E-Content of
IT TOOLS AND BUSINESS SYSTEM
Chapter: 7.2 Database
Topic: 7.2.1 Introduction to Database
Introduction to Database
About Data
The term data can be defined as set of isolated and unrelated raw facts with an
implicit meaning.
Data can be anything such as name of person, a number, images, sound etc.
About Database
A database is an organized collection of related data from which user can
efficiently retrieve the desired information.
Traditional databases are organized by fields, records and files. A field is a single
piece of information. A record is one complete set of fields and a file is a
collection of records.
In addition to the storage and retrieval of data, certain other operations can be
performed on a database and the operations include addition, alteration,
updating and deletion of data.
It is back-end of an application.
About Database Management System (DBMS)
A Database Management System (DBMS) is an integrated set of programs used
to create and maintain a database.
The operations such as adding, updating and deleting data on a database are
performed using Database Management System (DBMS).
The main objective of DBMS is to provide a convenient and effective method of
defining, storing, retrieving and manipulating data contained in the database.
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Figure 7.1: Example for Database Structure
The database and the DBMS software are collectively known as database
system.
Database Management Systems (DBMSs) are especially designed for software
applications that interact with the user and other applications
Examples of DBMS are Microsoft Access, SQL Server, MySQL etc.
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E-Content of
IT TOOLS AND BUSINESS SYSTEM
Chapter: 7.2 Database
Topic: 7.2.2 Relational Database
Relational Database
A relational database is a collection of data items organized as a set of formally-
described tables from which data can be accessed or reassembled in many
different ways without having to reorganize the database tables.
The relational database was invented by E. F. Codd at IBM in 1970.
The standard user and application program interface to a relational database is
the structured query language (SQL).
SQL statements are used for both interactive queries for information from a
relational database and for gathering data for reports.
A relational database is a set of tables containing data fitted into predefined
categories.
Each table (which is sometimes called a relation) contains one or more data
categories in columns. Each row contains a unique instance of data for the
categories defined by the columns.
The following intuitive correspondence can be made
A relation is a file.
Each file contains only one record type.
The records have no particular order.
Every field is single-valued.
The records have a unique identifying field or composite field, called the
primary key field.
With a relational database, user can quickly compare information because of the
arrangement of data in columns.
The relational database model takes advantage of this uniformity to build
completely new tables out of required information from existing tables.
In other words, it uses the relationship of similar data to increase the speed and
versatility of the database.
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IT TOOLS AND BUSINESS SYSTEM
FIG 7.2: Relational Database
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