Topic 1

Database Systems

Unit 1 :
Introduction to
Database
Management
Systems

IT1768 Database Systems

Unit 1 :
Introduction to Database Systems

Topic 1

Objective :
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
differentiate between data and information.
differentiate between file processing systems and
database approach.
learn about database and database management systems
(DBMS).
Learn about database elements and the functions of
database management systems (DBMS).

IT1768 Database Systems

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Data Versus Information

IT1768 Database Systems

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Data versus Information

1. Data
Data is the raw input (unprocessed instructions)
consisting of facts and figures.
Typically meaningless to the user.

Example :
123, 456,
113, 899,
Joseph Tan, Mary Lim
IT1768 Database Systems

Topic 1

Data versus Information

2. Information
Information is data that has been processed and
presented for human interpretation.
Example :
Name
Joseph Tan
Mary Lim
Leanord Lee
Linda Ng

Data
IT1768 Database Systems

Processed

BLK NO
123
456
113
899

Information

Organised
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Topic 1

Flat-File Style of Database

What are flat files ?
Flat files are data files that contain records with no
structured relationships. Additional knowledge is required to
interpret these files such as the file format properties.

Example:
DatePurchase Product Qty Amount
DatePaid Payment-Type PaySum StaffReceived

EmployNum Designation DOB Gender Addr

The flat-file style of database are ideal for small amounts of data that needs to
be human readable or edited by hand.

IT1768 Database Systems

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File-Processing System
What is File Processing System?
File Processing Systems store data in separate
computer files.

Example :

IT1768 Database Systems

Payroll
Officer

Payroll
Processing
Application

Employee
File

Sales
Officer

Customer
Processing
Application

Customer
File
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Limitations of File Processing System

1

1. Duplicated of Data (Separation of data)

Unplanned duplicated files are developed independently
in applications. Same data may be stored in different files
Wasteful of storage space.
Change in all files must be made manually, it may yield
inconsistent data and result in loss in data integrity.

2. Program-Data Dependence (Isolation of data)

File descriptions are stored within each application
program that access a given file. The file format of files in
different application programs may differ and hence,
there is limited sharing among files.
It is time consuming and error-prone to change existing
file structure.

IT1768 Database Systems

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Limitations of File Processing System

2

3. Difficult to represent data in users view

The relationship among records may not be readily
representing and hence difficult to be processed for use.
(e.g. sales records is not associated with payroll data)

It is difficult to produce forms in database application that

seem natural to users (e.g. data being separated, isolated,
difficult to be organized and accessed in a single table)

IT1768 Database Systems

Topic 1

Database & Database

Management Systems
(DBMS)

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Topic 1

Database
What is Database ?
A database is a collection of information that is
organized (integrated records) so that it can easily be
accessed, managed, and updated.
A Database Management System (DBMS) is a program
that controls the creation, maintenance and the use of
the database in an organization and its users.
Modern database management systems used a more structured
approach to file management (such as one defined by the Structured
Query Language) and therefore have more complex storage
arrangements.
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The Four Elements in Database

A database collects integrated records. It represents some

aspect of the real operations in an organization.
A database contain logically coherent data which are
designed, built, populated for a specific purpose.

The Four Elements in Database

1.
2.
3.
4.

Files
Metadata
Indexes
Application metadata

1. Files - Database contains files of user data. Most data are

represented in tables with columns and user records

IT1768 Database Systems

Sales ID

Item Name

Quantity

08-CPU-12

Notebook model SR1405P

1200
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Topic 1

The Four Elements in Database

2. Metadata - Database contains a description of

itself in metadata (or also known as Data dictionary)
Metadata describes how the user data are stored in
terms of table name, column name, type of data, length
of columns etc. Metadata are normally stored in data
tables. For example:
Create Table CUSTOMER
( CustNum char (10) Primary key,
CustName varchar (50) not null,
DOB Date/Time ,
Gender vachar(6) ,
Address varchar (50) ,
Income currency ) ;
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Topic 1

The Four Elements in Database

3. Indexes - Database includes indexes that are used

to represent relationships among the data.
Indexes are used to improve the performance and
accessibility of database applications.
Indexes allow the database to access records without
having to search through the entire table.

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Topic 1

Indexes in Database
Citizen (with a created index on field Race)
NRIC

Name

Race

Gender

S1320936A

Hussan

Malay

Male

S1255660B

Muthu

Indian

Male

S1425898C

Surina

Malay

Female

S1833444D

Johnny

Chinese Male

S1767666E

Devi

Indian

Female

S1653735F

Siti

Malay

Female

For tables with huge number of records, an index can group identical type of
values into clusters and hence it will shorten the retrieving time of records.

IT1768 Database Systems

NRIC

Name

Race

Gender

S1320936A

Hussan

Malay

Male

S1425898C

Surina

Malay

Female

S1653735F

Siti

Malay

Female

50%
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Topic 1

The Four Elements in Database

4. Application metadata - Database includes

application metadata which contains data about
the applications.
It is used to store the structure and format of user forms, reports,
queries and other application components.
For each business application, metadata defines the business
entities that the business application interacts with and the
methods available in the business application
Database = files + metadata + indexes + application metadata

What is Application Metadata?

Any item of data is a description of something; for example: 569830 is a
data and with no additional context is meaningless. When it is given a
meaningful name (metadata) of Postal Code", one can understand that it
refers to the postal address of NYP. Hence, Metadata is data about data.
Metadata is the self describing part of the database, information like table
names,
IT1768 Database
Systems data types etc are all metadata, describing the database.

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Topic 1

Hierarchy in Data Elements

Database is a collection of files which
comprise of integrated records and fields.
Databases
Files
Records
Fields

IT1768 Database Systems

Table : Student from a database

Admin
Name
Gender

Module Group

065689X

Don Ho

Male

IT2761-D3

063592P

Muthu

Male

IT2761-D5
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What is Relational Database ?

A relational database is a collection of data items
organized as Tables. A table is made of rows (tuples /
records) and columns (fields / attributes).
Tables are inter-related with relationships by common
fields.

What are the Database Objects?

- Tables : data storage
- Queries : fetch data from tables based on the
stipulated conditions.
- Forms : friendly/easy data entry screens.
- Reports : read and display captured data.
- Macro : automate tasks in database.
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Database Approach
Database Approach:
Description of data is stored separately and
independently.
Sharing of data by different programs.

Requirement of database approach:

A Database Management System (DBMS) to manage
database environment.

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Topic 1

Database Processing Systems

Example:
Payroll
Officer

Database

Payroll
Processing
Application

DBMS

Employee File

Customer File
Sales
Officer

Users
IT1768 Database Systems

Customer
Processing
Application

Application
Programs

DBMS : Database
Management System

Database
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Topic 1

Advantages of Database Approach

1. Integrated Data
All application data are stored in the database.
It improves data sharing, consistency and integrity.
Programmer is not responsible for coordinating files;
instead, the DBMS did it.

2. Reduced Data Duplication

data stored in only one place
less data integrity programs

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Advantages of Database Approach

3. Program-data independence
Record formats are stored in database itself and
accessed by DBMS, not by the application program
Minimise the impact of data format changes on
application program.

4. Easy representation of users prospective

Database technology makes it possible to represent the
objects found in the users world.

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Disadvantages of Database Approach

1. Complexity
DBMS is an extremely complex piece of software

2. Size
It requires large amount of disk space and substantial
amount of memory to run efficiently.

3. Cost of DBMS
DBMS iscostly in term of licenses and maintenance cost

4. Additional hardware costs

It requires to purchase a large machine

5. Cost of conversion
Efforts is required to convert the existing applications to run
on DBMS and cost of training staff to use the new systems.
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Topic 1

Database Management Systems (DBMS)

Database Management System (DBMS) is a
program for managing information in database. In
another words, it is a collection of programs that
enables you to store, modify, and extract
information from a database.

There are many different types of DBMSs, ranging

from small systems that run on personal computers
to huge systems that run on mainframes. Some
popular DBMS are: Oracle, SQL server, MySQL, MS Access, IBM
DB2 etc

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Function of DBMS

1.Data Definition
- DBMS provides functions to define the structure of the
data in the application. These include defining and
modifying the record structure, the type and size of fields
and the various constraints/conditions to be satisfied by
the data in each field.

2.Data storage, retrieval and update

- Once the data structure is defined, DMBS allows user to
store, retrieve, and update data into the database.

3.It acts as a user accessible catalogue

- It provides a catalogue in which descriptions of data items
are stored and which is accessible to users.
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Topic 1

Function of DBMS

4. Transaction support
- DBMS provides a mechanism to ensure that either all the
updates corresponding to a given transaction are made
(Commit) or that none of them are made (Abort).

5. Concurrency Control Services

- DBMS provides a mechanism to ensure that the
database is updated correctly when multiple users are
accessing records and updating them concurrently.

6. Recovery Services
- DBMS is equipped with a mechanism for recovering the
database after a system failure or in the event that the
database is damaged.

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Topic 1

Function of DBMS

7.Authorization Services
- DBMS handles security and privacy in the system by providing
a mechanism to ensure that only authorized users can access
the database.

8.Support for Data Communication

- A DBMS is capable of integrating with communication
software for transaction of data between the database and
the application system.

9.Integrity Services
- DBMS has a mechanism to preserve the relationships among
different related records by ensuring that both the data in
the database and changes to the data follow certain rules.
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Topic 1

Function of DBMS

10.Services to promote Data Independence

- It includes facilities to support the independence of
programs from the actual structure of the database.

11.Utility Services
A DBMS should provide a set of utility services like:
- Import facilities
- Monitoring facilities
- Statistical analysis programs
- Index organization
- Garbage collection and reallocation
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Topic 1

History of Database Processing

1. Organizational Context
- Organizational data, Customer data, Accounting etc. File system based. High
emphasis on application programs to extract and assimilate data.
- Applications on procedural languages

2. Relational Model (Codd, 1970)

- data is stored as tables, relationships among rows of tables are visible in the
data. slow to process ; solved with powerful computers
- process entire table at a time; not one record at a time.

3. Micro-Computer DBMS Products

4. Client-Server DB Applications
5. Distributed DB Processing
- copies of data reside at different locations, coordinating and synchronizing the
data can be difficult

6. Multimedia and Network DB

7. Object-oriented DB
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Topic 1

Summary

The differences between data and information.

Limitation of traditional file-based systems.
Advantages/ Disadvantages of Database Approach
Definitions of database and database management
systems.
How DBMS achieves data independence.
The typical functions of a DBMS.
The advantages and disadvantages of the database
approach.
The DBMS software available in the market.

IT1768 Database Systems

http://www.softwaretrainingtutorials.com/access-2007-ms.php

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Topic 1

Review Question

...1

1.

A set of programs supporting the creation, maintenance and

operation of a database is called _________.

2.

A database schema is ____________.

a) the content of the database
b) a description of the database using a specific data model
c) the collection of related data
d) the state of a database

3.

Which of the following is NOT a level of the three-level architecture of

DBMS ?
a)
b)
c)
d)

IT1768 Database Systems

Conceptual
External
Internal
Application

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Topic 1

Review Question

...2

1.

A set of programs supporting the creation, maintenance and

operation of a database is called _________.
DBMS

2.

A database schema is ____________.

a) the content of the database
b) a description of the database using a specific data model
c) the collection of related data
d) the state of a database

3.

Which of the following is NOT a level of the three-level architecture of

DBMS ?
a)
b)
c)
d)

IT1768 Database Systems

Conceptual
External
Internal
Application

32