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Oracle Database
Welcome to the 1st module of this course Database
Management System 1! For this lesson, we will introduce to
you the type of database system and its components.

Database Management A database-management system (DBMS) is a collection of

interrelated data and a set of different application programs
System
use to access those data. This is a collection of related data
with an implicit meaning and hence is a database.

After completing this lesson, the student should be able to:

 Understand what is the difference between data,
information, database and database management
system.
 Discuss the advantage and disadvantage of database
management system.
 Familiarize with the term ER-Model, Entities,
Relationship and Attribute.

The collection of data, also known as the database, contains

information relevant to an enterprise and or in organization.
The main goal of a Database Management System or also
known as DBMS is to provide a way to store, manage and
retrieve database information that is both convenient and
efficient. By data, we mean known facts that can be recorded
and that have implicit meaning. For example, consider the
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student record which have the complete names, course, year

level, and subjects enrolled. With You may have recorded this
data belongs to the student.
A datum – a unit of data – is a symbol or a set of symbols
which is used to represent something. The relationship
between symbols and what they represent is the true value of
what it mean by information. Hence, information is
interpreted data – data supplied with semantics. Knowledge
refers to the practical use of information. While information
can be transported, stored or shared without many difficulties
the same cannot be said about knowledge. Knowledge
necessarily involves a personal experience.

Database systems are designed to manage bulk of

information. The process of managing the data involves both
defining structures for storage of information and providing
mechanisms for the manipulation of information. In addition,
the database system must ensure the security of the
information stored, in the event of system crashes or attempts
at unauthorized access. If the data are shared to different
users, the system must avoid possible anomalous results.
Because information is so important in most organizations,
the reason why computer scientists have developed a large
body of concepts and techniques for managing data in
Database system which is known as Database Management
System.

Types of Handling Data

Handling of data is divided into three types:
1. Data Processing this is the term generally used to

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describe what was done by the large computers in the
late 1940's until 1980's. The process of data
processing before is still being done by most large
organization. Example large volumes of raw
transaction data fed into programs that update a master
file, with fixed format reports written to paper.
2. The term Data Management Systems refers to an
expansion of data processing where the raw data that
fed into programs that update a master file, with fixed
format reports written to paper. is now fed into the
system from a variety of sources, including but not
limited to ATMs, EFT, and direct customer entry
through the Internet. The master file concept has been
largely displaced by database management systems,
and static reporting replaced or augmented by ad-hoc
reporting and direct inquiry, including downloading of
data by customers.

3. File Oriented Approach – The computer system in

the earliest business were used to process and manage
business records and produced information. This is
faster and more accurate compared to manual system.
these systems stored groups of records in separate file,
and now called as file processing. In a common file
processing systems, each department has its own files,
designed and stored specifically for those applications.

Characteristics of Database
1. Concurrent Access – is one of the characteristic of a
database system that allows several users to access the

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database concurrently and simultaneously. And

example of this is answering different questions from
different users with the same database is a central
aspect of an information system. The concurrent use
and access of data increases the economy of a system.
2. Structured and Described Data – once of the
fundamental feature of the database approach is that
the database system does not only contain the data but
also the complete definition, structure and description
of these data. These descriptions are the complete
details about the extent, the structure, the type and the
format of all data and, additionally, the relationship
between the data. This kind of stored data is called
metadata.
3. Separation of Data and Applications – As the
structure and describe data is described through
metadata which is also stored in the database.
Application software does not need any knowledge
about the physical data storage like encoding, format,
storage place, structure and the like. The primary task
of application software is to communicate with the
management system via a standardized interface with
the help of a standardized language like SQL or also
know Structure Query Language. The access to the
data and the metadata is done by the DBMS. In this
way, all the applications can be totally separated from
the data.
4. Data Integrity - Data integrity is a mean of quality
and the reliability of the data of a database system. In
a broader sense data, integrity includes also the

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protection of the database from unauthorized access
and changes.
5. Transactions - A transaction is a group of actions
which are done within a database to bring it from one
consistent state to a new consistent state. A transaction
is atomic which means that it cannot be divided up
any further. Within a transaction, all or none of the
actions need to be carried out.
6. Data Persistence - Data persistence means that in a
database management system all data is maintained as
long as it is not deleted explicitly in the database. The
life span of data needs to be determined directly or
indirectly be the user and must not be dependent on
system features which means a database administrator
may identify data that must be deleted or retained.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a DBMS

ADBMS has many advantages
1. Data independence: an application programs should
be as independent as possible from details and
structure of data representation and storage. The
Database Management System can provide an abstract
view of the data to insulate application code from such
details.
2. Efficient data access: A Database Management
System utilizes a variety of sophisticated techniques to
store and retrieve data efficiently. This feature is
especially important if the data is stored on external
storage devices.
3. Data integrity and security: If data is always
accessed through the Database Management System,

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the DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on the

data. DBMS can enforce access controls that govern
what data is visible to different classes of users.
4. Data administration: When several users share the
data simultaneously, centralizing the administration of
data can offer significant improvements and security.
5. Concurrent access and crash recovery: A Database
Management System schedule concurrent accesses to
the data in such a manner that users can think of the
data as being accessed by only one user at a time.
Furthermore, the DBMS protects users from the
effects of system failures.
6. Reduced application development time: The
Database Management System supports many
important functions that are common to many
applications which accesses data stored in the DBMS.
This is connected to the high-level interface of data
that facilitates quick development of applications. This
applications are likely to be more robust than
applications developed from scratch or manualy
because many important tasks are handled by the
DBMS instead of being implemented by the
application.

Disadvantages of a DBMS
1. Danger of a Overkill: For small and simple
applications or for single users a database system is
often not advisable.
2. Complexity: Having database system creates
additional complexity and requirements into the

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company and or organization. Managing the operation
of a database management system with several users
and databases is quite costly and demanding.
3. Qualified Personnel: The professional operation of a
database system requires fully trained staff. Without a
qualified database administrator nothing will work for
long as no one will able to maintain and manage the
data store in the database.
4. Costs: having a database management system means
new costs are generated for the system itself but also
for additional hardware and the more complex
handling of the system.
5. Lower Efficiency: A database system is a multi-use
software or also known as generic software which is
often less efficient than specialized software which is
produced and optimized exactly for one problem.

Instances, Physical and Logical Schemas

As values are inserted and deleted information in the database
also changes. The group of information stored in the database
at a particular moment is called an instance of the database.
While the overall design of the database is called the
database schema. Schemas are changed infrequently, if at
all.

The physical schema of database describes the design of the

database at the physical level, while the logical schema
describes the design of the database at the logical level.
Database also have several schemas at the view level, also
known as subschemas that describe different views of the
database. The Application programs are used to exhibit

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physical data independence given that it to do not depend on

the physical schema, and thus need not be rewritten if the
physical schema changes.

Data Models
The underlying the structure of a database is the data model: it
is a collection of conceptual tools for describing data,
relationships, semantics, and integrity constraints.

The Entity-Relationship Model

The entity-relationship (E-R) data model is a collection of
different objects, called entities, and of relationships among
these objects. While an entity is a something that describes an
object from other objects.

The connection or association among several entities is called

a relationship. The logical structure or schema of a database
can be represented graphically by an E-R diagram.

Relational Model
The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent
both data and the relationships among those data a table in
relational model is also know an Entity. Each table or entity
has multiple columns or also known as an attribute which is
used to uniquely identify once table or entity to the other, and
each column has a unique name. The data is arranged in a
relation which is visually represented in a two dimensional
table meaning it is a relationship or connections of two or
more table. In the database, the data is inserted into the table
in the form of tuples or also known as values per row. The

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relational model is implemented in database where a relation
is represented by a table, a tuple is represented by a row, an
attribute is represented by a column of the table, attribute
name is the name of the column such as ‘identifier’, ‘name’,
‘city’ etc., and attribute value contains the value for column in
the row.

Constraints during or after the creation of table a user may

apply the constraint to the table and form the logical schema.
A constraint is used to uniquely identify a data and restrict
access to the database. In order to identify properly the
selection of which particular row/tuple from the table, the
attributes i.e. column names are used (ID, LASTNAME,
COURSE), and to expedite the selection of the rows some
fields are defined uniquely to use them as indexes, this helps
in searching the required data as fast as possible.

Lesson Summary:
In this lesson, you should have learned the following.
 Database
 Database Management System
 ER Model
 Advantage and Disadvantage if database

Terms to Remember!
 Application programs - are said to exhibit physical
data independence if they do not depend on the
physical schema.
 Data-known facts that can be recorded and that have
implicit meaning.
 Data integrity- is a byword for the quality and the

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reliability of the data of a database system.

 Database-management system (DBMS) - is a
collection of interrelated data and a set of programs
that is used to access and manipulate data stored in the
database.
 Database schema - the overall design of the database
is called the
 Database systems - are designed to manage large
bodies of information.
 Datum – a unit of data – is a symbol or a set of
symbols which is used to represent relevant
information in the database.
 Information - is also known as interpreted data – data
supplied with semantics.
 Instance of the database – is the collection of
information stored in the database at a particular
moment which means the current state of the data.
 Logical schema - describes the design of the database
at the logical level.
 Physical schema - describes the design of the
database at the physical level,
 Relationship - is an association or connection of one
entity to other entities.
 Transaction - is a group of actions or changes made
to the database to bring it from one consistent state to
a new consistent state.

Textbook:

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• Oracle Press (2010). Applied Oracle Security

References:
References • Pratt, Philip J. (2010). Database management systems
• Rob, Peter & Coronel, Carlo (2009). Database
Management Systems
• Schwalbe, Kathy (2011). Management of Information
Technology Projects
• Wheeler, Evan (2011). Security Risk Management :
Building an Information Security Risk Management
Program from the Ground Up

Supplementary Links for Reading and Videos

Supplementary Reading
http://www.eazynotes.com/pages/database-management-
system/introduction-to-dbms.html
https://www.w3schools.in/dbms/intro/
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/nest/dbsl/intro.html

Supplementary Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1057YmExS-I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTVLO9F1QoY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uWA4zps-3k

Suggested Reading
• SQL Tutorial. In ws3schools, Retrieved from
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp
• Database management system. In Encyclopedia
Britannica, Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152201/d
atabase-management-system-DBMS.
• SQL. In Encyclopedia Britannica, Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569684/
SQL

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• Database Administration. In Encyclopedia.com,

Retrieved from
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Database_adminis
tration.aspx
• SQL. In Encyclopedia.com, Retrieved from
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/SQL.aspx
• Tutorialspoint.com
• oracle.com
• apex.oracle.com

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