Basic Introduction of DBMS

Data: facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

Database: Database is a collection of related data and data is a collection of facts and figures that
can be processed to produce information.

DBMS: A database management system stores data in such a way that it becomes easier to retrieve,
manipulate, and produce information.
• Database management system is a software which is used to manage the database. For
example: MySQL, Oracle, etc are a very popular commercial database which is used in
different applications.
• DBMS provides an interface to perform various operations like database creation, storing
data in it, updating data, creating a table in the database and a lot more.
• It provides protection and security to the database. In the case of multiple users, it also
maintains data consistency.

Characteristics of DBMS
• It uses a digital repository established on a server to store and manage the information.
• It can provide a clear and logical view of the process that manipulates data.
• DBMS contains automatic backup and recovery procedures.
• It contains ACID properties which maintain data in a healthy state in case of failure.
• It can reduce the complex relationship between data.
• It is used to support manipulation and processing of data.
• It is used to provide security of data.
• It can view the database from different viewpoints according to the requirements of the user.

Advantages of DBMS
• Controls database redundancy: It can control data redundancy because it stores all the
data in one single database file and that recorded data is placed in the database.
• Data sharing: In DBMS, the authorized users of an organization can share the data among
multiple users.
• Easily Maintenance: It can be easily maintainable due to the centralized nature of the
database system.
• Reduce time: It reduces development time and maintenance need.
• Backup: It provides backup and recovery subsystems which create automatic backup of data
from hardware and software failures and restores the data if required.
• multiple user interface: It provides different types of user interfaces like graphical user
interfaces, application program interfaces
Disadvantages of DBMS
• Cost of Hardware and Software: It requires a high speed of data processor and large
memory size to run DBMS software.
• Size: It occupies a large space of disks and large memory to run them efficiently.
• Complexity: Database system creates additional complexity and requirements.
• Higher impact of failure: Failure is highly impacted the database because in most of the
organization, all the data stored in a single database and if the database is damaged due to
electric failure or database corruption then the data may be lost forever.

DBMS vs. File System

DBMS File System

DBMS is a collection of data. In DBMS,
File system is a collection of data. In this system, the user
the user is not required to write the
has to write the procedures for managing the database.
procedures.
DBMS gives an abstract view of data File system provides the detail of the data representation
that hides the details. and storage of data.
DBMS provides a crash recovery File system doesn't have a crash mechanism, i.e., if the
mechanism, i.e., DBMS protects the user system crashes while entering some data, then the content
from the system failure. of the file will lost.
DBMS provides a good protection
It is very difficult to protect a file under the file system.
mechanism.
DBMS contains a wide variety of
sophisticated techniques to store and File system can't efficiently store and retrieve the data.
retrieve the data.
In the File system, concurrent access has many problems
DBMS takes care of Concurrent access
like redirecting the file while other deleting some
of data using some form of locking.
information or updating some information.

Data Independence
Data independence is ability to modify a schema definition in one level without affecting a schema
definition in the next higher level.
There are two levels of data independence:
1. Physical Data Independence
2. Logical Data Independence https://beginnersbook.com/2015/04/dbms-languages/
1. Logical Data Independence
• Logical data independence refers characteristic of being able to change the conceptual
schema without having to change the external schema.
• Logical data independence is used to separate the external level from the conceptual
view.
• If we do any changes in the conceptual view of the data, then the user view of the data
would not be affected.
• Logical data independence occurs at the user interface level.

2. Physical Data Independence

• Physical data independence can be defined as the capacity to change the internal schema
without having to change the conceptual schema.
• If we do any changes in the storage size of the database system server, then the
Conceptual structure of the database will not be affected.
• Physical data independence is used to separate conceptual levels from the internal levels.
• Physical data independence occurs at the logical interface level.
Data Abstraction

We have three levels of abstraction:

Physical level: This is the lowest level of data

abstraction. It describes how data is actually stored in
database. You can get the complex data structure details
at this level.
Logical level: This is the middle level of 3-level data
abstraction architecture. It describes what data is stored
in database.
View level: Highest level of data abstraction. This level
describes the user interaction with database system.

Instance and schema in DBMS

Definition of schema: Design of a database is called the schema. Schema is of three types: Physical
schema, logical schema and view schema.
For example: In the following diagram, we have a schema that shows the relationship between three
tables: Course, Student and Section. The diagram only shows the design of the database, it doesn’t
show the data present in those tables. Schema is only a structural view(design) of a database as
shown in the diagram below.
The design of a database at physical level is called physical schema, how the data stored in blocks
of storage is described at this level.

Design of database at logical level is called logical schema, programmers and database
administrators work at this level, at this level data can be described as certain types of data records
gets stored in data structures, however the internal details such as implementation of data structure
is hidden at this level (available at physical level).
Design of database at view level is called view schema. This generally describes end user
interaction with database systems.
Definition of instance: The data stored in database at a particular moment of time is called instance
of database. Database schema defines the variable declarations in tables that belong to a particular
database; the value of these variables at a moment of time is called the instance of that database.
For example, lets say we have a single table student in the database, today the table has 100 records,
so today the instance of the database has 100 records. Lets say we are going to add another 100
records in this table by tomorrow so the instance of database tomorrow will have 200 records in
table. In short, at a particular moment the data stored in database is called the instance, that changes
over time when we add or delete data from the database.