Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology
Database Management
Systems I
Lecture 1
Objectives
BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY:
Some common uses of databases
Characteristics and problems of file-
based systems
The meaning of the term database
The major components of a DBMS
The advantages and disadvantages
of a DBMS
DBMS users
Introduction
What is a database?
A database is a collection of related
data
(examples???)
A database management system
(DBMS) is a software package designed
to create and maintain databases
(examples?)
Introduction DBMS (contd…)
The DBMS is a general-purpose software system
Defining
Specifying the data types, structures, and
constraints for the data to be stored in the database.
Constructing
The process of storing the data itself on some
storage medium that is controlled by the DBMS.
Manipulating
Manipulating a database includes such functions as
querying the database to retrieve specific data,
updating the database to reflect changes, and
generating reports from the data.
Why Study DBs?
Very widely used.
Part of many software solutions.
DB expertise is a career asset.
Interesting:
– Mix of many different requirements
– Mix of many different methodologies
– Real world application
$$!!
JOB Market
Types of Databases and Database
Applications
Numeric and Textual Databases
Banks
Multimedia Databases
Amazon. Com
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Data Warehouses
Examples
Today, DBMSs are an essential part of
any Enterprise Information System
University Database
Credit Card Processing Systems
Airline Reservation Systems
Banking System
Databases touch all aspects of our lives
Example: University DB
University database maintaining
information concerning:
Students,
Courses, and
Grades
…
An example of a DB
Stores students and their grades of followed courses
STUDENT Name StudentNumber Class Major
Smith 17 1 CS
Brown 8 2 CS
COURSE CourseName CourseNumber CreditHouse Department
Intro to Computer Science CS 1310 4 CS
Data Structures CS 3320 4 CS
Discrete Mathematics MATH 2410 3 MATH
Database CS 3380 3 CS
SECTION Sectionaldentifier CourseNumber Semester Year Instructor
85 MATH 2410 Fall 98 King
92 CS 1310 Fall 98 Anderson
102 CS 3320 Spring 99 Knuth
112 MATH 2410 Fall 99 Chang
119 CS 1310 Fall 99 Anderson
135 CS 3380 Fall 99 Stone
GRADE_REPORT StudentNumber Sectionaldentifier Grade
17 112 B
17 119 C
8 85 A
8 92 A
8 102 B
8 135 A
PREREQUISITE CourseNumber PrerequisiteNumber
CS 3380 CS 3320
CS 3380 MATH 2410
CS 3320 CS 1310
Example: University DB (contd…)
It shows the database structure and a few sample data.
It is organized as five files.
The STUDENT file – data on each student,
The COURSE file – data on each course,
The SECTION file – data on each section of a course,
The GRADE_REPORT file – data on grades that
students receive in the various sections they have
completed, and
The PREREQUISITE file – data on prerequisite of each
course.
Options
Manual Processing
Time Consuming
Does not support large volumes
of data
File based Processing
Traditional File System provided by the
Operating System is insufficient to meet
the requirements of enterprise applications
Database Processing
File Based Processing
ID
Name
001
Anne
Address Perth
TelNo 747374
Marks 75
Data File Handling
Entry & Routines Student System Files
Report File Definitions
s ID 001
Name Anne
Address Perth
TelNo 747374
Books-Loan 5
Data File Handling
Entry Routines
& File Definitions
Report
s
Library System Files
Data Duplication
File Based Processing
ID
Name
001
Anne
Change request Address Perth
TelNo 747374
Marks 75
Data File Handling
Entry & Routines Student System Files
Report File Definitions
s ID 001
Name Anne
Address Perth
TelNo 747374
Books-Loan 5
Data File Handling
Entry Routines
& File Definitions
Report
s
Library System Files
File Based Processing
ID
Name
001
Anne
Change request Address Sydney
TelNo 624875
Marks 75
Data File Handling
Entry & Routines Student System Files
Report File Definitions
s ID 001
Name Anne
Address Perth
TelNo 747374
Books-Loan 5
Data File Handling
Entry Routines
& File Definitions
Report
s
Library System Files
Inconsistent Data
Limitations of File Based Systems
Data Inconsistency
Duplication of Data
Security – Only password security
How do we resolve these problems?
Database Processing
Change Request
stno Name address
001 Jay Perth
…………….
Data Entry &
Reports
Application
Students Programs
DBMS
Data Entry & Database
Reports
Library App. Programs
Database Processing
Change Request
stno Name address
001 Jay Sydney
…………….
Data Entry &
Reports
Application
Students Programs
DBMS
Data Entry & Database
Reports
Library App. Programs
Advantages of using a DBMS
Data independence
Efficient data access
Data integrity and security
Data administration
Concurrent access, recovery from
crashes
Reduced application development time
Data independence
Application programs are independent of data
representation and storage details.
The structure of data files is stored in the DBMS
catalog separately from the access programs.
E.g. a file access program may be written in
such a way that it can access only STUDENT
records of the structure.
Efficient data access
DBMS utilises sophisticated techniques to store and
retrieve data efficiently, including support for very
large files, index structures and query optimisation.
Storage methods can be improved without changing
the application programs.
Data integrity and security
DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on
the data.
e.g., checking salary increase against dept budget
Access controls govern what data is visible
to different class of users.
Data administration
Centralising administration of data shared
among many users.
• data managed by professionals
Organise data to,
• meet user needs
• minimise redundancy
Fine tuning of storage for efficient retrieval.
Concurrent access and Crash
recovery
Concurrent accesses are scheduled by
DBMS.
- users can think of the data as being accessed by one
user at a time.
DBMS protects users from the effects of
system failure.
Reduced application development
time
DBMS supports many functions common
to applications that access the database
High-level interfaces to data also facilitate
quick development of applications
These applications are likely to be more
robust than applications developed from
scratch because many important tasks
are handled by DBMS instead of being
implemented by the application
When not to use a DBMS
With all its advantages, in some
applications using DBMS is not the
desirable solution. In many such
cases, files (provided by the OS) is
used.
When NOT to use a DBMS
High initial investment (DBMS is an
expensive software package)
Applications use small amounts of data
Lack of resources (disk space, memory,
etc.) to support a database
Single-user applications
Overhead for flexible querying, security,
concurrent access & crash recovery is not
required
What do we store in a
Database?
Collection of data central to some
enterprise
Essential to operation of enterprise
Historical data can guide enterprise
strategy
Of interest to other enterprises
Describing & Storing Data in a
DBMS
A data model is a collection of high-
level data description constructs used
to model the application domain
Data model hides the low-level
storage details
Most commercial database systems
are based on the relational data
model
Describing & Storing Data in a
DBMS (contd…)
However, it is easier to use a
semantic data model to model an
application domain. A well-known
semantic data model is the Entity
Relationship (ER) Model
Describing & Storing Data in a
DBMS (contd)
In relational data model, the main construct is a relation.
A relation has fields that belong to it which contain the
name & data type of each field
A description of data in terms of a data model is called
the schema.
Every relation has a schema, which describes the name of the
relation, name of each attribute (field or column), and the type
of each column.
e.g.
Students(sid: string, name: string, login: string,
age: integer, gpa: real)
Describing & Storing Data in a
DBMS (contd)
In addition to relational data model…
Hierarchical model,
Network model,
Object oriented model, and
Object relational model.
Levels of Abstraction in a DBMS
Proposed to support:
Program-data independence
Support of multiple views of the data
Levels of Abstraction in a
DBMS(contd)
DBMS is described at three levels of
abstraction:
External Schema
many views describe how
View 1 View 2 View 3
users see the data
Conceptual Schema Conceptual Schema
defines logical structure
Physical Schema Physical Schema
describes the files and indexes used
Note:
DISK
Information about the schemas is stored
in the system catalog
Levels of Abstraction in a
DBMS(contd)
Conceptual schema
describes the stored data in terms of the
data model of the DBMS
in a relational DBMS, the conceptual
schema describes all relations that are
stored in the database
Levels of Abstraction in a
DBMS(contd)
Physical schema
describe storage details
summarizes how the relations described
in the conceptual schema are actually
stored on secondary storage devices
such as disks and tapes
decide what file organizations used to
store the relations
create indexes to speed up data retrieval
operations
Levels of Abstraction in a
DBMS(contd)
External schemas
allow data access to be customized (and
authorized) at the level of individual
users or groups of users
any given database has exactly one
conceptual schema and one physical
schema because it has just one set of
stored relations, but it may have several
external schemas
Data Independence
One of the main advantages of DBMS.
The three-schema architecture provides
the concept of data independence,
upper-levels are unaffected by changes
to lower-levels.
Two types:
Logical data independence
Physical data independence
Logical Data Independence
The ability to modify the conceptual schema
without having alteration in external schemas
or application programs.
Eg. addition or deletion of fresh entities,
attributes or relationships
should be possible
without having alteration to existing external
schemas or having to rewrite application
programs.
Physical Data Independence
The ability to modify the inner schema
without having alteration to the conceptual
schemas.
Eg. Using new storage devices.
Switching from one access method to
another.
Modifying indexes.
should be possible without having to change
the conceptual schema.
People who deal with databases
End users- uses applications written by
database application programmers
Application Programmers – develop
packages that facilitates data access for
end users.
Database Administrators – undertake
the task of designing and maintaining
the database.
Design schemas, security & authorisation, tuning etc
41
Your Turn !!
Categorize each of the following into
database administration tasks of
design, security/integrity , and
performance.
Reducing order entry response time to 2
seconds
Re-issuing passwords for every user
Directly relating every sale to the sales
representative who made the sale.
How does a DBMS do all this?
DBMS is a complex
software package
The major components of
a DBMS are shown
How does a DBMS do all this?
(contd.)
Query Evaluation Module
Transaction Manager
Lock Manager
Recovery Manager
Files and Access Methods
Buffer Manager
Disk Space Manager
Index Files
Data Files
System Catalogs
Summary
Characteristics and problems of file-based systems
The major components of a DBMS
The advantages and disadvantages of a DBMS
DBMS users
