Le c ture N ote sForDBM S

Data Independence:

Physical Data Independence:

 allow changes in physical schema without changes in logical schema or application
programs to be rewritten.
 The changes in physical schema can include: using new storage devices, using different
data structures, using different file organizations or storage structures or changing file
index. All these changes should be possible without changes in logical schema or
application programs to be rewritten.
Logical Data Independence:
 allow changes in logical schema without causing application programs to be rewritten.
 The changes like addition or deletion of entities, attributes or relationships come in
logical schema changes and they should be possible without rewriting the already written
application programs.

Major components of a DBMS:

1. Data Definition Language Interpreter/ Compiler
2. Data Manipulation Language Compiler
3. Query processor
4. Database Manager

Data Definition Language (DDL):

 This language provides a set of commands which can be used to define

o what is the data in database.
o what is the relationship between various data elements
o what are the integrity constraints put on various data items needed to be satisfied
o etc.

 It will be used to define the records or structures of database.

 The DDL statements are compiled to form the Data Dictionary or Data Directory which
contains the meta data i.e. data about data.

 The data dictionary is consulted by DBMS before any operation on data.

Data Manipulation Language(DML):

 It is a language that enables users access or manipulate data from the database.
 This consists of very high level statements that are used to specify the operations to be
performed on the database.
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Query Language:

It is the portion of DML that is used to access or retrieve the information from the database.

Database Manager:

 This is the software that takes care for execution of all the statements specified in DDL or
DML. This software handles all the problems of a database and is responsible for
providing all of the features claimed above like data consistency, non-redundant data,
atomicity, concurrency control, easy access to data etc.
 It may be subdivided into two major components:
o Transaction Manager
o Storage Manager

A Transaction is a collection of operations that performs a single logical function in a database

application. Transaction manager takes care for identifying the transaction and their proper
execution. It is responsible to provide features like atomicity, concurrency control etc.

Storage Manager is responsible for the interaction with the file system and provides an
appropriate level of physical level of data abstraction. It is responsible to provide easy access to
database to the users.

The overall system structure of the database management system could be shown as below:

Application Application Q uery DB S chem e

Interface P rogram s

DM L Q uery DDL
Com piler P rocessor Com piler

O bject Database DBM S

Code M anager

File Data DIS K

Data
M anager Dictionary
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Types Of Users:

 DBA: Person who designs the database and writes database schema in DDL based on the
design
 Sophisticated Users: People who know DML commands and operate on database
directly.
 Application Programmers: People who operate on the database through the application
programs usually written in some high level computer language like C, Java, VB etc.
 Naïve Users: People who executes the application programs through APIs written
specifically for their requirements. They are generally not aware of the computer
technology e.g. tellers, agents, registrars, librarian etc.