Chapter 2

Database System Concepts

and Architecture

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Chapter 2 Outline
 Data Models, Schemas, and Instances
 Three-Schema Architecture and Data
Independence

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Data Models, Schemas, and
Instances
 Data abstraction
 Suppression of details of data organization and
storage
 Highlighting of the essential features for an
improved understanding of data

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Data Models, Schemas, and
Instances (cont'd.)
 Data model
 Collection of concepts that describe the
structure of a database
 Provides means to achieve data abstraction
 Basic operations
• Specify retrievals and updates on the database
 the dynamic aspect or behavior of a
database application.
• This allows the database designer to specify a set of valid user-defined operations that
are allowed on the database objects. An example of a user-defined operation could be
COMPUTE_GPA, which can be applied to a STUDENT object.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Categories of Data Models
• High-level or conceptual data models:
• Close to the way many users perceive data
• Representational (implementation) data models:
• Between conceptual model and physical model
• Easily understood by end users
• hide many details of data storage on disk but can be
implemented on a computer system directly
• Low-level or physical data models:
• provide concepts that describe the details of how data is
stored on the computer storage media, typically magnetic
disks.
• Concepts provided by physical data models are generally
meant for computer specialists, not for end users

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 High-level or conceptual data
models
• Entity
• Represents a real-world object or concept
• Attribute
• Represents some property of interest
• Further describes an entity

• Relationship among two or more entities

• Represents an association among the entities
• Example: “Entity-Relationship model”

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Entity-Relationship model for a company

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Categories of Data Models (cont'd.)
 Relational data model
 Representational (implementation) data
models used most frequently in traditional
commercial DBMSs
 Represent data by using record structures and
hence are sometimes called record-based
data models.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
Categories of Data Models (cont'd.)
 Object data model: New family of higher-level
implementation data models Closer to conceptual data
models (UML)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Categories of Data Models (cont'd.)
• Physical data models
• Describe how data is stored as files in the
computer by representing information such as
record formats, record orderings, and access paths
• Access path
• Structure that makes the search for particular database
records efficient
• Index
• Example of an access path
• Allows direct access to data using an index term or a
keyword

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Schemas, Instances, and Database
State
• Database schema
• Description of a database which is specified during
database design.
• is not expected to change frequently
• Schema diagram
• Displayed schema
• The diagram displays the structure of each record type but
not the actual instances of records.
• Schema construct
• Each object in the schema such as STUDENT or COURSE
• Database state or snapshot
• Data in database at a particular moment in time

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Schemas, Instances, and
Database State (cont'd.)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Database Schema
vs. Database State
• Database State:
• Refers to the content of a database at a moment in time.
 The actual data stored in a database at a particular moment in
time. This includes the collection of all the data in the database.
 Also called database instance (or occurrence or snapshot).
• The term instance is also applied to individual database components,
e.g. record instance, table instance
• Initial Database State:
• Refers to the database state when it is initially loaded into the
system.
• Every time an update operation is applied to the database, we
get another database state
• Valid State:
• A state that satisfies the structure and constraints of the database.
Slide 2- 14

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Schemas, Instances, and Database
State (cont'd.)
 Schema evolution
 Changes applied to schema as application requirements change

 Distinction
 The database schema changes very infrequently.
 The database state changes every time the database is updated

 Schema is also called intension.

 State is also called extension

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Example of a database state

Slide 2- 16

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Three-Schema Architecture and
Data Independence
• The goal of the three-schema architecture is to separate the user
applications from the physical database.
• Internal level
• Describes physical storage structure of the database.
• The internal schema uses a physical data model and describes the complete details
of data storage and access paths for the database.
• Conceptual level
• has a conceptual schema
• Describes structure of the whole database for a community of users
• The conceptual schema hides the details of physical storage structures and
concentrates on describing entities, data types, relationships, user operations, and
constraints.
• External or view level
• Describes part of the database that a particular user group is interested in and
hides the rest of the database from that user group.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Three-Schema Architecture and Data
Independence (cont'd.)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Three-Schema Architecture
and Data Independence (cont'd.)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Three-Schema Architecture
 Mappings among schema levels are
needed to transform requests and data.
 Programs refer to an external schema, and are
mapped by the DBMS to the internal schema
for execution.
 Data extracted from the internal DBMS level is
reformatted to match the user’s external view
(e.g. formatting the results of an SQL query for
display in a Web page)
Slide 2- 20

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Data Independence
• Capacity to change the schema at one level of
a database system
• Without having to change the schema at the next
higher level
• Types:
• Logical data independence is the capacity to
change the conceptual schema without having to
change external schemas or application programs
• Physical data independence is the capacity to
change the internal schema without having to
change the conceptual schema. Hence, the
external schemas need not be changed as well.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe