Database System

Concepts and Architecture

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 Outline
• Data Models and Their Categories
• History of Data Models
• Schemas, Instances, and States
• Three-Schema Architecture
• Data Independence
• Classification of DBMSs

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1. Data Models, Schemas, and Instances
• Data Model:
• A Data Model is set of concepts to describe:
• the structure of a database, the
• operations for manipulating these structures, and
• certain constraints that the database should obey.

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Data Models
• Data Model Structure and Constraints:
• Constructs are used to define the database structure
• Constructs typically include:
• elements (and their data types) as well as groups of elements (e.g.
entity, record, table), and
• relationships among such groups.
• Constraints specify some restrictions on valid data; these
constraints must be enforced at all times.

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Data Models (continued)
• Data Model Operations:

• These operations are used for specifying database retrievals and

updates by referring to the constructs of the data model.
• Operations on the data model may include
 basic model operations (e.g. generic insert, delete, update) and
 user-defined operations (e.g. compute_student_gpa,
update_inventory)

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Categories of Data Models
1. High-level data models:
• Provide concepts that are close to the way many users perceive data. (Also called
entity-based or object-based data models.)
2. Physical (low-level, internal) data models:
• Provide concepts that describe details of how data is stored in the computer. These
are usually specified in an ad-hoc manner through DBMS design and
administration manuals.
3. Implementation (representational) data models:
• Provide concepts that fall between the above two, used by many commercial
DBMS implementations (e.g. relational data models used in many commercial
systems).

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2. Schemas versus Instances
• Database Schema:
• The description of a database.
• Includes descriptions of the database structure, data types, and the
constraints on the database.
• Schema Diagram:
• An illustrative display of a database schema.
• Schema Construct:
• A component of the schema or an object within the schema, e.g.,
STUDENT, COURSE.

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Schemas versus Instances
• Database State:
• The actual data stored in a database at a particular moment in time.
• This includes the collection of all the data in the database.
• Also called database instance (or occurrence or snapshot).
• The term instance is also applied to individual database
components, e.g. record instance, table instance, entity instance

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Database Schema vs. Database State
• Database State:
• Refers to the content of a database at a moment in time.
• Initial Database State:
• Refers to the database state when it is initially loaded into the
system.
• Valid State:
• A state that satisfies the structure and constraints of the database.

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Database Schema vs. Database State (continued)
• Distinction
• The database schema changes very infrequently.
• The database state changes every time the database is updated.

• Schema is also called intension.

• State is also called extension.

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Example of a Database Schema

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Example of a database state

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3. Three-Schema Architecture and Data Independence
 The three schema architecture was proposed to support DBMS
characteristics of:
• Program-data independence.
• Support of multiple views of the data.

 There are three types of schema:

1. Internal schema
2. Conceptual schema
3. External schemas

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 Three-Schema Architecture
• This architecture defines DBMS schemas at three levels:
1. Internal schema at the internal level to describe physical
storage structures and access paths (e.g indexes).
• Typically uses a physical data model.
2. Conceptual schema at the conceptual level to describe the
structure and constraints for the whole database for a group of
users.
• Uses a high-level or an implementation data model.
3. External schemas at the external level to describe the various
user views.
• Usually uses the same data models as the conceptual schema.

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The Three-schema Architecture

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 Three-Schema Architecture
• Mappings among schema levels are needed to transform requests and
data.
• Programs refer to an external schema, and are mapped by the DBMS
to the internal schema for execution.
• Data extracted from the internal DBMS level is reformatted to match
the user’s external view (e.g. formatting the results of an SQL query
for display in a Web page)

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 Data Independence
• Logical Data Independence:
• The capacity to change the conceptual schema without having to
change the external schemas and their associated application
programs.
• Physical Data Independence:
• The capacity to change the internal schema without having to change
the conceptual schema.
• For example,
• the internal schema may be changed when certain file structures
are reorganized, or
• new indexes are created to improve database performance.

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 Data Independence (continued)
• When a schema at a lower level is changed, only the mappings
between this schema and higher-level schemas need to be changed in a
DBMS that fully supports data independence.
• The higher-level schemas themselves are unchanged.
• Hence, the application programs need not be changed since they
refer to the external schemas.

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 DBMS Languages and Interfaces
• Data Definition Language (DDL)
• Data Manipulation Language (DML)
• High-Level or Non-procedural Languages: These include the
relational language SQL
• May be used in a standalone way or may be embedded in a
programming language
• Low Level or Procedural Languages:
• These must be embedded in a programming language

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