1.

Introduction to Database Systems

Introduction to database system
Databases and database technology have a major impact on the growing use of computers. It is
fair to say that databases play a critical role in almost all areas where computers are used,
including business, electronic commerce, engineering, medicine, genetics, law, education, and
library science. The word database is so commonly used that we must begin by defining what a
database is. Our initial definition is quite general.
A database is a collection of related data. By data, we mean known facts that can be recorded
and that have implicit meaning. For example, consider the names, telephone numbers, and
addresses of the people you know. You may have recorded this data in an indexed address book
or you may have stored it on a hard drive, using a personal computer and software such as
Microsoft Access or Excel. This collection of related data with an implicit meaning is a database.
The preceding definition of database is quite general; for example, we may consider the collection of words
that make up this page of text to be related data and hence to constitute a database. However, the common use
of the term database is usually more restricted. A database has the following implicit properties:
 A database represents some aspect of the real world, sometimes called the miniworld or the universe
of discourse (UoD). Changes to the miniworld are reflected in the database.
 A database is a logically coherent collection of data with some inherent meaning. A random
assortment of data cannot correctly be referred to as a database.
 A database is designed, built, and populated with data for a specific purpose.
It has an intended group of users and some preconceived applications in which these users are interested.
In other words, a database has some source from which data is derived, some degree of interaction with events
in the real world, and an audience that is actively interested in its contents. The end users of a database may
perform business transactions (for example, a customer buys a camera) or events may happen (for example, an
employee has a baby) that cause the information in the database to change. In order for a database to be
accurate and reliable at all times, it must be a true reflection of the miniworld that it represents; therefore,
changes must be reflected in the database as soon as possible.
A database can be of any size and complexity. For example, the list of names and addresses referred to earlier
may consist of only a few hundred records, each with a simple structure. On the other hand, the computerized
catalog of a large library may contain half a million entries organized under different categories—by primary
author’s last name, by subject, by book title—with each category organized alphabetically. A database of even
greater size and complexity is maintained by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to monitor tax forms filed by
U.S. taxpayers. If we assume that there are 100 million taxpayers and each taxpayer files an average of five
forms with approximately 400 characters of information per form, we would have a database of 100 106 400
5 characters (bytes) of information. If the IRS keeps the past three returns of each taxpayer in addition to the
current return, we would have a database of 8 1011 bytes (800 gigabytes). This huge amount of information
must be organized and managed so that users can search for, retrieve, and update the data as needed.
An example of a large commercial database is Amazon.com. It contains data for over 20 million books, CDs,
videos, DVDs, games, electronics, apparel, and other items. The database occupies over 2 terabytes (a terabyte
is 1012 bytes worth of storage) and is stored on 200 different computers (called servers). About 15 million
visitors access Amazon.com each day and use the database to make purchases. The database is continually
updated as new books and other items are added to the inventory and stock quantities are updated as purchases
are transacted. About 100 people are responsible for keeping the Amazon database up-to-date.
A database may be generated and maintained manually or it may be computerized.
For example, a library card catalog is a database that may be created and maintained manually. A
computerized database may be created and maintained either by a group of application programs written
specifically for that task or by a database management system. We are only concerned with computerized
databases in this book.
A database management system (DBMS) is a collection of programs that enables users to create and
maintain a database. The DBMS is a general-purpose software system that facilitates the processes of defining,
constructing, manipulating, and sharing databases among various users and applications. Defining a database
involves specifying the data types, structures, and constraints of the data to be stored in the database.
The database definition or descriptive information is also stored by the DBMS in the form of a database
catalog or dictionary; it is called meta-data. Constructing the database is the process of storing the data on
some storage medium that is controlled by the DBMS. Manipulating a database includes functions such as
querying the database to retrieve specific data, updating the database to reflect changes in the miniworld, and
generating reports from the data. Sharing a database allows multiple users and programs to access the database
simultaneously.
An application program accesses the database by sending queries or requests for data to the DBMS. A
query2 typically causes some data to be retrieved; a transaction may cause some data to be read and some
data to be written into the database.
Other important functions provided by the DBMS include protecting the database and maintaining it over a
long period of time. Protection includes system protection against hardware or software malfunction (or
crashes) and security protection against unauthorized or malicious access. A typical large database may have a
life cycle of many years, so the DBMS must be able to maintain the database system by allowing the system
to evolve as requirements change over time.
It is not absolutely necessary to use general-purpose DBMS software to implement a computerized database.
We could write our own set of programs to create and maintain the database, in effect creating our own
special-purpose DBMS software. In either case—whether we use a general-purpose DBMS or not—we
usually have to deploy a considerable amount of complex software. In fact, most DBMSs are very complex
software systems.
To complete our initial definitions, we will call the database and DBMS software together a database system.
Figure 1.1 illustrates some of the concepts we have discussed so far.
An Example
Let us consider a simple example that most readers may be familiar with: a UNIVERSITY database for
maintaining information concerning students, courses, and grades in a university environment. Figure 1.2
shows the database structure and a few sample data for such a database. The database is organized as five files,
each of which stores data records of the same type.3 The STUDENT file stores data on each student, the
COURSE file stores data on each course, the SECTION file stores data on each section of a course, the
GRADE_REPORT file stores the grades that students receive in the various sections they have completed, and
the PREREQUISITE file stores the prerequisites of each course.
To define this database, we must specify the structure of the records of each file by specifying the different
types of data elements to be stored in each record. In Figure
1.2, each STUDENT record includes data to represent the student’s Name, Student_number, Class (such as freshman
or ‘1’, sophomore or ‘2’, and so forth), and Major (such as mathematics or ‘MATH’ and computer science or
‘CS’); each COURSE record includes data to represent the Course_name, Course_number, Credit_hours, and
Department (the department that offers the course); and so on.We
must also specify a data type for each data element within a record. For example, we
can specify that Name of STUDENT is a string of alphabetic characters,
Student_number of STUDENT is an integer, and Grade of GRADE_REPORT is a single
character from the set {‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘F’, ‘I’}.We may also use a coding scheme to represent
the values of a data item. For example, in Figure 1.2 we represent the Class of
a STUDENT as 1 for freshman, 2 for sophomore, 3 for junior, 4 for senior, and 5 for
graduate student. To construct the UNIVERSITY database, we store data to represent each student,
course, section, grade report, and prerequisite as a record in the appropriate file.
Notice that records in the various files may be related. For example, the record for
Smith in the STUDENT file is related to two records in the GRADE_REPORT file that
specify Smith’s grades in two sections. Similarly, each record in the PREREQUISITE
file relates two course records: one representing the course and the other representing
the prerequisite. Most medium-size and large databases include many types of
records and have many relationships among the records.
 Name Student_number Class Major
Smith 17 1 CS
Brown 8 2 CS

Database system and File System

Characteristics of the Database Approach
Actors on the Scene