Introduction to Database Systems

Data and Information

• Data: Raw facts that have not been processed.

• Information:
→ Processed data that facilitates decision-making.
→ Result of processing raw data to reveal its meaning
• Database: A shared, integrated structure housing:
o End-user data (raw facts of interest).
o Metadata (data about data for integration and management).

Roles and Advantages of a Database Management System (DBMS)

• Definition: A collection of programs managing database structure and data access.

• Advantages:
o Improved Data Sharing: The DBMS serves as the intermediary between the user
and the database. The database structure itself is stored as a collection of files,
and the only way to access the data in those files is through the DBMS.
o Improved Data Security: The more users access the data, the greater the risks
of data security breaches. Corporations invest considerable amounts of time,
effort, and money to ensure that corporate data is used properly. A DBMS
provides a framework for better enforcement of data privacy and security
policies.
o Better Data Integration: Wider access to well-managed data promotes an
integrated view of the organization’s operations and a clearer view of the big
picture. It becomes much easier to see how actions in one segment of the
company affect other segments.
o Minimized Data Inconsistency: Data inconsistency exists when different
versions of the same data appear in different places.
o Improved Data Access: The DBMS makes it possible to produce quick answers
to ad hoc queries. From a database perspective, a query is a specific request
issued to the DBMS for data manipulation—for example, to read or update the
data.
 o Improved Decision Making: Better-managed data and improved data access
make it possible to generate better-quality information, on which better
decisions are based. The quality of the information generated depends on the
quality of the underlying data.
o Increased End-User Productivity: The availability of data, combined with the
tools that transform data into usable information, empowers end users to make
quick, informed decisions that can make the difference between success and
failure in the global economy

Types of Databases

o Single-user Database:
→ Supports only one user at a time.
o Desktop Database:
→ runs on personal computer.
o Multiuser Database:
→ Supports multiple users at the same time.
o Workgroup Database:
→ supports a relatively small group or department.
o Enterprise Database:
→ used by the entire organization and supports many users across many
departments
o Centralized Database:
→ Data located at a single site
o Distributed Database:
→ Data distributed across several doff. sites
o Cloud Database:
→ maintain using cloud services like AWS or Azure.
o General-purpose Database:
→ Contains a wide variety of data used in multiple disciplines.
o Discipline-specific Database:
→ Focused on a specific subject area.
o Operational Database:
→ Supports day-to-day operations.
o Analytical Database:
→ Stores historical data for decision-making.
Importance of Database Design

• Definition:
→ Process of structuring a database to meet user needs.
→ Activities that focus on the design of the database.
• Challenges:
o Insufficient specifications and/or poor logical data modeling
o Not enough time in the development schedule
o Too many changes occurring throughout the development cycle
o Database design assigned to, or performed by, novices

• Design Process:
o Transform entities into tables.
o Convert attributes into columns.
o Define data types and constraints.
o Establish relationships using primary and foreign keys.

File System Data Processing Issues

• Early file systems improved over manual methods but had limitations:
o Lengthy Development Time:
→ First and most glaring problem
→ Required extensive programming for simple tasks.
o Difficulty of getting quick answers
→ Need to write programs to produce even simplest reports make ad hoh
queries impossible.
o Complex System Administration
→ Systems administration becomes more difficult as the number of files in
the system expands.
o Lack of security and limited data sharing:
→ Data sharing and security are closely related
o Extensive Programming:
→ Making changes to an existing file structure
Data Dependence and Redundancy Issues

• Structural Dependence:
→ Data characteristic/ changes in the database schema affects data access
• Structural Independence:
→ Data characteristics/ Changes in schema do not affect data access.
• Data Dependence:
→ Data condition/ data representation is dependent on physical data storage
• Data Independence:
→ Data condition/ data access is unaffected by changes in the physical data
storage.
• Data Redundancy: exists when some data is stored unnecessarily.
o Poor data security – multiple copies of data increases
o Data inconsistency – conflicting versions of the same data appear in diff.
Places.
o data-entry errors – complex entries are made in several diff. Files.
o Data integrity problems – enter a nonexistent sales agents names

Data Anomalies

• Definition:
→ Data abnormality inconsistent change made to database
→ Required changes in the redundant data
• Causes:
o Failure to update redundant data consistently.
o Conflicting versions of data appearing in different locations.

INTRODUCTION TO OPERATING SYSTEM

Data Models
• Data Modeling – The first step in designing a database, referring to the process of
creating a specific data model for a determined problem domain.
 • Data model – A relatively simple representation, usually graphical, of more
complex real-world data structures.

Importance of Database Models (Coronel and Morris,

2017)
• Database models facilitate interaction among designers, application
programmers, and end users.
• A well-developed database model fosters improved understanding of an
organization.
• Data modeling is crucial as data is the most basic information used by a system.

Data Model Basic Building Blocks

• Entity – A person, place, thing, or event about which data will be collected and
stored.
• Attribute – A characteristic of an entity.
• Relationship – Describes an association among entities.

Three (3) types of relationships:

• One-to-one (1:1) relationship – A single entity is associated with only one other
entity.
• One-to-many (1:M) relationship – One entity is associated with many other
entities.
• Many-to-many (M:M) relationship – Many entities are associated with many other
entities.

Evolution of Data Models (Coronel and Morris, 2017)

Hierarchical Model (1960s)

• Developed to manage large amounts of data for complex manufacturing projects.

 • Logical structure represented as an upside-down tree with levels called segments.
• Segment – Equivalent to a file system’s record type.

Network Model

• Created to represent complex data relationships more effectively than the

hierarchical model.
• Improved database performance and imposed a database standard.

Key components of the network model:

• Schema – The conceptual organization of the entire database as viewed by the

database administrator.
• Subschema – Defines the portion of the database accessed by application
programs to produce information.
• Data Manipulation Language (DML) – Defines the environment for managing data.
• Data Definition Language (DDL) – Allows the database administrator to define
schema components.

Relational Model (1970, E. F. Codd, IBM)

• A major breakthrough for users and designers.

• Based on the mathematical concept known as a relation.

Entity Relationship Model (1976, Peter Chen)

• Introduced a graphical representation of entities and their relationships in a

database structure.
• Became popular as it complemented relational data model concepts.
• Combined with the relational data model to create a structured database design.

Object-Oriented Model

• Developed to represent real-world problems more closely.

• The Object-Oriented Data Model (OODM) integrates both data and relationships in
a single structure called an object.
• Object-Oriented Database Management System (OODBMS) – The system
implementing OODM.
Key components of OODM:

• Object – Abstraction of a real-world entity.

• Attributes – Properties of an object.
• Classes – Grouping of similar objects with shared attributes and behaviors.
• Class hierarchy – Organized as an upside-down tree, where each class has only
one parent.
• Inheritance – The ability of an object within the hierarchy to inherit attributes from
parent classes.
• Unified Modeling Language (UML) – A language using diagrams to graphically
model systems based on object-oriented concepts.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

• A metalanguage used to represent and manipulate data elements.

• Unlike other markup languages, XML permits direct manipulation of document
data.

Emerging Data Models: Big Data and NoSQL

Big Data (1990s, John Mashey)

• Refers to new methods for managing and analyzing large amounts of web and
sensor-generated data.
• Douglas Laney (Gartner Group) defined Big Data characteristics:

Three characteristics of Big Data:

• Volume – The amount of data being stored.

• Velocity – The speed at which data grows and needs to be processed for insights.
• Variety – The multiple different data formats being collected.

NoSQL

• A large-scale distributed database system that efficiently stores structured and

unstructured data.
 • Used by major applications such as Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, and Google
Maps.

General characteristics of NoSQL databases:

• Not based on the relational model and SQL.

• Support distributed database architectures.
• Provide high scalability, high availability, and fault tolerance.
• Handle very large amounts of sparse data.
• Geared toward performance rather than transaction consistency.

Additional benefits of NoSQL:

• Supports distributed database architecture – use a distributed database node

• Handles very large amounts of sparse data – handles very high data
• Provides high scalability, high availability, and fault tolerance – designed to
support web operation
• Focuses on performance rather than transaction consistency – one of the
biggest problems

Degrees of Data Abstraction (1970s, ANSI/SPARC)

Defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standards Planning and
Requirements Committee (SPARC).

Three (3) levels of data abstraction:

1. External Model
a. The end-user’s view of the data environment.
b. Users manipulate data and generate information via application programs.
c. Represented using ER diagrams.
d. A specific representation of an external view is called an external
schema.
2. Conceptual Model
a. Represents a global view of the database for the entire organization.
b. Also known as a conceptual schema.
c. Identifies and describes main data objects.
 3. Internal Model
a. The database as seen by the DBMS.
b. Requires mapping of the conceptual model’s characteristics to an
implementation model.
c. Internal schema – A specific representation of the internal model using
database constructs.

Physical Model

• Operates at the lowest level of abstraction.

• Describes how data is stored on magnetic, solid-state, or optical media.
• Defines physical storage devices and access methods, making it software and
hardware dependent.