Information Technology systems

3.7 Databases
 Basic terminologies
Database: Composed of one or more tables.
Table: Has a specific name and contains one or more
records with relevant and related information.
Records: The horizontal parts of a table. It is a collection
of fields that belong together.
Fields: The vertical parts of a table. Each field is
characterized by a specific data type.
Data types: Type of data stored. E. g. Text, Numeric,
Currency, Date/ Time, Boolean, etc.
 Primary key
A primary key is a field or set of fields with values that
are unique throughout a table. Values of the key can be
used to refer to entire records, because each record has
a different value for the key.
 Secondary key
In the context of relational databases, a foreign key is a
field (or collection of fields) in one table that uniquely
identifies a row of another table or the same table. In
simpler words, the foreign key is defined in a second
table, but it refers to the primary key or a unique key in
the first table.
 Flat-file databases
A flat file database is a type of database that stores data
in a single table. Flat file databases are generally in
plain-text form, where each line holds only one record.
The fields in the record are separated using delimiters
such as tabs and commas.
 Flat-file databases
Advantages:
Easy to understand
Easy to implement
Less hardware and software requirement
Less skills required
Disadvantages:
Less secured
Data inconsistency
Data redundancy
Difficult to share
Searching is time consuming
 Relational databases
A relational database (RDB) is a collective set of
multiple data sets organized by tables, records and
columns. RDBs establish a well-defined relationship
between database tables. Tables communicate and
share information, which facilitates data searchability,
organization and reporting.
 Relational databases
Advantages:
No data duplication
Complex queries can be carried out
Data integrity maintained
Easier to search compared to flat file databases
Better security
Disadvantages:
Hard to setup
More expensive
 Database normalization
Normalization involves dividing a database into two or more
tables and defining relationships between the tables. The
objective is to isolate data so that additions, deletions, and
modifications of a field can be made in just one table and then
propagated through the rest of the database via the defined
relationships.
During the normalization process, a database designer must
ensure that the database tables meet several criteria. These
include:
1. No duplicate rows or columns.
2. The order of the records and fields in the table must be
irrelevant.
3. Each field must contain only one specific value.
4. Empty fields are not allowed.
 Functions of a DBMS
Development of the database – Setting up the general structure
of the database. How should the data be organized? How should
the data be split into different database tables?
Entering and maintenance of data – The user can enter the data
into user-friendly forms. The data entered can be modified,
edited, so that any errors made while entering the data can be
corrected.
Searching/ querying of data – The user can search and select
relevant data.
Reporting – The database reports back the results of the search
in a readable and user-friendly format.
 Personal Information Manager
Software products that manage and store e-mails, contact
addresses, dates and appointments, personal notes, etc. It also
allows for data exchange.
 Encyclopedia databases
Special purpose databases that are intended to make large
amount of text, image and sound available to the users. It must
provide functions that allows the suer to find and access quickly
the information they are seeking. To make the search process
faster, the keywords are indexed forehand. When the user enters
a search item, the program will look up the term in the keyword
list and follow a link to the text.
 Data validations
Data validation ensures that there is a minimum number of data
entry errors. The various ways to validate data is as follows:
Data types – Restricts incorrect data type.
Range check - Restricts data beyond the range specified.
Drop-down list – Restricts invalid data.
Input mask – Reduces data entry errors e. g. date or time format,
phone number format, etc.
 Macros
Macros are small programs or routines that help the
user to automate certain processes. They become
useful when the user must repeat certain tasks over and
over again.
Paper-based documents to digital form
Manual data entry – Data is entered manually.
Scanning – Paper document is scanned and stored
electronically as it is.
Scanning with OCR – A software program reads the
printed information on the form and converts it to ASCII
text.
 Data redundancy
Data redundancy refers to the storage of same data
several times in a database. E. g. Name of a student
appears in school admin table, library table and medical
records table.
 Data integrity
Data integrity is the assurance that digital information is
uncorrupted and can only be accessed or modified by
those authorized to do so. Integrity involves maintaining
the consistency, accuracy and trustworthiness of data
over its entire life cycle.
 Data mining
Data mining is the process of searching through large
amounts of data using statistical methods or artificial
intelligence. It can be used to identify patterns in the
behavior of people.
 Data matching
Data matching describes efforts to compare two sets of
collected data. Data matching can be done in order to
discard duplicate content.
 Social and ethical issues
• Privacy and anonymity
• Reliability and integrity
• Globalization and cultural diversity
• Standards and protocols
• Intellectual property
 Other important topics
• Flat file databases
• Normalisation and relational databases
• Database Integrity
• Database Privacy
• Database Security
• Data protection laws