I18303 -RELATIONAL

DATABASE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
UNIT – 1
INTRODUCTION
Comparison of traditional file and db approach
The main characteristics of the database approach are :
• Self describing nature of a database system.
• Insulation b/w programs and data , and data abstraction.
• Support of multiple views of the data.
• Sharing of data and multiuser transaction processing.
(i)Self-describing nature of a db system
• Database system contains not only a database but also a complete
definition or description of the database structure and constraints.
• This definition is stored in the DBMS catalog called meta-data.
• This meta-data contains information such as:
• The structure of each file.
• The type of data.
• The storage format of data.
• Constraints on the data.
Contd…
• This catalog is used by the DBMS s/w and also by users who need
information about the database structure.
• In traditional/file processing , data definition is typically part of the
application programs . Hence , these programs are constrained to
work with only one specific database , whose structures is declared in
the application programs.
• i.e file-processing s/w can access only specific databases , whereas
DBMS s/w can access diverse (several) databases by extracting the
database definitions from the catalog.
(ii)Insulation b/w programs and 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 that file.
• DBMS access programs do not require such changes , since the
structure of the data files is stored in the DBMS catalog separately
from the access programs. This property is called “program-data
independence”.
• An operation is specified in two parts:
• Interface
• implementation
Interface
• Interface of an operation includes:
• Operation name & data types of its arguments.
• Implementation of the operation is specified separately & can be
changed without affecting the interface.
• Users application programs can operate on the data by involving
those operations through their names & arguments regardless of how
the operations are implemented. This is known as program –
operation independence.
• The characteristics that allows program – data independence &
program – operation independence is called data abstraction.
(iii) Support of Multiple views of data
• A database typically has many users, each one may require a different
view of the database.
• A view may be a subset of the database or it may contain
virtual(derived) data from the database files but is not explicitly
stored.
(iv) Sharing of data & Multiuser transaction processing
• A multiuser DBMS, must allow multiple users to access the database
at the same time, if data for multiple applications are to be integrated
& maintained in a single database.
• The DBMS must include “concurrency control” software to ensure
that several users trying to update the same data in a controlled
manner, so that the results of the updates are correct.
Eg. Airline Ticket Registration
• The ticket bookings should have to be updated regularly.
• This is called “Online transaction processing”.
• Transaction is a process that includes one or more database access
such as reading or updating of database records.