1) GLOSSARY OF TERMS

1. Address: Number given to a memory location for identification

2. ALU: Arithmetic logical unit
3. Application: A procedure to be run on a com puter
4. Applications Package: A standard set of pro grams to run a procedure
5. Arithmetic Unit: Part of the GPU where arith metic is carried out (also called ALU)
6. Assembler: Program to translate a low-level language into machine language
7. Batch: A set of transactions awaiting processing, hence
8. Batch Processing: Processing a batch of trans actions
9. BCD: Binary coded decimal, a method of repre senting numeric data
10. Bit: Binary digit, 0 or 1 on the binary scale
11. Bureau: Organization hiring out computer time
12. Byte: Group of eight bits
13. Central Processing Unit: The memory, ALU and control unit
14. Check Digit: Additional digit added to a code to check its accuracy
15. Code: Unique identifier of an item, also a pro gram instruction
16. Coding: Writing program instructions
17. Collating: Gathering together transactions relat ing to the same record
18. Compiler: Program to translate a high-level language into machine language
19. Control Unit: Part of CPU, used to control the activities of the computer
20. CPU: Central Processing Unit
21. Data Control: Task of ensuring that all data is properly processed
22. Data Preparation: Converting data to machine-readable form
23. Desk Check: Method of testing program logic
24. Direct Access: Capability of accessing and record in a file without accessing the
complete file
25. Disc: Direct Access Storage Device
26. Diskette: Direct Access Storage Device
27. Documentation: Flowcharts, diagrams and nar rative explaining a program
28. Dry Run: Similar to desk check
29. File: A series of records
30. File Storage Device: A means of storing files
31. Floppy: diskette
32. Flowchart: A method of expressing logic
33. GIGO: Garbage in, garbage out are the result of errors input data
34. Hardware: The machinery of the computer, CPU and peripherals
35. High-Level Language: Language in which thebprocedures to be carried out are
expressed in terms familiar to the user, e.g. English, or mathematical formulae
36. Hit Rate: The ratio of transactions to records
37. Information Retrieval: Obtaining information from files
38. Input: Data to be used for processing, hence
39. Input Device: Device to transfer such data to the CPU
40. Instruction: Program coding which causes the computer to take some action
41. Interpreter: Program to translate a high-level language into machine language
used when the pro gram is translated each time it is run
42. IAS: Instant access store, alternative name for memory
43. Job Assembly: Task of putting together all items required by the operators to run a
job
44. Job Control Language: Programming language used to instruct the 'operating
system
45. Jump: Capability of altering the sequence of processing depending on the result of
a test
46.

Key: Part of a record used to identify the record e.g. for sorting
Continued

 Language: Set of instructions available to the programmer for writing a program

 Logic Unit: Part of the CPU where logical operations are carried out
 Low-Level Language: Programming language using computer functions to specify the
logic of a procedure (e.g. high-level language)
 Machine Language: Program instructions in bi nary form as required by the computer
 Mainframe: Largest type of computer configu ration
 Master File: A set of records permanently main tained for processing e.g. employee
file
 Memory: Pail of the CPU used for storing data and programs
 Microcomputer: Very small computer with limited facilities
 Microsecond: One millionth of a second
 Millisecond: One thousandth of a second
 Minicomputer: Computer of intermediate size between a microcomputer and a
mainframe
 Nanosecond: One thousand millionth of a second
 Operating System: Program, usually provided by the manufacturer, for making the
computer work
 Output: Results obtained from processing, hence
 Output Device: Peripheral unit capable of writ ing or displaying output
 Package: see applications package
 Parity: Odd parity or even parity, methods of checking the accuracy of transfer of data
between locations in the computer configuration
 Peripheral: Device attached to the CPU but not part of it
 Processing Cycle: The cycle of input, process, output, common to most procedures
 Program: Set of instructions to the computer
 Punching: Turning data into a machine-readable form
 Record: Collections of an item e.g. an item of stock
 Software: The complete range of programs available for a computer
 Sorting: Using a key to place records in ascend ing or descending order
 Storage Medium: Means of storing data e.g. magnetic tapes and discs
 Structured Programming: Method of express ing the logical relationship of program
modules
 Syntax: Permitted words, symbols and construc tions in a programming language
 Systems Analysis: A study of the way in which a procedure is carried out;
 Systems Specification: Written report of the analysis of system or procedure
 Telecommunications: Passing data to a compu ter over telephone (or similar) lines
 Terminal: For communicating/with a computer
 Test Data: A set of data provided to test the correct working of a system or program
 Transaction: Data relating to an occurrence which causes the master file to be merited
e.g. hours worked this week, hence
 Transaction Processing: Altering the master file as the occurrence happens of each
processing
 Updating: Process of amending data in the mas ter file by a transaction
 Utility: Program to perform processing functions common to most programs
 Validation: Process of ensuring that all feasible steps are taken to check the accuracy
of input data
 VDU: Visual Display Unit, peripheral for displaying output and other data
 Verifying: Processing of checking data when it has been punched
 2)Glossary Terms

Access Method: The Algorithm by which an item of physical data is identified and located, and
the routines external to the application program by which the item is stored and retrieved.
Access Path: The route taken through the logical structure of the database, in terms of the data
rela tionships used by the system, in order to locate a desired logical data-unit.
Access Time: The time interval between the ins tant the run-unit calls for a unit of data to be
trans ferred to or from its user work area and the instant the operation is completed.
Active Domain: The collection of values per taining to that domain which are actually represent ed
at some instant.
Airea; A named logical subdivision of the ad dressable storage space in the database, which
may contain occurrences of records, sets and parts of sets of various types; and which can be
mapped onto storage media.
Array: An dimensional collection of data-items all of which have identical characteristics.
Assembly Languages: Assembly languages were developed to make programming easier.
Associative Memory: A processor main store in which data is identified by its Value rather than
by an address and upon which any given operation may be performed simultaneously with all
data-items meeting specified criteria.
Associative Transaction: The pre-defined pro cessing of one or more items in the database, which
is automatically invoked on the change in value of some other item.
Attribute Migration: Replacement of a relation by two or more of its projections such that it may be
recovered by taking the natural join of these projections.
Binding: The firm association of the specific data-types required by a program with that data as
physically stored in the database.
Candidate Key: An attribute or combination of attributes of a relation such that for each of that
relation the value of the key uniquely identifies that.., and no attribute in the key can be dis
carded without destroying this uniqueness.
Chain: A continuous series of linked records in which each contains pointers to its successor
and/or predecessor in the chain, such that it is possible from any point in the chain to process all
records by following the chain subsequently.
Checkpoint: The act of recording the state of units of data and those application programs
operat ing on them, for the purpose of reconstructing the data and restarting the programs.
Composition: The operation of combining two relations with some domain in common, where this
common domain is then discarded.
Compound Domain: An expanded Cartesian product of a finite number of simple domains.
Content Addressable Store (CAS): A second ary storage device designed for the rapid retrieval of
data by a sequential scan of the values stored, rather than by the use of hardware addressing
techniques.
Contention: The situation where more than one run-unit is attempting at the same point in time
to access the same units of data.
Currency: The present state of a run-unit in terms of the units of data which it has last accessed
of each type of physical and logical structures.
Data-Aggregate: A named collection of data-• items within a record.
Data Analysis: The detailed analysis of the total data of an enterprise to identify the data
elements and the relationships between them with a view to rationalizing the control of data within
the enter prise and to minimizing data redundancy.
 Database: A generalized, common, integrated collection of company or installation-owned data
which fulfills the data requirements of all applica tions which access it, and which is structured to
model the natural data relationships which exists in an enterprise. O f A finite collection of time-
varying relations defined on a finite collection of domains.
Database Administrator (DBA): A person or persons given the responsibility for the definition,
organization, protection and efficiency of the data base for an enterprise.
Database-Date-Nams: A name given to a unit of data within the database for the purpose of
identi fying that unit of data.
Database Dictionary: A documentation of the types of data-units in the database or available for
inclusion in the database in terms of their definition, purpose, controls, formats, relationships with
other data-units, and other properties relevant to database design and application development.
Database Directory: A collection of descriptors of all units of data that are available to the
database management system, these descriptors being derived from the data definition language
statements.
Database Handler: That part of the executable^ code of the database management system
which enables run units to have access to the database.
Database Identifier: The unique identification , of a unit of data within the database, consisting
of its data-name qualified by the name of any larger unit of data of which it forms a part, and
which itself is uniquely named within the database.
Database Key: The unique identifier assigned by the DBMS to each and every record occurrence
in the database.
Database Management System (DBMS): The data processing system providing the means to
access, organize and control all information stored in the database.
Database-Parameter: A user assigned name for a system communication location whereby the
run-unit transmits certain control data to the DBMS.
Database-Procedure: A routine specific to the requirements of a particular database, written by Us
database administrator and stored within the system and invoked by the DBMS whenever it is
needed.
Database Processor: A hardware/software sys tem dedicated to the control and maintenance of
a database, and satisfying requests to access the data base from run-units in one or more
associated host processors.
Data Description Language (DDL): The language used to describe the database, or that part of
the database known to a program.
Data Dictionary: A standard description of all data elements relevant to the enterprise in terms of
their source; users, ownership, relationships, controls and storage.
Data-Item: The smallest unit of named data, an occurrence of which is a representation of a value.
Data Integrity: The concept that all units of data must be protected against accidental or
deliberate invalidation
Data Manipulation Language (DML): The lan guage used to cause data to be transferred
between the application program and the database.
Data Privacy: The concept that units of data can be altered viewed or processed only by users
who have the proper authority.
Data Selection: The formation from an existing collection of relations, of a new normalized
relation having the properties defined in the selection criteria.
Data Structure: The user's own conception of his data, independent of the way in which it is
stored, providing a picture of the database in terms of its structural components and attributes.
Data Unit: A generic term denoting by collection of data, be it a data-item, data aggregate,
record, set or file.
 Deadlock: The situation where two or more run-units are competing for the same resources and
none may procede as each run-unit is waiting for oneof the others to release a resource the latter
has already claimed.
Degree: The number of domains whom a rela tion.
Derived Data-Items A data-item who’s, contents are generated by the DBMS.
Device Media Control Language (VICL): The language used to specify the storage of
data at a physical level, including control of space on each device, overflow, buffering and paging.
Distributed Database: A database under the overall control of a central DBMS, but where the
devices on which it is stored are not all attached to the same processor.
Domains: The groups of like data upon Which a relation is defined.
Entity: A person, place, thing or event of inte rest to the enterprise, and about which data may
be recorded.
Entity Name: The symbol by which a person, place, thing, class or any object of thought is
known.
Entity Stream: All the entities of one type, and hence the form in which the application
processes its data.
Entry: A definition in the schema or subschema of a named data-unit type.

3) Glossary Terms
Exclusive Control: A facility to allow only a single run-unit to operate on all or part or a
database in order to prevent multiple concurrent interactions such that the integrity of the data is
preserved.
File Management: A generic term for the functions of creation, insertion, deletion and
modification of records; reorganizing, sorting, merging and other processes commonly performed
on files.
First Normal Form: The type of relation which has the property that none of its domains have,
ele ments which are themselves relations.
Foreign Key: A segment of a record which is not its primary key, but whose elements arc
values of the primary key of some other record.
Functional Dependence: An attribute or collec tion or attributes of a relation is
functionally dependent on a second attribute of that relation if at very instant of time,
each value of the first attribute has no more than one value of the second attribute
associated with it under the relation.
R.A. * R.B.
Hierarchy: One or more sets of directed rela tionships between two or more units of
data, such that some units of data are considered owners while others are members,
and such that, one unit of data has no owner, and all others have exactly one owner.
Host Language: The programming language used to write the application program,
and in which the data manipulation language commands are em bedded.
Identifier: A unit of date whose value uniquely identifies an occurrence of that unit of
data or of a different unit of data.
Inverted File: A storage organization in which an index is provided for the values of
each type of data-item.
Join: The operation of combining two relations with some domain in common, such
that all the original information is preserved.
Linkage: A mechanism for connecting one unit
of data to another.
List: A series of linked records in which each contains a pointer to its successor in the
list.
 List Processing: Processing associated items which are linked by means of pointers.
Location Mode: The method by which the DBMS controls the assignment of database-
keys to records.
Logical Data: The data which the application program presents to or receives from the
database .
Logical Record: A collection of data-items independent of their physical environment.
Portions of the same logical record may be located in different physical records.
Member Record: A record within a set, where that record has a dependent relationship
with the owner of that set.
Navigation: The process by which a program is coded to follow access paths defined
by the data base structure.
Network: One or more collections of directed relationships between three or more
units of data such that some units of data are considered owners while other are
members, where each member may have more than one owner.
Occurrence: A specific instance of the value of a unit of data.
Optimal Third Normal Form: A collection of relations are in the optimal third normal
form, where the number of relations used to define a given collection of data is at a
minimum, and cache relation must not have any pair of attributes such that one member
of the pair is strictly transitively dependent on the other in some relation.
Owner Record: A record which determines the existence of a set, and with which any
other records of that set have a dependent relationship.
Physical Data: The data which the database management system presents to the
operating system for storage or receives from it for processing.
Plexus Entry: A set of group relations in which every group except the entry-defining
group can be subordinate to another group and participate in more general relations.
Pointer Array: A collection of pointers associa ted with an owner record and used to
link it with the member records of a set.
Primary Key: The domain or combination of domains of a given relation with uniquely
identifies each type of that relation.
Prime Attribute: Any attribute of a relation that participates in at least one candidate
key of that relation.
Privacy Key: A data-item whose contents are used by the DBMS to determine if a locked
resource is to be made available to the run-unit that specified the privacy key value.
Privacy Lock: A value known to the DBMS that is associated with a facility of data unit.
Projection: The operation of selecting from a relation specified-domain and then
removing any tuples which are now producing a .second more limited relation.
Realm: A logical sub-division of the database into which records of specified types
may be stored.
Record-Occurrence: A single instance of a named collection of data-elements of data-
aggre gates.
Record Selection Expression (RSE): The phrase specified in a source program that
specifies the algorithm to be used by the DBMS to identify a specific database record.
Record-Type: A named collection of zero, one or more data elements or data-
aggregates. There may be an arbitrary number of occurrences in the database of each
record type.
Redundancy: A situation where there are multi ple occurrences of a particular unit of
data in a database.
Relation: A relation exists between a group of sets, if each element in each set has a
logical con nection with the corresponding elements in the other sets.
 Relation Model: A logical view of data in which all data elements are grouped in
relations of the third normal form.
Relationship: A relation in which the ordering of domains is of no significance. Or A meaningful
association between units of data.
Reorganization: The process of rearranging the relative physical placement of data-
units in the database.
Repeating Group: A collection of data that occurs an arbitrary number of times within a record
occurrence, may, consist of data-items, vectors and repeating groups.
Requestor: An individual desiring to use the data in a database.
Restriction: The operation of producing a subset of one relation, which contains all tuples
that are in common with a second relation.
Restructure: The process of adding to or delet ing from the types of data-units and data-
relation ship represented in the database, or rearranging data-units which are
components of larger data-units, and of making the corresponding changes to its
schema.
Roll-Back: The process of reversing recent activities of the system, to store some of or
the entire database to its state at a previous point in time.
Run-Unit: The execution of one or more pro grams. Each run-unit is a separate entity
serviced by the DBMS with its own user working area and communication locations.
Schema: A complete description of the database in terms of the characteristics of the
data and the implicit and explicit relationship between data-units.
Second Normal Form: A relation is in second normal form if it is in first normal form and
every non-prime attribute of the relation is fully depen dent on each of its candidate
keys.
Self-Defining Data: A unit of data whose des cription appears with its occurrence.
Set: A named collection of related records repre senting a one-to-many relationship
between the owner and member records.
Set Selection: The process by which the DBMS uses a specified algorithm to determine
the appro priate occurrence of set type for the purpose of inserting or accessing a
member record.
Subschema: A description of those data-Units and relationships from a database of interest to a
particular program.
System Communication Locations: The loca tions used for interaction between the DBMS
and a run-unit; these include currency status indicators and error status information.
Temporary Area: A sub-division of addressable storage space in the database, a different
occurrence of which is provided for each run-unit opening it, and which is retained only
during the life of the run-unit.
Third Normal Form (TNF): A relation is in third normal form if and only if its non-key
domains (if any) are mutually independent and fully inde pendent on its primary key.
Transposed File: A storage organization in which data-items of a given type are stored as a
vector, with each of the data-items from any one record occurrence held at the same relative
position in each of the vectors concerned.
Transitive Dependence: Dependence between attributes which is indirectly implicit, due to direct
functional dependence with other attributes.
Transparency: The shielding of the application from changes to the database.
N-Tuple: An occurrence of n related data-elements such that each is a corresponding member of
n domains which form a relation.
Union: The operation of combining two rela tions with all domains in common, together with
elimination of any identical tuples.
 Union-Compatible Domains: Domains of the same degree where each pair of corresponding do
mains are either both of integer elements of both of character string elements.
User Working Area (UWA): The locations where all data provided by the DMS in response to a call
for data is delivered, and where all data to be picked up by the DMS must be placed.
Vector: A one-dimensional, ordered collection of data-items, all of which have identical charac
teristics.