation for this
file is equal to the number of records, therefore 4,500 storage slots will be needed on
the media.
The primary key for records in this file is the PRODUCT_ID field.
The location for PRODUCT_ID 734171 can be computed as follows:
Relative slot address = 1 + Remainder of

734171 _ = 1 + 671 = 672

4500

Network Database Architecture

CUSTOMER
CUSTOMER
FILE
FILE

ORDER
ORDER
FILE
FILE

ORDERED_ITEM
ORDERED_ITEM
FILE
FILE

PRODUCT
PRODUCT
FILE
FILE

Hierarchical Database Architecture

STUDENT
STUDENT
FILE
FILE

ACADEMIC
ACADEMIC
ACTIVITY
ACTIVITY
FILE
FILE

CURRENT
CURRENT
COURSE
COURSE
FILE
FILE

FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL
ACTIVITY
ACTIVITY
FILE
FILE

Relational Database Architecture

Field 1

Field 2

Field 3

Field 4

Field 5

Record 1
Record 2
Record 3
Record 4
Record 5
Record 6
Record 7
Record 8

RELATION A (Primary Key, Attribute 1, Attribute 2, Attribute

3, )
RELATION B (Primary Key, Foreign Key, Attribute 2, Attribute
3, )

Field 6

Object-Oriented Database Architecture

Object Class A

Object Class C

Object Attributes

Object Attributes

Object Class B
Object Attributes

Methods

Methods

Methods

Common Data Type Definitions

Data Type

Description

CHAR(n)

Alphanumeric character array with a maximum length of n.

DECIMAL(m,n)
VARCHAR

Signed numerical data with a total number of digits, m, and n number of digits
to the right of the decimal point.
Alphanumeric character array of variable length.

INTEGER

Signed whole number typically up to 11 digits in length

SMALLINT

Signed whole number up to 5 or 6 digits in length.

DATE

Date and time including appropriate validity checks (i.e. 4-31 not allowed).

NUMBER

Real number

FLOAT(m,n)
LOGICAL

Numerical data represented in scientific notation with a total number of digits,

m, and n number of digits to the right of the decimal point.
Binary data (i.e. TRUE/FALSE, YES/NO)

LONG

Variable length alphanumeric character array up to 2Gb

LONGRAW

Binary large object (BLOB) no assumptions are made about format or

content.

Common Field-Level Data Specifications

Field Specification

Description

Field Name

Formal name for the field that uniquely identifies it from all others.

Data Type

Data type associated with this field.

Units

The unit of measure associated with this field (if applicable).

Maintenance

Rules for update, change, or deletion once data is entered (i.e.

accounting transaction data cannot be changed once entered).
Procedure for handling missing data during multiple record processing
(i.e. IGNORE, USE AVERAGE OF OTHER RECORDS).

Missing Data
Check Digit

Algorithm for calculate and verifying any check digits used in this field.

Formula

Algorithm for computing the value of this field (if calculated).

Coding
Domain/Range

Coding conventions or acceptable abbreviations (i.e. 2-character

abbreviation for State).
Specification of range limits or default values for the field.

Referential Integrity

Specification for any referential integrity constraints for the field.

Data Owner

Identification of the responsible party for identifying the source and

meaning of data contained in this field.

Common Domain Controls

Domain Control

Description

Default Value

Automatic entry of a value commonly found for this

field unless other data is entered.

Range Control

Imposition of acceptable or relevant limits on either

alphanumeric or numerical data.

Picture Control

Imposition of a specific pattern for the data being

entered (i.e. DATE= mm/dd/yy or dd-mm-yyyy)

Null Value Control

Specification of whether a value in a particular field is

required or optional.

Examples of Referential Integrity Deletion Rules

Deletion Rule

Explanation

NO RESTRICTION

Any record in the file may be deleted without regard to

any other record or file.

DELETE:CASCADE

A deletion of a record must be automatically followed

by the deletion of any matching records in any related
files.

DELETE:RESTRICT

A deletion of a record in a table must be disallowed

until any matching records are deleted from any
related files.

DELETE:SET NULL

A deletion of a record must be automatically followed

by setting any matching keys in a related file to NULL.

Common File Types

File Type
Master File

Transaction File
Document File
Table Look-Up File
Audit File

Archive File
Work File

Description
Contains records related to business data that is relatively permanent.
Once a record is entered, it tends to remain indefinitely. Data values may
change (i.e. CUSTOMERS, PRODUCTS, INVOICES, SUPPLIERS).

Contains records that describe business events which can occur on a dayto-day basis. Data tends to have a limited useful life and are usually moved
to an archival file after a predetermined period.
Contains stored copies of historical data in document form such that the
overhead associated with recreated or reprocessing the document is
eliminated.
Contains reference data used to validate field values and to maintain
consistency throughout the database (INCOME TAX TABLES, POSTAL
CODE TABLES).
Contains records of updates to other files in the database in case production
files are damaged and require reconstruction. Data can be used with
records in archival files to recover or restore damaged files or lost data.

Contains records that have been deleted from active transaction files but
require retention for an indefinite period.

Contains records stored temporarily or records containing intermediate

results in a calculation process. Work files are usually created when needed
and deleted upon completion of the task.

Volumetric Analysis

FIELD

SIZE (bytes)

Invoice_ID
Invoice_Date
Customer_ID
Product_ID
Quantity
Unit_Price
Salesman_ID

7
8
6
9
3
6
4

Record Size
Record Overhead
Total Record Size

43
25%
53.75

Total Annual Record Volume

Expected Table Volume

67,000
3,601,250

Expected Annual Growth Rate

Projected Table Volume 4 years

16%
5,621,176