Fundamentals of

Database System

Chapter One
Introduction
to
Database

Fundamentals of Database Systems 1

 Introduction
• Data are raw facts.
• The facts about an object or concept.
• The object could be any real world entity :- a person, a thing, a
place …
• Data may not have a meaning unless it is processed.
• When data is processed it will yield information.
• A database is a set of data that has a regular structure.
• It is a collection of records about some entity such as a person,
organization, city, product.
• Data in a database is organized in such a way a computer can
easily manage the data.
• Data in a database can be used to generate information.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 2

Introduction
• A database can generally be looked at as being a
collection of records, each of which contains one or
more fields (i.e., pieces of data) about some entity
(i.e., object), such as a person, organization, city,
product.
• For example: Student database,
• The Entity is a Student
• The database may contain records of hundred of thousands
of students.
• Each student record contains data fields like First_Name,
Last_Name, birthdata, sex … about a single student.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 3

Introduction
• Data in a database is broadly classified into two types
• End user Data: raw facts of interest to the end user(the
actual data)
• Metadata or data about data: information about the
data in the database.
• For Example:
• Age of student
• The data may be 25
• Meta-data may contain information like (Age is numeric data, it
cannot be Negative value, it cannot be >200

Fundamentals of Database Systems 4

 Characteristics of Database
• A database is a collection of related data and data in a
Database is shared.
• Related
• Data in a database is related in some way
• A collection of random data is not really a database in the true
sense of the word.
• Shared
• A database defined once and used simultaneously by many
users.
• No separate file for each user.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 5

 Application of Database
• Example Applications of database in our day to day
activities
• Ethio Telecome Database
• Check Balance
• Recharge balance
• Balance Transfer
• Bank Database
• ATM machine access you Account Balance in the Bank
Database.
• Transfer Money
Fundamentals of Database Systems 6
Why use a database?

• To organize information
• To be able to get reports from data
• To protect data :- to apply security features
• To be able to share data

Fundamentals of Database Systems 7

History of Database

•Database systems passes through the

different levels of development along with
the development in technology and
services.
• Manual approach
• File based system
• Database approach

Fundamentals of Database Systems 8

 Manual Approach
• Information are handled by using cards and papers.
• Files are labeled and stored in one or more cabinate
• Storage and retrieval is performed using human labor.
• We may have an indexing system that helps us locate what we
want more quickly
• It works well while the number of files to be stored is small.
• Limitations
• Prone to error
• Difficult to retrieve, update
• Difficult to produce a report

Fundamentals of Database Systems 9

 Traditional File based System
• Is an earlier attempt to computerize the manual filing system.
• File is a collection of records which contains logically related data.
• There is one application program for each data which accesses it.
(Each program defines and manage its own data.)
• Data is not shared in this approach. (Each user has its own copy
instead of using sharing file.)
• In file based system file is a collection of records contains logically
related data.
• Limitations
• Limited data sharing
• Data dependency on the application (definitions
of the
data are embedded in the application
program)
• Duplication of data
Fundamentals of Database Systems 10
A universities file based system

Fundamentals of Database Systems 11

 Database Approach
• All the limitations of the file based approach can be attributed to
two factors:
• The definition of the data is embedded in the
application programs, rather than being stored
separately and independently.
• There is no control over the access and
manipulation of data beyond that imposed by the
application programs.
• What emerged in the database approach were the database and the
DBMS.
• The database is a large repository of data, which is defined once
and used simultaniously by many departments and users.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 12

Database Approach

•DBMS:
• It is a piece of software that allows a user to
define, create and manage access to a database.
• DBMS decouples application programs from data
• Every Database Software has DBMS at its core.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 13

 Database Approach
• Is a system which improves many problems of file
based system. These improvements are
• Data can be shared:- there is a centralized database which
can be shared by different users.
• Data integrity:- database always contains consistent data.
• Increase data independency:-
• is the ability to change the format of the data without
changing the application program
• The DBMS actually decouples application programs from
data. This provides the ability to change Database
definition without changing the application program
which access it.(i.e Data independence)

Fundamentals of Database Systems

14
A university’s Database system

Fundamentals of Database Systems

15
In summary …

• 1) In file-based approach data sharing is not possible but in

database approach its available.
• 2) In file-based approach there is lot of redundant data but in
database there is controlled data redundancy
• 3) In File-based approach Data is not application independent
where as in database approach data independence is an
advantage.
• 4) In file-based there is weak data integrity but in database
there is better data  integrity.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 16

 Components of a Database System
• A Database System consists of
• Data (the database) :
• User Data: Data used by the organization and
• Metadata: a description of this data
• Software:
• DBMS, operating system, network software (if necessary) and also the
application programs
• Hardware :
• All the necessary input, output , storage and backup devices.
• Can range from a PC to a network of computers
• Users
• Different Roles taken by people while designing and using a Database
systems

Fundamentals of Database Systems 17

Database Users
18
• End users
• Use the database system to achieve some goal
• Application developers
• Write software to allow end users to interface with the
database system
• Uses a DBMS
• Database Administrator (DBA)
• Designs & manages the database system
• Top-level database expert for an organization
• Database systems programmer
• Writes the database software itself

Fundamentals of Database Systems 18

Database Management System (DBMS)

• A DBMS is a set of programs that enables users to

create a database and access the data in the database.
• A DBMS is a software system designed to
• store,
• manage, and
• facilitate access to databases.
• You could also write your own DBMS application (e.g.
using C++, VB or Java)
• But most database applications are created using an
existing DBMS

Fundamentals of Database Systems 19

DBMS (cont.)

• A DBMS is general-purpose software

• i.e., not application specific.
• The same DBMS (e.g., Oracle, SQLServer, etc.) can be
used in different systems
• DBMS allows user to
• input data,
• share the data,
• edit the data,
• manipulate the data, and
• display the data in the database.
• allows more than one user to share the data;

20
Fundamentals of Database Systems 20
Database Languages
• The facilities of DBMS includes database languages.
• These includes the languages to create the database (DDL) and
to access the database (DML)
• Data Definition Language(DDL):-
• Is a language for defining database schema.
• used to specify the data types and structures and the
constraints on the data to be stored in the database.
• Data Manipulation Language(DML):-
• Specify how to access the database
• allows users to insert, update, delete and retrieve data
from the database; with the help of query languages.

21
 Objectives of DBMS

• The main objectives of database management system

are
• data availability,
• data integrity,
• data security, and
• data independence

1 Data Availability
Data availability refers to the fact that the data are made
available to wide variety of users
• so that the users can easily access the data.

22 Fundamentals of Database Systems

 Objectives of DBMS (cont)

• 2 Data Integrity
• refers to the correctness of the data in the database.
• the data in the database should be a reliable data.
• 3 Data Security
• only authorized users can access the data.
• Data security can be enforced by passwords.
• If two separate users are accessing a particular data at the same time, the
DBMS must not allow them to make conflicting changes.
• 4 Data Independence
• DBMS provides an “abstract view” of how the data is stored in the
database.
• The system hides certain details of how the data are stored and
maintained

23 Fundamentals of Database Systems

Three-Tier Application Architecture
• Database systems provide users with a view of the system
they need and understand
• Users view of database should be separated from the
unnecessary details about how data is stored.
• These separation is desirable because:
• Users should not directly deal with the physical storage.
• Each user should be able to access the same data, but have
different view of the data.
• Administrators should be able to change the structure of the
database without affecting the users view.
Fundamentals of Database Systems 24
 Three-Tier Application Architecture

• The approach to database systems design now-days tries to separate

presentation of data from business rules as much as possible.

• This is achieved through layering.

• The three layers in database system are

•Presentation layer
•Application layer
•Data layer

Fundamentals of Database Systems 25

 Three-Tier Application Architecture

Presentation 2….

Presentation (user view)

(display data, forms to
On client PCs change/enter data)

Application server
(business rules in programs/code
On Server e.g. Java, CGI, ASP, VB)

On Server DATA
Fundamentals of Database Systems 26
Three-Tier Application Architecture
• Presentation layer
• The user’s view of the database.
• Part of the database relevant to a particular user.
• There can be different views of the data – different
presentations to different types of user.
• Different views may have different representations of the
same data. E.g. dd-mm-yyyy or yyy-mm-dd
• Provides familiar view for the user.
Fundamentals of Database Systems 27
Three-Tier Application Architecture

• Application Layer
• These layer describes how to access the data in the
database
• Applications developed using different programming
languages to retrieve different information from the
database.
• The application code written reflects the ‘business
rules’ –
• e.g. code to calculate the interest to apply to an account.
Fundamentals of Database Systems 28
Three-Tier Application Architecture

• Data layer
• This is where the actual database is – could be an Access
db or a SQL Server db or an Oracle db – any DBMS.
• This layer describes how the data is stored in the
database.
• The DBA may work directly with the database through
the DBMS itself, but programmers generally work at the
application layer.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 29

 Data Independence
• A major objective for the three-tier architecture is to
provide data independence
• Early systems (file processing):
• have close link between database and programs to access it
• definition of database was a part of the programs accessing it.
• Problem with this:
• Changes to db definitions requires changing all code that
accesses the data
• For example: Performance tuning(adjustment): making
changes to a database to make it faster also needs changing
lots of programs.
Fundamentals of Database Systems 30
Data Independence
• Data independence :- data definitions should be
separate from applications/programs that use the data.
• Data Independence
• Logical:
• immunity of presentation layer to changes in
application layer
• Physical:
• immunity of application layer to changes in data
layer
• schema can be changed without affecting existing
data or programs that access the data.

Fundamentals of Database Systems 31