What is Data?

Data is a collection of a distinct small unit of information. It can be used in a variety of forms
like text, numbers, media, bytes, etc. it can be stored in pieces of paper or electronic memory,
etc. Word 'Data' is originated from the word 'datum' that means 'single piece of information.' It is
plural of the word datum. In computing, Data is information that can be translated into a form for
efficient movement and processing. Data is interchangeable.

Data Vs. Information Vs. Knowledge

 Data is raw i.e. anything which has not been implicitly or explicitly modified and is in its
original form or hold original value. For example : Ganesh (is a name), 4(a digit).
 Processed data on from which some observation can be made is information. For example
: Ganesh’s date of birth is 31/07/1995 is an information.
 Acquiring understandings from information resulting in decision making is called
knowledge. For example : Current age of Ganesh : 22.8 years i.e. Ganesh is an adult and
can cast a vote.

What is a Database?
A database is a collection of related data which represents some aspect of the real world. A
database system is designed to be built and populated with data for a certain task.

What is DBMS?
Database Management System (DBMS) is a software for storing and retrieving users' data
while considering appropriate security measures. It consists of a group of programs which
manipulate the database. The DBMS accepts the request for data from an application and
instructs the operating system to provide the specific data. In large systems, a DBMS helps users
and other third-party software to store and retrieve data.

DBMS allows users to create their own databases as per their requirement. The term “DBMS”
includes the user of the database and other application programs. It provides an interface
between the data and the software application.

What is the need of DBMS?

Database systems are basically developed for large amount of data. When dealing with huge
amount of data, there are two things that require optimization: Storage of data and retrieval of
data.

Storage: According to the principles of database systems, the data is stored in such a way that it
acquires lot less space as the redundant data (duplicate data) has been removed before storage.
Let’s take a layman example to understand this:
In a banking system, suppose a customer is having two accounts, one is saving account and
another is salary account. Let’s say bank stores saving account data at one place (these places are
called tables we will learn them later) and salary account data at another place, in that case if the
customer information such as customer name, address etc. are stored at both places then this is
just a wastage of storage (redundancy/ duplication of data), to organize the data in a better way
the information should be stored at one place and both the accounts should be linked to that
information somehow. The same thing we achieve in DBMS.

Fast Retrieval of data: Along with storing the data in an optimized and systematic manner, it is
also important that we retrieve the data quickly when needed. Database systems ensure that the
data is retrieved as quickly as possible.

Purpose of Database Systems

The main purpose of database systems is to manage the data. Consider a university that keeps the
data of students, teachers, courses, books etc. To manage this data we need to store this data
somewhere where we can add new data, delete unused data, update outdated data, retrieve data,
to perform these operations on data we need a Database management system that allows us to
store the data in such a way so that all these operations can be performed on the data efficiently.

DBMS : Characteristics
 Database Management Systems possess certain characteristics and features because of
which it was introduced and is preferred over traditional file systems. Some of the
characteristics are:

1. Multi user Support : Multiple users can simultaneously access the database without any
issues.
2. Data Integrity : Any number of users can access and manipulate the data in database
without affecting the integrity of data present inside the database. Integrity means
trustworthy.
 3. ACID Properties Support : ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and
Durability. DBMS follows all four of them resulting in higher efficiency and
effectiveness.
4. Data Security : DBMS allows administrators to maintain security and restrict data access
if found anything suspicious.
5. Data Backup & Recovery : Users as well as administrators can perform data backups
whenever required. In case of data is lost, data recovery is also possible.
6. No/Less Data Redundancy : Database Management Systems are designed in such a way
that chances of data redundancy are very less.
7. Data Consistency : Data remains consistent and stable throughout in DBMS.
8. Query Language Support : DBMS supports certain query languages such as SQL in order
to retrieve desired and required results.

Database Applications – DBMS

Applications where we use Database Management Systems are:

 Telecom: There is a database to keeps track of the information regarding calls made,
network usage, customer details etc. Without the database systems it is hard to maintain
that huge amount of data that keeps updating every millisecond.
 Industry: Where it is a manufacturing unit, warehouse or distribution centre, each one
needs a database to keep the records of ins and outs. For example distribution centre
should keep a track of the product units that supplied into the centre as well as the
products that got delivered out from the distribution centre on each day; this is where
DBMS comes into picture.
 Banking System: For storing customer info, tracking day to day credit and debit
transactions, generating bank statements etc. All this work has been done with the help of
Database management systems.
 Sales: To store customer information, production information and invoice details.
 Airlines: To travel though airlines, we make early reservations, this reservation
information along with flight schedule is stored in database.
 Education sector: Database systems are frequently used in schools and colleges to store
and retrieve the data regarding student details, staff details, course details, exam details,
payroll data, attendance details, fees details etc. There is a hell lot amount of inter-related
data that needs to be stored and retrieved in an efficient manner.
 Online shopping: You must be aware of the online shopping websites such as Amazon,
Flipkart etc. These sites store the product information, your addresses and preferences,
credit details and provide you the relevant list of products based on your query. All this
involves a Database management system.

I have mentioned very few applications, this list is never going to end if we start mentioning all
the DBMS applications.

Advantages of DBMS over file system

In this, we will discuss what is a file processing system and how Database management systems
are better than file processing systems.

Drawbacks of File system

  Data redundancy: Data redundancy refers to the duplication of data, lets say we are
managing the data of a college where a student is enrolled for two courses, the same
student details in such case will be stored twice, which will take more storage than
needed. Data redundancy often leads to higher storage costs and poor access time.
 Data inconsistency: Data redundancy leads to data inconsistency, lets take the same
example that we have taken above, a student is enrolled for two courses and we have
student address stored twice, now lets say student requests to change his address, if the
address is changed at one place and not on all the records then this can lead to data
inconsistency.
 Data Isolation: Because data are scattered in various files, and files may be in different
formats, writing new application programs to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult.
 Dependency on application programs: Changing files would lead to change in
application programs.
 Atomicity issues: Atomicity of a transaction refers to “All or nothing”, which means
either all the operations in a transaction executes or none.

For example: Lets say Steve transfers 100$ to Negan’s account. This transaction consists
multiple operations such as debit 100$ from Steve’s account, credit 100$ to Negan’s
account. Like any other device, a computer system can fail lets say it fails after first
operation then in that case Steve’s account would have been debited by 100$ but the
amount was not credited to Negan’s account, in such case the rollback of operation
should occur to maintain the atomicity of transaction. It is difficult to achieve atomicity
in file processing systems.

 Data Security: Data should be secured from unauthorised access, for example a student
in a college should not be able to see the payroll details of the teachers, such kind of
security constraints are difficult to apply in file processing systems.

Advantage of DBMS over file system

There are several advantages of Database management system over file system. Few of them are
as follows:

 No redundant data: Redundancy removed by data normalization. No data duplication

saves storage and improves access time.
 Data Consistency and Integrity: As we discussed earlier the root cause of data
inconsistency is data redundancy, since data normalization takes care of the data
redundancy, data inconsistency also been taken care of as part of it
 Data Security: It is easier to apply access constraints in database systems so that only
authorized user is able to access the data. Each user has a different set of access thus data
is secured from the issues such as identity theft, data leaks and misuse of data.
 Privacy: Limited access means privacy of data.
 Easy access to data – Database systems manages data in such a way so that the data is
easily accessible with fast response times.
 Easy recovery: Since database systems keeps the backup of data, it is easier to do a full
recovery of data in case of a failure.
 Flexible: Database systems are more flexible than file processing systems.

Disadvantages of DBMS:

 DBMS implementation cost is high compared to the file system

 Complexity: Database systems are complex to understand
  Performance: Database systems are generic, making them suitable for various
applications. However this feature affect their performance for some applications.

DBMS vs. File System

There are following differences between DBMS and File system:

DBMS File System

1. DBMS is a collection of data. In 1. File system is a collection of data. In this

DBMS, the user is not required to system, the user has to write the procedures for
write the procedures. managing the database.

2. DBMS gives an abstract view of 2. File system provides the detail of the data
data that hides the details. representation and storage of data.

3. DBMS provides a crash recovery 3. File system doesn't have a crash mechanism,
mechanism, i.e., DBMS protects i.e., if the system crashes while entering some
the user from the system failure. data, then the content of the file will lost.

4. DBMS provides a good protection 4. It is very difficult to protect a file under the file
mechanism. system.

5. DBMS contains a wide variety of

5. File system can't efficiently store and retrieve
sophisticated techniques to store
the data.
and retrieve the data.
6. In the File system, concurrent access has many
6. DBMS takes care of Concurrent
problems like redirecting the file while other
access of data using some form of
deleting some information or updating some
locking.
information.

Different Types of Keys in DBMS

DBMS Keys :
DBMS Keys are a data item that exclusively identifies a record.Such as – Account_number,
Employee_number and customer_number is used a DBMS Keys because they specifically
identify a record stored in a database.

Different Types of Keys in DBMS:

There 6 different types of keys in DBMS are Super Key, Primary Key, Candidate Key,
Composite Key, Foreign Key, Secondary Key.
Super Key :
A Super key for an entity is a set of one or more attributes whose combined value uniquely
identifies the entity in the entity set. Superset of any candidate key is also known as Super key.
Example:
Roll_No Name Age
700101 Ram 20

700102 Sam 19

700103 Modhu 18
Here, Four Super Keys are present in this table is given below:
Such as –

Primary Key :
The primary key uniquely identifies each record in a table and must never be the same for two
records.
Such as –
Student_Roll Student_Name Student_Age

70101 Dipak 20

70102 Sagar 21

70103 Krishna 19

70104 Rakhi 18

Here, only one Primary Key is present in this table is given below:

 {Student_Roll}
Candidate Key :

A candidate key is an attribute or a set of attributes that it identifies a record uniquely. These
attributes or combinations of attributes are called candidate keys.
Such as –

Here, Two Candidate Keys are present in this table is given below:

Composite Key :
A composite key is a group of fields that it combines to uniquely identify a record. When we
design a database, we will have tables that will use more than one column as a part of the
primary key. So, it is called a composite key or concatenated key.Such as –
Here Two Composite Keys are present in this table is given below:

Foreign Key :
In relation, the column whose data values correspond to the values of a key column in another
relation is called a Foreign Key.
Example:

Here, only one Foreign Key is present in both table is given below:

 {Dept_ID}

Secondary Key :

A secondary key is an attribute or combination of attributes that may not be a candidate key but
classifies the entity set on a particular characteristic. A table can have multiple choices for a
primary key but the only one can be set as the primary key. All the keys which are not the
primary key that is called Secondary Key.
Example:
In this table, Student_id, Roll_no, email_id are qualified to become a primary key. But since
Student_id is only the primary key. Here Two Secondary Keys are present in this table is given
below:

 Roll_no

 email_id

DBMS Users
1. Database Administrator (DBA):
DBA Stands for Database Administrator.It is a person or a team, who is responsible for
managing the overall database management system.It is the leader of the database. It is like a
superuser of the system.It is responsible for the administration of all the three levels of the
database.DBA is responsible for:
 Deciding the instances for the database.
 Defining the Schema
 Liaising with Users
 Define Security
 Back-up and Recovery
 Monitoring the performance

2. Database Designers:
Database designers design the appropriate structure for the database, where we share data.

3. System Analyst:
System analyst analyses the requirements of end users, especially naïve and parametric end
users.

4. Application Programmers:
Application programmers are computer professionals, who write application programs.

5. Naïve Users / Parametric Users:

Naïve Users are Un-sophisticated users, which has no knowledge of the database. These users
are like a layman, which has a little bit of knowledge of the database.Naive Users are just to
work on developed applications and get the desired result.
For Example: Railway’s ticket booking users are naive users. Or Clerical staff in any bank is a
naïve user because they don’t have any DBMS knowledge but they still use the database and
perform their given task.
6. Sophisticated Users:
Sophisticated users can be engineers, scientists, business analyst, who are familiar with the
database. These users interact with the database but they do not write programs

7. Casual Users / Temporary Users:

These types of users communicate with the database for a little period of time.
Role of Database Administrator
Database Administration is implemented by a person or group of persons under the supervision
of a knowledgeable person called the Administrator. This person is known as Database
Administrator (DBA). DBA is responsible for supervising the creation, modification, and
maintenance of the database. The DBA controls the database structure and sets up the definition
for physical as well as the logical implementation of the database.

Role of DBA:

(i) Schema Definition : The original database schema is created by writing a set of definitions
that are translated by the DDL compiler to a set of tables that are permanently stored in the data
dictionary.

(ii) Storage structure and access method definition : Appropriate storage structure and access
methods are created by writing a set of definitions that are translated by the data storage and
definition language compiler.

(iii) Schema and physical-organization modification : The DBA carries out changes to the
schema and physical organization to reflect the changing needs of the organization, or to alter the
physical organization to improve performance.

(iv) Granting of authorization for data access : DBA also maintains that the database is not
accessible to unauthorized users. The DBA is responsible for granting permission to use the
database and stores the profile of each user of a database. This profile describes the permissible
activities of a user on that portion of the database which is authorized to him. The user profile
can be used by the DBA to verify that a particular user is only allowed to perform a given
operation on the database within the limited time frame.

(v) Routine maintenance : The DBA is responsible for defining procedures to recover data from
failures due to human, natural or hardware malfunctioning with minimal loss. This recovery
procedure would thus enable an organization to continue working with the available intact
portion of the database.

(vi) Maintaining integrity : DBA ensures that appropriate measures are taken to maintain the
integrity of a database. Integrity constraints are kept in a special system structure that is
consulted by the database manager whenever an update takes place in the system.

Resources Used:

https://www.guru99.com/what-is-dbms.html

https://beginnersbook.com/2015/04/dbms-introduction/

https://www.minigranth.com/dbms-tutorial/dbms-introduction/

https://beginnersbook.com/2015/04/database-applications/
https://beginnersbook.com/2015/04/dbms-vs-file-system/

https://webeduclick.com/different-types-of-keys-in-dbms/

https://webeduclick.com/role-of-database-administrator/