Why Study Databases?

• Databases have incredible value to businesses.

• Very important technology for supporting operations.
• Vastly superior to file processing systems
• Businesses cannot survive without quality data about their
• internal operations and
• external environment.
Foundation Data Concepts
Abstract Concepts
• Entity – person, place, object or event

– stored as a record or a table row

• Attribute – characteristic of an entity

– stored as field or table column

Foundation Data Concepts
Large
Database Concepts
• Database – a collection of related tables
• Tables – a collection of related records
– collection of related entities
• Record – collection of fields (table row)
–represents an entity
• Field – collection of characters (table column)
– represents an attribute
• Character – single alphabetic, numeric or other symbol
Small
Fields
• Characters “B R E I M E R” form a field

Last Name
Breimer

• A field is an attribute of an entity

Records
• A bunch of fields form a record

First Name Last Name Sex Weight

Eric Breimer Yes 263

• A record is an entity
Tables
• A bunch of records forms a table

First Name Last Name Sex Age

Eric Breimer M 30
Jeff Albert M 22
Jackie Pizzo F 21
• A table is a group of related entities
Databases
• A bunch of tables form a database

Customer Table Order Table

Product Table

• A database can represent a single business or an entire market

Databases
• But, databases are not just a bunch of tables
Orders
OID CID PID Quantity
001 508 199 500,000
002 508 201 2
003 510 201 1

Customers Products
CID FName LName Address PID Description Cost
508 Eric Breimer ... 199 Viagra $45.99

• A510database
509 Andrew Zych ... 200 Tooth Paste $2.58
Greg also
Smith includes
... relationships
201 Hair Gel between
$5.99 the

different tables
Chapter 5
Relationships & Queries in Databases
Types of Relationships
ThingA ThingB

One to One Relationship

• Examples? Man Woman

• Analysis Technique Married

• Consider ThingA and ThingB

• Can ThingA be related to more than one ThingB?
• Can ThingB be related to more than one ThingA?
• If the two answers are NO, then it is a one to one relationship.
Types of Relationships
Student

Faculty Student

One to Many Student

• Examples? Advises
• Analysis Technique Get Advisement
• Consider ThingA and ThingB
• Can ThingA be related to more than one ThingB?
• Can ThingB be related to more than one ThingA?
• If only one answer is yes, then you have a one to many relationship
Types of Relationships student takes course

Student

Course Student

Many to Many Course Student

• Examples? Student

• Analysis Technique
course has a student
• Consider ThingA and ThingB
• Can ThingA be related to more than one ThingB?
• Can ThingB be related to more than one ThingA?
• If the answers are yes and yes, then the relationship is
many to many.
How to Model Relationships
Orders
OID CID PID Quantity
001 508 199 500,000
002 508 201 2
003 510 201 1

Customers Products
CID FName LName Address PID Description Cost
508 Eric Breimer ... 199 Viagra $45.99
509 Andrew Zych ... 200 Tooth Paste $2.58
510 Greg Smith ... 201 Hair Gel $5.99
Find the name and hire date of the manager working on the sales manual
project
Traditional File Processing Sucks
File Processing:
• Data is organized, stored, and processed in independent files of data
records
 Problems of
File Processing
• Data Redundancy –
• duplicate data requires
update to many files

• Lack of Integration –
• data stored in
separate files
hard to combine data

• Data Dependence –
• changing the file format requires changing the program…
Database Management Approach
• Consolidates data records into one CENTRAL database that can be
accessed by many different application programs.
 Database Management Software
(DBMS)
Definition:
• Software that controls the creation, maintenance, and use of
databases
DBMS Software Components
• Database Definition
• Language and graphical tools to define entities, relationships, integrity
constraints, and authorization rights
• Application Development
• Graphical tools to develop menus, data entry forms, and reports
DBMS Software Components
• Transaction Processing
• Controls to prevent interference from simultaneous users and
• Controls to recover lost data after a failure
• Database Tuning
• Tools to monitor and improve database performance
Database Interrogation
Definition:
• Capability of a DBMS to report information from the database in
response to end users’ requests

• Query Language – allows easy, immediate access to ad hoc data

requests

• Report Generator - allows quick, easy specification of a report format

for information users have requested
Natural Language vs. SQL
Queries
Schemas

Schema - A description of
Subschema – describes a
the database
subset of the database and
which users have access to
this subset
Data Definition Language
• Language Used to
describe Schemas and
Subschemas
• Describes relationships
between different data
• Provides a Logical view
of the data
Data Dictionary Entry
• A more detailed description of the data in a database
• Specifies data types
and ranges
• Assists programmers in
understanding the data
Physical vs. Logical
• DBMS concentrate on Physical
access to the underlying tables
• Concurrency control
• Query’s
• Creating/deleting tables
Physical vs. Logical
• MIS systems are (Logically)
interface with a DBMS
• monthly reports
• charts
• automated inquiries
Application Development
• Today, even non-technical staff can use tools to build little programs
that use a database.
• Database Management Systems have all kinds of tools to develop custom
application programs and interfaces.
• Example: The College’s MIS (Banner) is actually an application built on
top of a Oracle Database.
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