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Different
way to
store data

Databases offer an organized mechanism for

storing, managing and retrieving information
that is independent from the applications.

Data types
Number and strings
Signals
Images
Files are a data storage entity that contain
data according to the application organization.
Binary or Text

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A database is a collection of files.

Database
s

A file is a collection of byte that has a

name. Files are accessed by means of
their name.
A file is further subdivided into logical
data records.
A record is a collection of data.

Symbol used
to indicate a
database

There are three main components to any DB application:

A method for entering and editing data (usually data entry
screens or import functions)
A data storage mechanism (a way of storing the data on the
computer)
A report generator to extract and interpret information from
the stored data

Data in a DB is organized in a structured way. The structure is

achieved using a database model. The model that is most commonly
used today is the relational model.
There are two types of databases:
Operational database: they are primarily used in on-line
transaction processing (OLTP) scenarios, where data is collected,
modified and maintained on a daily basis.
Analytical database: they are used in on-line analytical
processing (OLP) scenarios, where data is never modified and is
used for example for statistical analysis.

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 Data abstraction: a data model is used to hide storage details

and present the users with a conceptual view of the database;
programs refer to the data model constructs rather than data
storage details
Support of multiple views of the data: each user may see a
different view of the database, which describe only the data of
interest to that user
Sharing of data e multi-user transaction processing:
allowing a set of concurrent users to retrieve from and to update
the database.

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DBMS

DataBase Management System

(DBMS) is a software system that is
used to define, create and maintain
databases.
It assists in maintaining and utilizing
large collections of data and also
provides various levels of access
control to users.
It can be seen as a mediator between
users and/or applications and
databases.

DBMS may have utilities software such as database designer tools,

report writers and application development tools.
Examples of DBMS are Oracle, Access, SQL server

DBMS manage backup and recovery.

DBMS is installed on a computer that is called database server.
It can be a single or multi-user system.
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In large organizations there is a large number of users and volume of data

is high.
In this case to allow its management by several users, data is integrated
and shared.
Data is kept on various database servers and with the help of computer
networks data can be transmitted from one server to another.

It is responsibility of DBMS to provide data to various users at a time

and ensure that no users can modify the same piece of data at the
same time.
Users share data but may have different levels of access to databases:
some users may only be allowed to view data, others may also modify
data.

These permissions are called privileges.

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Data Dictionary keeps all kind of information about

Users
Internal structure of databases
Privileges

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Single tier system.

Mainframes or minicomputers were used to
keep centralized databases. Terminals were used
to access databases through DBMS

Two-tier system.
It is an example of distributed computing where
different software is required for server machine
and for the client machine.

This system is called Client/Server

database system.
A client-server environment was common in the
preInternet days where a transactional database
serviced users within a single company.
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Three-tier system.
In this system a special software called
middleware is used to connect client of one
DBMS to access another DBMS.
In a distributed computing system there are many DBMS installed on different
server machines.
Applications can access data from local and remote databases.
Data is stored geographically and resides to nearer where it will be used.

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: application programs are independent from

details of data storage and representation. Also data are independent from
applications.

: security is provided by
controlling the operations that each user may perform (privileges); data
integrity is the result of having each datum stored only in one place (in
conventional systems data are duplicated in multiple files).

: changes are often necessary to the contents of the data;

because programs and data are independent, programs do not have to be
modified when physical storage changes.

: complex
requests can be handled much more rapidly then if the data were located in
separated files.
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: in the conventional file

processing system, every user group maintains its own files for handling its data
files. This may lead to:
Duplication of the same data in different files
Wastage of storage space
Errors may be generated when the same data are updated in different
files
Time wasted in entering data again and again

: when data are duplicated in

different files modifications may lead to inconsistency; a DBMS contains a
mechanisms to avoid inconsistency.

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: is a person (or a group of persons)

who is responsible for the supervision of the database. He is responsible for giving
permission to the users by grant and revoke privileges. He is also responsible for
coordinating and monitoring its use, managing backups and recovery, and for
acquiring hardware and software resources as needed.
: they are responsible for identifying the data to be
stored and for choosing the appropriate structure to represent and store the data.

: are the people who interact with the database through applications
and utilities. There are different types of end users:
Casual end users people that need different information each time; they uses the
database query language;
Native end users they uses the same queries each time, usually by means of
applications.
: they write programs, that make use of
databases, to handle a specific job.
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A database model is used to explain the logical layout meaning the relationships
among the various parts the database consists of.
In fact data must be stored in some fashion in a file for it to be useful.
Over the past 30 years there have been three groups of logical database
models:

Hierarchical
Network
Relational
meaning three ways of logically perceiving the arrangement of data in the file
structure.
The relational database modeling is currently the best solution for both storage
and retrieval of data.
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The evolution of database modeling occurred when each database

model improved upon the previous one.
Pre 1950

1980
1950

The initial solution was no virtually database model at all: the file
system (also known as flat files).
The term flat file is a way of describing a simple text file, containing
no structure. Flat files are not database at all.

HIERARCHICAL model
is an inverted tree-like
structure.

1990

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1960

2000

NETWORK model
organizes files in a manner
that associates each file with n
number of other files.

1970
RELATIONAL model
is a data is stored in tables (also referred
to as entities). Each table has rows (also
referred as records) and columns (also
referred to as attributes). In this model
any table can be linked together.

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Basato su tabelle e relazioni

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