Lesson 5
DBMS - Data Independence
If a database system is not multi-layered, then it becomes difficult to
make any changes in the database system. Database systems are
designed in multi-layers as we learnt earlier.
Data Independence
A database system normally contains a lot of data in addition to
users’ data. For example, it stores data about data, known as
metadata, to locate and retrieve data easily. It is rather difficult to
modify or update a set of metadata once it is stored in the database.
But as a DBMS expands, it needs to change over time to satisfy the
requirements of the users. If the entire data is dependent, it would
become a tedious and highly complex job.
Metadata itself follows a layered architecture, so that when we
change data at one layer, it does not affect the data at another
level. This data is independent but mapped to each other.
Logical Data Independence
Logical data is data about database, that is, it stores information
about how data is managed inside. For example, a table (relation)
stored in the database and all its constraints, applied on that
relation.
Logical data independence is a kind of mechanism, which liberalizes
itself from actual data stored on the disk. If we do some changes on
table format, it should not change the data residing on the disk.
Physical Data Independence
All the schemas are logical, and the actual data is stored in bit
format on the disk. Physical data independence is the power to
change the physical data without impacting the schema or logical
data.
For example, in case we want to change or upgrade the storage
system itself − suppose we want to replace hard-disks with SSD − it
should not have any impact on the logical data or schemas.
ER Model - Basic Concepts
he ER model defines the conceptual view of a database. It works
around real-world entities and the associations among them. At view
level, the ER model is considered a good option for designing
databases.
Entity
An entity can be a real-world object, either animate or inanimate,
that can be easily identifiable. For example, in a school database,
students, teachers, classes, and courses offered can be considered
as entities. All these entities have some attributes or properties that
give them their identity.
An entity set is a collection of similar types of entities. An entity set
may contain entities with attribute sharing similar values. For
example, a Students set may contain all the students of a school;
likewise a Teachers set may contain all the teachers of a school
from all faculties. Entity sets need not be disjoint.
Attributes
Entities are represented by means of their properties,
called attributes. All attributes have values. For example, a student
entity may have name, class, and age as attributes.
There exists a domain or range of values that can be assigned to
attributes. For example, a student's name cannot be a numeric
value. It has to be alphabetic. A student's age cannot be negative,
etc.
Types of Attributes
Simple attribute − Simple attributes are atomic values,
which cannot be divided further. For example, a student's
phone number is an atomic value of 10 digits.
Composite attribute − Composite attributes are made of
more than one simple attribute. For example, a student's
complete name may have first_name and last_name.
Derived attribute − Derived attributes are the attributes that
do not exist in the physical database, but their values are
derived from other attributes present in the database. For
example, average_salary in a department should not be saved
directly in the database, instead it can be derived. For another
example, age can be derived from data_of_birth.
Single-value attribute − Single-value attributes contain
single value. For example − Social_Security_Number.
Multi-value attribute − Multi-value attributes may contain
more than one values. For example, a person can have more
than one phone number, email_address, etc.
These attribute types can come together in a way like −
simple single-valued attributes
simple multi-valued attributes
composite single-valued attributes
composite multi-valued attributes
Entity-Set and Keys
Key is an attribute or collection of attributes that uniquely identifies
an entity among entity set.
For example, the roll_number of a student makes him/her
identifiable among students.
Super Key − A set of attributes (one or more) that collectively
identifies an entity in an entity set.
Candidate Key − A minimal super key is called a candidate
key. An entity set may have more than one candidate key.
Primary Key − A primary key is one of the candidate keys
chosen by the database designer to uniquely identify the entity
set.
Relationship
The association among entities is called a relationship. For example,
an employee works_at a department, a student enrolls in a
course. Here, Works_at and Enrolls are called relationships.
Relationship Set
A set of relationships of similar type is called a relationship set. Like
entities, a relationship too can have attributes. These attributes are
called descriptive attributes.
Degree of Relationship
The number of participating entities in a relationship defines the
degree of the relationship.
Binary = degree 2
Ternary = degree 3
n-ary = degree
Mapping Cardinalities
Cardinality defines the number of entities in one entity set, which
can be associated with the number of entities of other set via
relationship set.
One-to-one − One entity from entity set A can be associated
with at most one entity of entity set B and vice versa.
One-to-many − One entity from entity set A can be
associated with more than one entities of entity set B however
an entity from entity set B, can be associated with at most one
entity.
Many-to-one − More than one entities from entity set A can
be associated with at most one entity of entity set B, however
an entity from entity set B can be associated with more than
one entity from entity set A.
Many-to-many − One entity from A can be associated with
more than one entity from B and vice versa.
CLASS DISCUSSION
Topic :MAPPING CARDINALITIES
Group Discussion
