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					PART I




   •   Understand how the database approach is different and superior to earlier data
   •   Examine how information demand and technology explosion drive database
   •   Trace the evolution of data systems and note how we have arrived at the
       database approach
   •   Comprehend the beneﬁts of database systems and perceive the need for them
   •   Survey brieﬂy various data models, types of databases, and the database

Consider the following scenarios:

   •   You meet someone in a computer store. As a knowledgeable IT professional,
       you want to help this person. He says he is looking for database software to
       keep the names and addresses of his customers to do his mailings and billings.
       But what he really needs is a mail-merge program.
   •   You call your travel agent to make your airline reservations for the vacation
       you have been waiting for all year. The agent responds by saying that she cannot
       do that just now because the database is down. She really means that the reser-
       vations computer system is not working.
   •   Here is one more. You call your cellular phone company to complain about
       errors on the latest billing statement. The phone company representative says

Database Design and Development: An Essential Guide for IT Professionals by Paulraj Ponniah
ISBN 0-471-21877-4 Copyright © 2003 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.


    that the database must have printed some incorrect numbers. What the repre-
    sentative really implies is that the billing application has miscalculated the

    In our modern society most people know the term database without under-
standing its full and clear meaning. Even in information technology circles, not
everyone knows the concepts in reasonable detail. What is a database? Is it data?
Is it software? Is it the place where you store data? Is there something special about
the way you store data? Is it how you store and retrieve data? What exactly is a
database system? What are the features and functions? Many more such questions
    Today, almost all organizations depend on their database systems for the crucial
information they need to run their business. In every industry across the board, from
retail chain stores to ﬁnancial institutions, from manufacturing enterprises to gov-
ernment departments, and from airline companies to utility businesses, database
systems have become the norm for information storage and retrieval. Database
systems form the centerpiece of the growing and maturing electronic commerce.
Database and Web technologies have merged.
    The Information Technology department of today’s organization has a primary
responsibility: The department has to support and keep the database systems
running. In this transformed computing environment, knowledge of database
systems is no longer conﬁned only to specialists such as data analysts and database
administrators. Are you are a systems analyst, programmer, project leader, or
network specialist? Then you also need to know the basics of database systems.
You also need to grasp the signiﬁcance of the database approach. All IT profes-
sionals need to study the basic principles and techniques of database design and
    First, let us begin to understand how we got to this stage where most organiza-
tions depend on their database systems for running the business. Let us trace the
evolution of data systems and see the essential need for the database approach.
Let us understand what exactly the database approach is. Let us brieﬂy survey the
database industry and grasp the signiﬁcance of the developments.


How were companies running their business before computers came into use? Even
at that time, organizations needed information to execute the business processes,
sell goods and services, and satisfy the needs of customers. Manual ﬁles supported
business operations. Accounting personnel performed manual calculations and pre-
pared invoices. Payroll departments manually wrote the checks. Business operations
were reasonably satisfactory.
   So, what happened? How did we get to the computer database systems of today?
When computers were introduced in the 1960s, computer ﬁle systems replaced the
manual ﬁles. This marked a signiﬁcant leap in the way data was stored and retrieved
for business operations. What has been really happening from that time until now,
when database systems have become the norm? What prompted the progress
toward database systems?
                                                                           EVOLUTION OF DATA SYSTEMS   5

                                                                         m ati
                                                                 In  for         gy
                                                            or               olo

                                                           f               n
                                                        nd              ch
                                                 ma                   Te
                                              De            ti  ng
                                                     m            ms
                                                           y   ste
                                                    t   aS

                          1960                                                        2010
             Figure 1-1          Technology growth and demand for information.

   From the 1970s onward, two striking and remarkable phenomena were distinctly
observed. Refer to Figure 1-1 indicating these two major developments.
   First, demand for information has escalated in every organization. Organizations
have steadily become global and widespread. Organizations have to contend with
ﬁerce competitive pressures. They need vast and complex information to stay in
business and make a proﬁt. Second, the past three decades have witnessed a huge,
explosive growth in information technology. Processors have become faster,
cheaper, and smaller. Operating systems have become powerful and robust. Data
storage media have expanded tremendously in capacity; data storage prices have
tumbled. Network and communication technology can now connect any remote site
without difﬁculty. Application programming and people-machine interface have
dramatically improved.
   The escalating demand for information and the explosive growth in information
technology have worked hand in hand to bring about the evolution to database
systems. Ever-increasing demand for information drives the need for better methods
of storing and retrieving data, for faster ways of processing data, and for improved
methods of providing information. The demand for more and better information
drove the technology growth. Progress in technology, in turn, spurred the capabil-
ity to provide different types of information, not just to run day-to-day operations
of an organization, but also to make strategic decisions.
   Let us ﬁrst examine the pertinent aspects of the technology explosion as related
to data systems, because these are what we are speciﬁcally interested in. Then let
us discuss the escalating demand for information that has prompted better and
improved data systems.

Technology Explosion
If you have been in the information technology area for 5–10 years, you are cer-
tainly an eyewitness to the explosive growth. Growth is not conﬁned to any one

sector. All aspects of the technology have been improving tremendously. Here are
some speciﬁcs:

    •   Twenty-ﬁve years ago, there were only 50,000 computers in the whole world;
        now more than 500,000 are installed every day.
    •   More than 60% of American households have at least one computer; more than
        50% have e-mail and Internet access.
    •   Growth of the Internet and the use of the Web have overshadowed the PC
        breakthrough of the 1970s; at the beginning of 2000, about 50 million house-
        holds worldwide were estimated to be using the Internet; by the end of 2005,
        this number is expected to grow 10-fold.
    •   About 7 years ago, there were only 50 websites; now 100,000 are added every
    •   Databases in the terabyte range are becoming common; a few years ago, even
        the gigabyte range was unusual.
    •   In the mid-1960s, programmers in large corporations had to write programs that
        had to run on 12K machines; today even your personal computer at home has
        10,000 times larger memory.

   Growth has not been isolated here and there in hardware and software. We notice
explosive growth in all sectors of information technology. Let us proceed further to
look at speciﬁc areas of information technology that are related to data systems.

Data Storage Devices Have you seen an 80-column card that very early com-
puter systems used to store data? Each column in a card had holes punched to
represent a single character. So a card could hold up to 80 characters. Keypunch
operators typed data and program code into the cards. In the next stage, computer
systems stored data on magnetic tapes. Initially, magnetic tapes of 800 BPI (bytes
per inch) were used. Then we moved on to higher densities of 1600 BPI and 6250
BPI. For a brief while, paper tapes with punched holes were used as the storage
medium. Special-purpose paper tape readers were used to read data from paper
   It was a large leap forward when disk drives began to replace the earlier data
storage media. Disk drives in mainframes consist of sets of large circular disks
arranged in parallel with a common spindle. Sophisticated disk drives have come to
stay as the common storage device of choice. Today’s data servers use RAID (redun-
dant array of inexpensive disks) technology as the advanced fault-tolerant storage
system. Data storage devices have progressed tremendously from the primitive
punched cards to the sophisticated RAID systems.

Three-and-a-Half-Inch Disk Drives You are very familiar with the three-and-a-
half-inch disk drives in your home computer system. Just review the progress in the
capacities of these disk drives. See how the capacities kept doubling every year.
Note the following details:

    1992        1 gigabyte
    1993        2 gigabytes
                                                      EVOLUTION OF DATA SYSTEMS     7

  1994       4 gigabytes
  1995       9 gigabytes
  1997       18 gigabytes
  2000       50 gigabytes

Computer Applications Over the years, the types of computer applications have
changed and progressed from mere bookkeeping applications to multimedia and
data mining applications. Some of you might remember the days when the com-
puter department was known as the data processing department. Applications in
those days just processed data in elementary ways to produce some reports. The
technology explosion resulted in a grand transition of computer usage from simple
to increasing sophistication. Review the following details.

Data Processing Applications (DP). In the early days of computing, computer
departments built applications just to replace clerical labor. Mostly, these applica-
tions performed simple accounting and ﬁnancial functions. These applications pro-
duced straightforward reports. Speed and accuracy of the computer in performing
calculations were the primary factors. Computer systems stored and retrieved data
from magnetic tapes and earlier versions of disk drives. Applications used sequen-
tial or ﬂat ﬁles to organize data.

Management Information Systems (MIS). In the next stage, growth of technology
manifested itself in applications that went beyond accounting and ﬁnance to sup-
porting the entire core business of an organization. Applications began to appear
to process orders, manage inventory, bill customers, pay employees, and so on. Orga-
nizations depended on their management information systems for their day-to-day
business. Storage and retrieval of data mostly depended on hard disks. Many appli-
cations adopted the use of database technology.

Decision-Support Systems (DSS). Further technology growth in processor speed,
storage media, systems software, and database techniques pushed the application
types to systems that supported strategic decision making. These applications
are not meant for supporting day-to-day operations of a business but for providing
information to executives and managers to make strategic decisions. In which
markets should the company expand? Where should the next distribution ware-
house be built? Which product lines should be discontinued? Which ones should be
boosted? These applications dealt with sales analysis, proﬁtability analysis, and cus-
tomer support. Decision-support systems made use of improved storage facilities
and newer features of database technology.

Data Warehousing (DW) and Data Mining (DM) Systems. In recent years, with the
enormous progress in processor scalability, mass storage, and database methods,
organizations are able to forge ahead with their applications, especially in building
data warehousing and data mining systems. These recent decision-support systems,
much more sophisticated than earlier attempts, require large volumes of data and
complex analytical techniques. These systems need large databases specially
designed and built separately from the databases that support the day-to-day oper-
ational systems.

Data Systems What is the effect of the technology explosion on the way data is
organized? Over the years, how were businesses organizing data? We just looked at
the way applications have progressed from simpler types toward increasing sophis-
tication. What about data systems?

Manual-Type Records. Very early computer applications worked with data stored
on punched cards and paper tapes. Keypunch operators prepared data on these
primitive media from manual ﬁles and records. Computer applications read data
from cards and tapes to prepare reports.

Sequential Files. Improved storage media such as magnetic tapes and early disk
drives enabled application developers to organize data as sequential (or ﬂat) ﬁles.
Each ﬁle contained data records of the same type arranged sequentially one after
the other, usually in the order in which they were created. Sorting techniques
allowed data records to be resorted in a different sequence.

Databases. Increased sophistication in data storage techniques on hard disk drives
and enhancements to operating systems enabled random and quick access of data.
Data systems moved to a wholly new level. Applications were able to store data in
databases and retrieve data sequentially and randomly.

Demand for Information
Of the two major factors that mutually contributed to the database approach to
computing, so far we have considered the explosive growth of technology. Let us
now turn our attention to the other factor, namely, the escalating demand for infor-
mation. It is not just more information that organizations need. The demand for
information includes several dimensions.
   Consider how billing requirements and sales analysis have changed. In the early
years of computing, organizations were happy if they could bill their customers once
a month and review total sales by product quarterly. Now it is completely different.
Organizations must bill every sale right away to keep up the cash ﬂow. They need
up-to-date customer balance and daily and cumulative sales totals by products. What
about inventory reconciliation? Earlier systems provided reports to reconcile inven-
tory or to determine proﬁtability only at the end of each month. Now organizations
need daily inventory reconciliation to manage inventory better, daily proﬁtability
analysis to plan sales campaigns, and daily customer information to improve cus-
tomer service.
   In the earlier period of computing, organizations were satisﬁed with information
showing only current activity. They could use the information to manage day-to-day
business and make operational decisions. In the changed business climate of
globalization and ﬁerce competition, this type of information alone is no longer
adequate. Companies need information to plan and shape their future. They need
information, not just to run day-to-day operations, but to make strategic decisions
as well.
   What about the delivery of information now compared to the early days of com-
puting? Today, online information is the norm for most companies. Fast response
times and access to large volumes of data have become essential. Earlier computer
                                                             EVOLUTION OF DATA SYSTEMS   9

systems just provided reports, mostly once a month, a few once a week, and a small
number once a day.
   Organizations have come to realize that information is a key asset to be care-
fully managed and used for greater proﬁtability. In summary, demand for informa-
tion by today’s enterprises contains the following attributes:

  •   More information
  •   Newer purposes
  •   Different information types
  •   Integrated information
  •   Information to be shared
  •   Faster access to information

Waves of Evolution
As we have seen so far, information technology, along with and because of the esca-
lating demand for information, has made giant strides in the past few decades. Evo-
lution to higher levels is evident in every aspect of information technology. The
evolution has taken place in distinct waves. Refer to Figure 1-2.
   Note carefully the evolution of information technology in the three major areas.
First note how the very methods of computing technology have progressed from
mainframes to client/server architecture. The centrally administered mainframes
have made room for the client/server conﬁguration in which each set of machines
can perform specialized tasks.
   What about the way in which humans interface with computers? In earlier days,
we punched data on cards and fed them to be read by the early computers. Then
came the CRTs (cathode-ray terminals) where textual data could be typed into the
computer through the use of keyboards. Point-and-click GUIs (graphical user inter-
faces) proved to be a major improvement. Now, interfacing with computers through

                    Computing Technology

                      Mainframe          Mini       PCs/Networking Client/Server

                    Human/Machine Interface

                      Punch Card    Video Display      GUI             Voice

                    Processing Options

                           Batch                Online                Networked

             1950         1960       1970           1980       1990        2000
                 Figure 1-2 Information technology: waves of evolution.

the human voice is gaining ground. What a major transition from punch cards to
direct voice input!
   In the early days of computing, transactions were batched together for process-
ing at the end of a stipulated period. For example, you could not invoice each sale
as it happened. You had to collect and batch all the sales for a month and run the
batched sales through the invoicing application. We moved to online transaction
processing in the next wave. Now transactions are transmitted and processed over

File-Oriented Data Systems
As the demand for information continued to increase, organizations began to adopt
improved ﬁle systems to store and access data. The ﬁle-oriented data systems essen-
tially mimicked the manual ﬁle systems. The computer ﬁles corresponded to the
paper ﬁles. In a ﬁling cabinet, you store ﬁle folders and each ﬁle folder contains ﬁle
records. Similarly, the computer systems use electronic ﬁles containing records. For
example, a customer ﬁle would contain records, with each record containing data
about a single customer. In the beginning, these computer ﬁles were primarily used
for accounting applications. As we shall discuss in some detail, ﬁle-oriented systems
have serious limitations. Therefore, organizations needed to go to better and
improved methods for data storage and access.
   File-oriented systems started out by using sequential or ﬂat ﬁles. When you need
to retrieve the 100th record from a sequential ﬁle, you have to read and bypass
the ﬁrst 99 records before you can get to record number 100. This is a very serious
shortcoming. Therefore, slightly better methods of retrieval evolved. This was the
transition to improved ﬁle-oriented data systems. Let us review how storage
and retrieval methods apply to a customer ﬁle.

Sequential File. Customer records are stored in the sequence in which they are
entered into the ﬁle. Record retrieval is sequential. For the ﬁle to be processed in
any other sequence, it must be sorted in the required sequence.

ISAM File. This is the indexed-sequential access method. The customer records in
the data ﬁle are stored sequentially, similar to the sequential ﬁle method. However,
another index ﬁle is created, for example, with the customer numbers and the phys-
ical addresses of the records. When the record of a speciﬁc customer is needed, as
done previously, you do not have to read the records of the data ﬁle one after the
other until you ﬁnd the record you are looking for. You can read the smaller index
ﬁle, ﬁnd the record you are looking for, and then use the physical address of the
data record stored in the index ﬁle.

VSAM File. This is based on virtual storage access method, a major improvement
over ISAM ﬁles. VSAM ﬁles provide for indexed access. Also, this method provides
for storing and retrieving records directly from the customer ﬁle without an index
ﬁle. In the direct method, the address where a customer record is stored may be cal-
culated from the customer number with a specialized algorithm.
                                                           WHY DATABASE SYSTEMS?   11


We traced the evolution of data systems. We grasped the essentials of the explosive
growth of information technology. We noted the escalating demand of organizations
for information. We observed how growth in information technology and the
increased demand for information worked hand in hand. Increasing demand for
information spurred the growth of information technology. Growth of informa-
tion technology, in turn, enabled organizations to satisfy the increasing demand for
   Let us summarize the driving forces for organizations to adopt database systems.
A major reason is the inadequacy of the earlier ﬁle-oriented data systems. We shall
review the limitations and see how database systems overcome the limitations and
provide signiﬁcant beneﬁts.

The Driving Forces
Among others, four major forces drove organizations to adopt database systems.
Figure 1-3 illustrates these four major forces.

Information as a Corporate Asset. Today, companies strongly realize that infor-
mation is a corporate asset similar to other assets such as cash, plant and equip-
ment, or inventory. Proper management of key assets is essential for success.
Companies understand that it is essential to manage information as a key asset.
They understand the need to ﬁnd improved methods for storing, retrieving, and
using information.

Explosive Growth of Computer Technology. Computer technology, especially data
storage and retrieval systems, has grown in a phenomenal manner. Without growth
in this sector, it is unlikely that we could have progressed to database systems that
need sophisticated ways of data storage and retrieval.

Escalating Demand for Information. We have noted the increase in demand for
information by organizations, not only in volume but in the types of information as

              Information as                                   demand for
              corporate asset                                  information


              Explosive growth                               Inadequacy of
              of computer                                    earlier data
              technology                                     systems

                   Figure 1-3    Database systems: the driving forces.

well. If companies did not need more and newer types of information, there would
have been no impetus for development of database systems. The earlier data systems
might have been satisfactory.

Inadequacy of Earlier Data Systems. Suppose the earlier data systems were able
to meet the escalating demand for information. Then why bother to ﬁnd better
methods? But the fact is that these earlier systems were grossly inadequate to meet
the information demands. Storage and management of large volumes of data were
not adequate. Finding and retrieving information were extremely difﬁcult. Protect-
ing the information asset of a company was nearly impossible with the earlier data
systems. Why was this so? How were the earlier systems inadequate? In what ways
could they not meet the information demands? Understanding the limitations will
give you a better appreciation for database systems.

Inadequacy of Earlier Data Systems
Assume that you work for a company called Progressive Book Distributors in
the early 1970s. Your company purchases books from various publishers and sells
them to retail bookstores and book clubs. The computer applications in your
company would work with sequential ﬁles because those are the types of data
systems available at that time. Here is a list of possible sequential computer ﬁles in
your company.

     Customer master ﬁle Every time a new customer comes on board, a record is
        created in the ﬁle, with a new customer number, in the order in which the cus-
        tomers are added.
     Book master ﬁle As each new book is added to the inventory, a record is created
        in the ﬁle, with ISBN identifying each book.
     Salesperson ﬁle As each new salesperson is hired, the person is given an iden-
        tiﬁcation number and data about him or her is added to the ﬁle.
     Sale transaction ﬁle Each sale is recorded with the date of the sale.
     Publisher ﬁle As each new publisher is included, a record is created in the ﬁle,
        with a new publisher number, in the order in which the publishers are added.
     Payment transaction ﬁle Payments received from customers are recorded with
        the date of the payment.

   Refer to Figure 1-4 showing the ﬁelds and sample data for each ﬁle.
   What types of information is your company’s staff looking for? Do they need to
print an invoice for customer Allbooks Book Store for the sale on January 10, 2002?
Do they want the total sales of all books from publishers Ron Fairchild during the
month of December 2001? Do they want a list of all customers in New York state?
In today’s computing environment, no one will think of these requests as difﬁcult
or impossible. This was not the case with ﬁle-oriented applications of the early 1970s.
File-oriented data systems have serious limitations.
   Let us take just one speciﬁc example of printing statements to customers for sales.
This had to be done in a batch mode at the end of a reasonable interval such as at
                                                                             WHY DATABASE SYSTEMS?            13

  CustNo         CustName                             Address                     Country
   1000   Allbooks Book Store    5757 Westheimer, Houston, TX 77057             U.S.A.
   1010   Akito Books            Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100                          Japan
   1040   Robert Smith Ltd.      10 Bonds St., London W1A 2AA                   U.K.
   2050   Sally Orobetz          8 Hazelton Ave., Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E1      Canada

BOOK MASTER FILE                                               PUBLISHER FILE
    ISBN             Title        Author         PubId          PubId     PublisherName       Country
 2093356790 DB Design           Carey             100            100  Ron Fairchild         USA
 2101155897 DW Fundamentals     McMillan          200            200  Crosley               U.K.
 1558712215 Art Appreciation    Stewart           300            300  Summer Hill           Canada
 3456765432 Existentialism      Ernst             400            400  Ully Wille            Germany

      SalRepId     SalRepName       Office       Comm%
         10    Williams          Chicago           13
         20    Harreld           London            12
         30    Swamy             Toronto            9
         40    Katzman           Munich            10

SALE TRANSACTION FILE                                              PAYMENT TRANSACTION FILE
 SalDate CustNo SalRepId    ISBN           Qty      Amount          PymtDte  CustNo   PayMethod         Amount
    6-Apr 1000     10    2093356790        10         799.50          13-Apr  1000   Amex                 600.00
  10-Apr  1010     20    2101155897        10         699.50          22-Apr  1010   Visa                 500.00
  19-Apr  1040     30    1558712215        20       1,000.50          24-Apr  1040   Check                800.00
                                                                      30-Apr  2050   Visa                 650.00
  24-Apr  2050     40    3456765432        10         750.00

                        Figure 1-4     Progressive Book Distributors: ﬁles.

the end of a month. All the sales transactions and payment transactions for the
month had to be batched together and processed in a batch mode.
   Figure 1-5 indicates a ﬂowchart of the jobs that must be run to produce the billing
   Even an initial review of the ﬂowchart reveals that there are too many sorts for
just producing simple billing statements. That is because each ﬁle is kept in a
sequence that is not useful for the processing logic of the entire application. The
whole concept of batch processing is very inﬂexible. Suppose in the middle of the
month you need the billing statements for just a few select customers. There is no
easy way of doing this. You have to run the complete batch process in the middle
of the month and then separate out the statements you need.
   File-oriented systems are inadequate to face the challenges of increasing demand
for information. Especially when companies care for information as a key asset, the
earlier ﬁle-oriented data systems possess severe limitations. Let us discuss the
important limitations so that we can appreciate how database systems overcome
these shortcomings.

Uncontrolled Data Redundancy In ﬁle-oriented systems, each application has
its own set of ﬁles. Each application creates and stores data just for the use of that
application. For example, in a bank, there could be three separate applications—
one for checking accounts, one for savings accounts, and another one for loan

               Trans. File
                                      PAYMENTS                   Sorted
                 File                   APPLY
                                      PAYMENTS                    Sale
                                                               Trans. File

               Customer                  SORT
                 File                    SALES
                 Book                   APPLY
                 Master              SALES/PRINT
                  File                 STMNTS

               Updated                                           Billing
               Customer                                        Statements

                      Figure 1-5   Flowchart for billing application.

accounts. If a bank customer has a checking account, a savings account, and a loan
account, data about that customer such as name and address are kept separately in
each of these applications. There is unnecessary and uncontrolled duplication of the
same data in the bank’s computer ﬁles. Similarly, the possibility of data duplication
exists in the inpatient and outpatient accounts of a medical center. In an auction
business, data duplication is possible in sellers’ and buyers’ accounts.
    Obviously, data duplication results in wasted storage space. In the bank example,
it is very likely that many customers have both checking and savings accounts. In
auction businesses, dealers of art and other such items are customers recorded in
both sellers’ and buyers’ account applications. In these cases, the wastage of storage
space can be enormous. Multiple input of same data item also requires extra time
and resources that could be applied for other, useful purposes.

Inconsistent Data Data redundancy or duplication of data in your computer ﬁles
can cause serious inconsistency in the data. Suppose a bank customer has both
checking and savings accounts. If that person’s name, address, or both are different
in the two accounts, then the data about that customer are inconsistent in the bank’s
ﬁles. Which set of data is correct? It is possible that the name of that customer in
one system is correct and the address as recorded in the other application is correct.
Inconsistency of data is a direct result of data duplication.
   Field sizes and formats of the same data item might be different in the various
applications. In the checking and savings accounts, there could be just one long ﬁeld
for the address to be recorded in textual format. The loan account, being a later
application, could have separate ﬁelds for street address, city, state, and zip code.
                                                        WHY DATABASE SYSTEMS?     15

Such variations are likely causes for data integrity problems. Variations in names
and addresses may cause erroneous printing of names and addresses on documents
mailed to customers.

Inﬂexibility When an application cannot adapt to changing requirements, we say
that the application is inﬂexible. By the very nature of sequential ﬁles, a ﬁle-
oriented system can process transactions only in batch mode. That is, transactions
are accumulated and processed as batches. You cannot print an invoice for a single
customer for a single sale. Sequential ﬁles allow retrieval of data records, one at a
time, in sequence. Such ﬁles do not possess the ﬂexibility to meet new and chang-
ing information requirements.
   Suppose you are interested in ﬁnding and listing all the purchases made by cus-
tomers in Japan for the past three months. Or you want a list of all customers in a
certain zip code range. It is very difﬁcult to satisfy such ad hoc queries in a ﬁle-
oriented system without reprogramming.

Limited Data Sharing Consider two typical applications, namely, order process-
ing and inventory control. Each of these applications needs data on products. But
data on products are repeated in each of these two applications when the business
depends on ﬁle-oriented data systems. There is no sharing of data on products
between the two applications. If product descriptions of certain products are
changed, these changes must be made in both applications.

Difﬁcult Data Integration Let us get back to the bank example with separate cus-
tomer ﬁles in the checking, savings, and loan applications. If you wanted to combine
data from these applications and send consolidated statements to customers
showing the transactions in all three accounts, it would be nearly impossible with
ﬁle-oriented data systems. You would have to run special programs to extract
banking transactions from each application. Then you would have to come up with
methods for matching customer accounts from each application and consolidate the
transactions in a single statement, which is not an easy task. The proliferation of
ﬁles and duplication of data continue as each new application is implemented with
its own set of ﬁles.

Poor Enforcement of Standards and Controls Standards relate to data names,
formats, value restrictions, and access controls. When duplicated data are spread
across many applications, it is extremely difﬁcult to enforce standards. For example,
if the standard in your company is for the customer name ﬁeld to be 35 bytes,
then you will have to impose this standard, not in one place, but in many applica-
tions that store customer names. Suppose you have to include a business rule that
the employee daily wage rate must be between 0 and 100; you may have to stipu-
late this rule in at least two different applications, namely, payroll and human
   Problems with the resolution of homonyms and synonyms deserve special atten-
tion. File-oriented data systems are likely to have problems with these.

Homonyms. If a single ﬁeld name represents two or more objects in different appli-
cations, it is called a homonym. For example, the ﬁeld name balance may represent

the checking balance in the checking accounts application. The same ﬁeld name
balance may also represent the savings balance in the savings accounts application.
In this case, the term balance is a homonym. In ﬁle-oriented data systems, it is hard
to control homonyms.

Synonyms. If different ﬁeld names in different applications represent the same
object, these names are known as synonyms. As an example, consider how a student
may be referred to in a college data system. In the student registration system, the
student may be referred to by the ﬁeld name student-number. On the other hand,
in the majors and graduation system, the student may be referred to by the ﬁeld
name candidate-number. The terms student-number and candidate-number are
synonyms. In ﬁle-oriented data systems, controlling synonyms is difﬁcult.

Excessive Program Maintenance How is program maintenance a problem in
ﬁle-oriented systems? Consider the coding of computer programs in ﬁle-oriented
applications. These programs are usually written in third-generation languages like
COBOL. A program in languages like COBOL contains two distinct sections. One
section of the program, namely, FD or ﬁle deﬁnition section, has the structures of
the ﬁles used in the program embedded within the program itself. The other section
has the processing logic. Data structures and processing logic are interconnected
and combined together in the program. This means that reference to data is not
independent of the processing logic. There is no data independence.
   What is the effect of the lack of data independence in ﬁle-oriented systems? Con-
sider all the computer programs that use the customer ﬁle for processing. In each
of these programs, the structure of the customer ﬁle is embedded within the program
itself. What happens when a new ﬁeld such as cellular phone number is added to
the customer record? Every one of the programs using the customer ﬁle need to be
changed and recompiled, irrespective of whether the program uses the cellular
phone number ﬁeld or not. Lack of data independence results in excessive program

Productivity Losses Two main factors cause reduction in productivity while
using ﬁle-oriented systems:

     •   The same data need to be maintained in multiple places.
     •   Because of lack of data independence, multiple programs need to be changed

Database Systems Meet the Challenges
As the demand for information escalated, it became urgent to overcome the limi-
tations of ﬁle-oriented data systems. With these limitations, companies could not
meet the requirements of increased demand for information. They needed a dif-
ferent approach to storing, retrieving, and managing data. They could not afford
the productivity losses. They could not waste space because of data duplication in
ﬁle-oriented systems.
   Specialists at Rockwell and General Electric began to work on better methods
for managing data. These methods attempted to overcome the limitations of
                                                         WHY DATABASE SYSTEMS?      17

ﬁle-oriented systems. Data and processing logic had to be separated so as to
improve programmer productivity. The new approach of using databases instead of
conventional ﬂat ﬁles addressed the challenges for meeting the increased demand
for information. The database approach overcame the limitations of the earlier data
systems and produced enormous beneﬁts. Let us review the speciﬁc beneﬁts and
understand in what way the database approach is superior to the earlier data

Minimal Data Redundancy Unlike ﬁle-oriented data systems where data
are duplicated among various applications, database systems integrate all the
data into one logical structure. Duplication of data is minimized. Wastage of
storage space is eliminated. Going back to the bank example, with a database,
customer data is not duplicated in the checking account, savings account, and loan
account applications. Customer data is entered and maintained in only one place in
the database.
   Sometimes, in a database, a few data elements may have to be duplicated. Let us
say that product data consist of product number, description, price, and the corre-
sponding product line number. All the ﬁelds relating to product line data are kept
separately. Whenever the details of products and product lines are needed in appli-
cations, both data structures are retrieved from the database. Suppose a heavily used
product forecast application needs all the details of the product from product data
and just the product line description from the product line data. In that case, it will
be efﬁcient for the product data to duplicate the product line description from the
product line data. Thus, in some instances, data duplication is permitted in a data-
base for the purpose of access efﬁciency and performance improvement. However,
such data duplications are kept to a minimum.

Data Integrity Data integrity in a database means reduction of data inconsistency.
Because of the elimination or control of data redundancy, a database is less prone
to errors creeping in through data duplication. Field sizes and ﬁeld formats are the
same for all applications. Each application uses the same data from one place in the
database. In a bank, names and addresses will be the same for checking account,
savings account, and loan applications.

Data Integration In a database, data objects are organized into single logical data
structures. For example, in ﬁle-oriented data systems, data about employees are scat-
tered among the various applications. The payroll application contains employee
name and address, social security number, salary rate, deductions, and so on. The
pension plan application contains pension data about each employee, whereas the
human resources application contains employee qualiﬁcations, skills, training, and
education. However, all data about each employee are integrated and stored
together in a database.
   So, in a database, data about each business object are integrated and stored sep-
arately as customer, order, product, invoice, manufacturer, sale, and so on. Data inte-
gration enables users to understand the data and the relationships among data
structures easily. Programmers needing data about a business object can go to one
place to get the details. For example, data about orders are consolidated in one place
as order data.

Data Sharing This beneﬁt of database systems follows from data integration. The
various departments in any enterprise need to share the company’s data for proper
functioning. The sales department needs to share the data generated by the account-
ing department through the billing application. Consider the customer service
department. It needs to share the data generated by several applications. The cus-
tomer service application needs information about customers, their orders, billings,
payments, and credit ratings. With data integration in a database, the application
can get data from distinct and consolidated data structures relating to customer,
orders, invoices, payments, and credit status.
   Data sharing is a major beneﬁt of database systems. Each department shares the
data in the database that are most pertinent to it. Departments may be interested
in data structures as follows:

     Sales department—Customer/Order
     Accounting department—Customer/Order/Invoice/Payment
     Order processing department—Customer/Product/Order
     Inventory control department—Product/Order/Stock Quantity/Back Order

   Database technology lets each application use the portion of the database that
is needed for that application. User views of the database are deﬁned and con-
trolled. We will have more to say about user views in later chapters.

Uniform Standards We have seen that, because of the spread of duplicate data
across applications in ﬁle-oriented data systems, standards cannot be enforced easily
and completely. Database systems remove this difﬁculty. As data duplication is con-
trolled in database systems and as data is consolidated and integrated, standards
can be implemented more easily. Restrictions and business rules for a single data
element need to be applied in only one place. In database systems, it is possible to
eliminate problems from homonyms and synonyms.

Security Controls Information is a corporate asset and, therefore, must be pro-
tected through proper security controls. In ﬁle-oriented systems, security controls
cannot be established easily. Imagine the data administrator wanting to restrict and
control the use of data relating to employees. In ﬁle-oriented systems, control has
to be exercised in all applications having separate employee ﬁles. However, in a
database system, all data about employees are consolidated, integrated, and kept in
one place. Security controls on employee data need to be applied in only one place
in the database. Database systems make centralized security controls possible. It is
also easy to apply data access authorizations at various levels of data.

Data Independence Remember the lack of data independence in ﬁle-oriented
systems where computer programs have data structure deﬁnitions embedded within
the programs themselves. In database systems, ﬁle or data deﬁnitions are separated
out of the programs and kept within the database itself. Program logic and data
structure deﬁnitions are not intricately bound together. In a client/server environ-
ment, data and descriptions of data structures reside on the database server, whereas
                                                             THE DATABASE APPROACH           19

the code for application logic executes on the client machine or on a separate appli-
cation server.

Reduced Program Maintenance This beneﬁt of database systems results pri-
marily from data independence in applications. If the customer data structure
changes by the addition of a ﬁeld for cellular phone numbers, then this change is
made in only one place within the database itself. Only those programs that need
the new ﬁeld need to be modiﬁed and recompiled to make use of the added piece
of data. Within limits, you can change programs or data independently.

Simpler Backup and Recovery In a database system, generally all data are in
one place. Therefore, it becomes easy to establish procedures to back up data. All
the relationships among the data structures are also in one place. The arrangement
of data in database systems makes it easier not only for backing up the data but
also for initiating procedures for recovery of data lost because of malfunctions.


What are the implications when an organization makes the transition from ﬁle-
oriented systems to database systems? When an organization changes its approach
to management of data and adopts database technology, what are the signiﬁcant
effects in the way business is conducted? What happens when an organization
embraces the database approach?
   Let us ﬁnd answers to such questions. We will discuss the way applications are
designed and implemented with database systems. We will explore the basic con-
cepts of the database approach. We will also review some of the types of databases
and how these are used.
   We have reviewed the beneﬁts of database systems and established how they are
superior to the earlier ﬁle-oriented data systems. We caught a glimpse of the fea-
tures of database systems that produce several beneﬁts. Database systems reduce
data redundancy, integrate corporate data, and enable information sharing among
the various groups in the organization. Now you are ready for an initial, formal def-
inition of a database.

Database: A Formal Deﬁnition
Let us examine the following deﬁnition:

  A database is an ordered collection of related data elements intended to meet the infor-
  mation needs of an organization and designed to be shared by multiple users.

Note the key terms in the deﬁnition:

Ordered collection. A database is a collection of data elements. Not just a random
assembly of data structures, but a collection of data elements put together deliber-
ately with proper order. The various data elements are linked together in the most
logical manner.

Related data elements. The data elements in a database are not disjointed struc-
tures without any relationships among them. These are related among themselves
and also pertinent to the particular organization.

Information needs. The collection of data elements in a database is there for
a speciﬁc purpose. That purpose is to satisfy and meet the information needs of
the organization. In a database for a bank, you will ﬁnd data elements that are
pertinent to the bank’s business. You will ﬁnd customer’s bank balances and ATM
transactions. You will not ﬁnd data elements relating to a student’s major and
examination grades that belong in a database for a university. You will not ﬁnd a
patient’s medical history that really belongs in a database for a medical center.

Shared. All authorized users in an organization can share the information stored
in its database. Integrated information is kept in the database for the purpose of
sharing so that all user groups may collaborate and accomplish the organization’s

Data-Driven, Not Process-Driven
When an organization adopts a database approach to managing corporate data, the
very method of designing and implementing applications changes. Traditionally,
when you design and implement an application with ﬁle-oriented data systems, you
use a process-driven approach. That method changes with database systems. You
shift your design and implementation method to a data-driven approach. Figure
1-6 shows the difference between the two methods.
   In both methods, you begin with the deﬁnition of requirements. However, there
is an essential difference between the two methods. In the process-driven method,

                     Data-driven                 Process-driven
                      approach                      approach

                     Requirements                 Requirements
                       definition                   definition

                        Data                        Process
                       Design                       Design

                       Process                        Data
                       Design                        Design

                       Imple-                       Imple-
                      mentation                    mentation

                    Figure 1-6 Data-driven, not process-driven.
                                                          THE DATABASE APPROACH       21

you collect requirements for the outputs and the processes and then determine the
inputs. Determination of the inputs leads to the design of the data ﬁles.
   In the data-driven method, you gather requirements about the business objects
that are pertinent to the business. You collect the data required to be included about
these objects. Then you design the database to support the business. After this, the
design of the initial processes follows.
   Right away, you can see the advantage of the data-driven approach. Although
you are interested in supporting the initial processes, because you have designed
the database to contain all data relevant to the business, you will ﬁnd it easy to
add further processes later on. Data-driven approach provides enormous ﬂexibility
to provide for new and additional processing requirements at a later time. In
practice, companies adopting the database approach use a combination of both
methods, although the data-driven method dominates the application development

Basic Concepts
You are now beginning to appreciate the signiﬁcance of the database approach. You
are discerning the major beneﬁts of developing and using applications in a database
environment. Before proceeding further, let us review a few fundamental concepts
and become familiar with some key terminology.

Data Repository All data in the database reside in a data repository. This is the
data storage unit where physical data ﬁles are kept. The data repository contains
the physical data. Mostly, it is a central place of storage for the data content.

Data Dictionary The data repository contains the actual data. Let us say that you
want to keep data about the customers of your company in your database. The struc-
ture of a customer’s data could include ﬁelds such as customer name, customer
address, city, state, zip code, phone number, and so on. Data about a particular
customer could be as follows in the respective ﬁelds: Jane Smith/1234 Main
Street/Piscataway/NJ/08820. There are two aspects of the data about customers. One
aspect is the structure of the data consisting of the ﬁeld names, ﬁeld sizes, data types,
and so on. This part is the structure of the data for customers. The other part is the
actual data for each customer consisting of the actual data values in the various
   The ﬁrst part relating to the structure resides separately in storage, and this is
called the data dictionary or data catalog. A data dictionary contains the structures
of the various data elements in the database. It also contains the relationships
among data elements. The other part relating to the actual data about individual
customers resides in the data repository. The data dictionary and the data reposi-
tory work together to provide information to users.

Database Software Are Oracle and Informix databases? Oracle and Informix
are really the software that manages data. These are database software or database
management systems. Database software supports the storing, retrieving, and updat-
ing of data in a database. Database software is not the database itself. The software
helps you store, manage, and protect the data in a database.

Data Abstraction Consider the example of customer data again. Data about each
customer consist of several ﬁelds such as customer name, street address, city, state,
zip code, credit status, and so on. We can look at customer data at three levels. The
customer service representative can look at the customer from his or her point of
view as consisting of only the ﬁelds that are of interest to the representative. This
may be just customer name, phone number, and credit status. This is one level. The
next level is the structure of the complete set of ﬁelds in customer data. This level
is of interest to the database designer and application programmer. Another level
is of interest to the database administrator, who is responsible for designing the
physical layout for storing the data in ﬁles on disk storage.
   Now go through the three levels. The customer service representative is just inter-
ested in what he or she needs from customer data, not the entire set of ﬁelds or how
the data is physically stored on disk storage. The complexities of the other two levels
may be hidden from the customer service representative. Similarly, the physical level
of how the data is stored on disk storage may be hidden from the application pro-
grammer. Only the database administrator is interested in all three levels. This
concept is the abstraction of data—the ability to hide the complexities of data design
at the levels where they are not required. The database approach provides for data

Data Access The database approach includes the fundamental operations that
can be applied to data. Every database management system provides for the fol-
lowing basic operations:

     •   READ data contained in the database
     •   ADD data to the database
     •   UPDATE individual parts of the data in the database
     •   DELETE portions of the data in the database

     Database practitioners refer to these operations by the acronym CRUD:

     •   C—Create or add data
     •   R—Read data
     •   U—Update data
     •   D—Delete data

Transaction Support Imagine the business function of entering an order from a
customer into the computer system. The order entry clerk types in the customer
number, the product code, and the quantity ordered. The order entry program reads
the customer data and allows the clerk to sight verify the customer data, reads
product data and displays the product description, reads inventory data, and ﬁnally
updates inventory or creates a back order if inventory is insufﬁcient. All these tasks
performed by the order entry program to enter a single order comprise a single
order entry transaction.
   When a transaction is initiated it should complete all the tasks and leave the data
in the database in a consistent state. That is, if the initial stock is 1000 units and the
order is for 25 units, the stock value stored in the database after the transaction is
                                                                  OVERVIEW OF DATA MODELS           23

          Production                       Decision-                           Mass
          Databases                         Support                         Deployment
                                           Databases                        Databases

   •Support business functions    •Used for analysis, querying,      •Intended for single user
                                  and reporting                      environments
   •Online transaction
   processing                     •Generally read-only               •Workstation versions of
                                                                     database products
   •Usage includes CRUD           •Features include query tools
   activities                     and custom applications            •Ease of use important
   •Features include              •Data warehouse and OLAP           •Features include report and
   concurrency, security,         systems                            application generation
   transaction processing,                                           capabilities

                             Figure 1-7   How databases are used.

completed must be 975 units. How can this be a problem? See what can happen in
the execution of the transaction. First, the transaction may not be able to perform
all its tasks because of some malfunction preventing its completion. Second, numer-
ous transactions from different order entry clerks may be simultaneously looking
for inventory of the same product. Database technology enables a transaction to
complete a task in its entirety or back out intermediary data updates in case of mal-
functions preventing completion.

How Databases Are Used
You now realize the use of databases for supporting the core business of an orga-
nization and enabling day-to-day operations. These are production databases that
support the operational systems of an enterprise. More recently, with increasing
demand for information, databases fulﬁll another important function. Databases
provide support for strategic decision making in an organization. Such decision-
support databases are designed and implemented separately and differently. Pro-
duction databases and decision-support databases are large-scale databases for the
several users within organizations.
   Individuals and single departments may also use private databases. For example,
a specialty department may want to send targeted mailings to speciﬁc customers
and to keep these customers in a separate database. Individual business analysts
may keep data and research results in a separate database just for their use. These
are mass deployment individual databases.
   Figure 1-7 shows the separation of databases by their uses and describes some
of the features.


A data model represents the data requirements of an organization. You can
diagrammatically show a data model with symbols and ﬁgures. Data for an

organization reside in a database. Therefore, when designing a database, you ﬁrst
create a data model. The model would represent the real-world data requirements.
It would show the arrangement of the data structures.
   Database software has evolved to support different types of data models. As we
try to represent real-world data requirements as close as possible in a data model,
we come up with a replica of the real-world information requirements. It turns out
ways. At this stage, let us survey a few leading data models. Over time, different
vendors have developed commercial database management systems to support each
of these common data models.

Let us examine the data requirements for a typical manufacturing company.
Typically in manufacturing, you have major assemblies, with each major assembly
consisting of subassemblies, each subassembly consisting of parts, each part
consisting of subparts, and so on. In your database for the manufacturing company,
you need to keep data for the assemblies, subassemblies, parts, and subparts.
And the data model for manufacturing operations must represent these data
   Think about this data model. This model should show that an assembly contains
subassemblies, a subassembly contains parts, and a part contains subparts. Immedi-
ately you can observe that this data model must be hierarchical in nature, dia-
gramming the assembly at the top with subassembly, part, and subpart at successive
lower levels.
   In the business world, many data structures are hierarchical in nature. You can
notice a hierarchy in department, product category, product subcategory, product
line, and product. You can trace a hierarchy in division, subdivision, department,
and employee. Figure 1-8 illustrates one such model showing the hierarchy of cus-
tomer, order, and order line item. A customer may have one or more orders, and
an order may have one or more line items, perhaps one line item for each product
   Let us review the key features of the hierarchical model by referring to
Figure 1-8.

Levels. Each data structure representing a business object is at one of the hierar-
chical levels.

Parent-Child Relationships. The relationship between each pair of data structures
at levels next to each other is a parent-child relationship. CUSTOMER is a parent
data segment whose child is the ORDER data segment. In this arrangement, a child
segment can have only one parent segment but one parent segment may have mul-
tiple child segments. You may want to separate orders into phone orders and mail
orders. In that case, CUSTOMER may have PHONE ORDER and MAIL ORDER
as two child segments.

Root Segment. The data segment at the top level of the hierarchy is known as the
root data segment (as in an inverted tree).
                                                        OVERVIEW OF DATA MODELS      25

                                 Segment                         Parent
                                                 CUSTOMER       Segment


                                                 LINE ITEM       Child

                  Relationship links
                  through physical

                          Figure 1-8 Hierarchical data model.

Physical Pointers. How are the orders of a particular customer linked in the
implementation of the hierarchical data model? These linkages are by means of
physical pointers or physical storage addresses embedded within physical records
in the database. Physical pointers link records of the parent segments to those of
the child segments by means of parent-child forward or backward pointers. Simi-
larly, forward and backward physical pointers link records of the same segment type.

The hierarchical data model represents well any business data that inherently con-
tains levels one below the other. We have just discussed how the manufacturing
application deals with hierarchical levels of plant inventory with assemblies broken
down into lower-level components. The hierarchical data model suits this applica-
tion well. However, in the real world, most data structures do not conform to a
hierarchical arrangement. The levels of data structures do not fall into nice depen-
dencies one below another as in a hierarchy. In the hierarchical data model,
you have noticed that each data segment at any level can have only one parent at
the next higher level. In practice, many sets of related elements may not be sub-
jected to such restrictions.
   Let us consider a common set of related data elements in a typical business. The
data elements pertain to customers placing orders and making payments, salesper-
sons being assigned, and salespersons being part of sales territories. All of these data
elements cannot be arranged in a hierarchy. The relationships cross over among the
data elements as though they form a network. Refer to Figure 1-9 and note how it
represents a network arrangement and not a hierarchical arrangement. Observe the
six data elements of sales territory, salesperson, customer, order, order line item, and
payment as nodes in a network arrangement.

    Owner                          Member                         Owner
  record type                    record type                    record type
                  SALES                        CUSTOMER
                TERRITORY                                                       Owner
                                                             Member           record type
                                                           record type

                                                 ORDER                   PAYMENT
  record type
                  PERSON           Member                    Owner
                                 record type               record type

                record type
                                               LINE ITEM

      Relationship links                                     Member
      through physical                                     record type

                              Figure 1-9 Network data model.

   The network data model overcomes some of the limitations of the hierarchical
data model. The network data model is more representative of real-world infor-
mation requirements than the hierarchical model. The network data model can
represent most business information.
   Let us go over the key features of the network model by referring to Figure 1-9.

Levels. As in most real-world situations, no hierarchical levels exist in the network
model. The lines in a network data model simply connect the appropriate data struc-
tures wherever necessary without the restriction of connecting only successive levels
as in the hierarchical model. Note the lines connecting the various data structures
with no restrictions.

Record Types. In the network data model, each data structure is known as
a record type. For example, the CUSTOMER record type represents the data
content of all customers. The ORDER record type represents the data content of
all orders.

Relationships. The network data model expresses relationships between two
record types by designating one as the owner record type and the other as the
member record type. For each occurrence of an owner record type, there are one
or more occurrences of the member record type. The owner record type may be
reckoned as the parent and the member record type as the child. In a sense, the
owner record type “owns” the corresponding member record type. Each member
type with its corresponding owner record type is known as a set. A set represents
the relationship between an owner and a member record type.

Multiple Parents. Look at the ORDER member record type. For ORDER there
are two parents or owner records, namely, CUSTOMER and PAYMENT. In other
                                                        OVERVIEW OF DATA MODELS      27

words, for one occurrence of CUSTOMER, one or more occurrences of ORDER
exist. Similarly, for one occurrence of PAYMENT there are one or more occurrences
of ORDER. By deﬁnition, a hierarchical data model cannot represent this kind of
data arrangement with two parents for one child data structure.

Physical Pointers. Just as in the case of the hierarchical data model, related
occurrences of two different record types in a network model are connected by
physical pointers or physical storage addresses embedded within physical records
in the database. Physical pointers link occurrences of an owner record type with the
corresponding occurrences of the member record type. Within each record type
itself the individual occurrences may be linked to one another by means of forward
and backward pointers.

This book will provide you with in-depth discussions about the relational model.
This data model is superior to the earlier models. Dr. E. F. Codd, the celebrated
father of the relational model, stipulated the rules and put this model on a solid
mathematical foundation. At this stage, however, we want to introduce the rela-
tional model as a superior data model that addresses the limitations of the earlier
data models.
   The earlier hierarchical data model is suitable for data structures that are natu-
rally hierarchical, with each data structure placed at a certain level in the hierarchy.
However, in the business arena, many of the data structures and their relationships
cannot be readily placed in a hierarchical arrangement. The network data model
evolved to dispense with the arbitrary restriction of the hierarchical model. Never-
theless, in both of these models, you need physical pointers to connect related data
occurrences. This is a serious drawback because you have rewrite the physical
addresses in the data records every time you reorganize the data, move the data to
a different storage area, or change over to another storage medium. The relational
model establishes the connections between related data occurrences by means of
logical links implemented through foreign keys. Figure 1-10 illustrates the relational
data model.
   Let us note the key features of the relational data model by referring to
Figure 1-10.

Levels. Just like the network data model, no hierarchical levels are present in the
relational model. The lines in a relational data model simply indicate the relation-
ships between the appropriate data structures wherever necessary without the
restriction of connecting only successive levels as in the hierarchical model. As in
the network model, note the lines connecting the various data structures with no

Relations or Tables. The relational model consists of relations. A relation is a
two-dimensional table of data observing relational rules. For example, the CUS-
TOMER relation represents the data content of all customers. The ORDER rela-
tion represents the data content of all orders.


                          SALES                 ORDER            PAYMENT

                                              ORDER LINE

           Relationship links NOT through physical
                 pointers, but by foreign keys

                          Figure 1-10 Relational data model.

Relationships. Consider the relationship between CUSTOMER and ORDER. For
each customer one or more orders may exist. So this customer occurrence must be
connected to all the related order occurrences. In the relational model, physical
pointers do not establish these connections. Instead, a foreign key ﬁeld is included
in the ORDER data structure. In each of the order occurrences relating to a certain
customer, the foreign key contains the identiﬁcation of that customer. When you
look for all the orders for a particular customer, you search through the foreign key
ﬁeld of ORDER and ﬁnd those order occurrences with identiﬁcation of that cus-
tomer in the foreign key ﬁeld. We will deal with this topic in more detail in later

No Physical Pointers. Unlike the hierarchical or the network data models, the rela-
tional model establishes relationships between data structures by means of foreign
keys and not by physical pointers.

Take the case of the State of California Department of Water Resources (DWR),
which manages the waterways, canals, and water projects in that state. DWR main-
tains a library of more than half a million pictures. Users access this library several
times a day. A user requests a picture by content: “Show me Lake Cachuma” (a
Santa Barbara County reservoir with a low water level). Despite an index system
of captions and keywords, retrieval of the right picture within a reasonable time is
virtually impossible with the current relational database systems. Nor are purely
object-oriented data systems totally adequate to handle the challenge. As the
demand for information continues to grow, organizations need database systems
that allow representation of complex data types, user-deﬁned sophisticated func-
tions, and user-deﬁned operators for data access.
   Object-relational database management systems (ORDBMS) present viable
solutions for handling complex data types. The object-relational model combines
the ability of object technology to handle advanced types of relationships with fea-
                                                                 TYPES OF DATABASES   29

tures of data integrity, reliability, and recovery found in the relational realm. We will
cover object-relational database systems in greater detail in Chapter 20.


By now you are convinced of the signiﬁcance of information for an organization.
You know that information is a key corporate asset and that it has to be managed,
protected, and used like any other major asset. The corporate database that holds
an organization’s data is the underlying foundation for corporate information.
Organizations are also faced with questions regarding how and where to hold the
corporate data.
   Where should an enterprise hold its data? Should all the corporate data be kept
centrally in one place? If so, what are the advantages and disadvantages? Or should
the corporate data be divided into suitable fragments and the pieces kept at differ-
ent locations? What are the implications of this arrangement?
   Organizations primarily adopt one of two approaches. If the entire database is
kept in one centralized location, this type of database is a centralized database. On
the other hand, if fragments of the database are physically placed at various loca-
tions, this type of database is a distributed database. Each type has its own beneﬁts
and shortcomings. Again, whether an enterprise adopts a centralized or a distrib-
uted approach depends on the organizational setup and the information require-
ments. Let us review the two types.

Figure 1-11 illustrates a centralized database.


          All data at a single site.                Common Examples:
          Data access from remote sites             Personal Database
          through communication links.              Central Computer Database
          Easy to administer.
                                                    Client/ Server Database
          Uncertain data availability.

                             Figure 1-11 Centralized database.

   Personalized databases are always centralized in one location. If your company
has a centralized computer system, then the database must reside in that central
location. In the client/server architecture, the database resides on a server machine.
The entire database may be kept on a single server machine and placed in a central
   When all corporate data is in one place in a centralized database, companies ﬁnd
it easier to manage and administer the database. You can control concurrent
accesses to the same data in the database easily in a centralized database. You can
maintain security controls easily. However, if your company’s operations are spread
across remote locations, these locations must access the centralized database
through communication links. Here, data availability depends on the capacity and
dependability of the communication links.

Figure 1-12 shows how fragments of a corporate database are spread across remote
   Global organizations or enterprises with widespread domestic operations can
beneﬁt from distributed databases. In such organizations computer processing
is also distributed, with processing done locally at each location. A distributed
database gets fragmented into smaller data sets. Normally, you would divide the

       Fragment                                                    Enterprise
           of                                                      Database

       Fragment                                                                     of
           of                                                                   Enterprise
       Enterprise                                                               Database

     For global and spread-out                       Two categories:
     organizations, centralized
     databases not economical.                        Homogeneous databases
     Enterprise data distributed                      Heterogeneous databases
     across multiple computer
                              Figure 1-12 Distributed database.
                                               SURVEY OF THE DATABASE INDUSTRY      31

database into data sets on the basis of usage. If a fragment contains data that are
most relevant to one location, then that data set is kept at that location. At each
location, a fragment of the enterprise data is placed based on the usage.
   Each fragment of data at every location may be managed with the same type
of database management system. For example, you may run Oracle DBMS at
every location. In that case, you run your distributed database as a homogenous
database. On the other hand, if you elect to manage the data fragments at different
locations with different DBMSs, then you run your distributed database as a col-
lection of heterogeneous database systems. Heterogeneous arrangement provides
extra ﬂexibility. However, heterogeneous distribution is difﬁcult to coordinate and


So far we have reviewed the basic concepts of the database approach. You have
understood the forces that drove the transition from ﬁle-oriented systems to
database systems. We discussed in detail how the escalating demand by organiza-
tions for information and the explosive growth of computing technology mutually
contributed to the rise of database systems. We also looked into the types of
   We should now conclude with a brief survey of the database industry. Where is
the industry now? How did it get here? You will ﬁnd such a survey useful because
it will provide you with the context and the foundation for further study. You have
been introduced to the leading data models. As you walk through a brief history,
you will grasp the signiﬁcance of one data model following the earlier one. A list of
the leading commercial database management systems will give you an apprecia-
tion of the spread of database systems. You will also get a quick glimpse of the future
direction of database technology. We will be returning to these topics in later chap-
ters. At this stage, let us just do a brief survey.

Brief History
Although the initial movement toward database systems began in the 1960s, soft-
ware sophistication and widespread use of database systems began in the mid-1970s.
More and more organizations began to adopt database technology to manage their
corporate data. Figure 1-13 provides you with a historical summary of the database
industry. The ﬁgure highlights the major events and developments in the various
   Generalized Update Access Method (GUAM) contained the ﬁrst trace of the
forerunner to the hierarchical database systems. In early 1960s, Rockwell developed
this software to manage the data usually associated with manufacturing operations.
IBM picked this up and introduced Information Management System (IMS) as a
hierarchical database management system.
   Integrated Data Store (IDS), developed at General Electric, formed the basis
for database systems on the network data model. Database Task Group (DBTG)
of the Conference on Data Systems and Languages (CODASYL) began to produce
standards for the network model. CODASYL, a consortium of vendors and

Rockwell develops       Dr. E.F. Codd of         IBM’s IMS continues    Every leading           DB vendors
GUAM software for       IBM Research writes      to be enhanced for     database vendor         provide for
hierarchical data       paper on the             the hierarchical       offers a relational     newer data
structures.             relational data model.   model.                 database product.       types.

IBM develops IMS        Codd stipulates his      Database software      SQL-92 becomes the      Spatial
database software.      rules for the            products for the       accepted standard.      databases
                        relational model and     network model gain                             introduced.
Charles Bachmann        proposes data            strength.              The relational model
heads team at GE that   manipulation                                    becomes the             Databases
develops IDS based      languages.               Newer products for     preferred data model.   support ERP,
on network data                                  the relational model                           DW, DM,
structure.                                       introduced by IBM,     Database technology     OLAP, and
                        System R project at                             becomes the
                                                 Oracle, and other                              CRM
                        IBM’s San Jose                                  cornerstone for data
CODASYL is                                       vendors.                                       applications.
                        laboratory.                                     warehousing, data
established. DBTG is
formed as a sub-                                                        mining, and Web
                        SQL is developed as      Relational model       applications.
group for database      part of the System R     becomes accepted as
software standards.     project.                 a superior model.
                                                                        OODBMS and
First generation of     Commercial products      SQL gains              ORDBMS emerge as
commercial database     begin to appear on       importance as the      solutions to address
products.               the market.              standard.              increasing

1960                    1970                     1980                   1990                    2000

                        Figure 1-13 Database industry: historical summary.

leading businesses, serves as a group to establish standards. Among the many
standards established, a major contribution by CODASYL is the set of standards
for COBOL, a leading programming language. In the late 1960s, vendors started
to release the ﬁrst generation of commercial database systems supporting the
network data model. Cincom’s TOTAL database management system is a primary
   The 1970s ushered in the era of relational database technology. Dr. Codd’s foun-
dational paper on the relational model revolutionized the thinking on data systems.
The industry quickly realized the superiority of the relational model, and more and
more vendors began to adapt their products to that model.
   During the 1980s, the use of database systems gained a lot of ground and a large
percentage of businesses made the transition from ﬁle-oriented data systems to
database systems. All the three leading data models—hierarchical, network, and
relational—were quite popular, although the relational model was steadily gaining
   Essentially the 1990s may be considered as a period of maturity of the relational
model and the emergence of that data model as the leading one. Companies con-
sidered moving their data to relational databases from hierarchical and network
databases. Also, vendors started to incorporate the features of both relational and
object technologies in their products. Object-relational database management
systems (ORDBMSs) hit the market.
   Now in the new millennium, the usage of database technology is spreading
into newer areas. Properly designed databases serve as a chief component in data
warehousing (DW), enterprise resource planning (ERP), data mining (DM), on-line
analytical processing (OLAP), and customer relationship management (CRM)
                                              SURVEY OF THE DATABASE INDUSTRY    33

Leading Commercial Databases
In Appendix E, you will ﬁnd broad reviews of major commercial database systems.
At this point, let us list some of the leading systems in alphabetic sequence of the
product names:

  SYSTEM 2000

Peek into the Future
Chapter 20 covers the trends in database technology in extensive detail. The fol-
lowing list indicates some of the speciﬁc developments.

Very large databases. Modern commercial database management systems can
support very large volumes of data in the terabyte range. Data access and manipu-
lation do not pose problems. As databases store data for corporate data warehouses
and for on-line analytical processing applications, the sizes of databases will con-
tinue grow rapidly.

User-deﬁned data types. Newer applications for global organizations need special
data types. One example is the spatial data type where data values consist of areas
and volumes. In addition to standard data types, DBMSs have begun to enable data-
base users to deﬁne their own data types with special characteristics.

Complex data manipulation. The current set of data manipulation functions such
as sum, difference, average, and the like are no longer adequate when your users
want to utilize the database for complex calculations. While performing analysis,
they might need to calculate moving averages. Modern database software products
provide the ability to perform complex data manipulations.

Intelligent database servers. The trend already includes automatic execution of
programs based on exception conditions detected from the data in the database.
Future database management systems will contain a substantial extent of logic for
intelligent triggers to initiate automatic operations.

Wider use for decision support. Improved database technology spurs the spread
of decision- support systems such as data warehousing, data mining, and on-line ana-
lytical processing.

Merging with Web technology. The database has become the centerpiece of Inter-
net and intranet applications. The merging of database technology with Web tech-
nology will become even stronger and serve newer purposes.


     •   Two remarkable phenomena together have caused the evolution of database
         systems: (1) escalating demand for information at every organization, and (2)
         explosive growth of computing technology.
     •   For nearly three decades, there has been tremendous growth in every sector of
         computing technology, especially in data storage devices and in the software to
         manage enterprise data.
     •   Organizations began to need not only more information but also different types
         of information for newer purposes than merely running day-to-day operations.
     •   Major forces driving the evolution of database systems: information considered
         as key corporate asset, explosive growth of computer technology, escalating
         demand for information, and inadequacy of earlier data systems.
     •   Beneﬁts of database systems compared to ﬁle-oriented systems: minimal data
         redundancy, integration of corporate data, preservation of data integrity and
         consistency, data sharing, ease with which uniform standards can be established,
         better enforcement of security controls, reduced program maintenance through
         data independence, and simpler backup and recovery of data.
     •   Common data models: hierarchical, network, and relational.
     •   In an organization, data may be kept in a centralized location or suitable frag-
         ments of data may be spread across several physical locations. Organizations
         may opt for centralized or distributed databases.


         1. What is your understanding of the term database? Describe it in two or three
         2. List three areas of technology growth that had direct positive effects on data
            systems. Brieﬂy explain the positive impact.
         3. What are ISAM and VSAM ﬁles? Why are they better than sequential ﬁles?
         4. Name and brieﬂy describe the major driving forces for database systems.
         5. List and explain any three problems with ﬁle-oriented systems.
         6. What are homonyms and synonyms? Explain why ﬁle-oriented systems may
            have problems with these.
         7. List and describe any three beneﬁts of database systems in comparison with
            ﬁle-oriented systems.
                                                                  EXERCISES     35

  8. What is a data dictionary? Describe its purpose.
  9. Brieﬂy describe the features of a network data model. How are relationships
     represented in a network data model?
 10. Is the relational data model better than the earlier data models? Give your


 1. Match the columns:
     1. data redundancy                     A. foreign keys for relationships
     2. inconsistent data                   B. data storage
     3. data independence                   C. large data volumes
     4. data integration                    D. used for storing data
     5. data repository                     E. structure deﬁnitions
     6. data dictionary                      F. easy to administer
     7. decision-support database           G. wasted storage space
     8. relational data model               H. uniﬁed view of corporate data
     9. centralized database                 I. data separated from program logic
    10. punched card                         J. errors on customer documents
 2. “Escalating demand for information and explosive growth of computing tech-
    nology together enabled the evolution of database systems.” Discuss this state-
    ment, giving your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.
 3. You are hired as the project leader for a new database project at a local bank.
    The bank wants to convert the existing ﬁle-oriented systems to a database
    system. Your department head wants you to write a note to the Executive Vice
    President listing the expected beneﬁts of the proposed database system in
    comparison with ﬁle-oriented systems. Write a one-page note.
 4. Compare the features of the hierarchical, network, and relational data models.
    Explain how related data elements are linked in each model.
 5. A manufacturer of electronic components has two factories in two different
    states. The company has a central warehouse at a location where the head
    ofﬁce is situated. There are ﬁve sales ofﬁces in ﬁve different regions of the
    country. Discuss whether the company should have a centralized database
    or distributed databases. List the advantages and disadvantages of each

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