CONCEPTS OF DBMS Databases and DBMS A database system is basically a record keeping system.

It may be defined as a collection of interrelated data stored together to serve multiple applications, where the data is stored in a common and controlled manner so that they are independent of the programs that use the data. The DBMS is a general purpose software system that facilitates the process of defining, constructing, and manipulating database for various applications. Advantages of Databases 1. Databases reduce the Data Redundancy Duplication of data is known as redundancy. In file management systems, data may be repeated in many files. This redundancy leads to higher storage and access cost. The database systems do not maintain separate copies of the same data. In a database, all the data is kept at one place. All the applications or users that require data refer to the centrally maintained database. 2. Databases can control data inconsistency
Data redundancy may lead to data inconsistency; that is the various copies of the same data may not agree. If redundancy is removed, then such an inconsistency cannot occur. If redundancy is controlled, then DBMS can guarantee that database is never inconsistent.

3. Data can be shared Sharing of data means that, the data stored in the database can be shared among several users or programs and each may use it for different purposes. 4. Databases enforce standards The centralized control of the database ensures that all applicable standards are observed in the representative data. The standards may be those laid out by the organization or company for using the database. 5. Security restrictions can be applied The information inside a database is of great value to any company or organization. Therefore it must be kept secure and private. Data security refers to the protection of data against accidental or intentional disclosure or unauthorized destruction or modification by unauthorized persons.

The various programs and users may share data in common. But access to specific information can be limited to selected users. Through the use of passwords the information in a database is made available only to those who have a legitimate right to access. 6. Integrity can be maintained Data integrity ensures that data in the database is correct. Structure of DBMS For effective storage and retrieval of information data is organized as fields, records, and files Fields A field is a smallest unit of stored data. Each field consists of data of a specific type. Eg: rno,name

1. Record
A record is a collection of related fields.

2. File
A file is a collection of all occurrences of one type of record. Components of DBMS The functional components of a database system are: (a) Databases :- The main component of DBMS is the database itself. Database is an organized collection of information. In short it is a collection of tables. (b) Data Manipulation Language (DML) :- It translates DML statements in a query language into low level instructions that the query evaluation engine understands. A DML statement deals with the data in the table. Examples of DML commands are INSERT INTO, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE etc. Data Definition Language commands :- It interprets DDL statements and records them in a set of tables that contain metadata( ie data about data).A DDL statement deals with the structure of the table. The examples of DDL commands are CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE,DROP TABLE (d) Users:- Users interact with the DBMS indirectly via application programs or directly via query language.

Database Abstraction For the database system to be usable, it must retrieve data efficiently. Also the database system should provide only that much information that is required by them. This means that the system does not disclose all the details of the data, rather it hides certain details of how the data is stored and maintained. It should also be noted that since many database system users through several levels of abstraction. This simplifies the user interaction with the system. Levels of Database Abstraction Physical level It is the lowest level of abstraction. Physical level describes how the data is actually stored in the storage medium. At physical level complex low-level data structures are described in detail.

Logical Level It is the next higher level of abstraction. Logical level describes, what data are stored in the database and what relationships exist among those data. Here the entire database is described in terms of simple structures. The logical level of abstraction is used by database administrators, who must decide what information is to be kept in the database.

View Level This is the highest level of database abstraction and is the closest to the users. View level is concerned with the way in which the individual users view the data. It describes only a part of the entire database. Most of the users of the database are not concerned with all the information

that is contained in the database. Instead they need only a part of the database that is relevant to them. This simplifies their interaction with the system.

Data Independence The database is implemented through the three levels of abstraction- physical, logical and view levels. A change made at one level may affect the structure or scheme of the next higher level. But as the databases are growing, frequent changes will be required for the database. The changes should not lead to redefining the database. The ability to modify a scheme definition in one level without affecting the scheme definition at the next higher level is called data independence. There are two levels of data independence. Physical Data Independence It is the ability to modify the physical scheme without causing application programs to be rewritten. Logical Data Independence It is the ability to modify the logical scheme without causing application programs to be rewritten. Logical data independence is more difficult to achieve than physical data independence. Since application programs are heavily dependent on the logical structure of the data that they access. Users of Database Database Administrator The Database Administrator (DBA) is a person who has a central control over the data and programs that access data in a DBMS. He is in charge of creating, maintaining and modifying all the three levels of the DBMS. He controls the allocation of system resources, access to users and ensures consistency of the database. Application Programmer Application programmers are computer professionals who interact with the DBMS through application programs. Application programs are programs written in any host language and interact with DBMS through DML calls. Nave users Nave users are unsophisticated users who interact with the system by invoking one of the application programs written previously. Different Data Models

The data model is a collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data semantics, and consistency constraints. The three most widely accepted data models are : The Relational Data Model :- The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent both data and the relationships among thes data. These tables containing rows and columns are called relations. A row in a table represents a relationship among a set of values. Rows of relations are generally referred to as tuples or records and the columns are referred to as attributes. Hierarchical Data Model:- In the hierarchical data model records are organized as trees and the connections among the records are implemented through links. The record type at the pop of the tree is called root and the root may have any number of dependants(childs), each of these dependents may have any number of lower level dependents and so on. There are several disadvantages for this data model. There is a lot of scope for duplication of data. The Network Data Model:- In the network data model the data are represented by collection of records and relationships among data are represented by links. A network model is similar to hierarchical model, but each child record may have more than one parent record. This data model is suggested by CODASYL-DBTG( Conference on Data Systems Languages- Database Task Group) in 1971.Network data model has certain advantages over Hierarchical data model. They are: (1)Network data model is more flexible than hierarchical data model. (2)This model reduces the duplication problems.