Assignment 1
Matthew Fisher
May 15, 2016
Part 1: Database Concepts
Topic 1: The Advantages of Database Management Systems
A database system would offer the innkeepers several advantages over the flat file system, including enforced data integrity, minimized effort to adapt data into usable information, and abstraction.
Storing data in a flat file system, as the innkeepers do, and accessing the data directly pose problems of data integrity. Anomalous data could easily arise if the innkeepers update a record in one file, but do not take care to update related records in other files. Where data are kept in multiple, separate files, but have a conceptual relationship to each other, a file system is of limited use compared to a database management system (DBMS). A DBMS ensures that relationships between entities are enforced.
By way of example, a GUEST entity might have a GUEST_ID attribute that appears in multiple locations (e.g. a RESERVATIONS entity). In the file system model, the innkeepers may choose to store addresses of guests in both GUEST and RESERVATION files in order to quickly access address information while booking reservations. If the address is updated in one place, but not the other, this results in a data anomaly, where the address attributes for a guest do not agree. A well-designed database using a DBMS could circumvent this issue by storing no guest information in the RESERVATION table other than GUEST_ID. With this relationship, guests’ addresses can still
A relational database is a database that consists of a collection of tables with columns showing entities, and rows showing data. This type of database uses a primary key and foreign key. The foreign key in another table will point to the primary key of a table, and this is how tables can relate to each other. This permits for one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationship between the data. An advantage of relational databases includes the ease of adding or modifying new tables and entities without needing to change the structure of the database already in place. Relational database have many features, including indexing, setting data type, and setting validation tests, all these help to ensure data integrity.
This causes an inconsistency in the data since it was only updated in one location and not all locations. Insertion anomalies occur due to the impossibility to store some information unless other information is stored as well. Deletion anomalies are caused by information being deleted that may cause other information to be deleted as well. This means it may not be possible to delete some information without deleting other information as well. That is why it is important to use normalization when creating databases to help alleviate these problems.
Q1: How is a file processing system or spreadsheet different to a database system? What disadvantages does the database approach address.
The system must be easily understood to others who may need access; creating only the records that are necessary, using a sensible and logical naming system, keeping the files and records up to date by sorting them regularly are ways to keep the system productive, simple and efficient. Faster filing and retrieval,
Computer databases are electronic filing system and are usually accessible on a computer network. The benefit of this method is that file access is so easy and quick by using a search process. Faster data access time can increase the productivity of managers and other employees who use data on a regular basis. Another benefit of such a system is that since electronic data is easy to backup in multiple locations, reducing the potential of a permanent data loss. The disadvantages of the electronic file system is that it prone to security since the computers are linked together on a network and hackers can get unauthorised access to your data. Another disadvantage is that it is costly to set up.
20. One advantage of a database system over previous data management approaches is that the database system is
Databases are normally used by businesses and schools to store their data. These databases are kept secure, and users can only access the information stored on the database they have been granted access to. Now data is added to, accessed, or remove from a database using languages such as SQL (Structured Query Language), MYSQL (My Sequel), etc.
Data redundancy is making sure data is not repeated twice, i.e. if their was a customer named Mrs James and she had two appointments at 5 and 7p.m, Instead of repeating Mrs James data twice, I would just use referential integrity to link Mrs James to the two different appointed times. There are other benefits of data redundancy i.e. less data storage, faster access, efficient updating etc.
Databases allow us to easily store and retrieve data in a purely digital format. The strength of this is that large amounts of data can be stored and retrieved with minimal effort on the part of the user. Opposed to manually flipping through files, one can quickly pull up the requested data through a computer program. Many systems that were conventionally paper and file based have been converted to a digital format which are now stored in one or more databases.
database can also be thought of as an electronic filing system. Data and information are
The more applications use the same database, the more likely it is that you hit performance bottlenecks and that you can't easily scale the load as desired. SQL Databases don't really scale. You can buy bigger machines but they do not scale well in clusters!
Under those circumstances on what really the definition of repository is and what it contains, the report entitled Digital Repositories Review conducted by JISC (2005) emphasizes the definition of repository as follows:
As databases and technology have evolved, Elmasri and Navathe point out that increasingly complex data structures for modeling to meet the needs of the more advanced and larger databases that were also beginning to include newer data types (2016). As stated before, with more complex databases, there are more vulnerabilities in security that need to be planned for and mitigated wherever possible. A DBMS is responsible for designing the methods in which data recovery and security is handled, while tools are used within database modeling that facilitate modeling, system design, and improve performance (Elmasri & Navathe, 2016). When applying these tools to database creation, security should always be considered in each step of modeling and creating the database. The DBMS provides a security and authorization subsystem to the DBA so that they can use it to create accounts and specify account restrictions (Elmasri & Navathe, 2016).
A.) Database user names are global across a database. Database users interact with database objects. Every database object has its owner-the user that created it. Every user and role has its creator.
When we learning about Database Management System we have to learn their advantages and disadvantages too. After many researches and developments DBMS become very flexible to use. So there are many advantages using DBMS.