Introduction to DBMS

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As the name suggests, the database management system consists of two parts. They are:
1. Database and
2. Management System

What is a Database?
To find out what database is, we have to start from data, which is the basic building block of any DBMS.
Data: Facts, figures, statistics etc. having no particular meaning (e.g. 1, ABC, 19 etc).
Record: Collection of related data items, e.g. in the above example the three data items had no meaning. But if we
organize them in the following way, then they collectively represent meaningful information.
Roll Name Age
1 ABC 19

Table or Relation: Collection of related records.

Roll Name Age
1 ABC 19
2 DEF 22
3 XYZ 28

The columns of this relation are called Fields, Attributes or Domains. The rows are called Tuples or Records.
Database: Collection of related relations. Consider the following collection of tables:
T1
Roll Name Age
1 ABC 19
2 DEF 22
3 XYZ 28

T2
Roll Address
1 KOL
2 DEL
3 MUM

T3
Roll Year
1 I
2 II
3 I
T4
Year Hostel
I H1
II H2
We now have a collection of 4 tables. They can be called a “related collection” because we can clearly find out that
there are some common attributes existing in a selected pair of tables. Because of these common attributes we may
combine the data of two or more tables together to find out the complete details of a student. Questions like “Which
hostel does the youngest student live in?” can be answered now, although Age and Hostel attributes are in different
tables.
In a database, data is organized strictly in row and column format. The rows are called Tuple or Record. The data
items within one row may belong to different data types. On the other hand, the columns are often
called Domain or Attribute. All the data items within a single attribute are of the same data type.

What is Management System?

A management system is a set of rules and procedures which help us to create organize and manipulate the
database. It also helps us to add, modify delete data items in the database. The management system can be either
manual or computerized.
The management system is important because without the existence of some kind of rules and regulations it is not
possible to maintain the database. We have to select the particular attributes which should be included in a particular
table; the common attributes to create relationship between two tables; if a new record has to be inserted or deleted
then which tables should have to be handled etc. These issues must be resolved by having some kind of rules to
follow in order to maintain the integrity of the database.

Three Views of Data

We know that the same thing, if viewed from different angles produces difference sights. Likewise, the database that
we have created already can have different aspects to reveal if seen from different levels of abstraction. The
term Abstraction is very important here. Generally it means the amount of detail you want to hide. Any entity can be
seen from different perspectives and levels of complexity to make it a reveal its current amount of abstraction. Let us
illustrate by a simple example.
A computer reveals the minimum of its internal details, when seen from outside. We do not know what parts it is built
with. This is the highest level of abstraction, meaning very few details are visible. If we open the computer case and
look inside at the hard disc, motherboard, CD drive, CPU and RAM, we are in middle level of abstraction. If we move
on to open the hard disc and examine its tracks, sectors and read-write heads, we are at the lowest level of
abstraction, where no details are invisible.
In the same manner, the database can also be viewed from different levels of abstraction to reveal different levels of
details. From a bottom-up manner, we may find that there are three levels of abstraction or views in the database. We
discuss them here.

The word schema means arrangement – how we want to arrange things that we have to store. The diagram above
shows the three different schemas used in DBMS, seen from different levels of abstraction.
The lowest level, called the Internal or Physical schema, deals with the description of how raw data items (like 1,
ABC, KOL, H2 etc.) are stored in the physical storage (Hard Disc, CD, Tape Drive etc.). It also describes the data
 type of these data items, the size of the items in the storage media, the location (physical address) of the items in the
storage device and so on. This schema is useful for database application developers and database administrator.
The middle level is known as the Conceptual or Logical Schema, and deals with the structure of the entire
database. Please note that at this level we are not interested with the raw data items anymore, we are interested with
the structure of the database. This means we want to know the information about the attributes of each table, the
common attributes in different tables that help them to be combined, what kind of data can be input into these
attributes, and so on. Conceptual or Logical schema is very useful for database administrators whose responsibility is
to maintain the entire database.

The highest level of abstraction is the External or View Schema. This is targeted for the end users. Now, an end
user does not need to know everything about the structure of the entire database, rather than the amount of details
he/she needs to work with. We may not want the end user to become confused with astounding amount of details by
allowing him/her to have a look at the entire database, or we may also not allow this for the purpose of security,
where sensitive information must remain hidden from unwanted persons. The database administrator may want to
create custom made tables, keeping in mind the specific kind of need for each user. These tables are also known
as virtual tables, because they have no separate physical existence. They are crated dynamically for the users at
runtime. Say for example, in our sample database we have created earlier, we have a special officer whose
responsibility is to keep in touch with the parents of any under aged student living in the hostels. That officer does not
need to know every detail except the Roll, Name, Addresss and Age. The database administrator may create a
virtual table with only these four attributes, only for the use of this officer.

Data Independence
This brings us to our next topic: data independence. It is the property of the database which tries to ensure that if we
make any change in any level of schema of the database, the schema immediately above it would require minimal or
no need of change.
What does this mean? We know that in a building, each floor stands on the floor below it. If we change the design of
any one floor, e.g. extending the width of a room by demolishing the western wall of that room, it is likely that the
design in the above floors will have to be changed also. As a result, one change needed in one particular floor would
mean continuing to change the design of each floor until we reach the top floor, with an increase in the time, cost and
labour. Would not life be easy if the change could be contained in one floor only? Data independence is the answer
for this. It removes the need for additional amount of work needed in adopting the single change into all the levels
above.
Data independence can be classified into the following two types:

1. Physical Data Independence: This means that for any change made in the physical schema, the need to
change the logical schema is minimal. This is practically easier to achieve. Let us explain with an example.
Say, you have bought an Audio CD of a recently released film and one of your friends has bought an Audio Cassette
of the same film. If we consider the physical schema, they are entirely different. The first is digital recording on an
optical media, where random access is possible. The second one is magnetic recording on a magnetic media, strictly
sequential access. However, how this change is reflected in the logical schema is very interesting. For music tracks,
the logical schema for both the CD and the Cassette is the title card imprinted on their back. We have information like
Track no, Name of the Song, Name of the Artist and Duration of the Track, things which are identical for both the CD
and the Cassette. We can clearly say that we have achieved the physical data independence here.

2. Logical Data Independence: This means that for any change made in the logical schema, the need to
change the external schema is minimal. As we shall see, this is a little difficult to achieve. Let us explain with an
example.
Suppose the CD you have bought contains 6 songs, and some of your friends are interested in copying some of
those songs (which they like in the film) into their favorite collection. One friend wants the songs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, another
wants 1, 3, 4, 5 and another wants 1, 2, 3, 6. Each of these collections can be compared to a view schema for that
friend. Now by some mistake, a scratch has appeared in the CD and you cannot extract the song 3. Obviously, you
will have to ask the friends who have song 3 in their proposed collection to alter their view by deleting song 3 from
their proposed collection as well.

Database Administrator
The Database Administrator, better known as DBA, is the person (or a group of persons) responsible for the well
being of the database management system. S/he has the flowing functions and responsibilities regarding database
management:
1. Definition of the schema, the architecture of the three levels of the data abstraction, data independence.
2. Modification of the defined schema as and when required.
3. Definition of the storage structure i.e. and access method of the data stored i.e. sequential, indexed or
direct.
4. Creating new used-id, password etc, and also creating the access permissions that each user can or cannot
enjoy. DBA is responsible to create user roles, which are collection of the permissions (like read, write etc.) granted
and restricted for a class of users. S/he can also grant additional permissions to and/or revoke existing permissions
from a user if need be.
5. Defining the integrity constraints for the database to ensure that the data entered conform to some rules,
thereby increasing the reliability of data.
6. Creating a security mechanism to prevent unauthorized access, accidental or intentional handling of data
that can cause security threat.
7. Creating backup and recovery policy. This is essential because in case of a failure the database must be
able to revive itself to its complete functionality with no loss of data, as if the failure has never occurred. It is essential
to keep regular backup of the data so that if the system fails then all data up to the point of failure will be available
from a stable storage. Only those amount of data gathered during the failure would have to be fed to the database to
recover it to a healthy status.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Database Management System

We must evaluate whether there is any gain in using a DBMS over a situation where we do not use it. Let us
summarize the advantages.
1. Reduction of Redundancy: This is perhaps the most significant advantage of using DBMS. Redundancy is
the problem of storing the same data item in more one place. Redundancy creates several problems like requiring
extra storage space, entering same data more than once during data insertion, and deleting data from more than one
place during deletion. Anomalies may occur in the database if insertion, deletion etc are not done properly.
2. Sharing of Data: In a paper-based record keeping, data cannot be shared among many users. But in
computerized DBMS, many users can share the same database if they are connected via a network.
3. Data Integrity: We can maintain data integrity by specifying integrity constrains, which are rules and
restrictions about what kind of data may be entered or manipulated within the database. This increases the reliability
of the database as it can be guaranteed that no wrong data can exist within the database at any point of time.
4. Data security: We can restrict certain people from accessing the database or allow them to see certain
portion of the database while blocking sensitive information. This is not possible very easily in a paper-based record
keeping.

However, there could be a few disadvantages of using DBMS. They can be as following:
1. As DBMS needs computers, we have to invest a good amount in acquiring the hardware, software,
installation facilities and training of users.
2. We have to keep regular backups because a failure can occur any time. Taking backup is a lengthy process
and the computer system cannot perform any other job at this time.
3. While data security system is a boon for using DBMS, it must be very robust. If someone can bypass the
security system then the database would become open to any kind of mishandling.