THE DATABASE

ADMINISTRATOR
> Set of data held in computer.
> A person who manages the administration.
FUNCTIONS OF DATABASE
ADMINISTRATOR
Database Planning:Implementation:Design:Operation and
Maintenance:Change and Growth:
The Data Dictionary
Another important function of the DBA is the creation and maintenance of the data
dictionary. The data dictionary describes every data element in the database. This
enables all users to share a common view of the data resource. The data dictionary may
be in both paper form and online. Most DBMSs employ special software for managing the
data dictionary.
Organizational Interactions of the
database Administrator
Typical File Processing Operations
1. Retrieve a record from the file based on its primary key value.
2. Insert a record into a file.
3. Update a record in the file.
4. Read a complete file of records.
5. Find the next record in a file.
6. Scan a file for records with common secondary keys.
7. Delete a record from a file.
Data Structures
Data structures are the bricks and mortar of the database. The
data structure allows records to be located, stored, and retrieved,
and enables movement from one record to another.
Data structures have two fundamental components: organization and access
method.

Data Organization
The organization of a file refers to the way records are physically arranged on
the secondary storage device.

Data Access Methods

The access method is the technique used to locate records and to navigate
through the database. The criteria that influence the selection of the data
structure
1. Rapid file access and data retrieval
2. Efficient use of disk storage space
3. High throughput for transaction processing
4. Protection from data loss
5. Ease of recovery from system failure
6. Accommodation of file growth
Data Attribute/Field.
A data attribute is a single item of data, such as
customer’s name, account balance, or address.

Entity.
An entity is a database representation of an individual
resource, event, or agent about which we choose to
collect data.

Entities may be physical or conceptual record Type.

When we group together the data attributes that
logically define an entity, they form a record type. For
example, the data attributes describing the sales event
could form the sales order record type.
Database.
A database is the set of record types that an organization needs to support
its business processes. Some organizations employ a distributed database
approach and create different databases for each of its primary functional
areas.
Associations
Record types that constitute a database exist in relation to other record
types. This is called an association. Three basic record associations are: one-
to-one, one to-many, and many-to-many.
One-to-one association
This means that for every occurrence in Record
Type X, there is one occurrence in Record Type Y.
One-to-many association
For every occurrence in Record Type X, there are
zero, one, or many occurrences in Record Type Y.
This means that a particular customer may have
purchased goods from the company zero, one or
many times during the period under review.
Many-to-many association
For each occurrence of Record Types X and Y, there are
zero, one, or many occurrences of Record Types Y and
X, respectively. The business relationship between an
organization’s inventory and its suppliers.
The Hierarchical Model
The earliest database management systems were based on the hierarchical data
model. This was a popular method of data representation because it reflected,
more or less faithfully, many aspects of an organization that are hierarchical in
relationship. IBM’s information management system (IMS) is the most prevalent
example of a hierarchical database.
The hierarchical data model is called a navigational database because
traversing the files requires following a redefined path. This is established
through explicit linkages (pointers) between related records.
The Network Model
In the late 1970s, an ANSI committee created the Committee on Development of Applied
Symbolic Languages (CODASYL), which formed a database task group to develop standards for
database design. CODASYL developed the network model for databases. The most popular
example of the network model is IDMS, which Cullinane/Cullinet Software introduced into the
commercial market in the 1980s. Although this model has under gone many changes over the
years, it is still in use today.
The Relational Model
E. F. Codd originally proposed the principles of the relational model in the late 1960s. The formal model has
its foundations in relational algebra and set theory, which provide the theoretical basis for most of the data
manipulation operations used. The most apparent difference between the relational model and the
navigational models is the way in which data associations are represented to the user.

The relational model portrays data in the form of two-dimensional tables. Figure 4.13 presents an example of
a database table called Customer. Across the top of the table are attributes (data fields) forming columns.
Intersecting the columns to form rows in the table are tuples. A tuple is a normalized array of data that is
similar, but not precisely equivalent, to a record in a flat-file system. Properly designed tables possess the
following four characteristics:
1. All occurrences at the intersection of a row and a column are a single value. No multiple values are
allowed.
2. The attribute values in any column must all be of the same class.
3. Each column in a given table must be uniquely named. However, different tables may contain columns
with the same name.
4. Each row in the table must be unique in at least one attribute. This attribute is the primary key.