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Understanding Physical and Logical Schemas

A database schema defines the structure and organization of a database, including the entities, their relationships, and constraints. It exists independently of any data and remains stable, while a database instance contains the actual data at a specific point in time, which can change. The schema is designed by database developers and includes both logical and physical aspects, with the logical schema defining constraints and the physical mapping the data to storage.

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110 views2 pages

Understanding Physical and Logical Schemas

A database schema defines the structure and organization of a database, including the entities, their relationships, and constraints. It exists independently of any data and remains stable, while a database instance contains the actual data at a specific point in time, which can change. The schema is designed by database developers and includes both logical and physical aspects, with the logical schema defining constraints and the physical mapping the data to storage.

Uploaded by

ashisht007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Database Schema

A database schema is the skeleton structure that represents the logical view of the entire database.
It defines how the data is organized and how the relations among them are associated. It
formulates all the constraints that are to be applied on the data.
A database schema defines its entities and the relationship among them. It contains a descriptive
detail of the database, which can be depicted by means of schema diagrams. Its the database
designers who design the schema to help programmers understand the database and make it
useful.

A database schema can be divided broadly into two categories

Physical Database Schema This schema pertains to the actual storage of data and its
form of storage like files, indices, etc. It defines how the data will be stored in a secondary
storage.

Logical Database Schema This schema defines all the logical constraints that need to be
applied on the data stored. It defines tables, views, and integrity constraints.

Database Instance
It is important that we distinguish these two terms individually. Database schema is the skeleton of
database. It is designed when the database doesn't exist at all. Once the database is operational, it
is very difficult to make any changes to it. A database schema does not contain any data or
information.
A database instance is a state of operational database with data at any given time. It contains a
snapshot of the database. Database instances tend to change with time. A DBMS ensures that its
every instance (state) is in a valid state, by diligently following all the validations, constraints, and
conditions that the database designers have imposed.
If a database system is not multi-layered, then it becomes difficult to make any changes in the
database system. Database systems are designed in multi-layers as we learnt earlier.

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