Chapter 1: Introduction

Database System Concepts, 7th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Outline

 Database-System Applications
 Purpose of Database Systems
 View of Data
 Database Languages
 Database Design
 Database Engine
 Database Architecture
 Database Users and Administrators
 History of Database Systems

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Systems

 DBMS contains information about a particular enterprise

• Collection of interrelated data
• Set of programs to access the data
• An environment that is both convenient and efficient to use
 Database systems are used to manage collections of data that are:
• Highly valuable
• Relatively large
• Accessed by multiple users and applications, often at the same
time.
 A modern database system is a complex software system whose task
is to manage a large, complex collection of data.
 Databases touch all aspects of our lives

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Applications Examples

 Enterprise Information
• Sales: customers, products, purchases
• Accounting: payments, receipts, assets
• Human Resources: Information about employees, salaries, payroll
taxes.
 Manufacturing: management of production, inventory, orders, supply
chain.
 Banking and finance
• customer information, accounts, loans, and banking transactions.
• Credit card transactions
• Finance: sales and purchases of financial instruments (e.g., stocks
and bonds; storing real-time market data
 Universities: registration, grades

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Applications Examples (Cont.)

 Airlines: reservations, schedules

 Telecommunication: records of calls, texts, and data usage, generating
monthly bills, maintaining balances on prepaid calling cards
 Web-based services
• Online retailers: order tracking, customized recommendations
• Online advertisements
 Document databases
 Navigation systems: For maintaining the locations of varies places of
interest along with the exact routes of roads, train systems, buses, etc.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Purpose of Database Systems

In the early days, database applications were built directly on top of file
systems, which leads to:
 Data redundancy and inconsistency: data is stored in multiple file
formats resulting in duplication of information in different files
 Difficulty in accessing data
• Need to write a new program to carry out each new task
 Data isolation
• Multiple files and formats
 Integrity problems
• Integrity constraints (e.g., account balance > 0) become “buried”
in program code rather than being stated explicitly
• Hard to add new constraints or change existing ones

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Purpose of Database Systems (Cont.)

 Atomicity of updates
• Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with partial
updates carried out
• Example: Transfer of funds from one account to another should either
complete or not happen at all
 Concurrent access by multiple users
• Concurrent access needed for performance
• Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies
 Ex: Two people reading a balance (say 100) and updating it by
withdrawing money (say 50 each) at the same time
 Security problems
• Hard to provide user access to some, but not all, data

Database systems offer solutions to all the above problems

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Models
 A collection of tools for describing
• Data
• Data relationships
• Data semantics
• Data constraints
 Relational model
 Entity-Relationship data model (mainly for database design)
 Object-based data models (Object-oriented and Object-relational)
 Semi-structured data model (XML)
 Other older models:
• Network model
• Hierarchical model

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relational Model

 All the data is stored in various tables.

 Example of tabular data in the relational model

Columns

Rows

Ted Codd
Turing Award 1981

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 A Sample Relational Database

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View of Data
 A database system is a collection of interrelated data and a set of
programs that allow users to access and modify these data.
 A major purpose of a database system is to provide users with an abstract
view of the data.
• Data models
 A collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data
relationships, data semantics, and consistency constraints.
• Data abstraction
 Hide the complexity of data structures to represent data in the
database from users through several levels of data abstraction.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Levels of Abstraction

 Physical level: describes how a record (e.g., instructor) is stored.

 Logical level: describes data stored in database, and the relationships
among the data.
type instructor = record
ID : string;
name : string;
dept_name : string;
salary : integer;
end;
 View level: application programs hide details of data types. Views can
also hide information (such as an employee’s salary) for security
purposes.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View of Data

An architecture for a database system

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Instances and Schemas

 Similar to types and variables in programming languages

 Logical Schema – the overall logical structure of the database
• Example: The database consists of information about a set of
customers and accounts in a bank and the relationship between them
 Analogous to type information of a variable in a program
 Physical schema – the overall physical structure of the database
 Instance – the actual content of the database at a particular point in time
• Analogous to the value of a variable

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Data Independence

 Physical Data Independence – the ability to modify the physical schema

without changing the logical schema
• Applications depend on the logical schema
• In general, the interfaces between the various levels and
components should be well defined so that changes in some parts do
not seriously influence others.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Definition Language (DDL)

 Specification notation for defining the database schema

Example: create table instructor (
ID char(5),
name varchar(20),
dept_name varchar(20),
salary numeric(8,2))
 DDL compiler generates a set of table templates stored in a data
dictionary
 Data dictionary contains metadata (i.e., data about data)
• Database schema
• Integrity constraints
 Primary key (ID uniquely identifies instructors)

• Authorization
 Who can access what

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Manipulation Language (DML)

 Language for accessing and updating the data organized by the

appropriate data model
• DML also known as query language
 There are basically two types of data-manipulation language
• Procedural DML -- require a user to specify what data are needed
and how to get those data.
• Declarative DML -- require a user to specify what data are needed
without specifying how to get those data.
 Declarative DMLs are usually easier to learn and use than are procedural
DMLs.
 Declarative DMLs are also referred to as non-procedural DMLs
 The portion of a DML that involves information retrieval is called a query
language.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 SQL Query Language

 SQL query language is nonprocedural. A query takes as input several

tables (possibly only one) and always returns a single table.
 Example to find all instructors in Comp. Sci. dept
select name
from instructor
where dept_name = 'Comp. Sci.'
 Queries may involve information from more than one table.
 To be able to compute complex functions SQL is usually embedded in
some higher-level language
 Application programs generally access databases through one of
• Language extensions to allow embedded SQL
• Application program interface (e.g., ODBC/JDBC) which allow SQL
queries to be sent to a database

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Access from Application Program

 Non-procedural query languages such as SQL are not as powerful as a

universal Turing machine.
 SQL does not support actions such as input from users, output to
displays, or communication over the network.
 Such computations and actions must be written in a host language, such
as C/C++, Java or Python, with embedded SQL queries that access the
data in the database.
 Application programs -- are programs that are used to interact with the
database in this fashion.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Design

The process of designing the general structure of the database:

 Logical Design – Deciding on the database schema. Database design
requires that we find a “good” collection of relation schemas.
• Business decision – What attributes should we record in the
database?
• Computer Science decision – What relation schemas should we
have and how should the attributes be distributed among the
various relation schemas?
 Physical Design – Deciding on the physical layout of the database

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Engine

 A database system is partitioned into modules that deal with each of the
responsibilities of the overall system.
 The functional components of a database system can be divided into
• The storage manager,
• The query processor component,
• The transaction management component.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Storage Manager
 A program module that provides the interface between the low-level data
stored in the database and the application programs and queries
submitted to the system.
 The storage manager is responsible to the following tasks:
• Interaction with the OS file manager
• Efficient storing, retrieving and updating of data
 The storage manager components include:
• Authorization and integrity manager
• Transaction manager
• File manager
• Buffer manager

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Storage Manager (Cont.)
 The storage manager implements several data structures as part of the
physical system implementation:
• Data files -- store the database itself
• Data dictionary -- stores metadata about the structure of the
database, in particular the schema of the database.
• Indices -- can provide fast access to data items. A database index
provides pointers to those data items that hold a particular value.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Query Processor

 The query processor components include:

• DDL interpreter -- interprets DDL statements and records the
definitions in the data dictionary.
• DML compiler -- translates DML statements in a query language into
an evaluation plan consisting of low-level instructions that the query
evaluation engine understands.
 The DML compiler performs query optimization; that is, it picks the
lowest cost evaluation plan from among the various alternatives.
• Query evaluation engine -- executes low-level instructions generated
by the DML compiler.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Query Processing

1. Parsing and translation

2. Optimization
3. Evaluation

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Transaction Management

 A transaction is a collection of operations that performs a single logical

function in a database application
 Transaction-management component ensures that the database
remains in a consistent (correct) state despite system failures (e.g.,
power failures and operating system crashes) and transaction failures.
 Concurrency-control manager controls the interaction among the
concurrent transactions, to ensure the consistency of the database.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Architecture

 Centralized databases
• One to a few cores, shared memory
 Client-server,
• One server machine executes work on behalf of multiple client
machines.
 Parallel databases
• Many core shared memory
• Shared disk
• Shared nothing
 Distributed databases
• Geographical distribution
• Schema/data heterogeneity

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Architecture
(Centralized/Shared-Memory)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Applications

Database applications are usually partitioned into two or three parts

 Two-tier architecture -- the application resides at the client machine,
where it invokes database system functionality at the server machine
 Three-tier architecture -- the client machine acts as a front end and
does not contain any direct database calls.
• The client end communicates with an application server, usually
through a forms interface.
• The application server in turn communicates with a database
system to access data.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Two-tier and three-tier architectures

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Users

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Administrator

A person who has central control over the system is called a database
administrator (DBA). Functions of a DBA include:
 Schema definition
 Storage structure and access-method definition
 Schema and physical-organization modification
 Granting of authorization for data access
 Routine maintenance
 Periodically backing up the database
 Ensuring that enough free disk space is available for normal
operations, and upgrading disk space as required
 Monitoring jobs running on the database

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 History of Database Systems

 1950s and early 1960s:

• Data processing using magnetic tapes for storage
 Tapes provided only sequential access

• Punched cards for input

 Late 1960s and 1970s:
• Hard disks allowed direct access to data
• Network and hierarchical data models in widespread use
• Ted Codd defines the relational data model
 Would win the ACM Turing Award for this work
 IBM Research begins System R prototype
 UC Berkeley (Michael Stonebraker) begins Ingres prototype
 Oracle releases first commercial relational database

• High-performance (for the era) transaction processing

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 History of Database Systems (Cont.)

 1980s:
• Research relational prototypes evolve into commercial systems
 SQL becomes industrial standard
• Parallel and distributed database systems
 Wisconsin, IBM, Teradata
• Object-oriented database systems
 1990s:
• Large decision support and data-mining applications
• Large multi-terabyte data warehouses
• Emergence of Web commerce

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 History of Database Systems (Cont.)

 2000s
• Big data storage systems
 Google BigTable, Yahoo PNuts, Amazon,
 “NoSQL” systems.
• Big data analysis: beyond SQL
 Map reduce and friends
 2010s
• SQL reloaded
 SQL front end to Map Reduce systems
 Massively parallel database systems
 Multi-core main-memory databases

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 1

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 1.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan