MIRPUR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MUST), MIRPUR

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 DATABASE SYSTEMS
BIT-2401

Lecture 02 : Introduction to Database Systems

Saeeda Kouser
(Lecturer)

Date: ______________
 Lecture Contents

• Database Management system (DBMS)

• Key concepts of database

• Difference of file system and DBMS

• Characteristics of database

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 Lecture Objectives

• This Lecture is designed:

• To know about database management system (DBMS)

• To learn key concepts of database

• To learn difference of file system and DBMS

• To understand characteristics of database

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 Database Management System

• Database Management System :

• A database management system (DBMS) is a collection of programs that enables users to

create and maintain a database.

• The DBMS is hence a general-purpose software system that facilitates the processes of defining, constructing,
manipulating, and sharing databases among various users and applications.

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 Database Management System

• Defining:

Defining a database involves specifying the data types, structures, and constraints for the data to be stored in the database.

• Constructing:

Constructing the database is the process of storing the data itself on some storage medium that is controlled by the DBMS.

• Manipulating:

Manipulating a database includes such functions as querying the database to retrieve specific data, updating the database to
reflect changes in the mini world, and generating reports from the data.

• Sharing:

Sharing a database allows multiple users and programs to access the database concurrently.

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 Database Application

• An Application program (set of related programs ) that is used to perform a series of

database activities on behalf of database users:

• Create:

• Read:

• Update:

• Delete:

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 Database Activities

• Create:

Adds new data to database.

• Read:

Reads current data from the database

• Update:

Updates or modifies current data from the database

• Delete:

Removes current data from the database

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 Terms & Concepts

• Data Dictionary ( Repository):

The place where all metadata for a particular database is stored. It may also include information on relationships

between files or tables in a particular database.

• Metadata:

• Data about data.

• In database it means all characteristics describing the attributes of an entity such as name, data type,

size and format of an attribute.

• Characteristics of files or relations such as name, contents & notes etc.

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 Terms & Concepts

• Enterprise: Organization

• Entity:

Person, place, thing, event, concept

• Attributes:

Data elements (facts) about some entity (also known as fields, items or domains)

• Data values:

Instances of a particular attribute for a particular entity

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 Terms & Concepts

• Records:

• The set of values for all attributes of a particular entity

• File:

Collection of records

• Key:

An attribute or set of attributes used to identify or locate records in a file

• Primary key:

An attribute or set of attributes that uniquely identifies each record in a file

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 Terms & Concepts

• Data administrator (DA):

• Person responsible for the data administration function in an organization

• Database Administrator (DBA):

• Person responsible for the data administration function

• Models:

• Levels or views of the database (conceptual, logical & physical)

• DBMS types:

• Relational, Hierarchal, Network, Object-oriented, Object-relational

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 File System

• A file system handles the way of reading and writing data to the hard disk. The file
system is installed into the computer with the operating system.

• A file such as text file goes through the file system to store into the hard disk.
Similarly, the file is read via the file system.

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 Difference between File System & DBMS

File System DBMS

File system helps to store a collection of raw data files DBMS helps to easily store, retrieve and manipulate
into the hard disk. data in a database.

Tasks such as storing, retrieving and searching are On the other hand, operations such as updating,
done manually in a file system. Therefore, it is difficult searching, selecting data is easier in DBMS because it
to manage data using a file system. allows using SQL querying.

File system has data inconsistency DBMS provides higher data consistency using
normalization.

There is more redundant data in a file system There is low data redundancy in a DBMS.

Less secure DBMS provides more security to the data

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 Difference between File System & DBMS

File System DBMS

Backup and recovery process is not efficient in files
system because it is not possible to recover the lost
data.
File system is appropriate to handle data of a small-
scale organization or individual users
DBMS has a sophisticated backup and recovery.
DBMS is suitable for medium to large organizations
or multiple users.

Handling the file system is simple Handling a DBMS is complex

NTFS and Ext are some examples of file systems. MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, and DB2 are some
examples of DBMS.

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 Characteristics of Database

• In the database approach, a single repository of data is maintained that is defined once and
then is accessed by various users. The main characteristics of the database are following:

• 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 multiuser transaction processing

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 Self-describing nature of a Database System

• This is the fundamental characteristic of the database

• The database system contains not only the database itself but also a complete definition or
description of the database structure and constraints.

• This definition 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.

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 Insulation between Programs, Data, and Data Abstraction

• In traditional file processing, the structure of data files is embedded in the application
programs, so any changes to the structure of a file may require changing all programs that
access this file.

• By contrast, DBMS access programs do not require such changes in most cases.

• The structure of data files is stored in the DBMS catalog separately from the access

programs. We call this property program-data independence.

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 Support of Multiple Views of the Data

• A database typically has many users, each of whom may require a different perspective or
view of the database.

• A view may be a subset of the database or it may contain virtual data that is derived from
the database files but is not explicitly stored.

• Some users may not need to be aware of whether the data they refer to is stored or derived.

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 Sharing of Data and Multiuser Transaction Processing

• A multiuser DBMS, as its name implies, must allow multiple users to access the database at
the same time.

• This is essential if data for multiple applications is to be integrated and maintained in a

single database.

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 Reference

• Database Systems A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and Management, 4th

Edition, Thomas Connolly, Carolyn Begg, Addison Wesley.

• Fundamentals of Database Systems by R. Elmasri and S. Navathe. 6th Edition, Addison-Wesley

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THANKS