Chapter 3

Introduction to Database System

 Introduction
• Database = a large collection of related data

• Classically, a DB models a real-world organization

(e.g., enterprise, university)

– Entities (e.g., students, courses)

– Relationships (e.g.," Martin is taking IDs in 2010/11)

• Changes in the organization=changes in the
database
Examples:
Personnel records, airline reservations, banking
 Scientific Databases (Examples)

• Biology: E.g., DNA sequences of genes, amino-acid

sequences of proteins, genes expressed in tissues (up to
several Gigabytes)

• Astronomy: E.g., location and spectra of astronomic

objects (up to several Terabytes)
• Physics: E.g., sensor measurements in particle physics
experiments (up to several Petabytes)
 Database Tendencies
 Sensors record data
• DBs grow in size
• DBs become more widespread
• Date may be less reliable, i.e., uncertain
 Multimedia data
• Requirements for larger storage
• New query operations (e.g., find a song by humming
the melody, find pictures with a given face)
 Data on the Web
• Accessed/changed by many people (Facebook,…)
• Speed up access, loosen consistency (NoSQL)
 Operations with Databases
• Design
– Define structure and types of data
• Construction
– Create data structures of DB, populate DB with data
• Manipulation of Data
– Insert, delete, update
– Query: “Which department pays the highest salary?”
– Create reports:
“List monthly salaries of employees, organized by
department, with average salary and total sum of salaries
for each dep't”
 An Ideal DB Implementation Should Support:
• Performance
• Structure – retrieve and store
– data types data quickly
– data behavior • Data Integrity
• Persistence • Sharing
– store data on – concurrency
secondary storage • Reliability and
• Retrieval resilience
– a declarative query • Large data volumes
language
– a procedural database
programming language
 Database Management System (DBMS)
• A DBMS is a software package designed to store and
manage databases
• A DBMS provides generic functionality (see previous
slide) that otherwise would have to be implemented over
and over again
– Reduced application development time
• Several brands, e.g.,
– Oracle Xi/Yg (Oracle), DB2 (IBM), SQL Server,
Access
(Microsoft), MySQL, PostgreSQL, HSQLDB, SQLite
(open source)
 File System Approach
• Uncontrolled redundancy
• Inconsistent data
• Inflexibility
• Limited data sharing
• Poor enforcement of standards
• Low programmer productivity
• Excessive program maintenance
• Excessive data maintenance
 Database System Approach
• Controlled redundancy • Services & controls
– consistency of data & – security & privacy
integrity constraints controls
• Integration of data – backup & recovery
– self-contained – enforcement of
– represents semantics standards
of application • Flexibility
• Data and operation – data independence
sharing – data accessibility
– multiple interfaces – reduced program
• Ease of application maintenance
development
 Characteristics of Database Approach
Manages Information
• It manages all the information that is required to us.
Managing information by using a database, we become
more deliberated user of our data.
Easy Operation Implementation
• All the operations like insert, delete, update, search etc.
are carried out in a flexible and easy way. Database
makes it very simple to implement these operations. A
user with little knowledge can perform these operations.
• This characteristic of database makes it more powerful.
 …Characteristics of DB Approach

Multiple Views of Database

• Basically, a view is a subset of the database. A view is
defined and devoted for a particular user of the system.
• Different users of the system may have different views of
the same system.
• Every view contains only the data of interest to a user or
a group of users. It is the responsibility of users to be
aware of how and where the data of their interest is
stored.
 …Characteristics of DB Approach

Data For Specific Purpose

• A database is designed for data of specific purpose. 
For example, a database of student management system is
designed to maintain the record of student’s marks, fees
and attendance etc. This data has a specific purpose of
maintaining student record.
 …Characteristics of DB Approach

It has Users of Specific Interest

• A database always has some indented group of users and
applications in which these user groups are interested.
For example, in a library system, there are three users,
official administration of the college, the librarian, and the
students.
 …Characteristics of DB Approach
Represent Some Aspects of Real World Applications
• A database represents some features of real world
applications. Any change in the real world is reflected in
the database. If we have some changes in our real
applications like railway reservation system then it will
be reflected in database too.
For example, let us take an example of railway reservation
system; we have in our mind some certain applications of
maintaining records of attendance, waiting list, train arrival
and departure time, certain day etc. related to each train.
 …Characteristics of DB Approach

Logical Relationship Between Records and Data

• A database gives a logical relationship between its
records and data. So a user can access various records
depending upon the logical conditions by a single query
from the database.
Self Describing nature
• A database is of self describing nature; it always
describes and narrates itself. It contains the description of
the whole data structure, the constraints and the variables.
 Database users
Users are differentiated by the way they expect to interact with the
system
Application programmers:
Are responsible for developing application program user interface
application program will be written in high level language.
Sophisticated users:
Are interact with the system without writing the program.
They requests in a database query language
 …Cont’d
Specialized users:
 Who writes specialized database applications that do
not fit into the traditional data processing framework.
Naive users :
 who need not be aware of the presence of database
system. They are end users of the database.
 Invoke one of the permanent application programs that
have been written previously.
 E.g. people accessing database over the web,
bank tellers, clerical staff
 Database Administrator
 Coordinates all the activities of the database system; the database
administrator has a good understanding of the enterprise’s information
resources & needs.
 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 & responding to changes in requirements