DataBases

Course 1
INTRODUCTION
History of Databases and
Fundamental Notions
Delia-Alexandrina Mitrea, S.L. Eng., PhD
E-mail: Delia.Mitrea@cs.utcluj.ro

 Interviewing Dr. Edgar F. Codd about databases is

a bit like interviewing Einstein about nuclear
physics.

DataBases course

2 hours - Course, 2 hours - Laboratory

work
14 weeks
Laboratory assessment & exam
3 hour exam, only if P 5

N = 0,65 * Exam. + 0,35 * Lab.

Passing if N 5, E 5, L 5
& know SQL

Main topics of the discipline

Fundamental notions and the history of databases

The database management system (DBMS)
Data models
General concepts
Relational databases

Relational data manipulation languages (DML)

o

Relational algebra, relational calculus, QBE (Query By

Example) language
SQL language: SQL SELECT queries, insert, update and
delete operations, SQL data definition language, table
creation, view creation, index creation

Data (relations) normalization

The PHP language. Creating dynamic web-sites

New trends in the development of the databases

Course materials

Baritiu, room H11, database course

Thursday 18.00 20.00
Database laboratory Wednesday
Observator, room 214, 8.00-16.00
PowerPoint course notes
The laboratory guide:
http://users.utcluj.ro/~dmitrea/Pagina_persDM/labs/DB_Laboratory.pdf

Course textbooks

R. Ramakrishnan, J. Gehrke, Database Management Systems,

McGraw Hill, 2007
R. Dollinger, Baze de Date si Gestiunea Tranzactiilor, Ed. Albastra
1998
R. Dollinger, Utilizarea sistemului SQL Server (SQL 7.0, SQL 2000)
Ed. Albastra 2001
Sqlzoo.net (http://www.sqlzoo.net)
SQL Server 2008 documentation - SQL Server 2008 Books
Online (Microsoft SQL Server 2008 package, on the computer),
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/
Joe Celko, Joe Celkos data and databases concepts in
practice http://phoenixalley.com/ebooks/Database and SQL/Celko
Data and Databases Concepts in Practice (Morgan, 1999).pdf

Course textbooks

R. Riordan, Designing Effective User Interface for Database

Systems, Addison Wesley 2005
Ryan K. Stephens, Ronald Plew, Bryan Morgan, Jeff Perkins - QUE Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days
Philip Greenspun - SQL for Web Nerds

Purpose of this discipline

Define an organized collection of data in an optimum

manner <=> a database =>

consistency

easy and fast access to the data

comprehensibility

no redundancy

minimum storage space

 Useful
in order to store the data of various activity
domains
in order to build dynamic web-sites
in order to build environments for technological
design
in order to store large and very large amounts
of data for automatic decision making

Purpose of this discipline

design and implement a database ;use a database

management system for application
present introduction to databases and database
management systems
organize information in DBMS
retrieve it efficiently
concentrates on relational systems, which are the
dominant type of DBMS

Purpose of this discipline

design a database

Structured Query Language (SQL)

use a database management system for application
Microsoft SQL Server
PHP Web Database application
MySQL

The history of databases

What is a database?
A database consists of an organized collection of
data for one or more uses, typically in digital form.
History:
a. How did the databases appear?
First forms of data registration: Sumerian small clay tables - 6000
years ago (taxes and levies paid to the local authorities, registration of
some judge decisions and sentences)
Library appearance, from the antiquity period (the oldest: the
Alexandria/Egipt library)

The history of databases

Data registration in manually designed tables, on various
supports (leather, papyrus, paper) a first form of data
systematization/restructuring

The appearance and development of the computation

technologies transposition on the computer, in electronic format,
of every manual techniques, represents a qualitative jump, without
precedent, concerning the data organization and manipulation;
allows a larger amount of data to be stored, in short time and in
more complex structures; this data is lot more portable

The history of databases

b. How did the databases develop?

In 1960 IBM developed the Information Management System

(IMS) used today in many major installations; the hierarchical data
model

the SABRE System, for making airline reservations was jointly developed
by American Airlines and IBM around the same time

In 1970 Edgar Codd proposed a new data representation

framework called the relational data model
In 1980 the relational model consolidated its position as the
dominant DBMS paradigm; the SQL query language developed as
part of the IBMs System R project becoming the standard query
language; SQL standardized in 1980 and the current standard SQL92 was adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
and International Standards Organization (ISO)

 In the late 1980 and during the years 1990

advances in many areas of database systems:
multimedia databases; data warehouses; more powerful
query languages and richer data models appeared;

1998 Carlo Strozzi used the term NoSQL - the

open-source relational databases that did not

expose the standard SQL

NoSQL databases - less constrained consistency

models than traditional relational databases;
used mainly in big data applications and real-time web
applications

The history of databases

Nowadays period(1):
Modern databases:
-Variety of domains : for which the data is being registered: socioeconomical, scientific, cultural, administration, education, medical,
techniques, etc.
-Variety of data registration forms : numerical values, texts,
images (static/dynamic), charts etc MultiMedia databases

-Variety of types and architectures : conceived and implemented

for the data storage/access - local storage/access, in client-server
manner, distributed databases, web accessible databases, large and
very large databases, hosted on high performance computers (HPC)

How do we represent the real world?

Model
simply cannot put the real world into computer (or
even into your own head )

model has to reflect the things that you consider

important in the real world; the entities and
properties that you wish to manipulate and to predict
separate formal model and reality
- acknowledge that we cannot capture everything

about reality

- so we pick a subset of reality and map it onto

formal operations that we can handle

Assumptions about reality

Abstractization: separate relevant aspects from
the irrelevant ones
you have to start somewhere and with some set of
primitive concepts to be able to build any model

Set of primitives
smaller the set of

primitives

-better a mathematician
feels
-better for an implementer who has to turn the
real world into computer

Primitive concepts Database Design

Entities

Attributes
Values
Relationships

Data & Information concepts

Fundamental Notions (1):
(b)Data versus Information
DECISIONS always necessary, both in the everyday life, and
within the special sectors of the various activity domains (socioeconomical, cultural, administrative etc)
DECISION making in optimal manner is conditioned by the
existence of the INFORMATION concerning the context in which and
for which the decisions are being made
THE INFORMATION is obtained through the processing of the DATA
specific to the considered domain/context in which and for which the
decisions are being made

Data & Information concepts

DECISIONS
INFORMATION
processing

DATA

Data & Information concepts

Fundamental notions(2):
(b)Data versus Information
DEFINITIONS:

1.DATA = facts/objects represented according to some

conventions, gathered from the real life through observations

and measurements

2. INFORMATION = the result of the data interpretation by a

certain subject, that gets the capacity of making decisions

DATA are transposed into INFORMATION only after they are

processed through interaction with a system capable of
interpreting them

Data & Information concepts

CHARACTERISTICS:

Obs1:
The same DATA can be interpreted in different manners by
different subjects => it can generate different
INFORMATION according to the subject/system that
processes it

Obs2:
DATA have an objectiv character
INFORMATION has a subjectiv character.
The importance of the appropriate data registration and
management as objective entities, situated at the
decision basis

Databases

Database Definition
Database Management Systems (DBMS)
Database Applications

Database Definition

database - collection of data, typically describing the

activities of one or more related organizations

database management system, or DBMS, software

designed to assist in maintaining and utilizing large
collections of data
need for such systems, as well as their use, is growing
rapidly

Database: Functional Definition

Database is a stored data collection having the following

characteristics:

assures data independence

assures access (possibly shared access) to large
volumes of data

Database

university database might contain information about:

Entities such as students, faculty, courses, and
classrooms
Relationships between entities, such as students'
enrollment in courses, faculty teaching courses, and
the use of rooms for courses

Database Need

amount of information available exploding

value of data as organizational asset is widely recognized
ability to manage this vast amount of data
quickly find information relevant
need for increasingly powerful and flexible data
management systems

Database management system (DBMS)

computer program used to manage and query a

database
usually categorized according to the data model that
they support: hierarchical, network, relational, object
Database management system data model
data model will tend to determine the query languages
that are available to access the database
great deal of the internal engineering of a DBMS is
independent of the data model, and is concerned with
managing factors such as performance, concurrency,
integrity, and recovery from hardware failures

Database management system (DBMS)

All DBMS performs 3 main functions

data definition
data manipulation
user interface

many other functions that can be carried out

data
data
data
data

security
integrity
access sharing; data acces control
recovery

DataBase Management System, or DBMS

software designed to assist in maintaining and utilizing

large collections of data
alternative to using a DBMS is to use ad hoc approaches
that do not carry over from one application to another
store data in files and write application-specific code
to manage it

Database Importance

there doesnt exist real applications without a kind of

database
great number of DBMS packages can be found on
software market, for all types of computers and
processing technologies
DBMS can be found at the top 3 of most needed,
requested, sold and used products

Database application

Common interface between language,

technology and database

SQL Structured Query Language

Architecture

Mainframe
Client Server
N Tier
Web application

Database Web application

Thank you for your attention!