Lecture 1

Introduction to Database Systems

Database Introduction
 COSC 304 - Dr. Ramon Lawrence

What is a database?
A database is a collection of logically related data for a
particular domain.

A database management system (DBMS) is software

designed for the creation and management of databases.
e.g. Oracle, DB2, Access, MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB

Bottom line: A database is the data stored and a database

system is the software that manages the data.

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Databases in the Real-World

Databases are everywhere in the real-world even though you
do not often interact with them directly.
$20 billion dollar annual industry
Examples:
Retailers manage their products and sales using a database.
Wal-Mart has one of the largest databases in the world!
Online web sites such as Amazon, eBay, and Expedia track
orders, shipments, and customers using databases.
The university maintains all your registration information and
marks in a database.

Can you think of other examples?

What data do you have?
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Example Problem
Implement a system for managing products for a retailer.
Data: Information on products (SKU, name, desc, inventory)
Add new products, manage inventory of products

How would you do this without a database?

What types of challenges would you face?

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Why do we need databases?

Without a DBMS, your application must rely on files to store its
data persistently. A file-based system is a set of applications
that use files to store their data.

Each application in a file-based system contains its own code

for accessing and manipulating files. This causes several
problems:
Code duplication of file access routines
Data is usually highly redundant across files
High maintenance costs
Hard to support multi-user access to information
Difficult to connect information present in different files
Difficulty in developing new applications/handling data changes
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File Processing Diagram

PROGRAM 1
Data

Redundant Data
Management FILE 1

PROGRAM 2
Data
Management
FILE 2
PROGRAM 3
Data
Management

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Data Independence and Abstraction

The major problem with developing applications based on files
is that the application is dependent on the file structure.

That is, there is no program-data independence separating

the application from the data it is manipulating.
If the data file changes, the code that accesses the file must be
changed in the application.

One of the major advantages of databases is they provide data

abstraction. Data abstraction allows the internal definition of
an object to change without affecting programs that use the
object through an external definition.

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Database System Approach

DBMS
Query Processor
Integrated
PROGRAM 1
Transaction Mgr Database
...
Storage Mgr

PROGRAM 2
Collection of
Data Management
Functions
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DBMS
A database management system provides efficient, convenient,
and safe multi-user storage and access to massive amounts of
persistent data.

Efficient - Able to handle large data sets and complex queries

without searching all files and data items.
Convenient - Easy to write queries to retrieve data.
Safe - Protects data from system failures and hackers.
Massive - Database sizes in gigabytes and terabytes.
Persistent - Data exists after program execution completes.
Multi-user - More than one user can access and update data
at the same time while preserving consistency.
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Data Definition Language

A DBMS achieves these goals by supporting data abstraction.
The DBMS takes the description of the data and handles the
low-level details of how to store it, retrieve it, and handle
concurrent access to it.
The database is described to the DBMS using a Data
Definition Language (DDL). The DDL allows the user to
create data structures in the data model used by the database.

A data model is a collection of concepts that can be used to

describe the structure of a database.
In the relational model, data is represented as tables and fields.
Examples: relational model, XML, graphs, object-oriented,
JSON
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Schemas
A database designer uses a DDL to define a schema for the
database. The schema is maintained and stored in the system
catalog. The schema is one type of metadata.

A schema is a description of the structure of the database.

A schema contains structures, names, and types of data stored.
For example, the data model for Access is a relational model.
A relational model contains tables and fields as its model
constructs. The following DDL creates a product table:
CREATE TABLE product(
sku as VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
name as VARCHAR(40),
desc as VARCHAR(50),
inventory as INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY (sku)
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Data Manipulation Language

Once a database has been created using DDL, the user
accesses data using a Data Manipulation Language (DML).
The standard DML is SQL.
The DML allows for the insertion, modification, retrieval, and
deletion of data.

A DML provides data abstraction as user queries are specified

using the names of data and not their physical representation.
For example, in a file system storing 3 fields, you would have to
provide the exact location of the field in the file. In a database,
you would only have to specify it by name.
The DBMS contains all the code for accessing the data, so the
applications do not have to worry about those details any more.
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SQL Examples
Retrieve all products in the database:
SELECT sku, name, desc, inventory FROM product;

Retrieve all products where inventory < 10:

SELECT name, inventory FROM product WHERE inventory < 10;

Insert a new product into the database:

INSERT INTO product VALUES ('1234','Soap','Ivory',100);

Delete a product from the database:

DELETE FROM product WHERE sku = '1234';

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Database Properties Question

Question: True or False: The data in a database is lost when
the power to the computer is turned off.

A) true

B) false

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Database Abstraction Question

Question: Defining how data is stored using DDL is similar to
what in object-oriented programming?

A) Objects

B) Classes

C) Inheritance

D) Polymorphism

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DDL vs. DML Question

Question: If you are querying data in a database, which
language are you using:

A) DML

B) DDL

C) schemas

D) Java

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Components of a DBMS
A DBMS is a complicated software system containing many
components:
Query processor - translates user/application queries into low-
level data manipulation actions.
Sub-components: query parser, query optimizer

Storagemanager - maintains storage information including

memory allocation, buffer management, and file storage.
Sub-components: buffer manager, file manager

Transaction manager - performs scheduling of operations and

implements concurrency control algorithms.

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DBMS Architecture
End-User Direct (SQL) Database
Users Programs Users Administrators

DBMS Database API

Parser + Result
Compiler Formatting Query
Processor
Query Optimizer Execution
Planner Engine

Transaction Buffer
Manager Manager Storage
Manager
Recovery File
System Manager

DB Operating
Files System Page 18
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Database Architectures
There are several different database architectures:
File-server (embedded) architecture - files are shared but
DBMS processing occurs at the clients (e.g. Microsoft Access
or SQLite)

Two-Tier client-server architecture - dedicated machine

running DBMS accessed by clients (e.g. SQL Server)

Three-Tier client-server architecture - DBMS is bottom tier,

second tier is an application server containing business logic,
top tier is clients (e.g. Web browser-Apache/Tomcat-Oracle)

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Two-Tier Client-Server Architecture

Clients Tier 1: Client
•User Interface
•Business and Data Logic

Tier 2: Database Server

Database •Server-side validation
Server •Data storage/management

Advantages:
Only one copy of DBMS software on dedicated machine.
Increased performance.
Reduced hardware and communication costs.
Easier to maintain consistency and manage concurrency.
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Three-Tier Client-Server Architecture

Tier 1: Client (Web/mobile)
•User Interface

Tier 2: Application Server

•Business logic
•Data processing logic

Database
Tier 3: Database Server
•Data validation
•Data storage/management

Advantages:
Reduced client administration and cost using thin web clients.
Easy to scale architecture and perform load balancing.
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Database People
There are several different types of database personnel:
Database administrator (DBA) - responsible for installing,
maintaining, and configuring the DBMS software.
Data administrator (DA) - responsible for organizational
policies on data creation, security, and planning.
Database designer - defines and implements a schema for a
database and associated applications.
Logical/Conceptual database designer - interacts with users to
determine data requirements, constraints, and business rules.
Physical database designer - implements the logical design for a data
model on a DBMS. Defines indexes, security, and constraints.
DBMS developer - writes the DBMS software code.
Application developer - writes code that uses the DBMS.
User - uses the database directly or through applications.
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ANSI/SPARC Architecture
One of the major advantages of database systems is data
abstraction. Data abstraction is achieved by defining different
views of the data. Each view isolates higher-level views from
data representation details.

The ANSI/SPARC architecture defined in 1975 consists of

three views:
Internal View - The physical representation of the database on
the computer. How the data is stored.
Conceptual View - The logical structure of the database that
describes what data is stored and its relationships.
External View - The user's view of the database that provides
the part of the database relevant to the user.
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ANSI/SPARC Architecture
Users

External External External External

Schema view view view

3-schema
architecture
Conceptual
Conceptual
view
Schema

Internal
Internal view
Schema DBMS

DB
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Benefits of 3-Schema Architecture

External Level:
Each user can access the data, but have their own view of the
data independent of other users.
Logical data independence - conceptual schema changes do not affect
external views.
Conceptual Level:
Single shared data representation for all applications and users
which is independent of physical data storage.
Users do not have to understand physical data representation details.
The DBA can change the storage structures without affecting users or
applications. Physical data independence - conceptual schema not
affected by physical changes such as adding indexes or distributing data.
Physical (Internal) Level:
Provides standard facilities for interacting with operating system
for space allocation and file manipulation. Page 25
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Microsoft Access and

the 3-Schema Architecture
External Level:
Microsoft Access does not call them views, but you can store
queries and use the results in other queries (like a view).
External schema is the query (view) name and the attribute metadata.
Conceptual Level:
All tables and field definitions are in the schema (accessible
from the Tables tab).
Note that conceptual schema is not the data but the metadata.
Physical Level:
Access represents all data in a single file whose layout it
controls.
The system processes this raw data file by knowing locations
and offsets of relations and fields.
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ANSI/SPARC Architecture
Three Levels of Views
Question: What are the three levels of views in the
ANSI/SPARC architecture starting with the view closest to the
user?

A) Physical, Conceptual, External

B) External, Physical, Conceptual
C) Physical, External, Conceptual
D) External, Conceptual, Physical
E) User, Logical, System

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ANSI/SPARC Architecture
Abstraction with Views
Question: Assume you have a Java program accessing data
stored in a file. Select one true statement.

A) The file organization is changed. The physical view is

where this change is made.

B) A field is added to the data file. The conceptual view is

where this change is made.

C) A user account has restricted access to the file. The

external view must be changed.

D) More than one of the above

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Conclusion
A database is a collection of logically related data stored and
managed by a database management system (DBMS).

A DBMS has advantages over traditional file systems as they

support data independence and provide standard
implementations for data management tasks.
Data definition and manipulation languages (DDL and DML)
System catalog maintains database description (schema)
defined using the data model.

The 3-schema architecture consists of external, conceptual, and

physical schemas. Each view provides data abstraction and
isolates the layer above from certain data manipulation details.
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Objectives
Define: database, DBMS, database application/system
Describe the features of a file-based system and some
limitations inherent in that architecture.
Define program-data independence and explain how it is
achieved by databases but not by file systems.
Define DDL and DML. What is the difference?
List some modules of a DBMS.
List different people associated with a DBMS and their roles.
Explain how a schema differs from data.
Draw a diagram of the 3-schema architecture and explain what
each level provides. List benefits of the architecture.
How does a schema provide data independence?
Compare/contrast two-tier and three-tier architectures.
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