Chapter 1: Introduction
Abraham Silberschatz Henry Korth S. Sudarshan
Database Management System
As the name suggests, the database management system consists of
two parts. They are:
Database and
Management System
What is a Database?
To find out what database is, we have to start from data, which is the
basic building block of any DBMS.
Data: Facts, figures, statistics etc. having no particular meaning (e.g.
1, ABC, 19 etc).
Record: Collection of related data items, e.g. in the above example the
three data items had no meaning. But if we organize them in the
following way, then they collectively represent meaningful information.
Table or Relation: Collection of related records.
The columns of this relation are called Fields, Attributes or Domains.
The rows are called Tuples or Records.
Database: Collection of related relations. Consider the following
collection of tables:
What is Management System?
A management system is a set of rules and procedures which help us
to create organize and manipulate the database. It also helps us to
add, modify delete data items in the database. The management
system can be either manual or computerized.
The management system is important because without the existence
of some kind of rules and regulations it is not possible to maintain the
database. We have to select the particular attributes which should be
included in a particular table; the common attributes to create
relationship between two tables; if a new record has to be inserted or
deleted then which tables should have to be handled etc. These
issues must be resolved by having some kind of rules to follow in order
to maintain the integrity of the database.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Purpose of Database Systems
View of Data
Database Languages
Relational Databases
Database Design
Object-based and semistructured databases
Data Storage and Querying
Transaction Management
Database Architecture
Database Users and Administrators
Overall Structure
History of Database Systems
Database Management System (DBMS)
DBMS contains information about a particular enterprise
Collection of interrelated data
Set of programs to access the data
An environment that is both convenient and efficient to use
Database Applications:
Banking: all transactions
Airlines: reservations, schedules
Universities: registration, grades
Sales: customers, products, purchases
Online retailers: order tracking, customized recommendations
Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain
Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions
Databases touch all aspects of our lives
Purpose of Database Systems
In the early days, database applications were built directly on top of
file systems
Drawbacks of using file systems to store data:
Data redundancy and inconsistency
Multiple file formats, duplication of information in different files
Difficulty in accessing data
Need to write a new program to carry out each new task
Data isolation multiple files and formats
Integrity problems
Integrity constraints (e.g. account balance > 0) become
buried in program code rather than being stated explicitly
Hard to add new constraints or change existing ones
Purpose of Database Systems (Cont.)
Drawbacks of using file systems (cont.)
Atomicity of updates
Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with partial
updates carried out
Example: Transfer of funds from one account to another should
either complete or not happen at all
Concurrent access by multiple users
Concurrent accessed needed for performance
Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies
Example: Two people reading a balance and updating it at the
same time
Security problems
Hard to provide user access to some, but not all, data
Database systems offer solutions to all the above problems
Levels of Abstraction
Physical level: describes how a record (e.g., customer) is stored.
Logical level: describes data stored in database, and the relationships
among the data.
type customer = record
customer_id : string;
customer_name : string;
customer_street : string;
customer_city : integer;
end;
View level: application programs hide details of data types. Views can
also hide information (such as an employees salary) for security
purposes.
View of Data
An architecture for a database system
Instances and Schemas
Similar to types and variables in programming languages
Schema the logical structure of the database
Example: The database consists of information about a set of customers and
accounts and the relationship between them)
Analogous to type information of a variable in a program
Physical schema: database design at the physical level
Logical schema: database design at the logical level
Instance the actual content of the database at a particular point in time
Analogous to the value of a variable
Physical Data Independence the ability to modify the physical schema without
changing the logical schema
Applications depend on the logical schema
In general, the interfaces between the various levels and components should be
well defined so that changes in some parts do not seriously influence others.
Data Models
A collection of tools for describing
Data
Data relationships
Data semantics
Data constraints
Relational model
Entity-Relationship data model (mainly for database design)
Object-based data models (Object-oriented and Object-relational)
Semistructured data model (XML)
Other older models:
Network model
Hierarchical model
Data Manipulation Language (DML)
Language for accessing and manipulating the data organized by the
appropriate data model
DML also known as query language
Two classes of languages
Procedural user specifies what data is required and how to get
those data
Declarative (nonprocedural) user specifies what data is
required without specifying how to get those data
SQL is the most widely used query language
Data Definition Language (DDL)
Specification notation for defining the database schema
Example:
create table account (
account-number
balance
char(10),
integer)
DDL compiler generates a set of tables stored in a data dictionary
Data dictionary contains metadata (i.e., data about data)
Database schema
Data storage and definition language
Specifies the storage structure and access methods used
Integrity constraints
Domain constraints
Referential integrity (references constraint in SQL)
Assertions
Authorization
Relational Model
Example of tabular data in the relational model
Attributes
A Sample Relational Database
SQL
SQL: widely used non-procedural language
Example: Find the name of the customer with customer-id 192-83-7465
select customer.customer_name
from
customer
where customer.customer_id = 192-83-7465
Example: Find the balances of all accounts held by the customer with
customer-id 192-83-7465
select account.balance
from
depositor, account
where depositor.customer_id = 192-83-7465 and
depositor.account_number = account.account_number
Application programs generally access databases through one of
Language extensions to allow embedded SQL
Application program interface (e.g., ODBC/JDBC) which allow SQL
queries to be sent to a database
Database Design
The process of designing the general structure of the database:
Logical Design Deciding on the database schema. Database design
requires that we find a good collection of relation schemas.
Business decision What attributes should we record in the database?
Computer Science decision What relation schemas should we have
and how should the attributes be distributed among the various relation
schemas?
Physical Design Deciding on the physical layout of the database
The Entity-Relationship Model
Models an enterprise as a collection of entities and relationships
Entity: a thing or object in the enterprise that is distinguishable
from other objects
Described by a set of attributes
Relationship: an association among several entities
Represented diagrammatically by an entity-relationship diagram:
Object-Relational Data Models
Extend the relational data model by including object orientation and
constructs to deal with added data types.
Allow attributes of tuples to have complex types, including non-atomic
values such as nested relations.
Preserve relational foundations, in particular the declarative access to
data, while extending modeling power.
Provide upward compatibility with existing relational languages.
XML: Extensible Markup Language
Defined by the WWW Consortium (W3C)
Originally intended as a document markup language not a
database language
The ability to specify new tags, and to create nested tag structures
made XML a great way to exchange data, not just documents
XML has become the basis for all new generation data interchange
formats.
A wide variety of tools is available for parsing, browsing and
querying XML documents/data
Storage Management
Storage manager is a program module that provides the interface
between the low-level data stored in the database and the application
programs and queries submitted to the system.
The storage manager is responsible to the following tasks:
Interaction with the file manager
Efficient storing, retrieving and updating of data
Issues:
Storage access
File organization
Indexing and hashing
Query Processing
1. Parsing and translation
2. Optimization
3. Evaluation
Query Processing (Cont.)
Alternative ways of evaluating a given query
Equivalent expressions
Different algorithms for each operation
Cost difference between a good and a bad way of evaluating a query can
be enormous
Need to estimate the cost of operations
Depends critically on statistical information about relations which the
database must maintain
Need to estimate statistics for intermediate results to compute cost of
complex expressions
Transaction Management
A transaction is a collection of operations that performs a single
logical function in a database application
Transaction-management component ensures that the database
remains in a consistent (correct) state despite system failures (e.g.,
power failures and operating system crashes) and transaction failures.
Concurrency-control manager controls the interaction among the
concurrent transactions, to ensure the consistency of the database.
Database Architecture
The architecture of a database systems is greatly influenced by
the underlying computer system on which the database is running:
Centralized
Client-server
Parallel (multi-processor)
Distributed
Database Users
Users are differentiated by the way they expect to interact with
the system
Application programmers interact with system through DML calls
Sophisticated users form requests in a database query language
Specialized users write specialized database applications that do
not fit into the traditional data processing framework
Nave users invoke one of the permanent application programs that
have been written previously
Examples, people accessing database over the web, bank tellers,
clerical staff
Database Administrator
Coordinates all the activities of the database system; the
database administrator has a good understanding of the
enterprises information resources and needs.
Database administrator's duties include:
Schema definition
Storage structure and access method definition
Schema and physical organization modification
Granting user authority to access the database
Specifying integrity constraints
Acting as liaison with users
Monitoring performance and responding to changes in
requirements
Overall System Structure
History of Database Systems
1950s and early 1960s:
Data processing using magnetic tapes for storage
Tapes provide only sequential access
Punched cards for input
Late 1960s and 1970s:
Hard disks allow direct access to data
Network and hierarchical data models in widespread use
Ted Codd defines the relational data model
Would win the ACM Turing Award for this work
IBM Research begins System R prototype
UC Berkeley begins Ingres prototype
High-performance (for the era) transaction processing
History (cont.)
1980s:
Research relational prototypes evolve into commercial systems
SQL becomes industrial standard
Parallel and distributed database systems
Object-oriented database systems
1990s:
Large decision support and data-mining applications
Large multi-terabyte data warehouses
Emergence of Web commerce
2000s:
XML and XQuery standards
Automated database administration
End of Chapter 1
Figure 1.4
Figure 1.7
