Database Overview

Ashis Talukder, PhD

Associate Professor,
Management Information Systems (MIS)
University Of Dhaka

Ashis Talukder, PhD, MIS, DU

Introduction
 Traditional File Management
 DBM
 Purpose of Database Systems
 Data Models
 Data Definition Language
 Data Manipulation Language
 Database Administrator
 Database Users
 Overall System Structure

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

 Database
 A database is an organized collection of
structured information, or data, typically stored
electronically in a computer system.
 Databases can be thought of as an organized
collection of information.
 Databases are used for
 storing,
 maintaining and
 accessing any sort of data.
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
 Database
 Databases collect information on people,
places or things.
That information is gathered in one place
 so that it can be observed and analyzed.

 Data may be logically organized into

characters, fields, records, files & databases.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

A Sample Database: Banking Database
Branch table

LOAN table Borrower table

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Database Organization
 Bit:
− Smallest unit of data
− binary digit (0/1, On/Off or Y/ N)
− Most basic unit of physical storage
 Byte:
− Group of bits that represents a single
alphabetic, numeric or other symbols
− Also called character

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Database Organization
 Field:
− Next higher level of data
− Consists of group of bytes or a complete
number which represent DETUM or FACT
− Example: Name, account number, roll,
balance
 Record:
− Group of interrelated fields
− Example: (11, Mina, 82) (roll, name, marks)
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
Database Organization
 File/Table:
− Group of records of same type
− Example: customer table, account table

 Database:
− Integrated all tables/files of an enterprise
− Example: customer table, account table

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Database Organization: The Data Hierarchy

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Database Management System (DBMS)

 Collection of interrelated data

 Set of programs to access the data
 DBMS contains information about a particular enterprise
 Goal of the DBMS is to provides a way to store and retrieve
database information that is both convenient and efficient.
 Database Applications:
 Banking: Customer Information, loans, and all transactions
 Airlines: reservations, schedules
 Universities: registration, grades
 Sales: customers, products, purchases
 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain
 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions
 Databases touch all aspects of our lives
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
Purpose of Database System
 In the early days, database applications were built on top of file
systems
 Drawbacks of using file systems to store data:
 Data redundancy and inconsistency
 Multiple file formats, duplication of information in different files
 Difficulty in accessing data
 Need to write a new program to carry out each new task
 Data isolation
 multiple files and formats
 Integrity problems
 Integrity constraints (e.g. account balance > 0) become part of
program code
 Hard to add new constraints or change existing ones
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
 Purpose of Database Systems (Cont.)

 Drawbacks of using file systems (cont.)

 Atomicity of updates
 Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with partial
updates carried out
 E.g. transfer of funds from one account to another should either
complete or not happen at all
 Concurrent access by multiple users
 Concurrent accessed needed for performance
 Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies
 E.g. two people reading a balance and updating it at the same time
 Security problems
 Database systems offer solutions to all the above problems

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Some Commercial Database Management Systems

 Microsoft Access
 FoxPro
 dBase
 Oracle – Oracle 8i, Oracle9i, Oracle 10g
 Microsoft SQL Server
 IBM DB2/DB2UDB
 Informix
 Sybase
 MySQL
 Ingress
 Postgre SQL
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
Data Models

 Models
 A collection of tools for describing
 data
 data relationships
 data semantics
 data constraints

 Model Examples
 Entity-Relationship model
 Relational model
 object-oriented model
 semi-structured data models
 network model and
 hierarchical model
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
 Relational Database Model

 represents the database as a collection of

relations.
 A relation is nothing but a table of values.
 Every row in the table represents a collection of
related data values. These rows in the table
denote a real-world entity or relationship.
 The table name and column names are helpful to
interpret the meaning of values in each row.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Relational Database Model
Attributes

customer- customer- customer- account-

Customer-id
name street city number

192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-101
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-215
192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-201
321-12-3123 Jones
Main Harrison A-217
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-201

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

A Sample Relational Database:
Banking Database
branch table

loan table borrower table

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Relational Database Models

 The data are represented as a set of

relations.
 In the relational model, data are stored as
tables.
 However, the physical storage of the data is
independent of the way the data are
logically organized.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

 Relational Database Models

 Attribute: Each column in a Table. Attributes are the properties

which define a relation. e.g., Student_Rollno, NAME,etc.
 Tables: In the Relational model the, relations are saved in the
table format. It is stored along with its entities. A table has two
properties rows and columns. Rows represent records and
columns represent attributes.
 Tuple: It is nothing but a single row of a table, which contains a
single record.
 Relation Schema: A relation schema represents the name of the
relation with its attributes.
 Degree: The total number of attributes which in the relation is
called the degree of the relation.
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
 Relational Database Models

 Cardinality: Total number of rows present in the Table.

 Column: The column represents the set of values for a
specific attribute.
 Relation instance: Relation instance is a finite set of
tuples in the RDBMS system. Relation instances never
have duplicate tuples.
 Relation key: Every row has one, two or multiple
attributes, which is called relation key.
 Attribute domain: Every attribute has some pre-defined
value and scope which is known as attribute domain

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Relational Database Model
Attributes

customer- customer- customer- account-

Customer-id
name street city number

192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-101
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-215
192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-201
321-12-3123 Jones
Main Harrison A-217
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-201

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

A Sample Relational Database:
Banking Database
branch table

loan table borrower table

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Advantages of RDBMS
 Simplicity: A Relational data model in DBMS is simpler than the
hierarchical and network model.
 Structural Independence: The relational database is only concerned with
data and not with a structure. This can improve the performance of the
model.
 Easy to use: The Relational model in DBMS is easy as tables consisting of
rows and columns are quite natural and simple to understand
 Query capability: It makes possible for a high-level query language like
SQL to avoid complex database navigation.
 Data independence: The Structure of Relational database can be changed
without having to change any application.
 Scalable: Regarding a number of records, or rows, and the number of
fields, a database should be enlarged to enhance its usability.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Dis-Advantages of RDBMS

 Few relational databases have limits on field

lengths which can't be exceeded.
 Relational databases can sometimes become
complex as the amount of data grows, and the
relations between pieces of data become more
complicated.
 Complex relational database systems may lead
to isolated databases where the information
cannot be shared from one system to another.
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
 Primary key & Foreign key
 Primary key: One ore more fields that can identify a record from a table.
 Student ID in the STUDENTS table
 Class ID in the CLASSES table
 Foreign Key: If a primary key (field/fields) of one table is present in
another table, then, it is called the foreign key in 2nd table.
 Student ID in the ELROLLMENTS table
 Class ID in the ELROLLMENTS table

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

 A Sample Relational Database

Foreign
Primary
Key
Key

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Database Language
 A database system provides
 a data-definition language to specify the
database schema and
 a data-manipulation language to express
database queries and update.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Data Definition Language (DDL)
 Specification notation for defining the database schema
 E.g.
create table account (
account-number char(10),
balance integer)

 DDL is also used to specify additional properties of the data.

 Example : Alter/DROP/TRUNCATE/ comment/ Grant/ Revoke
 The storage structure and access methods used by the database system by a set
of statements in a special type of DDL called a data storage and definition
language
 DDL compiler generates a set of tables stored in a data dictionary
 Data dictionary contains metadata (i.e., data about data)
 Database schema
 Data storage and definition language
 language in which the storage structure and access methods used by
the database system are specified
 Usually an extension of the data definition language

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

DDL (Cont.)
 The data values stored in the database must satisfy certain
consistency constraints.
 Domain Constraints : A domain of possible values must be associated with
every attribute ( i.e. Char type, integer type, date/time etc)
 Referential Integrity : There are cases where we wish to ensure that a
value that appear in one relation for a given set of attribute also appears for
a certain set of attributes in another relation.
 Assertions: An assertion is any condition that the database must always
satisfy, i.e. Account Balance >=$100.
 Authorization : differentiate among the user as far as the type of access
they are permitted on various data values in the database.
 Read authorization
 Insert authorization
 Update authorization
 Delete authorization.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Data Manipulation Language (DML)

 Language for accessing and manipulating the

data organized by the appropriate data model
 DML also known as query language
 Two classes of languages
 Procedural – user specifies what data is required and
how to get those data
 Nonprocedural – user specifies what data is required
without specifying how to get those data
 SQL is the most widely used query language

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

SQL
 SQL: widely used non-procedural language
 E.g. find the name of the customer with customer-id 192-83-7465
select customer.customer-name
from customer
where customer.customer-id = ‘192-83-7465’
 E.g. find the balances of all accounts held by the customer with customer-id
192-83-7465
select account.balance
from depositor, account
where depositor.customer-id = ‘192-83-7465’ and
depositor.account-number = account.account-number
 Application programs generally access databases through one of
 Language extensions to allow embedded SQL
 Application program interface (e.g. ODBC/JDBC) which allow SQL queries to
be sent to a database

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

Database users
 Users are differentiated by the way they expect to
interact with the system. Four different types:
 Naive users: are unsophisticated users who interact
with the system by invoking one of the permanent
application programs that have been written
previously.
 E.g. people accessing database over the web, bank tellers,
clerical staff
 Application programmers: are computer professionals
who write application programs. Application
programmers can choose from many tools to develop
user interface.
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU
Database users
 Sophisticated users: interact with the system without writing
programs. Instead, they form their requests in a database
query language. Analysts who submits queries to explore
data in the database.
 e.g., analyst looking at sales data (OLAP – Online analytical
processing), data mining – finds certain kinds of patterns in data.

 Specialized users: are sophisticated users who write

specialized database applications that do not fit into the
traditional data processing framework.
 e.g., computer-aided design systems, knowledge-base
and expert systems and environment-modeling
systems – uses complex data types.

Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU

 Database Administrator (DBA)
 Coordinates all the activities of the database system; the database
administrator has a good understanding of the enterprise’s
information resources and needs. DBA has central control of both
data and the programs that access that data.
 Database administrator's duties include:
 Schema definition
 Storage structure and access method definition
 Schema and physical organization modification
 Granting user authority to access the database
 Specifying integrity constraints
 Acting as liaison with users
 Monitoring performance and responding to changes in
requirements
Ashis Talukder, MIS, DU