The Characteristics of Databases

• The purpose of a database: to help track things

• Conventions: STUDENT(StuNum, FirstName,
LastName, Phone, Address)
• Content:
– Tables
– Rows: each row in a table stores data about an
occurrence or instance of the thing of interest
– Columns
– Data: each table stores data about a different thing
– A database stores relationships as well
• A database can be used to produce information
 Database Examples
1

4
MS Access in Detail
Enterprise-Class Database Systems

Compare: Database, DBMS, Database System

Components of a Database System
• Applications are the computer programs
that users work with
• Database Management System (DBMS)
creates, processes and manages dbs
• Structured Query Language (SQL): an
standard database language used by all
commercial DBMSs
 Prominent DBMS Products
• MS Access
• MS SQL Server
– New: MS SQL Server Express
• IBM DB2
• Oracle
• MySQL
• DBMS by power, features and easy of use
– Figure 1-8 (page 11)
 Database Definition/Contents
• Database: a self-describing collection of integrated tables
• The integrated tables because they store data about the
relationships between the rows of data
• Self-describing because it stores a description of itself –
metadata (data about data)
Three Types of Database Design
Data Import: One or Two Tables?
This is an important
decision, and based
on a set of rules
known as
normalization (which
is covered in Chapter
Three)
What You Need to Learn
 E-R Diagram
(Ch 5)
Relationships between Chapters

Using
DB Model Normalization
Normalization
(Ch 6) (Ch 3)
(Ch 4)

DB Implementation
(Ch 7)

SQL
(Ch 2)
DB MGMT/App
(Ch 11/13)
The History of Database Processing
The Relational Database Model
• The dominant database model is the
relational database model
• Created by IBM engineer E. F. Codd in
1970
• It was based on mathematics called
relational algebra
• This text examines and explains the
relational database model
Database Design Process for New
Systems Development

Entity-Relationship data modeling is covered in Chapter Five, and data model

transformations to database designs are covered in Chapter Six
 A Brief
History of
Database
Processing
(Page 19)
 Practice: Create Database in
Access
• Create two tables
• Create the relationship
• Add values to the tables
• Create a form
• Create a report