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
Top Related