Database Management Fundamental Data Concepts

Character

Field
File

Record Database

Database Structures
Hierarchical Structure

 to get any information from an information system if data

Database Management

were stored in an unorganized way, or if there were no systematic way to retrieve them.

fundamental concepts about how data are

Fundamental Data Concepts

organized in information systems. A conceptual framework of several levels of data has been devised that differentiates between different groupings, or elements, of data.

Character which consists of a single alphabetic, numeric, or other symbol. Using that understanding, one way to think of a character is that it is a byte used to represent a particular character. Field or data item a field consists of a grouping of related characters. For example, the grouping of alphabetic characters in a persons name may form a name field (or typically, last name, first name, and middle initial fields), and the grouping of numbers in a sales amount forms a sales amount field.

Record a record represents a collection of attributes that describe an entity. An example is a persons payroll record, which consists of data fields describing attributes such as the persons name, Social Security number, and rate of pay. File or table an employee file would contain the records of the employees of a firm. Files are frequently classified by the application for which they are primarily used, such as a payroll file or an inventory file, or the type of data they contain, such as a document file or a graphical image file.

Figure 5.2

Human Resources Database Benefits File

Employee Record 1
Name Field SS No. Field Salary Field Name Field

Employee Record 2
SS No. Field Salary Field Name Field

Employee Record 3
SS No. Field Insurance Field Name Field

Employee Record 4
SS No. Field Insurance Field

Jones T.A

275-323874

20,000

Klugman J.L

349-887913

28,000

Alvarez J.S

542-403718

100,000

Poner M.L

617-877915

50,000

Database A database consolidates records previously stored in separate files into a common pool of data elements that provides data for many applications. The data stored in a database are independent of the application programs using them and of the type of storage devices on which they are stored.

Figure 5.3
Electric Utility Database Billing Meter reading Entities: Payment processing Service start/stop customers, meters, bills payments, meter reading s Relationships: bills sent customers, customers make payments. customer use meters,..

Hierarchical Structure

Figure 5.4
Department Data Element Project A Data Elements Project B Data Element

Network Structure
Department A Department B

Employee 1 Data Element

Employee 2 Data Element

Employee 1

Employee 2

Employee 3

Project A

Project B

Department Table

Employee Table

Deptno

Dname

Dloc

Dmgr

Empno

Ename

Etitle

Esalary

Deptno

Dept A Dept B

Emp 1 Emp 2

Dept A

Dept A

Dept C

Emp 3 Emp 4

Dept B

Dept B

Emp 5

Dept C

Emp 6

Dept B