DATA DICTIONARY

By

Prof.Manikandan

QMC College, Medavakkam.

manisankar27@gmail.com

DEFINITION
Data dictionary stores information about the
data in the database.
Data dictionary is the data structure that stores
meta data.

Meta data:
Data about data.
Definition of records, data items and other
objects.

DATA DICTIONARY TYPES

1.
2.

Active
Passive

Active :
. Is automatically updated as changes occur in
the data base.
Passive:
. Must be manually updated.

1.Data elements definitions

May

be independent of table definitions.

part of each table definition.

2.Table definition:

Is usually available with SQL commands.

3.Data base schema:

Is

usually a graphical representation of the data base.

Tables

When

are connected with external keys.

accessing data from several tables data base schema will be

needed to find joining data elements.

4. Entity Relationship model of data:

Data base analysis and design tool.

Relationship among entities.

5.Data base Security Model:

Associate users, groups of users applications with data base

access rights.

Advantages of Data Dictionary :

Avoids data inconsistency

Avoids data redundancy

Improves data quality