AQA Computer Science A-Level

4.10 Fundamentals of databases

Advanced Notes

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Specification:

4.10.1 Conceptual data models and entity relationship modelling:

Produce a data model from given data requirements for a simple
scenario involving multiple entities
Produce entity relationship diagrams representing a data model and
entity descriptions in the form: Entity1 (Attribute1, Attribute2, .... )

4.10.2 Relational databases:

Explain the concept of a relational database
Be able to define the terms:
● attribute
● primary key
● composite primary key
● foreign key

4.10.3 Database design and normalisation techniques:

Normalise relations to third normal form
Understand why databases are normalised

4.10.4 Structured Query Language (SQL):

Be able to use SQL to retrieve, update, insert and delete data from
multiple tables of a relational database
Be able to use SQL to define a database table

4.10.5 Client server databases:

Know that a client server database system provides simultaneous
access to the database for multiple clients
Know how concurrent access can be controlled to preserve the integrity
of the database

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 Data models

When creating a database, you might be given ​data requirements​ from which you need to
produce a ​data model​: an abstract model of which things to store and what information
about them should be recorded.

Entities and attributes

In database design, an ​entity ​is a thing about which data is to be stored, for example: a
customer. ​Attributes ​are characteristics or other information about entities, for example:
the customer’s name or address.

Databases are formed of ​tables ​which are used to store multiple entities. Each entity
usually has its own row in a table and fields of that row hold the entity’s attributes.

Table: Customers

CustomerID CustomerName CustomerAddress CustomerEmail

005 Shadow H. 310 St Anne's Rd, [email protected]

Blackpool FY4 2QP

006 S. Holmes 221b Baker St, [email protected]

Marylebone, London
NW1 6XE

007 J. Bond 30 Wellington [email protected]

Square, Chelsea,
London SW3 4NR

The table above stores information about a company’s customers. Each row in the table
holds information about one customer (one entity). The fields in each row hold information
about the customers (attributes) such as their name and address.

Entity identifiers
When creating a database, it’s important to ensure that each
entity has an ​unique identifier​. An ​entity identifier​ is an
attribute given to each entity which is unique within that table.
In the example above, ​CustomerID​is most likely to be a
suitable entity identifier.

Some database tables have ​multiple attributes which are

combined​ to form the table’s entity identifier.

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Entity description
When describing how information about an entity is to be stored in a database, an​ entity
description​ can be used.

Customer (​
CustomerID​
, CustomerName, CustomerAddress, CustomerEmail)

The entity description above describes how information about customers is stored in the
database table above. The name of the table is shown outside of brackets which contain
each of the entity’s attributes separated by commas.

Underlining ​can be used to identify the attribute or attributes which form the table’s entity
identifier. In this case, the attribute ​CustomerID​ has been underlined.

Relational Databases

The tables in a database can be related to each other, linked

by ​common attributes​. There are three possible degrees of
relationship between tables in a database: one-to-one,
many-to-many and one-to-many.

Entity relationship diagrams

Entity relationship diagrams (or ER diagrams) are used to graphically represent the
relationships between tables in a database. Tables are shown as rectangles and are
joined by lines which can represent different types of relationship.

One-to-one Many-to-many one-to-many

Each car has one owner, and each owner has one car
(this example assumes that nobody owns multiple cars).

Each car has many passengers. Each passenger sits in

one car.

Each driver can drive many different cars. Each car is

driven by many different drivers.

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Primary and foreign keys
A ​primary key​ is an attribute that provides an unique identifier for every entity in a
database table. When tables are linked by a shared attribute, the attribute must be a
primary key in one table and is called a​ foreign key​ in the other.

A foreign key is an attribute in a table which ​is the primary key in another​, related, table.

If it is not possible to form a primary key from just one attribute, it is possible to combine
attributes to form what is called a ​composite primary key​.

Example:​ The following database tables are related to one another.

Table: Flights

FlightNo 🔑 PilotNo 🗝 Destination

ESY8876 65587 Paphos

RYN4133 13584 Dublin

BRI1101 20547 Munich

ESY5655 65587 Edinburgh

BRI8989 20547 Athens

Table: Pilots

PilotNo 🔑 PilotName

65587 Adam Triston

13584 Charlotte Green

20547 Orville Wright

The primary key in ​Pilots​is ​PilotNo​and is ​FlightNo​in ​Flights​ . The tables are
linked by the shared attribute ​PilotNo​
. This makes ​PilotNo​a foreign key in ​Flights​
.

The relationship in this example is​ one-to-many​. Many different flight routes are operated
by the same pilot.

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Many-to-many relationships
When linking ​many-to-many ​relationships, a ​new table​ has to be created. This new table is
called a​ link table​.

The following example features the two tables ​Products​and ​Customer​ . There is a
many-to-many relationship here as many different types of products are each bought by
many different customers.

Table: Products

ProductID 🔑 ProductName ProductPrice

155484765 Knife £18.99

233145882 Rope £4.45

366584554 Revolver £124.98

Table: Customers

CustomerName CustomerID 🔑

Professor Plum 155484765

Miss Scarlet 233145882

Reverend Green 233145882

In order to model the relationship between the tables, a new table called ​Orders​has to be
created. This is a link table.

Table: Orders

OrderID 🔑 ProductID CustomerID

223 155484765 155484765

223 233145882 155484765

224 233145882 233145882

225 233145882 233145882

225 366584554 233145882

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 Database Normalisation

Databases are ​normalised ​so that they can be ​efficient ​without any​ compromise to the
integrity of their data​. Normalising databases involves ensuring that entities contain​ no
redundant or repeated data​.

A database that has been normalised allows for​ faster searching and sorting ​that an
unnormalised database thanks to the smaller tables created in the normalisation process.
Furthermore, normalised databases are​ easier to maintain​ than their unnormalised
counterparts. ​Duplication of data is minimised ​and ​data consistency is improved​, helping to
reduce the number of update, insertion and deletion ​anomalies ​that occur.

There are ​three levels of normalisation ​that you need to know: first, second and third
normal form.

First normal form

When a database conforms to first normal form, it contains ​no repeating attributes​. The
database’s data can be referred to as ​atomic ​(meaning that no single column contains
more than one value).

This table contains repeating attributes so is ​not normalised​ to first normal form.

Table: Staff

Name 🔑 Department Subject 🔑 DepartmentHead

John Strode Earth Sciences Geography Jackie Smith

Sarah Ng Science Chemistry Brian Jones

Mary Marsh Science Physics, Biology Brian Jones

Splitting the repeating attributes means that this database is now in first normal form.

Table: Staff

Name 🔑 Department Subject 🔑 DepartmentHead

John Strode Earth Sciences Geography Jackie Smith

Sarah Ng Science Chemistry Brian Jones

Mary Marsh Science Physics Brian Jones

Mary Marsh Science Biology Brian Jones

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Second normal form
In order to meet second normal form, a database ​must also satisfy first normal form​. In
second normal form, ​partial key dependencies are removed​.

A partial key dependency occurs in databases ​with composite primary keys​ when a
non-key attribute ​doesn’t depend on the whole of the composite key​.

In our example, the primary key is composite.

Staff (​
Name​
, Department, ​
Subject​
, DepartmentHead)

Because the attribute DepartmentHead depends only on the attribute Department and
Department depends only on the attribute Subject, the tables must be modified to meet
second normal form.

Table: Staff

Name 🔑 Subject 🔑

John Strode Geography

Sarah Ng Chemistry

Mary Marsh Physics

Mary Marsh Biology

Table: SubjectDepartments Table: HeadsOfDepartment

Subject 🔑 Department Department 🔑 Head

Biology Science Science Brian Jones

Chemistry Science Earth Sciences Jackie Smith

Geography Earth Sciences

Physics Science

Creating the two tables ​SubjectDepartments​and ​HeadsOfDepartment​has ensured

that the database now conforms to second normal form as the partial key dependencies of
Department and ​DepartmentHead​have been removed from the ​Staff​table.

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Third normal form
In order to meet third normal form, in addition to ​conforming to second normal form​, a
database must have ​no non-key dependencies​.

A database that meets third normal form can be described as follows:

All non-key attributes depend on the key, the whole key and nothing but the key

Our example meets third normal form as none of the attributes that do not form the key (or
part of a composite key) depend on the anything other than the whole key.

Structured Query Language (SQL)

SQL is a language used with databases. SQL is easy to learn and use, partly because it is
a ​declarative ​language, meaning that the programmer describes ​the result​ that’s required
rather than describing ​the process​ which should be followed.

There are four main SQL commands: SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE.

The SELECT command

SELECT is used for retrieving data from a database table. Commands take the following
form:

SELECT <attribute> FROM <table> WHERE <condition> O

​RDER BY <ASC/DESC>

Note that the ORDER BY clause is ​optional​. Let’s use the following table as an example.

Table: Flights

FlightNo 🔑 PilotNo Destination

ESY8876 13584 Glasgow

ESY1225 13584 Swansea

BRI1101 20547 Berlin

SELECT FlightNo FROM Flights WHERE Destination = ‘Berlin’

>> BRI1101

SELECT Destination FROM Flights WHERE PilotNo = ‘13584’ ORDER BY FlightNo DESC
>> Glasgow, Swansea

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The UPDATE command
This command is used in databases for ​modifying the attributes of an existing entity​ and
takes the form:

UPDATE <table> SET <attribute> = <value> WHERE <attribute> = <value>

Table: Students

StudentNo 🔑 Name Email Year

55685 Aaron Aaronson [email protected] 1

55887 Beth Hunter [email protected] 2

55622 Sam Cooper [email protected] 1

UPDATE Students SET Email = ‘[email protected]’ WHERE StudentNo = 55887

UPDATE Students SET Name = Samuel Cooper WHERE StudentNo = 55622

Once the two UPDATE commands above have been carried out on the table above, the
table looks like this:

Table: Students

StudentNo 🔑 Name Email Year

55685 Aaron Aaronson [email protected] 1

55887 Beth Hunter [email protected] 2

55622 Samuel Cooper [email protected] 1

UPDATE commands usually use the table’s primary key to identify which entities to update but can
use more general conditions which would update all of the entities that meet the condition.

UPDATE Students SET Year = 2 WHERE StudentNO < 55700

Table: Students

StudentNo 🔑 Name Email Year

55685 Aaron Aaronson [email protected] 2

55887 Beth Hunter [email protected] 2

55622 Samuel Cooper [email protected] 2

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The DELETE command
As you might expect, the DELETE command is used for​ removing entities ​from a
database. The commands take the following form:

DELETE FROM <table> WHERE <condition>

Table: Cars

Model 🔑 Manufacturer 🔑 Price Year Sold

Polo Volkswagen 4995 2010 TRUE

i10 Hyundai 5225 2013 FALSE

Fiesta Ford 3995 2009 TRUE

DELETE FROM Cars WHERE Sold = TRUE

Table: Cars

Model 🔑 Manufacturer 🔑 Price Year Sold

i10 Hyundai 5225 2013 FALSE

The INSERT command

When using SQL to ​add new records​ to an existing table, the INSERT command is used.
The command usually takes the form

INSERT INTO <table> (<column1>, <column2>, …) VALUES (<value1>, <value2>, …)

but can be simplified to

INSERT INTO <table> VALUES (<value1>, <value2>, …)

when all of the columns in the table are being used in the correct order.

For example, executing the following commands would add two new records to the ​Cars
table.

INSERT INTO Cars VALUES (“KA”, “Ford”, 3999, 2010, FALSE)

INSERT INTO Cars (Model, Year, Manufacturer) VALUES (“E-Type”, 1970, “Jaguar”)

The first command inserts values into ​all columns​ in the ​correct order​. The second
command inserts only ​some values​ in the​ wrong order​, so must list columns.

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Wildcards
Wildcards can be used in SQL commands to specify ​any possible value​. For example,
rather than selecting a specific attribute in a SELECT command, a wildcard could be used
to return all attributes.

In SQL, wildcards are usually notated with an ​asterix​. For example, using the original ​Cars
table from before the delete command:

SELECT * FROM Cars WHERE Price > 4000

>> [Polo, Volkswagen, 4995, 2010, TRUE], [Hyundai, 5225, 2013, FALSE]

The DELETE command is a bit of a​ special case​ when it comes to wildcards. The
commands ​DELETE FROM Cars​and ​DELETE * FROM Cars​would do the same job of
deleting all entries in the Cars table.

Defining a table with SQL

SQL can be used to ​make new database tables ​with the CREATE command. This
command specifies the ​name ​of the new table, its ​attributes ​and their ​data types​. Also
specified are ​entity identifiers​ like primary and secondary keys.

For example, the following command could be used to make a table called ​Artists ​ with
the attributes Title, Artist and Date with a composite primary key composed of the
attributes Title and Artist.

CREATE TABLE Artworks (Title VARCHAR(225), Artist VARCHAR(255),

Date YEAR, PRIMARY KEY (Title, Artist))

This creates an empty table. New records can be added using the INSERT command.

Table: Artworks

Title 🔑 Artist 🔑 Date

The Night Watch Rembrandt 1642

The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali 1931

The Great Wave off Kanagawa Hokusai 1830

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SQL Data Types
Data types for attributes are specified when using the CREATE command. The data types
supported by SQL are listed in the table below.

Data type SQL Description

Fixed length CHAR(size) A string with the number of

string characters specified by size

Variable length VARCHAR(size) A string with any number of

string characters up to the number specified
by size

Integer INT(size) A whole number stored using the

number of bits specified by size

Number with FLOAT(size, precision) A number stored using the number of

fractional part bits specified by size with digits after
the decimal point up to the number
specified by precision

Date DATE A date in the format YYYY-MM-DD

Date and time DATETIME A date and time combined in the

format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

Time TIME A time in the format HH:MM:SS

Year YEAR A year in one of the two formats YY

or YYYY

Client server databases

A client server database system provides ​simultaneous access​ to a database for ​multiple
clients​. For example, social media websites store information on databases that are
continuously being accessed and modified by different users simultaneously.

Issues rarely arise when two users are requesting access to ​different​, ​unrelated ​fields in a
database. However, when different users attempt to access the same field at the same
time, a problem known as​ concurrent access​ occurs.

Concurrent access can result in database updates being lost if two users edit a record at
the same time and can be managed with the use of record locks, serialisation, timestamp
ordering and commitment ordering.

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Record locks
When a record is accessed by one user, it is​ immediately locked​ to other users until the
first user has finished using it. Other users are​ blocked from accessing or modifying​ the
content of a field until it has been unlocked.

Serialisation
Rather than locking a field, requests from other users are
placed in a ​queue​. Once the first user has finished using the
field, the next command in the queue is executed and so on.

Timestamp ordering
When multiple commands are sent to the same field in a
database, each is ​assigned a timestamp​ which marks the
point in time at which the command was initiated. Commands
are carried out on the field ​in the order of their timestamps​.

Commitment ordering
When a database uses commitment ordering, an ​algorithm ​is used to work out ​an optimum
order ​in which to execute commands for the same field. This algorithm will take into
account the​ impact of commands on other parts of the database ​and attempt to ​minimise
issues from occurring​ with the database.

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