IFSC3320 Database Concepts

Fall 2006

Dr. Ningning Wu

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 Staff

• Instructor: Dr. Ningning Wu

– Office: ETAS Room 258B
– Email: [email protected]
– Tel: 501-6837051
– Fax: 501-6837049
– Office hours:
• 4:20pm-5:00pm, Tuesday
• By appointment

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 Course Materials
• Textbook:
– Fundamentals of Database Systems, R. Elmasri,
S. B. Navathe, Addison Wesley, 2004, fourth
edition.

• Web page: http://webctnew.ualr.edu

– Course schedules and announcement will be
posted here
– Slides will be available here
– Homeworks will be posted here
– The project description and resources will be
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 Course Materials (cont.)

• Handouts: Syllabus and supplemental

materials
• Resources: Textbook, Web site, and office
hours
• Course work: homeworks, quiz, and
projects

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 Material on the Web

• SQL Introduction
– SQL for Web Nerds, by Philip Greenspun,
http://philip.greenspun.com/sql/
• Oracle
– http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html

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 Course Objective

• Understand basic concepts of database design

and implementations as well as conceptual
modeling techniques
• Understand the basic concepts of relational
model
• Able to program in SQL

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Databases and Database
Users

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 What is a Database

• A database (DB) is a large, integrated collection

of related data.
• A database models a real-world enterprise.
• The data are known facts that have implicit
meaning and can be recorded.
– Example of data: a simple address book of names,
addresses, and phone numbers.

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 Properties of a Database

• A database (DB) represents some aspect of the

real world, called the mimiworld. Changes to
the miniworld are reflected in the DB.
• A DB is a logically coherent collection of data
with some inherent meaning.
• A DB is designed, built, and populated with data
for a specific purpose.

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 Types of Databases and Database
Applications
• Numeric and Textual Databases
• Multimedia Databases
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Data Warehouses
• Real-time and Active Databases

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What is a Database Management System
(DBMS)

• A database management system (DMBS) is a

collection of programs designed to create and
manage a DB.
• It facilitates the process of defining, constructing,
manipulating, and sharing databases among
various users and applications.

Database++ DMBS
Database DMBS == aaDatabase
DatabaseSystem
System

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 Typical DBMS Functionality
• Define a database: in terms of data types,
structures and constraints
• Construct or load the database on a secondary
storage medium
• Manipulating the database: querying, generating
reports, inserting, deleting and modifying its
content
• Concurrent processing and sharing by a set of
users and programs – yet, keeping all data valid
and consistent

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 Typical DBMS Functionality

Other features:
– System protection against software or
hardware malfunction
– Security protection against authorized
accesses
– System maintenance

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A Simplified Database System
Environment
Users/Programers
DATABASE
SYSTEM
Application Programs/Queires

DBMS
SOFTWARE Software to Process
Queries/Programs

Software to Access
Stored DAta

Stored Database
Definition Stored Database
(Meta-Data)

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A UNIVERSITY database, see Figure 1.2

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 Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
• Mini-world for the example: Part of a UNIVERSITY
environment.
• Some mini-world entities:
– STUDENTs
– COURSEs
– SECTIONs (of COURSEs)
– (academic) DEPARTMENTs
– INSTRUCTORs
Note: The above could be expressed in the ENTITY-
RELATIONSHIP data model.

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 Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
• Some mini-world relationships:
– SECTIONs are of specific COURSEs
– STUDENTs take SECTIONs
– COURSEs have prerequisite COURSEs
– INSTRUCTORs teach SECTIONs
– COURSEs are offered by DEPARTMENTs
– STUDENTs major in DEPARTMENTs

Note: The above could be expressed in the ENTITY-

RELATIONSHIP data model.

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 Characteristics of the Database
Approach
• Self-describing nature of a database system
• Insulation between programs and data, and data
abstraction
• Support of multiple views of the data
• Sharing of data and multi-user transaction
processing

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Self-describing nature of a database
system
• The database system contains not only the DB
itself but also meta-data
– Meta-data is stored in the DBMS, catalog, which
contains information such as the structure of each file,
the type and storage format of each data item, and
various constraints on the data.
– The DBMS software must work equally well with any
number of database applications as long as the meta-
data is stored in the catalog.

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 Insulation between Programs and
Data
In a database
• The structure of data files is stored in the DBMS catalog
separately from the access programs.
• Changes to the structure of data files will not lead to
changes to the access programs, this property is called
program-data independence.

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 Data Abstraction
• A data model is used to hide storage details and
present the users with a conceptual view of the
database.

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 Support of Multiple Views of the
Data
• Each user may see a different view of the
database, which describes only the data of
interest to that user.
– In a company database, employees of HR and
employees of Sales department may access different
parts of the database

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 Sharing of Data and Multiuser
Transaction Processing
• By concurrency control software, the DBMS
allows multiple users to access the database at
the same time.
– Examples: online transaction processing (OLTP)
applications such as on-line flight booking system, on-
line auction system, etc.
• Most database applications are based on the
concept of a transaction.
– A transaction is an executing program or process that
includes one or more database accesses, such as
reading or updating of database records.

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 Actors On the Scene
• Database administrators: oversee and manage the
database resource including the database, DBMS and
related software
• Database designers: identify the data to be stored in
the database and choose appropriate structures to
represent and store the data
• End users
• System analysts and application programmers
– System analysts determine the requirements of end users and
develop specifications for canned transactions that meet these
requirements
– Application programmers implement these specifications as
programs

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 Advantage of Using the DBMS
Approaches
• Controlling redundancy
• Restricting unauthorized access
– A DBMS provides a security and authorization
subsystems to achieve this goal
• Providing persistent storage for program objects
• Providing storage structures for efficient query
processing by indexing and buffering techniques
• Providing backup and recovery

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 Advantage of Using the DBMS
Approaches (cont.)
• Providing multiple user interfaces
• Representing complex relationships among data
• Enforcing integrity constraints
• Permitting inferencing and actions using rules
• Additional implications of using the database
approaches
– Potential for enforcing standards
– Reduced application development time
– Flexibility
– Availability of up-to-date information

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 Examples of When to Use a DBMS

• There is more than one user who needs to access the

data at the same time
• There is at least a moderate amount of data
• There are relationships between the stored data items.
• There is more than one kind of data record
• There are constraints that must be rigidly enforced on
the data, such as field lengths, field types, uniqueness of
student number, etc.
• Data must be queried to produce reports or results
• There is a large amount of data that must be searched
quickly
• Security is important
• Adding, deleting, or modifying data is a complex process
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 Examples of When Not to Use a DBMS

• The database and applications are simple, well-

defined, and not expected to change
• There are stringent real-time requirements for
some programs that may not be met because of
DBMS overhead
• Multiple user access to data is not required
• The data-management task is trivial

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