II PUC 2025-26 (New syllabus) Computer Science Chapter 8 database concepts

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Chapter 8 Database concepts
Data:
 Data is a collection of characters, numbers, and other symbols that represents values of some situations or variables.

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 The generated data need to be stored and managed. This can be done manually or electronically.

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Manual data recording
Storing, entering, or recording the data in a register or paper manually by human is called as manual data recording.
Example: student attendance register in a college.

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Electronic data recording

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Storing or recording the data directly in a file stored in a secondary storage device is called as electronic data recording.
Example: ATM transactions.

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Limitations of manual data recording
 As the volume of data increases, manual data entry becomes tedious job.
 Loss of data if the register or paper is lost or damaged.

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 May not get accurate results.
 Redundant (duplicate) data entry.

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 Data inconsistency.
 Finding, modifying, deleting the data is difficult task.

File system
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 A file is a container to store data in a computer, which can be stored on the storage device of a computer system.
 Contents of a file can be texts, computer program code, comma separated values (CSV), etc.
 Pictures, audios, videos, web pages are also files.
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 Files stored on a computer can be searched, accessed directly.
 However, to access data of a file separate software is required.
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Limitations of a File System: File system becomes difficult to handle when number of files increases and volume of data also grows.

Following are some of the limitations of file system,

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 II PUC 2025-26 (New syllabus) Computer Science Chapter 8 database concepts

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a) Difficulty in Access
b) Data Redundancy
c) Data Inconsistency

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d) Data Isolation
e) Data Dependence

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f) Controlled Data Sharing

a) Difficulty in Access

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 Files do not provide any mechanism to retrieve data stored in it.
 It is difficult to access data in the required format.

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 Application programs, software is required to access the data stored in file system.

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b) Data Redundancy
 Redundancy means same data are duplicated in different files.
 Redundancy leads to excess storage use and may cause data inconsistency.

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c) Data Inconsistency
 Data inconsistency means, when same data maintained in different places do not match.
 This situation occurs when different people are maintaining the files.

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d) Data Isolation
 This means when there is no link or mapping between the data stored in different places.
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 If different person generates data files at different times, files being created in isolation may be of different formats.
 It is difficult to write new application programs, software to retrieve data from different files maintained at multiple places.
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e) Data Dependence
 Data are stored in a specific format or structure in a file.
 If the structure or format of data is changed, all the existing application programs accessing that file also need to be changed.
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 Otherwise, the programs may not work correctly. This is data dependency.
 Hence, updating the structure of a data file requires modification in all the application programs accessing that file.
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f) Controlled Data Sharing

 Different category of users access the data for different purpose.
 Some users need limited access of data and some users need full access of data.
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 In file system, it is not possible to share the data in different form for different users.

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Database Management System (DBMS): DBMS is a software used to create, store, manage, update, modify, delete, retrieve, and
manage database.

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Some examples of open source and commercial DBMS are
1) MySQL

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2) Oracle
3) PostgreSQL
4) SQL Server

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5) Microsoft Access
6) MongoDB.

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Points to remember

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1) Abstract view: A database system provides abstract view of the data by hiding certain details about how data are actually stored
and maintained.

2) Set of programs: Database system has a set of programs through which users or other programs can access, modify and retrieve

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the stored data.

3) Interface:

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 The DBMS serves as an interface between the database and end users or application programs.
 Some database management systems include a graphical user interface for users to create and manage databases.
 Some other database systems use a command line interface that requires users to use programming commands to create and
manage databases.
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4) Querying the database: retrieving the data, modifying the structure of the database through special type of commands is called as
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querying.

Uses or applications of database in real life

Application Database to maintain data about
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Banking Customer information, account details, loan details, transactions details etc.
Crop Loan kisan credit card data, farmer’s personal data, land area and cultivation data, loan
history, repayment data, etc.
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Inventory Management product details, customer information, order details, delivery data, etc.
Organization Resource Management employee records, salary details, department information, branch locations, etc.
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Online Shopping items description, user login details, users preferences details, etc.

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File system to DBMS
File system to DBMS conversion is required because of following reasons
 In file system, same data may be present in multiple files.

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 In file system, some files may contain redundant data.
 In file system, it is not possible to represent data uniquely.

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Note:
High Cost is required in shifting from file system to DBMS:

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• Purchasing sophisticated hardware and software.
• Training users for querying.

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• Maintenance cost is required to take regular backup and perform recovery operations.

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Key concepts in DBMS
a) Database Schema
 Database Schema is the design of a database that represents,
 Structure (table names and their fields/columns) of table.

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 The type of data each column can hold.
 Constraints on the data to be stored (if any).
 The relationships among the tables.

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 Database schema is also called the visual or logical architecture as it tells how the data are organized in a database.

b) Data constraint
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 It is the restrictions or limitations on the type of data that can be inserted in columns of a table.
 Constraints are specified on columns while creating the tables.
 Constraints are used to ensure accuracy and reliability of data in the database.
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For example
 Defining a column mobile number can only have non-negative integer values of exactly 10 digits.
 Defining NOT NULL and UNIQUE constraints on the Roll_Number column, as roll number is unique.
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c) Meta data or data dictionary

 The database schema along with various constraints on the data is stored by DBMS in a database catalog or dictionary, called
meta-data.
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 A meta-data is data about the data.

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d) Database Instance
 It is the state or snapshot of the database at any given time after storing data in database.
 Then user may retrieve data through queries or manipulate data through updating, modification or deletion.

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 Thus, the state of database can change, and thus a database schema can have many instances at different times.

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e) Query
 A query is a request to a database for obtaining information in a desired way.
 Query can be made to get data from one table or from a combination of tables.

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 To retrieve or manipulate data, the user needs to write query using a query language SQL (Structured Query Language).
 For example, “find names of all students with more the 85% percentage”.

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f) Data Manipulation

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 Modification of database consists of three operations viz. Insertion, Deletion or Update.
 Adding new rows, records to the database table is called as Insertion operation on the database.
 Deleting or removing rows, records from the database table is called as deletion operation on the database.
 Changing or modifying the existing rows, records in the database table is called as Update operation on the database.

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g) Database Engine: Database engine is the underlying component or set of programs used by a DBMS to create database and

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handle various queries for data retrieval and manipulation.

Limitations of DBMS
 Increased Complexity: Use of DBMS increases the complexity of maintaining functionalities like security, consistency,
sharing and integrity
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 Increased data vulnerability: As data are stored centrally, it increases the chances of loss of data due to any failure of
hardware or software. It can bring all operations to a halt for all the users.
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Data Model
 A data model describes the structure of the database, including how data are defined and represented, relationships among
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data, and the constraints.

 The most commonly used data model is Relational Data Model.
 Other types of data models include object-oriented data model, entity-relationship data model, document model and
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hierarchical data model.

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Relational Data Model
 In relational model, tables are called as relations that store data for different columns. Each row in the table represents a related
set of values.

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 Each table can have multiple columns and column name should be unique.
 Relations (table) in a database are dependent and are associated with each other.

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 If linking attributes are not there in appropriate relations (table), it will not be possible to keep the database in correct state
and retrieve valid information from the database.

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Commonly used terminologies in relational data model

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ATTRIBUTE:
 Characteristic or parameters for which data are to be stored in a relation.
 Simply stated, the columns of a relation are the attributes which are also referred as fields.

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TUPLE:
 Each row of data in a relation (table) is called a tuple.
 In a table with n columns, a tuple is a relationship between the n related values.

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DOMAIN:

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 It is a set of values from which an attribute can take a value in each row.
 a data type is used to specify domain for an attribute.
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DEGREE: The number of attributes in a relation is called the Degree of the relation.

CARDINALITY: The number of tuples in a relation is called the Cardinality of the relation.
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Three Important Properties of a Relation
In relational data model, following three properties are observed with respect to a relation which makes a relation different from a
data file or a simple table.
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Property 1: imposes following rules on an attribute of the relation.

 Each attribute in a relation has a unique name.
 Sequence of attributes in a relation is not important.
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Property 2: governs following rules on a tuple of a relation.

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 Each tuple in a relation is distinct.

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 Sequence of tuples in a relation is not important
 The tuples are not considered to be ordered, even though they appear to be in tabular form.

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Property 3: imposes following rules on the state of a relation.
 All data values in an attribute must be from the same domain (same data type).

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 Each data value associated with an attribute must be atomic (cannot be further divisible into meaningful subparts).
 No attribute can have many data values in one tuple.
 A special value “NULL” is used to represent values that are unknown or non-applicable to certain attributes.

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Keys in a Relational Database

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 Key is an attribute or a set of attributes used to uniquely identify each row (tuple) in a table (relation).
 The tuples within a relation must be distinct, unique.

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 There should be at least one attribute in which data are distinct (unique) and not NULL.
 Relational data model imposes some restrictions or constraints on the values of the attributes and how the contents of one
relation be referred through another relation.
 These restrictions are specified at the time of defining the database through different types of keys.

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Candidate Key: In a relation, one or more attributes can take distinct values to uniquely identify the tuples in the relation. Such

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attributes are called candidate keys.

Primary Key: Out of one or more candidate keys, the attribute chosen by the database designer to uniquely identify the tuples in a
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relation is called the primary key of that relation.

Alternate keys: These are the candidate keys but not selected as primary keys.
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Composite Primary Key: If more than one attribute are taken together as primary key then it is called Composite Primary key.
Foreign Key
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 A foreign key is an attribute whose value is derived from the primary key of another relation.
 A foreign key is used to represent the relationship between two relations (tables).
 This means that any attribute of a relation (referencing), which is used to refer contents from another (referenced) relation,
becomes foreign key if it refers to the primary key of referenced relation.
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 The referencing relation is called Foreign Relation.

 The relation in which the referenced primary key is defined is called primary relation or master relation.
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 In some cases, foreign key can take NULL value if it is not the part of primary key of the foreign table.