Chapter 1: Databases

for an Information Rich,

Connected World
DATABASE MANAGEMENT AND DESIGN
The “Unseen” Services
“We observe and interact with the visible components…, but we seldom think about the unseen
components that provide the comfort and stability.”
Examples:
◦ Login and use Facebook
◦ Make a phone call or send a text message
◦ Read your email
◦ Go shopping (Groceries, clothes, gasoline)
◦ Check a book out of the library
◦ Withdraw money from an ATM
◦ Have a physical exam with your doctor

We only think about the database unless there is an outage or security breach.
The Ubiquitous Information Provider
§ Searching to buy a specific item (e.g. an appliance, a service, clothing, a book...)
§ Researching more in-depth before purchasing a major item such as a car
§ Planning a vacation or trip
§ Learning about a particular hobby or sport that you enjoy such as skiing, boating, or coin collecting
§ Researching a particular company before investing in it
§ Researching a particular medical condition or medical problem
§ Solving a technical problem or learning a new technical skill such as administering a Linux server
§ Writing a research paper or researching for a school project
§ Wikipedia
Interesting Public Databases
Ø Annotated Human Genome Data
Ø Federal Reserve Economic Data
Ø US Labor, Economic, and Census Data
Ø Freebase Dataset
Ø Historical Weather Datasets
Ø Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress
 In the universe…
The properties of a thing have values
Color: Red
Style: Windsor
Data Material: Maple wood
Paint type: Oil-based
Weight: 2.6 KG
Seat height: 17.5 inches
Overall height: 34.3 inches
Maximum front-leg diameter: 1 inch
Maximum splat spindle diameter: 0.675 inches
…
Data
Values of the properties of a thing are data
Color: Red
Style: Windsor
Material: Maple wood Data
Paint type: Oil-based
Weight: 2.6 KG
Seat height: 17.5 inches
Overall height: 34.3 inches
Maximum front-leg diameter: 1 inch
Maximum splat spindle diameter: 0.675 inches
…
In the universe, things have many properties
PERSON
IQ Height
(Intelligence Quotient)

Name Hair length

Phone Strength
Number
Food
Address Preference

Education Girth
Skills
…

Do we want to track all their properties?

We call the properties we track: Attributes

IQ

Name

Phone
Attributes
Number Properties we track in oursystem
The properties we don’t
Address
track are still just properties
Education

Skills

Sex
In a database…
Attributes of Objects (Entities) have values
Those values are DATA
Na me Robin Noble DATA

IQ 180 DATA

Address 1313 Mockingbird Ln. DATA

Phone 202.555.1212 DATA

Educ ation Ph.D. Physics DATA

Skills Atomic Cosmology DATA

Height 5’ 7” DATA

Food Preference Spicy DATA

Age Yes DATA

Information in Business
Relationships among attributes of entities
Ø Sales by product line by region
Ø Raw material quality by vendor by month
Ø Absenteeism by department by quarter
Ø Revenue by customer
Ø Average purchase size by customer sex and age group
Information Structuring in Databases
Schema: structure and organization of the database
Attribute: relevant piece of information about the things of interest
Relationship: connection between things of interest
Examples:
q Example 1, Customer- Bank database:
§ Attributes:
name, address, telephone, account balance, credit rating, credit card number...
§ Relationships:
details of purchases, details of payments...
Information Structuring in Databases
q Example 2, University professor database:
§ Attributes:
name, address, telephone, office number, office phone number, years of work, title, department,
college, salary...
§ Relationships:
details of publications, details of university committee, awards, current classes, previous classes,
student ratings...
q Example 3, Student database:
§ Attributes:
name, address, telephone, total hours completed, current registered hours, total GPA, overall
standing...
§ Relationships:
details of courses and grades, current registered courses, library materials, campus credit balance...
An Example- UNIVERSITY database
Information concerning students, courses, and
grades in a university environment
§ Data records
§ STUDENT
§ COURSE
§ SECTION
§ GRADE_REPORT
§ PREREQUISITE
An Example- UNIVERSITY database
Sample
"Incident"
Database
Structure
An Example- UNIVERSITY database
§ Construct UNIVERSITY database
§ Store data to represent each student, course, section,
grade report, and prerequisite as a record in appropriate
file
§ Relationships among the records
§ Manipulation involves querying and updating
 An Example- UNIVERSITY database
§ Examples of queries:
§ Retrieve the transcript
• A list of all courses and grades of ‘Smith’
§ List the names of students who took the section of the
‘Database’ course offered in fall 2008 and their grades in
that section
§ List the prerequisites of the ‘Database’ course
An Example- UNIVERSITY database
A list of all courses and grades of ‘Smith’
Course Name Grade
Intro to Computer Science C
Discrete Mathematics B
An Example- UNIVERSITY database
List the names of students who took the section of the ‘Database’
course offered in fall 2008 and their grades in that section
An Example- UNIVERSITY database
List the prerequisites of the ‘Database’ course
 An Example- UNIVERSITY database
§ Examples of updates:
§ Create a new section for the ‘Database’ course for this
semester
§ Enter a grade of ‘A’ for ‘Smith’ in the ‘Database’ section of
last semester
 The Database Approach

Database management system (DBMS)

Database management system (DBMS)
Ø Collection of programs
Ø Enables users to create and maintain a database
§ Defining a database
• Specify the data types, structures, and constraints of the data to be stored
§ Meta-data
• Database definition or descriptive information
• Stored by the DBMS in the form of a database catalog or dictionary
§ Manipulating a database
• Query and update the database
• Generate reports
§ Sharing a database
• Allow multiple users and programs to access the database simultaneously
Database management system (DBMS)
§ Application program
• Accesses database by sending queries to DBMS
§ Query
• Causes some data to be retrieved
§ Transaction
• May cause some data to be read and some data to be written into the database
§ Protection includes:
• System protection
• System Security
§ Maintain the database system
• Allow the system to evolve as requirements change over time
DBMS Functions
Ø Data Definition
Ø Data Manipulation
Ø Query Execution
Ø Data Integrity
Ø Data Security
Ø Data Portability
Ø Data Recovery
Ø Provenance
Ø Performance
Ø Multiuser Concurrency
Ø Automatic Processing
 Popular DBMS
Some of the more popular DBMS's today are:
Ø MySQL
Ø Microsoft SQL Server
Ø Oracle
Ø PostgreSQL
Ø Microsoft Access
Ø IBM's DB2

SQL (pronounced "ess-que-el") stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to communicate with a database.
Database Architectures: Mainframe
Mainly used by big organizations to quickly,
continually, and securely process and
store huge amounts of data

Advantages Disadvantages
• Large number of concurrent users • Does not take advantage of local computer processing power
• Able to handle very large volume of transactions • Hardware is relatively expensive
• Suitable for slow network environments • Character-based interface
• Central location of both application and DBMS makes
maintenance relatively simple

The earliest implementations of the database approach

Database Architectures: Desktop

Advantages Disadvantages
• Inexpensive to acquire • Only available to a single user at a
• Easy to configure time
• Requires few resources to operate • Only available at a single computer
• May impose limits on how much data
can be stored

The most popular of the desktop databases—Microsoft Access.

Database Architectures: File Server

Advantages Disadvantages
• Inexpensive to acquire • Only viable for a limited number of users, perhaps 10 or fewer
• Easy to configure • Query performance declines quickly as the amount of data increases
• Low-cost option for multi-user concurrency • Multiple installation of both application software and DBMS can lead to version
control issues for both

These servers are especially popular as a central storage place for internal
company files that are relevant for individual users or that can be shared by multiple users.
Database Architectures: Client Server

Advantages Disadvantages
• Makes good use of processing power of multiple computers • Application software is distributed, possibly leading to version
• Handles large amounts of both data and transactions control issues
• Can support thousands of concurrent users • DBMS software is relatively expensive compared to the File Server
approach

It is especially effective when clients and the server each have distinct tasks that they routinely perform
 Database Architectures: Web

Advantages Disadvantages
• All advantages of the client/server architecture • Adds another layer of complexity (web server)
• Increased ease of application version control • Various software apps must keep synchronized with database
• Very good at handling intermittent use from large numbers of software
users (millions) • Upgrades in browsers may require changes to application

It is the most current architecture and the most widely used in today’s connected, online world.
Databases and Business Systems
Information System Purpose and Examples Database Requirements
Transaction Processing Support the daily activities • Capture transactions
System (TPS) • Present detailed information
to users.
Management Information Manage and verify the efficiency of • Data for MIS comes from
System (MIS) daily activities TPS
• Summarized into a set of
management reports
• Record historical data to
forecast future trends.
Decision Support System Make strategic decisions. • Contains both internal and
(DSS) external data
• Modeling and analysis tools
 Databases and Business Systems
continued
OLTP Database OLAP Database
Purpose of DB Day-to-day business processes Strategic decision making
Source of data Daily transactions Internal and external data
Organization of DB Structured and normalized Not normalized; star or snowflake
Queries (retrieve data) Standard SQL Complex queries
Inserts/updates Frequent, limited data, must be Very few, extensive and often
rapid and real-time transformed data, batches
Space requirements Intentionally limited for rapid Can be very large
response
Time Frame Usually weeks or months Long time series, often years

Online Transactional Processing (OLTP)

Online analytical processing (OLAP)
 Data Mining and Data Warehouses
• Data Mining is a technique used to analyze and
extract information from massive databases.

• Data warehouse is a database whose primary

objectives are analyzing, querying, and reporting.
• Data warehouses are often made up of several
data marts. Marketing
• A datamart is a smaller form of a data warehouse
that focuses on a specific type of data.

Sales
Technology Careers and Database Skills
Technology Careers Requiring Database Skills Knowledge-based Careers Requiring DB Skills
§ Software engineer and developer § Financial planner
§ Business/computer systems analyst § Market research analyst
§ Web developer § Advertising manager
§ Computer programmer § Human resource manager
§ Quality assurance engineer § Accountant
§ Server administrator § Economist
§ Database administrator § Sales manager
§ Data warehouse engineer § Sociologist
§ Project manager § Management consultant
§ Public Administrator