Chapter 1:

Introduction to
Database Systems

Database System Concepts 1.1 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Chapter 1: Introduction

 Purpose of Database Systems

 View of Data
 Data Models
 Data Definition Language
 Data Manipulation Language
 Transaction Management
 Storage Management
 Database Administrator
 Database Users
 Overall System Structure

Database System Concepts 1.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 What do you know
about DB?

Database System Concepts 1.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Database Management System
(DBMS)
 Collection of interrelated data
 Set of programs to access the data
 DBMS contains information about a particular
enterprise
 DBMS provides 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
 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain
 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax
deductions
 Databases touch all aspects of our lives

Database System Concepts 1.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Purpose of Database System

 In the early days, database applications were built

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 part of program code
 Hard to add new constraints or change existing
ones
Database System Concepts 1.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 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
 E.g. 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
– E.g. two people reading a balance and updating it at
the same time
 Security problems
 Database systems offer solutions to all the above
problems

Database System Concepts 1.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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
name : string;
street : string;
city : integer;
end;
 View level: application programs hide details of
data types. Views can also hide information (e.g.,
salary) for security purposes.

Database System Concepts 1.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View of Data

An architecture for a database system

Database System Concepts 1.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Instances and Schemas
 Similar to types and variables in programming languages
 Schema – the logical structure of the database
 e.g., 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.

Database System Concepts 1.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Data Models

 A collection of tools for describing

 data
 data relationships
 data semantics
 data constraints
 Entity-Relationship model
 Relational model
 Other models:
 object-oriented model
 semi-structured data models
 Older models: network model and hierarchical
model

Database System Concepts 1.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Entity-Relationship Model

Example of schema in the entity-relationship model

Database System Concepts 1.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Entity Relationship Model (Cont.)

 E-R model of real world

 Entities (objects)
 E.g. customers, accounts, bank branch
 Relationships between entities
 E.g. Account A-101 is held by customer Johnson
 Relationship set depositor associates customers
with accounts
 Widely used for database design
 Database design in E-R model usually converted to
design in the relational model (coming up next) which
is used for storage and processing

Database System Concepts 1.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relational Model
Attributes
 Example of tabular data in the relational model

customer- customer- customer- account-

Customer
name street city number
-id
192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-101
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-215
192-83-7465 Johnson
Alma Palo Alto A-201
321-12-3123 Jones
Main Harrison A-217
019-28-3746 Smith
North Rye A-201

Database System Concepts 1.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 A Sample Relational Database

Database System Concepts 1.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Data Definition Language (DDL)
 Specification notation for defining the database schema
 E.g.
create table account (
account-number char(10),
balance 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
 language in which the storage structure and access
methods used by the database system are specified
 Usually an extension of the data definition language

Database System Concepts 1.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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
 Nonprocedural – user specifies what data is required
without specifying how to get those data
 SQL is the most widely used query language

Database System Concepts 1.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 SQL
 SQL: widely used non-procedural language
 E.g. 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’
 E.g. 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 System Concepts 1.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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
 Naïve users – invoke one of the permanent
application programs that have been written
previously
 E.g. people accessing database over the web, bank
tellers, clerical staff

Database System Concepts 1.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Database Administrator

 Coordinates all the activities of the database

system; the database administrator has a good
understanding of the enterprise’s 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

Database System Concepts 1.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 System Concepts 1.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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

Database System Concepts 1.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Overall System Structure

Database System Concepts 1.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Application Architectures

Two-tier architecture: E.g. client programs using

ODBC/JDBC to
communicate with a database
Three-tier architecture: E.g. web-based applications, and
applications built using “middleware”

Database System Concepts 1.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Summary

 A database-management system (DBMS) consists of a

collection of interrelated data and a collection of programs to
access that data.

 The primary goal of a DBMS is to provide an environment that is

both convenient and efficient for people to use in retrieving and
storing information.

 A major purpose of a database system is to provide users with

an abstract view of the data. That is, the system hides certain
details of how the data are stored and maintained.

 The overall design of the database is called the database

schema. A database schema is specified by a set of definitions
that are expressed using a data definition language (DDL).

Database System Concepts 1.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Summary

 A data-manipulation language (DML) is a language that

enables users to access or manipulate data.

 Database users can be categorized into several classes,

and each class of users usually uses a different type of
interface to the database.

 Database applications are typically broken up into a front-

end part that runs at client machines and a part that runs at
the back end.
 In two-tier architectures, the front-end directly communicates
with a database running at the back end.

 In three-tier architectures, the back end part is itself broken up

into an application server and a database server.

Database System Concepts 1.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Assignment

 List FIVE programming languages that are

procedural and TWO that are nonprocedural. Which

group is easier to learn and use? Explain your

answer.

Database System Concepts 1.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan