Chapter 1: Introduction

to Database Systems

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Objectives

u To explain data definition

u To describe data models and evolution
u To understand DBMS and its schemas
u To differentiate relational data model and non-relational data model
u To illustrate data abstraction
u To understand query languange and host language
u To example SQL command
u To describe transaction and concurrency control

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Topics
u What is a Data ?
u Data Models and Evolution
u The Relational Data Model
u What is a DBMS?
u Structure of a DBMS
u Data Abstraction
u Query Languages
u Host Languages
u Concurrency Control and Transaction
u Non-Relational Database
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What is a data?
u Data are individual facts, statistics, or items of information, often numeric. In
a more technical sense, data are a set of values of qualitative or quantitative
variables about one or more persons or objects, while a datum is a single
value of a single variable. [Wikipedia.org, Jan 10, 2022]
u In computing, data is information that has been translated into a form that is
efficient for movement or processing. Relative to today’s computers and
transmission media, data is information converted into binary digital form. It
is acceptable for data to be used as a singula subject or a plural subject. Raw
data is a term used to describe data its most basic digital format. [Jack
Vaughan, techtarget.com]

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How data is stored?

u Computers represent data, including video, images, sounds and text, as

binary values using patterns of just two number: 1 and 0. A bit is the smalltest
unit of data, and represents just a single value. A byte is eight binary digits
long. Storage and memory is measured in megabytes and gigabytes.
u The units of data measurement continue to grow as the amount of data
collected and stored grows. The relatively new term “brontobyte,” for
example, is data storage that is equal to 10 to the 27th of bytes.
u Greater specialization developed as database, database management system
(DBMS) and then relational database technology arose to organize
information.

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Common Data Storage Measurements
UNIT VALUE
bit 1 bit
byte 8 bits
kilobyte 1,024 bytes
megabyte 1,024 kilobytes
gigabyte 1,024 megabytes
terabyte 1,024 gigabytes
petabyte 1,024 terabytes
exabyte 1,024 petabytes
zettabyte 1,024 exabytes
yottabyte 1,024 zettabytes
brontobyte 1,024 yottabytes
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Source: https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/data
Data Models
u A data model is a collection of concepts and constructs
for describing data.
u A schema is a description of a particular collection of
data, using the a given data model.
u The relational data model is the most widely used
model today. (before 2000 which has the new model:
non-relational data model)
u Main concept: relation, basically a table with rows and
columns.
u Every relation has a schema, which describes the columns, or
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fields.
 Data Models (cont’d)
u The data model of the DBMS hides details - Semantic
Models assist in the DB design process.
u Semantic Models allow an initial description of data in
the “real world”.
u A DBMS does not support directly all the features in a
semantic model.
u Most widely used: Entity-Relationship model (ER
approach).

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The Relational Data Model
u Central construct: the RELATION : a set of records.
u Data is described through a SCHEMA specifying the name of the
relation, and name and type of each field:
u Students(sid: string, name: string, login: string,
age: integer, gpa: real)
u Actual data: instance of the relations : a set of tuples,
{<53666,Tida,tida@cs,18,3.4>,
<53688,Sopon,sopon@ee,18,3.2>,
<53650,Ploypilin,ploy@math,19,3.8>, ...}
u Integrity constraints (condition every instance must verify) can
also be specified.
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What Is a DBMS?
u A very large, integrated collection of data
describing activities of organizations.
u Models real-world.
u Entities (e.g., students, courses)
u Relationships (e.g., Narisa is taking 2301375)
u A Database Management System (DBMS) is a
software package designed to store and
manage databases.

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Structure of a DBMS (cont.)
Web Application SQL
Forms Front Ends Interface

SQL Commands
Query evaluation
Parser + Optimizer + engine
Plan Execution

Transaction Files and Access Methods

Manager Recovery
Buffer Management
Manager
Lock
Disk Space Management
Manager

Index files + data

DB files+ system
catalog
Why Use a DBMS?

u Data independence and efficient access.

u Reduced application development time.
u Data integrity and security. Different users may
access different data subsets.
u Uniform data administration.
u Concurrent access, recovery from crashes.

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Data Abstraction

u Database systems comprise of complex data structures.

Thus, to make the system efficient for retrieval of data
and reduce the complexity of the users, developers use
the method of Data Abstraction.
u There are mainly three levels of data abstraction:
1. Internal Level: Actual PHYSICAL storage structure and access paths.
2. Conceptual or Logical Level: Structure and constraints for the entire
database.
3. External or View Level: Describes various user views

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 DBMS Schemas: Internal, Conceptual,
External

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Internal Level

u The internal schema defines the physical storage structure of the database.
The internal schema is a very low-level representation of the entire database.
It contains multiple occurrences of multiple types of internal record. In the
ANSI term, it is also called “stored record’.
u Facts about Internal schema:
u The internal schema is the lowest level of data abstraction
u It helps you to keeps information about the actual representation of the entire
database. Like the actual storage of the data on the disk in the form of records
u The internal view tells us what data is stored in the database and how
u It never deals with the physical devices. Instead, internal schema views a physical
device as a collection of physical pages

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Conceptual/Logical Level
u The conceptual schema describes the Database structure of the whole
database for the community of users. This schema hides information about
the physical storage structures and focuses on describing data types, entities,
relationships, etc.
u This logical level comes between the user level and physical storage view.
However, there is only single conceptual view of a single database.
u Facts about Conceptual schema:
u Defines all database entities, their attributes, and their relationships
u Security and integrity information
u In the conceptual level, the data available to a user must be contained in or
derivable from the physical level

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External/View Level
u An external schema describes the part of the database which specific user is
interested in. It hides the unrelated details of the database from the user. There
may be “n” number of external views for each database.
u Each external view is defined using an external schema, which consists of
definitions of various types of external record of that specific view.
u An external view is just the content of the database as it is seen by some specific
particular user. For example, a user from the sales department will see only sales
related data.
u Facts about external schema:
u An external level is only related to the data which is viewed by specific end users.
u This level includes some external schemas.
u External schema level is nearest to the user
u The external schema describes the segment of the database which is needed for a
certain user group and hides the remaining details from the database from the specific
user group

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Goal of 3 level/schema of Database

Here, are some Objectives of using Three schema Architecture:

u Every user should be able to access the same data but able to see a
customized view of the data.
u The user need not to deal directly with physical database storage detail.
u The DBA should be able to change the database storage structure without
disturbing the user’s views
u The internal structure of the database should remain unaffected when
changes made to the physical aspects of storage.

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Advantages Database Schema

u You can manage data independent of the physical storage

u Faster Migration to new graphical environments
u DBMS Architecture allows you to make changes on the presentation level
without affecting the other two layers
u As each tier is separate, it is possible to use different sets of developers
u It is more secure as the client doesn’t have direct access to the database
business logic
u In case of the failure of the one-tier no data loss as you are always secure by
accessing the other tier

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Disadvantages Database Schema

u Complete DB Schema is a complex structure which is difficult to

understand for every one
u Difficult to set up and maintain
u The physical separation of the tiers can affect the performance of the
Database

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Example: University Database
u Conceptual (Logical) schema:
u Students(sid: string, name: string, login: string,
age: integer, gpa:real)
u Courses(cid: string, cname: string, credits: integer)
u Enrolled(sid: string, cid: string, grade: string)
u describes data in terms of the data model of the DBMS

u Physical schema:
u Relations stored as unordered files.
u Index on first column of Students.
u External (View) Schema:
u Depend on users such as students, faculties, staffs.
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Query Language
u Query language (QL) refers to any computer programming language that
requests and retrieves data from database and information systems by
sending queries. It works on user entered structured and formal programming
command based queries to find and extract data from host databases.
u Query language is primarily created for creating, accessing and modifying
data in and out from a database management system (DBMS). Typically, QL
requires users to input a structured command that is similar and close to the
English language querying construct.
u For example, the SQL query: SELECT * FROM Students;
u The simple programming context makes it one of the easiest programming
languages to learn. There are several different variants of QL and it has wide
implementation in various database-centered services such as extracting data
from deductive and OLAP databases, providing API based access to remote
applications and services and more.

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Host Languages
u Data are seldom manipulated without some intended purpose. For instance,
consider a LIBRARY database consisting of information about the books in a
library. If a student wishes to access these data, it is probably with the
intention of finding a certain book, for which the student has some
information, such as the title. On the other hand, if a librarian wishes to
access the information, it may be for other purposes, such as determining
when the book was added to the library, or how much it cost. These issues
probably don’t interest the student.
u The language that is used for database application programming is the host
language for the DBMS. As mentioned earlier, a host language may be a
programming language such as C, , C#, C++, Python, Lisp, PHP, or R it may be
an application-level language, such as Microsoft Access or Visual Basic.

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SQL Command Example
Employee Department

Name Dept Dept Manager

SQL
SELECT Manager
FROM Employee, Department
WHERE Employee.Name = "Clark Kent”
AND Employee.Dept = “Physics”
Query Language
Data definition language (DDL) ~ like type defs in C or Pascal
Data Manipulation Language (DML)
Query (SELECT)
UPDATE < relation name >
SET <attribute> = < new-value>
WHERE <condition>
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Concurrency Control

u Concurrent execution of user programs is essential for

good DBMS performance.
u Because disk accesses are frequent, and relatively slow, it is
important to keep the CPU working on several user programs
concurrently.
u Interleaving actions of different user programs can lead to
inconsistency: e.g., check is cleared while account
balance is being computed.
u DBMS ensures such problems don’t arise: users can
pretend they are using a single-user system.

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Transaction: An Execution of a DB Program

u A transaction is a single logical unit of work which accesses

and possible modifies the contents of a database.
Transactions access data using read and write operations.
u In order to maintain consistency in a database, before and
after the transaction, certain properties are followed.
These are called ACID properties.

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 Ensuring Atomicity
u DBMS ensures atomicity (all-or-nothing property) even if
system crashes in the middle of a transaction. There is no
midway i.e. transaction do not occur partially. Each
transaction is considered as one unit and either runs to
completion or is not executed at all. It involves the
following two operations.
- Abort: If a transaction aborts, changes made to database
are not visible.
- Commit: If a transaction commits, changes made are
visible.
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Example
Consider the following transaction T consisting of T1 and T2: Transfer of 100
from account X to account Y

If the transaction fails after completion of T1 but before completion of T2.(say, after write(X) but
before write(Y), then amount has been deducted from X but not added to Y. This results in an
inconsistent database state. Therefore, the transaction must be executed in entirely in order to
ensure correctness of database state.

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Consistency
u This means that integrity constraints must be maintained so that the database
is consistent before and after the transaction. It refers to the correctness of a
database. Referring to the example in previous slide,
u The total amount before and after the transaction must be maintained.
Total before T occurs = 500 + 200 = 700.
Total after T occurs = 400 + 300 = 700.
Therefore, database is consistent. Inconsistency occurs in case T1 completes
but T2 fails. As a result T is incomplete.

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Isolation
u This property ensures that multiple transactions can occur concurrently
without leading to the inconsistency of database state. Transactions occur
independently without interference. Changes occurring in a particular
transaction will not be visible to any other transaction until that particular
change in that transaction is written to memory or has been committed. This
property ensures that the execution of transactions concurrently will result in
a state that is equivalent to a state achieved these were executed serially in
some order.
Let X= 500, Y = 500.
Consider two transactions T and T”.

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Isolation (cont.)

Suppose T has been executed till Read (Y) and then T’’ starts. As a result , interleaving of
operations takes place due to which T’’ reads correct value of X but incorrect value of Y and
sum computed by
T’’: (X+Y = 50, 000+500=50, 500)
is thus not consistent with the sum at end of transaction:
T: (X+Y = 50, 000 + 450 = 50, 450).
This results in database inconsistency, due to a loss of 50 units. Hence, transactions must
take place in isolation and changes should be visible only after they have been made to the
main memory.
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Durability

u This property ensures that once the transaction has completed execution, the
updates and modifications to the database are stored in and written to disk and
they persist even if a system failure occurs. These updates now become permanent
and are stored in non-volatile memory. The effects of the transaction, thus, are
never lost.
u The ACID properties, in totality, provide a mechanism to ensure correctness and
consistency of a database in a way such that each transaction is a group of
operations that acts a single unit, produces consistent results, acts in isolation from
other operations and updates that it makes are durably stored.

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Non-Relational database

A non-relational databases is a database not use the

tabular schema of rows and column found in most
traditional database system. Instead, non-relational
databases use a storage model that is optimized for the
specific requirements of the type of data being stored.
For example, data may be stored as simple key/value
pairs, as JSON documents, or as a graph consisting of
edges and vertices.

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Non-Relational Database

The biggest advantage of NoSQL over RDBMS is scalability.

Data models: A NoSQL database lets you build an
application without having to define the schema first
unlike relational database which make you define your
schema before you can add any data to the system.
The most popular being MongoDB, DocumentDB,
Cassandra, Coachbase, Hbase, Redis, and Neo4j.

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Types of NoSQL Databases
u Column stores – Relational database store all the data in a
particular table’s rows together on-disk, making retrieval of a
particular row fast. Column-family database generally serialize
all values of a particular column together on-disk, which makes
retrieval of a large amount of a specific attribute fast.
u Document stores – These databases store records as
“documents” where a document can generally be thought of as
a grouping of key-value pairs(it has nothing to do with storing
actual documents such as a Word document).

Source: https://www.jamesserra.com/archive/2015/04/types-of-nosql-databases/ (visit date: Jan 8,2022)

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Types of NoSQL Databases (cont’d)
u Key-value stores – These databases pair keys to values.
An analogy is a files system where the path acts as the
key and the contents act as the file.
u Graph stores – These excel at dealing with
interconnected data. Graph database consist of
connections, or edges, between nodes. Both nodes and
their edges can store additional properties such as key-
value pairs.

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