Database Management System (DBMS):

A Database Management System is also know as DBMS. These days RDBMS

are used to store Gigabytes of data for banking, E-commerce, web portals
and many such applications. In this section we will learn about RDBMS such
as MySQL, Oracle etc.

A Database Management System (DBMS) sometimes called a database

manager or database system is a set of computer programs that controls the
creation, organization, maintenance, and retrieval of data from the database
stored in a computer. It allows the individuals or entities to easily access and
use the data from database. An excellent database system helps the end
users to easily access and use the data and also stores the new data in a
systematic way. It knows better the actual physical location of the data.

A DBMS is a system software package that ensures the integrity and security
of the data. The most typical DBMS is a relational database management
system (RDBMS). A newer kind of DBMS is the object-oriented database
management system (ODBMS). The DBMS are categorized according to their
data types and structure. It accepts the request for the data from an
application program and instructs the operating system to transfer the
appropriate data to the end user. A standard user and program interface is
the Structured Query Language (SQL).

Database Tutorials:
SQL
MySQL

There are many Data Base Management System like MySQL, PostgreSQL,
Microsoft Access, SQL Server, FileMaker, Oracle, RDBMS, dBASE, Clipper,
FoxPro and many more that work independently and freely but also allow
other database systems to be integrated with them. For this DBMS software
comes with an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver ensuring the
databases to be integrated with it.

A DBMS includes four main parts: modeling language, data structure,

database query language, and transaction mechanisms Modeling language.

Modeling Language: A data modeling language to define the schema (the

overall structure of the database) of each database hosted in the DBMS,
according to the DBMS database model. The schema specifies data, data
relationships, data semantics, and consistency constraints on the data. The
four most common types of models are the:
Hierarchical model
Network model
Relational model
Object model

The optimal structure depends on the natural organization of the

application's data, and on the application's requirements that include
transaction rate (speed), reliability, maintainability, scalability, and cost.

Data Structures: Data structures which includes fields, records, files and
objects optimized to deal with very large amounts of data stored on a
permanent data storage device like hard disks, CDs, DVDs, Tape etc.

Database Query Language: Using the Database Query Language (DQL) users
can formulate requests and generate reports. It also controls the security of
the database. The DQL and the report writer allows users to interactively
interrogate the database, analyze its data and update it according to the
users privileges on data. For accessing and using personal records there is a
need of password to retrieve the individual records among the bunch of
records. For Example: the individual records of each employee in a factory.

Transaction mechanisms modeling language: The transaction mechanism

modeling language ensures about data integrity despite concurrent user
accesses and faults. It maintains the integrity of the data in the database by
not allowing more than one user to update the same record at the same
time. The unique index constraints prevent to retrieve the duplicate records
like no two customers with the same customer numbers (key fields) can be
entered into the database.

The Latest Trend

Among several types of DBMS, Relational Database Management System

(RDBMS) and Object-oriented Database Management System (OODBMS) are
the most commonly used DBMS software.

The RDBMS is a Database Management System (DBMS) based on the

relational model in which data is stored in the form of tables and the
relationship among the data is also stored in the form of tables. It was
introduced by E. F. Codd, which is the most popular commercial and open
source databases now days. The most popular RDBMS is:
MySQL
PostgreSQL
Firebird
SQLite
DB2
Oracle

OODBMS: Object-Oriented Database Management System (OODBMS) in short

Object Database Management System (ODBMS) is a database management
system (DBMS) that supports the modeling and creation of data as objects. It
includes some kind of support for classes of objects and the inheritance of
class properties and methods by subclasses and their objects. An ODBMS

must satisfy two conditions: it should be an object-oriented programming

language and a DBMS too.

OODBMS extends the object programming language with transparently

persistent data, concurrency control, data recovery, associative queries, and
other database capabilities.
At present it is on its development stage and used in Java and other Object
Oriented programming language.

Earlier it was introduced to replace the RDBMS due to its better performance
and scalability but the inclusion of object-oriented features in RDBMS and the
origin of Object-relational mappers (ORMs) made it enough powerful to
defend its persistence. The higher switching cost also played a vital role to
defend the existence of RDBMS. Now it is being used as a complement, not a
replacement for relational databases.

Now it is being used in embedded persistence solutions in devices, on

clients, in packaged software, in real-time control systems, and to power
websites. The open source community has created a new wave of
enthusiasm that's now fueling the rapid growth of ODBMS installations.

The most commonly DBMS are:

SQL
MySQL
SQLite
PostgreSQL
Microsoft Access
SQL Server
FileMaker

DB2
Oracle
Firebied
DBASE
Clipper
FoxPro

DBMS (Database Management System)

A Database management system (DBMS) is a software package that allows

users to design, create, access, maintain and view data. Microsoft Access is
one such package. The file which is created for the data is the database. The
program such as Access is the DBMS.

The program will perform a number of different tasks such as:

ORGANISING the data using a data dictionary
SHOWING RELATIONSHIPS between entities using schematic diagrams
called entity relationship diagrams (ERDs)
CHECKING FOR identifiable ERRORS in data entry
Allowing FLEXIBILITY to change the definition of the database
RESTRICTING ACCESS to the data to authorised people
PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE of the database