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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Introduction
• Flat File Systems
• Database Management System (DBMS)
• Database Applications
• Purpose of DBMS
• Database Users
• DBMS Architecture
• Instances and Schemas
• Data Independence
• Data Models
• Client/Server Architecture
Nanda Kishor Ray 1-1
Flat-file Systems
• In early processing systems, an organization's information
was stored as groups of records in separate files. The file
processing systems consisted of a few data files and many
application programs. Each file, called a flat file, contained
processed information for one specific function, such as
accounting or inventory.
• A flat file system stores data in a plain text file. Each line
of the text file holds one record, with fields separated by
delimiters, such as commas or tabs.
• A File Management System (FMS) accommodate flat files
that have no relation to other files. This type of database is
ideal for a simple databases that do not contain a lot of
repeated information. Examples include excel spreadsheet
or word data list file. Nanda Kishor Ray 1-2
Database Management System
• A database is the collection of related persistent data and
contains information relevant to an enterprise. The
database is also called the repository or container for a
collection of data files. For example, university database
for maintaining information about students, courses and
grades in university.
• A database system is basically just a computerized
record-keeping system. A database system involves four
major components: data, hardware, software, and users.
• The database management system (DBMS) is the
software that handles all access to the database. It is
defined as the collection of interrelated data and a set of
programs to access those data.
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Database Management System
• Users of a DBMS system can perform the following basic
operations on the database:
Adding new, empty files to the database.
Inserting data into existing files.
Retrieving data from existing files.
Changing data in existing files.
Deleting data from existing files.
Removing existing files from the database.
Stored Database
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DBMS Architecture
• Physical Level or Internal Level:
It is the lowest level of abstraction and describes how the data in the
database are actually stored.
This level describes complex low-level data structures in detail and is
concerned with the way the data is physically stored.
Data only exists at physical level.
• Logical Level or Conceptual Level:
This is the next higher level of abstraction and describes what data are
stored in the database, and what relationships exist among those data.
It describes the structure of whole database and hides details of
physical storage structure.
It concentrates on describing entities, data types, relationships,
attributes and constraints.
All of the views must be derivable from this conceptual schema.
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DBMS Architecture
• View Level or External Level:
It is the highest level of abstraction and is concerned with the way
the data is seen by individual users.
This level simplifies the users’ interaction with the system.
It includes a number of user views and hence is guided by the end
user requirement.
It describes only those part of the database in which the users are
interested and hides rest of all from those users. Each user group
refers to its own external schema.
• The DBMS must transform a request specified on an
external schema into a request against the conceptual
schema, and then into a request on the internal schema for
processing over the database. The process of transforming
requests and results between levels is called mapping.
Nanda Kishor Ray 1-16
Instances and Schemas
• Instances:
Databases change over time as information is inserted and deleted.
The collection of information stored in the database at a particular
moment is called an instance of the database.
It is also known as database state.
• Schema:
The overall design of the database which is not expected to change
frequently is called the database schema.
There are three schemas, partitioned according to the levels of
abstraction. The physical schema describes the database design at
physical level. The logical schema describes the database design at
the logical level. The schema at the view level is sometimes called
subschema and describes the view of the database. A database may
have several subschema.
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Data Independence
• The three schema architecture further explains the concept
of data independence, the capacity to change the schema at
one level without having to change the schema at the next
higher level.
Logical Data Independence
Physical Data Independence
• Logical Data Independence:
The capacity to change the conceptual schema without having to
change the external schemas and their associated application
programs.
• Physical Data Independence:
The capacity to change the internal schema without having to
change the conceptual schema.
Nanda Kishor Ray 1-18
Data Independence
• For example, the internal schema may be changed when
certain file structures are reorganized or new indexes are
created to improve database performance
• When a schema at a lower level is changed, only the
mappings between this schema and higher-level schemas
need to be changed in a DBMS that fully supports data
independence. The higher-level schemas themselves are
unchanged.
• Hence, the application programs need not be changed since
they refer to the external schemas.