Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B.

Navathe
 CHAPTER 1

Databases and Database Users

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OUTLINE
■ Basic Definitions and Types of Databases and
Database Applications
■ Typical DBMS Functionality
■ Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
■ Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
■ Advantages of Using the Database Approach
■ Types of Database Users

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 Basic Definitions and
Concepts

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Basic Definitions
■ Database:
■ A collection of organized related data to serve a given

purpose.
■ Data: Known facts that can be recorded and have an

implicit meaning.
■ Database Management System (DBMS):
■ A software package/ system to facilitate the
creation and maintenance of a computerized
database.
■ Database System:
■ The DBMS software together with the data itself.
Sometimes, the applications are also included.

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Simplified database system environment

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Types of Databases and Database
Applications
■ Traditional Applications:
■ Numeric and
■ Textual Databases
■ More Recent Applications:
■ Multimedia Databases
■ Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
■ Biological and Genome Databases
■ Data Warehouses
■ Mobile databases
■ Real-time and Active Databases

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Impact of Databases and Database
Technology
■ Businesses: Banking, Insurance, Retail,
Transportation, Healthcare, Manufacturing
■ Service Industries: Financial, Real-estate, Legal,
Electronic Commerce, Small businesses
■ Education : Resources for content and Delivery
■ More recently: Social Networks, Environmental
and Scientific Applications, Medicine and
Genetics
■ Personalized Applications: based on smart
mobile devices
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Typical Functionality of DBMS

■ 1. Define a particular database in terms of its data

types, structures, and constraints
■ 2. Construct or Load the initial database contents
on a secondary storage device.
■ 3. Manipulating the database:
■ Retrieval: Querying, generating reports
■ Modification: Insertions, deletions and updates to its content
■ Accessing the database through Web applications
■ 4. Processing and Sharing by a set of concurrent users
and application programs – yet, keeping all data valid
and consistent

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Additional Functionality of DBMS

■ DBMS may additionally provide:

■ Protection or Security measures to prevent
unauthorized access
■ “Active” processing to take internal actions on data
■ Presentation and Visualization of data
■ System and software Maintenance of the
database and associated programs over the
lifetime of the database application.

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Database Applications

■ Applications interact with a database by

generating
- Queries: that access different parts of data
and formulate the result of a request
- Update Transactions: that may read some data
and “update” certain values or generate new
data and store that in the database
■ Applications must not allow unauthorized users to
access data
■ Applications must keep up with changing user
requirements against the database
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 Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data
Model)

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Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
■ Application area of the example:
■ Part of a UNIVERSITY environment.
■ Some entities in the example:
■ STUDENTs
■ COURSEs
■ SECTIONs (of COURSEs)
■ (academic) DEPARTMENTs
■ INSTRUCTORs

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Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
■ Some relationships between entities:
■ SECTIONs are of specific COURSEs
■ STUDENTs take SECTIONs
■ COURSEs have prerequisite COURSEs
■ INSTRUCTORs teach SECTIONs
■ COURSEs are offered by DEPARTMENTs
■ STUDENTs major in DEPARTMENTs

■ Note: The above entities and relationships are typically

expressed in a conceptual data model (see next slide),
such as the ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP data model
(discussed later)
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Conceptual Model of Data in Figure 1.2 (next slide)

Slide 2- 15
Example of a simple database

Slide 1- 16
An Example (cont'd.)

■ Examples of queries:

■ Retrieve the transcript.

■ List the names of students who took the section of the

‘Database’ course offered in fall 2008 and their grades in
that section.

■ List the prerequisites of the ‘Database’ course

Slide 1- 17
An Example (cont'd.)

■ Examples of updates:

■ Change the class of ‘Smith’ to sophomore.

■ Create a new section for the ‘Database’ course for this

semester.

■ Enter a grade of ‘A’ for ‘Smith’ in the ‘Database’ section of

last semester

Slide 1- 18
 The Database Approach

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Database vs. File Systems

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Simple File System: An Example

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach
1. Self-describing nature of a database system:
■ A DBMS catalog stores the description of a particular
database (e.g. data structures, types, and constraints)
(see next slide)
■ This description is called meta-data (that is data about
data).
■ This allows the DBMS software to work with different
database applications.
2. Insulation between programs and data:
■ This is called program-data independence.
■ Allows changing data structures and storage organization
without having to change the DBMS access programs.

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Example of a simplified database catalog

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
3. Data Abstraction:
■ A data model is used to hide storage details
(see next slide) and present the users with a
conceptual view of the database.
■ Programs refer to the data model constructs rather
than data storage details
4. Support of multiple views of the data:
■ Each user may see a different view of the
database, which describes only the data of
interest to that user.

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Internal Storage Format

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
5. Sharing of data and multi-user transaction
processing:
■ Allowing a set of concurrent users to retrieve from and to
update the database.
■ Concurrency control within the DBMS guarantees that each
transaction is correctly executed or aborted
■ Recovery subsystem ensures each completed transaction
has its effect permanently recorded in the database
■ OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) is a major part of
database applications. This allows hundreds of concurrent
transactions to execute per second.

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 Advantages of the
Database Approach

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Advantages of Using the Database
Approach
■ Controlling redundancy in data storage and in
development and maintenance efforts.
■ Representing complex relationships among data.
■ Providing storage structures (e.g. indexes) for
efficient query processing.
■ Enforcing integrity constraints on the database.

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Advantages of Using the Database
Approach (continued)
■ Providing
■ optimization of queries for efficient
processing.
■ backup and recovery services.
■ multiple interfaces to different classes of
users.
■ sharing of data among multiple users.
■ Restriction of unauthorized access to data. Only
the DBA staff uses privileged commands and
facilities.

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Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach
■ Potential for enforcing standards:
■ This is very crucial for the success of database
applications in large organizations. Standards
refer to data item names, display formats, screens,
report structures, meta-data (description of data),
Web page layouts, etc.
■ Reduced application development time:
■ Incremental time to add each new application is
reduced.

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Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach (continued)
■ Flexibility to change data structures:
■ Database structure may evolve as new
requirements are defined.
■ Availability of current information:
■ Extremely important for on-line transaction
systems such as shopping, airline, hotel, car
reservations.
■ Economies of scale:
■ Wasteful overlap of resources and personnel can
be avoided by consolidating data and applications
across departments.
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 Database Users

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Database Users
■ Users may be divided into two groups:
1. Those who actually use and control the
database content, and those who design,
develop and maintain database applications
(called “Actors on the Scene”), and
2. Those who design and develop the DBMS
software and related tools, and the computer
systems operators (called “Workers Behind the
Scene”).

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Database System Environment and Users

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Database Users – Actors on the
Scene
■ Actors on the scene
■ Database Administrators (DBA):
■ Responsible for authorizing access to the database,
for coordinating and monitoring its use, acquiring
software and hardware resources, controlling its use
and monitoring efficiency of operations.
■ Database Analysts and Designers:
■ Responsible for defining the content, the structure,
the constraints, and functions or transactions
against the database. They must communicate
with the end-users and understand their needs.

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Database End Users
■ Actors on the scene (continued)
■ Database Application Developers: This
includes: system analysts, application
programmers, and business analysts.
■ Database End-users: They use the data for
queries, reports and some of them update the
database content.

w e b s it Slide 1- 36
Database Users – Workers behind the
Scene
■ System Designers and Implementors:
■ They design and implement DBMS packages in the
form of modules and interfaces and test and debug
them.
■ Tool Developers:
■ They design and implement software systems
called tools that facilitate building of applications
and allow using database effectively.
■ Operators and Maintenance Personnel:
■ They manage the actual running and maintenance
of the database system hardware and software
environment.

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Chapter Summary
■ Types of Databases and Database Applications
■ Basic Definitions
■ Typical DBMS Functionality
■ Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
■ Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
■ Types of Database Users
■ Advantages of Using the Database Approach
■ Extending Database Capabilities
■ When Not to Use Databases
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