BIT 260 – DATABASE SYSTEMS

BY MR. D SINYANGWE

ZAMBIA ICT COLLEGE

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 UNIT OVERVIEW
• Introduction
• Manual Systems
• Traditional File-Based Systems
• Database Approach
• Roles in the Database Environment
• History of Database Management
Systems
• Advantages and Disadvantages of DBMSs
• Classification of databases
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 Data and Information
• Data are raw facts.
• The word raw indicates that the facts have
not yet been processed to reveal their
meaning.
• Information is the result of processing raw
data to reveal its meaning.
• Accurate, relevant, and timely information
is the key to good decision making.

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 • Good decision making is the key to
organizational survival in a global
environment.
• Note that raw data must be properly
formatted for storage, processing, and
presentation.
• Therefore, data management focuses on
the proper generation, storage, and
retrieval of data.

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 Manual Systems

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 File-Based Systems

• This is a collection of application programs

that perform services for the end-users.
• Each program defines and manages its own
data. The computer files within the file
system were similar to the manual files.

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 • Although the file-based approach is largely
obsolete, there are good reasons for
studying it.
• Understanding the problems inherent in
the file-based systems may prevent us
from repeating the same problems in the
database systems.
• If you wish to convert a file-based system
to a database system, understanding how
file system work will be extremely useful.

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 Limitations of File-Based Systems

Separation and isolation of data

• When data is isolated in separate files, it is
very difficult to access data that should be
available.
• The application developer must synchronize
the processing of two file to ensure that the
correct data extracted.

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 Duplication of data
• Owing to the decentralized approach taken by
each department, the file-based approach may
encourage the uncontrolled duplication of data eg
finance department and Human Resource Dept.
• Duplication of data is undesirable due to the
following reasons:
– Duplication is wasteful. It costs time and money to
enter the data more than once.
– It takes up additional storage space
– Duplication can lead to loss of data integrity ie data is
no longer consistent

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 Data dependence
• The physical structure and storage of the
data files and records are defined in the
application code. This means that changes
to an existing structure are difficult to make.
Incompatible file formats
• Because the structure is embedded in the
application programs, the structures are
dependent on the application programming
language.

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 Fixed queries
• There is no facility for asking unplanned
queries either about the data itself or
about which types of data were available.

Lack of security and limited data sharing

• Sharing data among multiple
geographically dispersed users introduces
a lot of security risks.

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 What is a database?
• Shared collection of logically related data
(and a description of this data), designed
to meet the information needs of an
organization.
• Logically related data comprises entities,
attributes, and relationships of an
organization's information.
• System catalog (metadata) provides
description of data to enable program–
data independence.
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 Database Management System (DBMS):
• software that enables users to define, create,
maintain and control access to the database.
• Some DBMS examples include:
– MySQL
– PostgreSQL
– Microsoft Access,
– Ms SQL Server
– FileMaker
– Oracle
– dBASE
– Clipper
– FoxPro

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 DBMS provides the following facilities:
• It allows users to define the database
(create, drop), usually through a Data
Definition Language (DDL)
• It allows users to insert, update, delete and
retrieve data from the database, usually
through a Data Manipulation Language
(DML).
• It provides controlled access to the
database through Data Control language
(DCL)
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 • It provides an extremely powerful
and useful tool called Views.
• A view mechanism provides users
with only the data they want or
need to use.
• Allows each user to have his or her
own view of the database.

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 Benefits of views

– Reduce complexity: by letting users see the

data in the way they want to see it.
– Provide a level of security: can be set up to
exclude data that some users should not see.
– Provide a mechanism to customize the
appearance of the database;
– Present a consistent, unchanging picture of the
structure of the database, even if the underlying
database is changed

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 ADVANTAGES OF A DBMS

• Control of data redundancy: it eliminates the

redundancy by integrating the files so that
multiple copies of the same data are not
stored.
• Data consistency: by controlling redundancy,
we reduce the risk of inconsistencies occurring.
• Data independence: Application programs
should be as independent as possible from
details of data representation and storage. The
DBMS can provide an abstract view of the data
to insulate application code from such details.

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 • Efficient data access: A DBMS utilizes a
variety of sophisticated techniques to store
and retrieve data efficiently. This feature is
especially important if the data is stored on
external storage devices.
• Data integrity and security: If data is
always accessed through the DBMS, the
DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on
the data.
• Data administration: When several users
share the data, centralizing the
administration of data can offer significant
improvements.
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 • Concurrent access and crash recovery: A
DBMS schedules concurrent accesses to
the data in such a manner that users can
think of the data as being accessed by only
one user at a time. Further, the DBMS
protects users from the effects of system
failures.
• Sharing data: the database belongs to the
entire organization and the data can be
shared by all authorized users.

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 DISADVANTAGES OF A DBMS

• Complexity: The provisions of the

functionality that we expect of a good
DBMS makes the DBMS an extremely
complex piece of software.
• Size: The complexity and breadth of
functionality makes the DBMS an
extremely large piece of software,
occupying many megabytes of disk space
and requiring substantial amount of
memory to run efficiently.

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 • Greater impact of a failure: The
centralization of resources increases the
vulnerability of the system.
• Cost of DBMSs: the cost of a large
multiuser DBMS that service hundreds of
users can be extremely expensive.
• Additional hardware costs: The disk
storage requirements for the DBMS and the
database may necessitate the purchase of
additional storage space.

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 Applications where we use Database
Management Systems

• Telecom: There is a database to keeps

track of the information regarding calls
made, network usage, customer details etc.
Without the database systems it is hard to
maintain that huge amount of data that
keeps updating every millisecond.

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 • Industry: Where it is a manufacturing unit,
warehouse or distribution centre, each one
needs a database to keep the records of ins
and outs. For example distribution centre
should keep a track of the product units that
supplied into the centre as well as the
products that got delivered out from the
distribution centre on each day; this is where
DBMS comes into picture.
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 • Banking System: For storing customer info,
tracking day to day credit and debit
transactions, generating bank statements
etc. All this work has been done with the
help of Database management systems.
• Sales: To store customer information,
production information and invoice details.

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 • Airlines: To travel though airlines, we make
early reservations, this reservation
information along with flight schedule is
stored in database.
• Education sector: Database systems are
frequently used in schools and colleges to
store and retrieve the data regarding student
details, staff details, course details, exam
details, payroll data, attendance details, fees
details etc. There is a hell lot amount of
inter-related data that needs to be stored
and retrieved in an efficient manner.
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 • Online shopping: You must be aware of
the online shopping websites such as
Amazon, Flipkart etc. These sites store the
product information, your addresses and
preferences, credit details and provide you
the relevant list of products based on your
query. All this involves a Database
management system.

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 DATABASE SYSTEM

• The term database system refers to an

organization of components that define and
regulate the collection, storage,
management, and use of data within a
database environment.

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 Components of the DBMS environment

• There are five major components in the

DBMS environment namely hardware,
software, data, procedures and people.

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 People: Consists of users of the system and
the staff who manage the database. (Write notes
on each of the following)
– Data administrators:
– Database administrators:
– Database designers:
– Application developers:
– End-users:

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 CLASSIFICATION OF DATABASES

• A DBMS can support many different types of

databases.
• Databases can be classified according to
the number of users, the database
location(s), and the expected type and
extent of use.

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 • The number of users determines whether the
database is classified as single-user or
multiuser.
• A single-user database supports only one
user at a time.
• A multiuser database supports multiple users
at the same time.
• Location might also be used to classify the
database. A database that supports data
located at a single site is called a centralized
database.
• A database that supports data distributed
across several different sites is called a
distributed database.

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 • A database that is designed primarily to support a
company’s day-to-day operations is classified as
an operational database (AKA transactional or
production database).
• In contrast, a data warehouse focuses primarily
on storing data used to generate information
required to make tactical or strategic decisions.
• Databases can also be classified to reflect the
degree to which the data are structured.
• Unstructured data are data that exist in their
original (raw) state
• Structured data are the result of taking
unstructured data and formatting (structuring) such
data to facilitate storage, use, and the generation
of information.
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 THE END

QUESTIONS?

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