Topic 01 : Database Fundamentals

Er. Pradip Kharbuja

Topic 01 : Database Fundamentals

Student Activity - Brainstorm

What databases have you interacted with?• Take a few minutes to think about this and write down your

answers

Examples of Use

Supermarket checkout

Purchasing using a credit card

Booking a holiday

Taking out insurance

Obtaining a passport or other official document

Using the Internet, Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, etc

The Importance of Databases

Relatively new technology – beginning properly in 1970s

One of the most important components of Information Technology

Databases are everywhere

What is a database?

“A database is a computerised record keeping system.”

Date, C.J. (2003). An Introduction to Database Systems 8th Edition.

Pearson Education

This definition is ok as a starting point.

Because some people may include manual filing systems as being a type of database

Record Keeping System

Files on a computer

Word document

Excel Spreadsheet

Files on a USB stick

Are these all databases?

The answer is "NO".

Database Functions

Databases should be able to:

Store

Manipulate

Retrieve

Database Size

Databases range in size:

Single user databases on a PC

Small office database with everyone doing the same sorts of tasks

Medium size database system with core data but people doing different tasks

Corporate databases spread over many sites

Very large databases and data-warehouses

The Wal-Mart data warehouse was (as of 2004) about 500 tera-bytes in size

But databases aren’t like buckets!

More Detailed Definition

“We define a database as an organised collection of logically related data”.

Hoffer,J., Ramesh, V. and Toppi, H. (2010).

Modern Database Management, 10th Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall.

What does this mean?

1. Organised

2. Logically related

3. Data

Organised

Data is structured so that it can be easily stored, manipulated and retrieved by users.

It is no good just having some data if we don’t know how to get it in order to use it.

Related

Pieces of data do not exist in isolation

For example:

In a salesperson’s database, the customer’s name and the customer’s address to be stored together

They are related.

Data

Data are any raw facts, numbers, or text that can be processed by a computer.

Data can be found in different formats :

1. operational or transactional data such as, sales, cost, inventory, payroll, and accounting

2. nonoperational data such as forecast data

3. meta data - data about the data itself, such as logical database design or data dictionary definitions

Types of Data

1. Traditional

a. Text such as names, address etc.

b. Numbers such as age, roll number, number of friends, etc.

c. Dates such as a date of birth, college enrolled date, exam date, etc.

2. Multi-media

a. Images

b. Sounds

c. Video

Data and Information

There is a little distinction between ‘data’ and ‘information’

Data are ‘raw facts’.

Bagum, Ammena 01.02.81 97327627

Ako, Sarah 08.08.81 98737373

Finkle, Clive 09.09.81 93838383

Mc Farren, Debra 01.01.80 98383837

Sinseros, Douglas 27.05.80 99344222

Information

Information is data that has been processed in such a way that it can increase the knowledge of the person who uses it.

Student Name Date of Birth Student ID

Bagum, Ammena 01.02.81 97327627

Ako, Sarah 08.08.81 98737373

Finkle, Clive 09.09.81 93838383

Mc Farren, Debra 01.01.80 98383837

Sinseros, Douglas 27.05.80 99344222

Information is Important

Economically

Politically

Personally

Databases are the key to information.

ANY QUESTIONS ???

Topic 1 : Database Fundamentals