DB Lecture Note All in ONE
DB Lecture Note All in ONE
DB Lecture Note All in ONE
Chapter 1
Introduction to Database System
Database systems are designed to manage large data set in an organization. The data
management involves both definition and the manipulation of the data which ranges from
simple representation of the data to considerations of structures for the storage of information.
The data management also consider the provision of mechanisms for the manipulation of
information.
Today, Databases are essential to every business. They are used to maintain internal records,
to present data to customers and clients on the World-Wide-Web, and to support many other
commercial processes. Databases are likewise found at the core of many modern
organizations.
The power of databases comes from a body of knowledge and technology that has developed
over several decades and is embodied in specialized software called a database management
system, or DBMS. A DBMS is a powerful tool for creating and managing large amounts of data
efficiently and allowing it to persist over long periods of time, safely. These systems are among
the most complex types of software available.
Thus, for our question: What is a database? In essence a database is nothing more than a
collection of shared information that exists over a long period of time, often many years. In
common dialect, the term database refers to a collection of data that is managed by a DBMS.
Thus the DB course is about:
How to organize data
Supporting multiple users
Efficient and effective data retrieval
Secured and reliable storage of data
Maintaining consistent data
Making information useful for decision making
Data management passes through the different levels of development along with the
development in technology and services. These levels could best be described by categorizing
the levels into three levels of development. Even though there is an advantage and a problem
overcome at each new level, all methods of data handling are in use to some extent. The major
three levels are;
1. Manual Approach
2. Traditional File Based Approach
3. Database Approach
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1. Manual Approach
In the manual approach, data storage and retrieval follows the primitive and traditional way
of information handling where cards and paper are used for the purpose. The data storage and
retrieval will be performed using human labour.
Files for as many event and objects as the organization has are used to store
information.
Each of the files containing various kinds of information is labelled and stored in one
ore more cabinets.
The cabinets could be kept in safe places for security purpose based on the sensitivity of
the information contained in it.
Insertion and retrieval is done by searching first for the right cabinet then for the right
the file then the information.
One could have an indexing system to facilitate access to the data
Limitations of the Manual approach
Prone to error
Difficult to update, retrieve, integrate
You have the data but it is difficult to compile the information
Limited to small size information
Cross referencing is difficult
An alternative approach of data handling is a computerized way of dealing with the
information. The computerized approach could also be either decentralized or centralized base
on where the data resides in the system.
2. Traditional File Based Approach
After the introduction of Computer for data processing to the business community, the need to
use the device for data storage and processing increase. There were, and still are, several
computer applications with file based processing used for the purpose of data handling. Even
though the approach evolved over time, the basic structure is still similar if not identical.
File based systems were an early attempt to computerize the manual filing system.
This approach is the decentralized computerized data handling method.
A collection of application programs perform services for the end-users. In such
systems, every application program that provides service to end users define and
manage its own data
Such systems have number of programs for each of the different applications in the
organization.
Since every application defines and manages its own data, the system is subjected to
serious data duplication problem.
File, in traditional file based approach, is a collection of records which contains logically
related data.
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The limitations for the traditional file based data handling approach arise from two basic
reasons.
1. Definition of the data is embedded in the application program which makes it
difficult to modify the database definition easily.
2. No control over the access and manipulation of the data beyond that imposed by
the application programs.
The most significant problem experienced by the traditional file based approach of data
handling can be formalized by what is called “update anomalies”. We have three types of
update anomalies;
1. Modification Anomalies: a problem experienced when one ore more data value is
modified on one application program but not on others containing the same data set.
2. Deletion Anomalies: a problem encountered where one record set is deleted from one
application but remain untouched in other application programs.
3. Insertion Anomalies: a problem experienced when ever there is new data item to be
recorded, and the recording is not made in all the applications. And when same data
item is inserted at different applications, there could be errors in encoding which makes
the new data item to be considered as a totally different object.
3. Database Approach
Following a famous paper written by Dr. Edgard Frank Codd in 1970, database systems
changed significantly. Codd proposed that database systems should present the user with a
view of data organized as tables called relations. Behind the scenes, there might be a complex
data structure that allowed rapid response to a variety of queries. But, unlike the user of earlier
database systems, the user of a relational system would not be concerned with the storage
structure. Queries could be expressed in a very high-level language, which greatly increased
the efficiency of database programmers. The database approach emphasizes the integration
and sharing of data throughout the organization.
Thus in Database Approach:
Database is just a computerized record keeping system or a kind of electronic filing
cabinet.
Database is a repository for collection of computerized data files.
Database is a shared collection of logically related data and description of data designed
to meet the information needs of an organization. Since it is a shared corporate resource,
the database is integrated with minimum amount of or no duplication.
Database is a collection of logically related data where these logically related data
comprises entities, attributes, relationships, and business rules of an organization's
information.
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Speed: data storage and retrieval is fast as it will be using the modern fast computer
systems.
Less labour: unlike the other data handling methods, data maintenance will not demand
much resource.
Centralized information control: since relevant data in the organization will be stored at
one repository, it can be controlled and managed at the central level.
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A DBMS is software package used to design, manage, and maintain databases. Each DBMS
should have facilities to define the database, manipulate the content of the database and
control the database. These facilities will help the designer, the user as well as the database
administrator to discharge their responsibility in designing, using and managing the
database. It provides the following facilities:
Data Definition Language (DDL):
o Language used to define each data element required by the organization.
o Commands for setting up schema or the intension of database
o These commands are used to setup a database, create, delete and alter table with
the facility of handling constraints
Data Manipulation Language (DML):
o Is a core command used by end-users and programmers to store, retrieve, and
access the data in the database e.g. SQL
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o Since the required data or Query by the user will be extracted using this type of
language, it is also called "Query Language"
Data Dictionary:
o Due to the fact that a database is a self describing system, this tool, Data
Dictionary, is used to store and organize information about the data stored in the
database.
Data Control Language:
o Database is a shared resource that demands control of data access and usage. The
database administrator should have the facility to control the overall operation of
the system.
o Data Control Languages are commands that will help the Database
Administrator to control the database.
o The commands include grant or revoke privileges to access the database or
particular object within the database and to store or remove database
transactions
The DBMS is software package that helps to design, manage, and use data using the database
approach. Taking a DBMS as a system, one can describe it with respect to it environment or
other systems interacting with the DBMS. The DBMS environment has five components. To
design and use a database, there will be the interaction or integration of Hardware, Software,
Data, Procedure and People.
1. Hardware: are components that one can touch and feel. These components are
comprised of various types of personal computers, mainframe or any server computers
to be used in multi-user system, network infrastructure, and other peripherals required
in the system.
2. Software: are collection of commands and programs used to manipulate the
hardware to perform a function. These include components like the DBMS software,
application programs, operating systems, network software, language software and
other relevant software.
3. Data: since the goal of any database system is to have better control of the data and
making data useful, Data is the most important component to the user of the database.
There are two categories of data in any database system: that is Operational and
Metadata. Operational data is the data actually stored in the system to be used by the
user. Metadata is the data that is used to store information about the database itself.
The structure of the data in the database is called the schema, which is composed of the
Entities, Properties of entities, and relationship between entities and business constraints.
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4. Procedure: this is the rules and regulations on how to design and use a database. It
includes procedures like how to log on to the DBMS, how to use facilities, how to start
and stop DBMS, how to make backup, how to treat hardware and software failure, how
to change the structure of the database.
5. People: this component is composed of the people in the organization that are
responsible or play a role in designing, implementing, managing, administering and
using the resources in the database. This component includes group of people with high
level of knowledge about the database and the design technology to other with no
knowledge of the system except using the data in the database.
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Accountable for problems like poor security, poor performance of the system
We can have further classifications of this role in big organizations having huge amount of
data and user requirement.
a. Data Administrator (DA): is responsible on management of data resources. This
involves in database planning, development, maintenance of standards policies and
procedures at the conceptual and logical design phases.
b. Database Administrator (DBA): This is more technically oriented role. DBA is
responsible for the physical realization of the database. It is involved in physical design,
implementation, security and integrity control of the database.
2. Database Designer (DBD)
Identifies the data to be stored and choose the appropriate structures to represent and
store the data.
Should understand the user requirement and should choose how the user views the
database.
Involve on the design phase before the implementation of the database system.
We have two distinctions of database designers, one involving in the logical and conceptual
design and another involving in physical design.
a. Logical and Conceptual DBD
Identifies data (entity, attributes and relationship) relevant to the organization
Identifies constraints on each data
Understand data and business rules in the organization
Sees the database independent of any data model at conceptual level and consider
one specific data model at logical design phase.
b. Physical DBD
Take logical design specification as input & decide how it should be physically realized.
Map the logical data model on the specified DBMS with respect to tables and integrity
constraints. (DBMS dependent designing)
Select specific storage structure and access path to the database
Design security measures required on the database
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ANSI-SPARC Architecture
The purpose and origin of the Three-Level database architecture
All users should be able to access same data. This is important since the database is
having a shared data feature where all the data is stored in one location and all users
will have their own customized way of interacting with the data.
A user's view is unaffected or immune to changes made in other views. Since the
requirement of one user is independent of the other, a change made in one user‘s
view should not affect other users.
Users should not need to know physical database storage details. As there are naïve
users of the system, hardware level or physical details should be a black-box for
such users.
DBA should be able to change database storage structures without affecting the
users' views. A change in file organization, access method should not affect the
structure of the data which in turn will have no effect on the users.
Internal structure of database should be unaffected by changes to physical aspects of
storage, such as change of hard disk
DBA should be able to change conceptual structure of database without affecting all
users. In any database system, the DBA will have the privilege to change the
structure of the database, like adding tables, adding and deleting an attribute,
changing the specification of the objects in the database.
All of the above and much more functionalities are possible due to the three level
ANSI-SPARC architecture.
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1. External Level: Users' view of the database. It describes that part of database that is
relevant to a particular user. Different users have their own customized view of the
database independent of other users.
2. Conceptual Level: Community view of the database. Describes what data is stored
in database and relationships among the data along with the business constraints.
3. Internal Level: Physical representation of the database on the computer. Describes
how the data is stored in the database.
The following example can be taken as an illustration for the difference between the three
levels in the ANSI-SPARC database Architecture. Where:
The first level is concerned about the group of users and their respective data
requirement independent of the other.
The second level is describing the whole content of the database where one piece of
information will be represented once.
The third level
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Department
Employee Job
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Alternative terminologies
Relation Table File
Tuple Row Record
Attribute Column Field
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Chapter Two
Relational Data Model
Important terms:
Relation: a table with rows and columns
Attribute: a named column of a relation
Domain: a set of allowable values for one or more attributes
Tuple: a row of a relation
Degree: the degree of a relation is the number of attributes it contains
Unary relation, Binary relation, Ternary relation, N-ary relation
Cardinality: of a relation is the number of tuples the relation has
Relational Database: a collection of normalized relations with distinct relation names.
Relation Schema: a named relation defined by a set of attribute-domain name pair
Let A1, A2...........An be attributes with domain D1, D2 ………,Dn.
Then the sets {A1:D1, A2:D2… An:Dn} is a Relation Schema. A relation R, defined by a
relation schema S, is a set of mappings from attribute names to their corresponding
domains. Thus a relation is a set of n- tuples of the form
(A1:d1, A2:d2 ,…, An:dn) where d1 є D1, d2 є D2,…….. dn є Dn,
Eg. Student (studentId char(10), studentName char(50), DOB date) is a relation schema for
the student entity in SQL
Relational Database schema: a set of relation schema each with distinct names.
Suppose R1, R2,……, Rn is the set of relation schema in a relational database then the
relational database schema (R) can be stated as: R={ R1 , R2 ,……., Rn}
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For example, the domain of Name is string and that for salary is real. How ever these
are not shown on E-R models
o Whether the attribute is part of the entity identifier (attributes which just
describe an entity and those which help to identify it uniquely)
o Whether it is permanent or time-varying (which attributes may change their
values over time)
o Whether it is required or optional for the entity (whose values will sometimes be
unknown or irrelevant)
Types of Attributes
(1) Simple (atomic) Vs Composite attributes
Simple : contains a single value (not divided into sub parts)
E.g. Age, gender
Composite: Divided into sub parts (composed of other attributes)
E.g. Name, address
(2) Single-valued Vs multi-valued attributes
Single-valued : have only single value(the value may change but has only
one value at one time)
E.g. Name, Sex, Id. No. color_of_eyes
Multi-Valued: have more than one value
E.g. Address, dependent-name
Person may have several college degrees
(3) Stored vs. Derived Attribute
Stored : not possible to derive or compute
E.g. Name, Address
Derived: The value may be derived (computed) from the values of other
attributes.
E.g. Age (current year – year of birth)
Length of employment (current date- start date)
Profit (earning-cost)
G.P.A (grade point/credit hours)
(4) Null Values
NULL applies to attributes which are not applicable or which do not have
values.
You may enter the value NA (meaning not applicable)
Value of a key attribute can not be null.
Default value - assumed value if no explicit value
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3. The RELATIONSHIPS between entities which exist and must be taken into account
when processing information. In any business processing one object may be associated
with another object due to some event. Such kind of association is what we call a
RELATIONSHIP between entity objects.
One external event or process may affect several related entities.
Related entities require setting of LINKS from one part of the database to another.
A relationship should be named by a word or phrase which explains its function
Role names are different from the names of entities forming the relationship: one
entity may take on many roles, the same role may be played by different entities
For each RELATIONSHIP, one can talk about the Number of Entities and the
Number of Tuples participating in the association. These two concepts are called
DEGREE and CARDINALITY of a relationship respectively.
Degree of a Relationship
An important point about a relationship is how many entities participate in it. The
number of entities participating in a relationship is called the DEGREE of the
relationship.
Among the Degrees of relationship, the following are the basic:
UNARY/RECURSIVE RELATIONSHIP: Tuples/records of a Single entity are related withy
each other.
BINARY RELATIONSHIPS: Tuples/records of two entities are associated in a relationship
TERNARY RELATIONSHIP: Tuples/records of three different entities are associated
And a generalized one:
o N-ARY RELATIONSHIP: Tuples from arbitrary number of entity sets are
participating in a relationship.
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Cardinality of a Relationship
Another important concept about relationship is the number of instances/tuples that can be
associated with a single instance from one entity in a single relationship. The number of
instances participating or associated with a single instance from an entity in a relationship is
called the CARDINALITY of the relationship. The major cardinalities of a relationship are:
ONE-TO-ONE: one tuple is associated with only one other tuple.
o E.g. Building – Location as a single building will be located in a single
location and as a single location will only accommodate a single Building.
ONE-TO-MANY, one tuple can be associated with many other tuples, but not the
reverse.
o E.g. Department-Student as one department can have multiple students.
MANY-TO-ONE, many tuples are associated with one tuple but not the reverse.
o E.g. Employee – Department: as many employees belong to a single
department.
MANY-TO-MANY: one tuple is associated with many other tuples and from the
other side, with a different role name one tuple will be associated with many tuples
o E.g. Student – Courseas a student can take many courses and a single
course can be attended by many students.
However, the degree and cardinality of a relation are different from degree
and cardinality of a relationship.
4. Key constraints
If tuples are need to be unique in the database, and then we need to make each tuple distinct.
To do this we need to have relational keys that uniquely identify each record.
Super Key: an attribute/set of attributes that uniquely identify a tuple within a relation.
Candidate Key: a super key such that no proper subset of that collection is a Super Key
within the relation.
A candidate key has two properties:
1. Uniqueness
2. Irreducibility
If a super key is having only one attribute, it is automatically a Candidate key.
If a candidate key consists of more than one attribute it is called Composite Key.
Primary Key: the candidate key that is selected to identify tuples uniquely within the
relation.
The entire set of attributes in a relation can be considered as a primary case in a
worst case.
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Foreign Key: an attribute, or set of attributes, within one relation that matches the
candidate key of some relation.
A foreign key is a link between different relations to create a view or an unnamed
relation
Relational Constraints/Integrity Rules
Relational Integrity
Domain Integrity: No value of the attribute should be beyond the allowable
limits
Entity Integrity: In a base relation, no attribute of a Primary Key can assume
a value of NULL
Referential Integrity: If a Foreign Key exists in a relation, either the Foreign
Key value must match a Candidate Key value in its home relation or the
Foreign Key value must be NULL
Enterprise Integrity: Additional rules specified by the users or database
administrators of a database are incorporated
Relational Views
Relations are perceived as a Table from the users‘ perspective. Actually, there are two
kinds of relation in relational database. The two categories or types of Relations are
Named and Unnamed Relations. The basic difference is on how the relation is created,
used and updated:
1. Base Relation
A Named Relation corresponding to an entity in the conceptual schema, whose
tuples are physically stored in the database.
2. View (Unnamed Relation)
A View is the dynamic result of one or more relational operations operating on
the base relations to produce another virtual relation that does not actually exist
as presented. So a view is virtually derived relation that does not necessarily
exist in the database but can be produced upon request by a particular user at the
time of request. The virtual table or relation can be created from single or
different relations by extracting some attributes and records with or without
conditions.
Purpose of a view
Hides unnecessary information from users: since only part of the base relation
(Some collection of attributes, not necessarily all) are to be included in the virtual
table.
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Schemas
Schema describes how data is to be structured, defined at setup/Design time (also
called "metadata")
Since it is used during the database development phase, there is rare tendency of
changing the schema unless there is a need for system maintenance which demands
change to the definition of a relation.
Database Schema (Intension): specifies name of relation and the collection of the
attributes (specifically the Name of attributes).
refer to a description of database (or intention)
specified during database design
should not be changed unless during maintenance
Schema Diagrams
convention to display some aspect of a schema visually
Schema Construct
refers to each object in the schema (e.g. STUDENT)
E.g.: STUNEDT (FName,LName,Id,Year,Dept, Sex)
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Instances
Instance: is the collection of data in the database at a particular point of time (snap-
shot).
Also called State or Snap Shot or Extension of the database
Refers to the actual data in the database at a specific point in time
State of database is changed any time we add, delete or update an item.
Valid state: the state that satisfies the structure and constraints specified in the
schema and is enforced by DBMS
Since Instance is actual data of database at some point in time, changes rapidly
To define a new database, we specify its database schema to the DBMS (database is
empty)
database is initialized when we first load it with data
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Chapter Three
Database Design
Database design is the process of coming up with different kinds of specification for the data
to be stored in the database. The database design part is one of the middle phases we have in
information systems development where the system uses a database approach. Design is the
part on which we would be engaged to describe how the data should be perceived at different
levels and finally how it is going to be stored in a computer system.
Information System with Database application consists of several tasks which include:
Planning of Information systems Design
Requirements Analysis,
Design (Conceptual, Logical and Physical Design)
Implementation
Testing and deployment
Operation and Support
From these different phases, the prime interest of a database system will be the Design part
which is again sub divided into other three sub-phases. These sub-phases are:
1. Conceptual Design
2. Logical Design, and
3. Physical Design
In general, one has to go back and forth between these tasks to refine a database design,
and decisions in one task can influence the choices in another task.
In developing a good design, one should answer such questions as:
What are the relevant Entities for the Organization
What are the important features of each Entity
What are the important Relationships
What are the important queries from the user
What are the other requirements of the Organization and the Users
Conceptual Design
Logical Design
Physical Design
The Three levels of Database Design
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The basic E-R model is graphically depicted and presented for review.
The process is repeated until the end users and designers agree that the E-R diagram
is a fair representation of the organization‘s activities and functions.
Checking for Redundant Relationships in the ER Diagram. Relationships between
entities indicate access from one entity to another - it is therefore possible to access
one entity occurrence from another entity occurrence even if there are other entities
and relationships that separate them - this is often referred to as Navigation' of the
ER diagram
The last phase in ER modeling is validating an ER Model against requirement of the
user.
Ova
Ovals Ovals ls
Ovals Ova
ls
Multi-valued Composite Ova
Attribute Attribute Attribute ls
Key
Primary Keys are underlined and
A derived attribute is indicated by a DOTTED LINE. (……..) Ovals
Diamond Diamond
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Id Gpa
Students Course
s
Age
Enrolled_In Semester
Academic
Year
Grade
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One-To-Many Relationships
In the one-to-many relationship a loan is associated with at most one customer via
borrower, a customer is associated with several (including 0) loans via borrower
Many-To-Many Relationship
A customer is associated with several (possibly 0) loans via borrower
A loan is associated with several (possibly 0) customers via borrower
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Example 2:
Participation of employee in ―manages‖ relationship with Department, is partial
participation since not all employees are managers.
Participation of DEPARTMENT in ―Manages‖ relationship with EMPLOYEE is total since
every department should have a manager.
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1..1 0..1
Employee Manages Department
Problem in ER Modeling
The Entity-Relationship Model is a conceptual data model that views the real world as
consisting of entities and relationships. The model visually represents these concepts by the
Entity-Relationship diagram. The basic constructs of the ER model are entities, relationships,
and attributes. Entities are concepts, real or abstract, about which information is collected.
Relationships are associations between the entities. Attributes are properties which describe
the entities.
While designing the ER model one could face a problem on the design which is called a
connection traps. Connection traps are problems arising from misinterpreting certain
relationships
There are two types of connection traps;
1. Fan trap:
Occurs where a model represents a relationship between entity types, but the pathway
between certain entity occurrences is ambiguous.
May exist where two or more one-to-many (1:M) relationships fan out from an entity.
The problem could be avoided by restructuring the model so that there would be no
1:M relationships fanning out from a singe entity and all the semantics of the
relationship is preserved.
Example:
1..* Works 1..1 1..1 IsAssigned 1..*
EMPLOYEE For BRANCH CAR
Semantics description of the problem;
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Problem: Which car (Car1 or Car3 or Car5) is used by Employee 6 Emp6 working in
Branch 1 (Br1)? Thus from this ER Model one can not tell which car is used by which
staff since a branch can have more than one car and also a branch is populated by more
than one employee. Thus we need to restructure the model to avoid the connection trap.
To avoid the Fan Trap problem we can go for restructuring of the E-R Model. This will
result in the following E-R Model.
1..1 Has 1..* 1..* Used By 1..*
BRANCH CAR EMPLOYEE
Car1
Br1 Emp1
Car2
Br2 Emp2
Car3
Br3 Emp3
Car4
Br4 Emp4
Car5
Emp5
Car6
Emp6
Car7
Emp7
2. Chasm Trap:
Occurs where a model suggests the existence of a relationship between entity types, but
the path way does not exist between certain entity occurrences.
Chasm trap may exist when there are one or more relationships with a minimum
multiplicity on cardinality of zero forming part of the pathway between related entities.
Example:
1..1 Has 1..* 0..1 Manages 0..*
BRANCH EMPLOYEE PROJECT
If we have a set of projects that are not active currently then we can not assign a project
manager for these projects. So there are project with no project manager making the
participation to have a minimum value of zero.
Problem:
How can we identify which BRANCH is responsible for which PROJECT? We know
that whether the PROJECT is active or not there is a responsible BRANCH. But which
branch is a question to be answered, and since we have a minimum participation of
zero between employee and PROJECT we can‘t identify the BRANCH responsible for
each PROJECT.
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The solution for this Chasm Trap problem is to add another relation ship between the
extreme entities (BRANCH and PROJECT)
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2. Specialization
Is the result of subset of a higher level entity set to form a lower level entity set.
The specialized entities will have additional set of attributes (distinguishing
characteristics) that distinguish them from the generalized entity.
Is considered as Top-Down definition of entities.
Specialization process is the inverse of the Generalization process. Identify the
distinguishing features of some entity occurrences, and specialize them into different
subclasses.
Reasons for Specialization
Attributes only partially applying to superclasses
Relationship types only partially applicable to the superclass
In many cases, an entity type has numerous sub-groupings of its entities that are
meaningful and need to be represented explicitly. This need requires the representation of
each subgroup in the ER model. The generalized entity is a superclass and the set of
specialized entities will be subclasses for that specific Superclass.
Example: Saving Accounts and Current Accounts are Specialized entities for the
generalized entity Accounts. Manager, Sales, Secretary: are specialized employees.
3. Subclass/Subtype
An entity type whose tuples have attributes that distinguish its members from tuples of
the generalized or Superclass entities.
When one generalized Superclass has various subgroups with distinguishing features
and these subgroups are represented by specialized form, the groups are called
subclasses.
Subclasses can be either mutually exclusive (disjoint) or overlapping (inclusive).
A single subclass may inherit attributes from two distinct superclasses.
A mutually exclusive category/subclass is when an entity instance can be in only one of
the subclasses.
E.g.: An EMPLOYEE can either be SALARIED or PART-TIMER but not both.
An overlapping category/subclass is when an entity instance may be in two or more
subclasses.
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E.g.: A PERSON who works for a university can be both EMPLOYEE and a STUDENT at
the same time.
4. Superclass /Supertype
An entity type whose tuples share common attributes. Attributes that are shared by all
entity occurrences (including the identifier) are associated with the supertype.
Is the generalized entity
5. Relationship Between Superclass and Subclass
The relationship between a superclass and any of its subclasses is called a
superclass/subclass or class/subclass relationship
An instance can not only be a member of a subclass. i.e. Every instance of a subclass is
also an instance in the Superclass.
A member of a subclass is represented as a distinct database object, a distinct record
that is related via the key attribute to its super-class entity.
An entity cannot exist in the database merely by being a member of a subclass; it must
also be a member of the super-class.
An entity occurrence of a sub class not necessarily should belong to any of the
subclasses unless there is full participation in the specialization.
The relationship between a subclass and a Superclass is an ―IS A‖ or ―IS PART OF‖
type.
Subclass IS PART OF Superclass
Manager IS AN Employee
All subclasses or specialized entity sets should be connected with the superclass using a
line to a circle where there is a subset symbol indicating the direction of
subclass/superclass relationship.
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Attribute Inheritance
An entity that is a member of a subclass inherits all the attributes of the entity as a member
of the superclass.
The entity also inherits all the relationships in which the superclass participates.
An entity may have more than one subclass categories.
All entities/subclasses of a generalized entity or superclass share a common unique
identifier attribute (primary key). i.e. The primary key of the superclass and subclasses are
always identical.
Consider the EMPLOYEE supertype entity shown above. This entity can have several
different subtype entities (for example: HOURLY and SALARIED), each with distinct
properties not shared by other subtypes. But whether the employee is Hourly or Salaried,
same attributes (EmployeeId, Name, and DateHired) are shared.
The Supertype EMPLOYEE stores all properties that subclasses have in common. And
HOURLY employees have the unique attribute Wage (hourly wage rate), while SALARIED
employees have two unique attributes, StockOption and Salary.
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The Partial Specialization Rule specifies that it is not necessary for all entity occurrences
in the superclass to be a member of one of the subclasses. Here we have an optional
participation on the specialization. Partial Participation of superclass instances on
subclasses is diagrammed with a single line from the Supertype to the circle.
E.g.: If we have Manager and Secretary as subclasses of a superclass Employee, then
it is not the case that all employees are either manager or secretary. Thus the
participation of instances of employee in manager and secretary subclasses will
be partial.
Disjointness Constraints.
Specifies the rule whether one entity occurrence can be a member of more than one
subclasses. i.e. it is a type of business rule that deals with the situation where an entity
occurrence of a Superclass may also have more than one Subclass occurrence.
The Disjoint Rule restricts one entity occurrence of a superclass to be a member of only
one of the subclasses. Example: a Employee can either be salaried or part-timer, but
not the both at the same time.
The Overlap Rule allows one entity occurrence to be a member f more than one
subclass. Example: Employee working at the university can be both a Student and an
employee at the same time.
This is diagrammed by placing either the letter "d" for disjoint or "o" for overlapping
inside the circle on the Generalization Hierarchy portion of the E-R diagram.
The two types of constraints on generalization and specialization (Disjointness and
Completeness constraints) are not dependent on one another. That is, being disjoint will not
favour whether the tuples in the superclass should have Total or Partial participation for that
specific specialization.
From the two types of constraints we can have four possible constraints
Disjoint AND Total
Disjoint AND Partial
Overlapping AND Total
Overlapping AND Partial
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Chapter Four
Logical Database Design
The whole purpose of the data base design is to create an accurate representation of the data,
the relationship between the data and the business constraints pertinent to that organization.
Therefore, one can use one or more technique to design a data base. One such a technique was
the E-R model. In this chapter we use another technique known as ―Normalization‖ with a
different emphasis to the database design---- defines the structure of a database with a specific
data model.
Logical design is the process of constructing a model of the information used in an enterprise
based on a specific data model (e.g. relational, hierarchical or network or object), but
independent of a particular DBMS and other physical considerations.
The focus in logical database design is the Normalization Process
Normalization process
o Collection of Rules (Tests) to be applied on relations to obtain the minimal, non
redundant set or attributes.
o Discover new entities in the process
o Revise attributes based on the rules and the discovered Entities
o Works by examining the relationship between attributes known as functional
dependency.
The purpose of normalization is to find the suitable set of relations that supports the data
requirements of an enterprise.
A suitable set of relations has the following characteristics;
Minimal number of attributes to support the data requirements of the enterprise
Attributes with close logical relationship (functional dependency) should be placed in
the same relation.
Minimal redundancy with each attribute represented only once with the exception of the
attributes which form the whole or part of the foreign key, which are used for joining of
related tables.
The first step before applying the rules in relational data model is converting the conceptual
design to a form suitable for relational logical model, which is in a form of tables.
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Composite attributes: the parent attribute will be ignored and the decomposed
attributes (child attributes) will be columns of the table.
Multi-valued attributes: will be mapped to a new table where the primary key of the
main table will be posted for cross referencing.
Rule 3: Relationships: relationship will be mapped by using a foreign key attribute. Foreign
key is a primary or candidate key of one relation used to create association between tables.
For a relationship with One-to-One Cardinality: post the primary or candidate key
of one of the table into the other as a foreign key. In cases where one entity is having
partial participation on the relationship, it is recommended to post the candidate key
of the partial participants to the total participant so as to save some memory location
due to null values on the foreign key attribute. E.g.: for a relationship between
Employee and Department where employee manages a department, the cardinality
is one-to-one as one employee will manage only one department and one
department will have one manager. here the PK of the Employee can be posted to
the Department or the PK of the Department can be posted to the Employee. But the
Employee is having partial participation on the relationship "Manages" as not all
employees are managers of departments. thus, even though both way is possible, it
is recommended to post the primary key of the employee to the Department table as
a foreign key.
For a relationship with One-to-Many Cardinality: Post the primary key or
candidate key from the ―one‖ side as a foreign key attribute to the ―many‖ side. E.g.:
For a relationship called ―Belongs To‖ between Employee (Many) and Department
(One) the primary or candidate key of the one side which is Department should be
posted to the many side which is Employee table.
For a relationship with Many-to-Many Cardinality: for relationships having many
to many cardinality, one has to create a new table (which is the associative entity)
and post primary key or candidate key from the participant entities as foreign key
attributes in the new table along with some additional attributes (if applicable). The
same approach should be used for relationships with degree greater than binary.
For a relationship having Associative Entity property: in cases where the
relationship has its own attributes (associative entity), one has to create a new table
for the associative entity and post primary key or candidate key from the
participating entities as foreign key attributes in the new table.
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1 1
Employee Department
M 1 M WorksFor 1
Tel DName
StartDate
Leads
EndDate
Participate
PBonus
M
M
Project
PFund
PID PName
After we have drawn the ER diagram, the next thing is to map the ER into relational schema so
as the rules of the relational data model can be tested for each relational schema. The mapping
can be done for the entities followed by relationships based on the rule of mapping. the
mapping has been done as follows.
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Telephone
EID Tel
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At the end of the mapping we will have the following relational schema (tables) for the logical
database design phase.
Department
DID DName DLoc MEID
Project
PID PName PFund
Telephone
EID Tel
Employee
EID FName LName Salary EDID
Emp_Partc_Project
EID PID
Emp_Lead_Project
EID PID PBonus StartDate EndDate
After converting the ER diagram in to table forms, the next phase is implementing the process
of normalization, which is a collection of rules each table should satisfy.
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Database Management Systems Lecture Note
Normalization
A relational database is merely a collection of data, organized in a particular manner. As the
father of the relational database approach, Codd created a series of rules (tests) called normal
forms that help define that organization.
One of the best ways to determine what information should be stored in a database is to clarify
what questions will be asked of it and what data would be included in the answers.
Database normalization is a series of steps followed to obtain a database design that allows
for consistent storage and efficient access of data in a relational database. These steps reduce
data redundancy and the risk of data becoming inconsistent.
NORMALIZATION is the process of identifying the logical associations between data items
and designing a database that will represent such associations but without suffering the
update anomalies which are:
1. Insertion Anomalies
2. Deletion Anomalies
3. Modification Anomalies
Normalization may reduce system performance since data will be cross referenced from many
tables. Thus denormalization is sometimes used to improve performance, at the cost of
reduced consistency guarantees.
Normalization normally is considered ―good‖ if it is lossless decomposition.
All the normalization rules will eventually remove the update anomalies that may exist during
data manipulation after the implementation. The update anomalies are;
The type of problems that could occur in insufficiently normalized table is called update
anomalies which includes.
1. Insertion anomalies
An "insertion anomaly" is a failure to place information about a new database entry into
all the places in the database where information about that new entry needs to be stored.
Additionally, we may have difficulty to insert some data. In a properly normalized database,
information about a new entry needs to be inserted into only one place in the database;
in an inadequately normalized database, information about a new entry may need to be
inserted into more than one place and, human fallibility being what it is, some of the
needed additional insertions may be missed.
2. Deletion anomalies
A "deletion anomaly" is a failure to remove information about an existing database entry
when it is time to remove that entry. Additionally, deletion of one data may result in lose
of other information. In a properly normalized database, information about an old, to-be-
gotten-rid-of entry needs to be deleted from only one place in the database; in an
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inadequately normalized database, information about that old entry may need to be
deleted from more than one place, and, human fallibility being what it is, some of the
needed additional deletions may be missed.
3. Modification anomalies
A modification of a database involves changing some value of the attribute of a table. In
a properly normalized database table, what ever information is modified by the user, the
change will be effected and used accordingly.
In order to avoid the update anomalies we in a given table, the solution is to decompose
it to smaller tables based on the rule of normalization. However, the decomposition has
two important properties
a. The Lossless-join property insures that any instance of the original relation can be identified
from the instances of the smaller relations.
b. The Dependency preservation property implies that constraint on the original dependency can
be maintained by enforcing some constraints on the smaller relations. i.e. we don‘t have to
perform Join operation to check whether a constraint on the original relation is violated or not.
The purpose of normalization is to reduce the chances for anomalies to occur in a database.
Example of problems related with Anomalies
EmpID FName LName SkillID Skill SkillType School SchoolAdd Skill
Level
12 Abebe Mekuria 2 SQL Database AAU Sidist_Kilo 5
16 Lemma Alemu 5 C++ Programming Unity Gerji 6
28 Chane Kebede 2 SQL Database AAU Sidist_Kilo 10
25 Abera Taye 6 VB6 Programming Helico Piazza 8
65 Almaz Belay 2 SQL Database Helico Piazza 9
24 Dereje Tamiru 8 Oracle Database Unity Gerji 5
51 Selam Belay 4 Prolog Programming Jimma Jimma City 8
94 Alem Kebede 3 Cisco Networking AAU Sidist_Kilo 7
18 Girma Dereje 1 IP Programming Jimma Jimma City 4
13 Yared Gizaw 7 Java Programming AAU Sidist_Kilo 6
Deletion Anomalies:
If employee with ID 16 is deleted then ever information about skill C++ and the type of
skill is deleted from the database. Then we will not have any information about C++
and its skill type.
Insertion Anomalies:
What if we have a new employee with a skill called Pascal? We can not decide weather
Pascal is allowed as a value for skill and we have no clue about the type of skill that
Pascal should be categorized as.
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Modification Anomalies:
What if the address for Helico is changed from Piazza to Mexico? We need to look for
every occurrence of Helico and change the value of School_Add from Piazza to Mexico,
which is prone to error.
Database-management system can work only with the information that we put explicitly into its
tables for a given database and into its rules for working with those tables, where such rules are
appropriate and possible.
The essence of this idea is that if the existence of something, call it A, implies that B must exist and
have a certain value, then we say that "B is functionally dependent on A." We also often express
this idea by saying that "A functionally determines B," or that "B is a function of A," or that "A
functionally governs B." Often, the notions of functionality and functional dependency are
expressed briefly by the statement, "If A, then B." It is important to note that the value of B must be
unique for a given value of A, i.e., any given value of A must imply just one and only one value of
B, in order for the relationship to qualify for the name "function." (However, this does not
necessarily prevent different values of A from implying the same value of B.)
However, for the purpose of normalization, we are interested in finding 1..1 (one to one)
dependencies, lasting for all times (intension rather than extension of the database), and the
determinant having the minimal number of attributes.
X Y holds if whenever two tuples have the same value for X, they must have the same value for Y
The notation is: AB which is read as; B is functionally dependent on A
In general, a functional dependency is a relationship among attributes. In relational databases, we
can have a determinant that governs one or several other attributes.
FDs are derived from the real-world constraints on the attributes and they are properties on the
database intension not extension.
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Example
Dinner Course Type of Wine
Meat Red
Fish White
Cheese Rose
Since the type of Wine served depends on the type of Dinner, we say Wine is functionally
dependent on Dinner.
Dinner Wine
Dinner Course Type of Wine Type of Fork
Meat Red Meat fork
Fish White Fish fork
Cheese Rose Cheese fork
Since both Wine type and Fork type are determined by the Dinner type, we say Wine is
functionally dependent on Dinner and Fork is functionally dependent on Dinner.
Dinner Wine
Dinner Fork
Partial Dependency
If an attribute which is not a member of the primary key is dependent on some part of the
primary key (if we have composite primary key) then that attribute is partially functionally
dependent on the primary key.
Let {A,B} is the Primary Key and C is no key attribute.
Then if {A,B}C and BC
Then C is partially functionally dependent on {A,B}
Transitive Dependency
In mathematics and logic, a transitive relationship is a relationship of the following form: "If A
implies B, and if also B implies C, then A implies C."
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Example:
If Mr X is a Human, and if every Human is an Animal, then Mr X must be an Animal.
Generalized way of describing transitive dependency is that:
If A functionally governs B, AND
If B functionally governs C
THEN A functionally governs C
Provided that neither C nor B determines A i.e. (B / A and C / A)
In the normal notation:
{(AB) AND (BC)} ==> AC provided that B / A and C / A
Steps of Normalization:
We have various levels or steps in normalization called Normal Forms. The level of complexity,
strength of the rule and decomposition increases as we move from one lower level Normal
Form to the higher.
A table in a relational database is said to be in a certain normal form if it satisfies certain
constraints.
A normal form below represents a stronger condition than the previous one
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EMP_PROJ rearranged
EmpID ProjNo EmpName ProjName ProjLoc ProjFund ProjMangID Incentive
Business rule: Whenever an employee participates in a project, he/she will be entitled for an
incentive.
This schema is in its 1NF since we don‘t have any repeating groups or attributes with multi-
valued property. To convert it to a 2NF we need to remove all partial dependencies of non key
attributes on part of the primary key.
{EmpID, ProjNo} EmpName, ProjName, ProjLoc, ProjFund, ProjMangID, Incentive
But in addition to this we have the following dependencies
FD1: {EmpID}EmpName
FD2: {ProjNo}ProjName, ProjLoc, ProjFund, ProjMangID
FD3: {EmpID, ProjNo} Incentive
As we can see, some non key attributes are partially dependent on some part of the primary
key. This can be witnessed by analyzing the first two functional dependencies (FD1 and FD2).
Thus, each Functional Dependencies, with their dependent attributes should be moved to a
new relation where the Determinant will be the Primary Key for each.
EMPLOYEE
EmpID EmpName
PROJECT
ProjNo ProjName ProjLoc ProjFund ProjMangID
EMP_PROJ
EmpID ProjNo Incentive
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This schema is in its 2NF since the primary key is a single attribute and there are no repeating
groups (multi valued attributes).
Let‘s take StudID, Year and Dormitary and see the dependencies.
StudIDYear AND YearDormitary
And Year can not determine StudID and Dormitary can not determine StudID Then transitively
StudIDDormitary
To convert it to a 3NF we need to remove all transitive dependencies of non key attributes on
another non-key attribute.
The non-primary key attributes, dependent on each other will be moved to another table and
linked with the main table using Candidate Key- Foreign Key relationship.
STTUDENT DORM
StudID Stud F_Name Stud L_Name Dept Year Year Dormitary
125/97 Abebe Mekuria Info Sc 1 1 401
654/95 Lemma Alemu Geog 3 3 403
842/95 Chane Kebede CompSc 3
165/97 Alem Kebede InfoSc 1
985/95 Almaz Belay Geog 3
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Generally, eventhough there are other four additional levels of Normalization, a table is said to
be normalized if it reaches 3NF. A database with all tables in the 3NF is said to be Normalized
Database.
Mnemonic for remembering the rationale for normalization up to 3NF could be the following:
1. No Repeating or Redunduncy: no repeting fields in the table.
2. The Fields Depend Upon the Key: the table should solely depend on the key.
3. The Whole Key: no partial keybdependency.
4. And Nothing But the Key: no inter data dependency.
5. So Help Me Codd: since Codd came up with these rules.
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Chapter Five
Physical Database Design Methodology for Relational Database
We have established that there are three levels of database design:
Conceptual design: producing a data model which accounts for the relevant entities and
relationships within the target application domain;
Logical design: ensuring, via normalization procedures and the definition of integrity rules, that
the stored database will be non-redundant and properly connected;
Physical design: specifying how database records are stored, accessed and related to ensure
adequate performance.
It is considered desirable to keep these three levels quite separate -- one of Codd's
requirements for an RDBMS is that it should maintain logical-physical data independence. The
generality of the relational model means that RDBMSs are potentially less efficient than those
based on one of the older data models where access paths were specified once and for all at the
design stage. However the relational data model does not preclude the use of traditional
techniques for accessing data - it is still essential to exploit them to achieve adequate
performance with a database of any size.
We can consider the topic of physical database design from three aspects:
What techniques for storing and finding data exist
Which are implemented within a particular DBMS
Which might be selected by the designer for a given application knowing the properties of the
data
Thus the purpose of physical database design is:
1. How to map the logical database design to a physical database design.
2. How to design base relations for target DBMS.
3. How to design enterprise constraints for target DBMS.
4. How to select appropriate file organizations based on analysis of transactions.
5. When to use secondary indexes to improve performance.
6. How to estimate the size of the database
7. How to design user views
8. How to design security mechanisms to satisfy user requirements.
9. How to design procedures and triggers.
Physical database design is the process of producing a description of the implementation of
the database on secondary storage. Physical design describes the base relation, file
organization, and indexes used to achieve efficient access to the data, and any associated
integrity constraints and security measures.
Sources of information for the physical design process include global logical data model and
documentation that describes model. Set of normalized relation.
Logical database design is concerned with the what; physical database design is concerned with
the how.
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Transaction usage map, indicating which relations are potentially heavily used.
To focus on areas that may be problematic:
1. Map all transaction paths to relations.
2. Determine which relations are most frequently accessed by transactions.
3. Analyze the data usage of selected transactions that involve these relations.
2.2. Choose file organization
The objective here is to determine an efficient file organization for each base relation
File organizations include Heap, Hash, Indexed Sequential office Access Method (ISAM), B+-
Tree, and Clusters.
Most DBMSs provide little or no option to select file organization. However, they prove the
user with an option to select an index for every relation
2.3. Choose indexes
The objective here is to determine whether adding indexes will improve the performance of
the system.
One approach is to keep tuples unordered and create as many secondary indexes as necessary.
Another approach is to order tuples in the relation by specifying a primary or clustering index.
In this case, choose the attribute for ordering or clustering the tuples as:
Attribute that is used most often for join operations - this makes join operation more
efficient, or
Attribute that is used most often to access the tuples in a relation in order of that
attribute.
If ordering attribute chosen is on the primary key of a relation, index will be a primary index;
otherwise, index will be a clustering index.
Each relation can only have either a primary index or a clustering index.
Secondary indexes provide a mechanism for specifying an additional key for a base relation
that can be used to retrieve data more efficiently.
Overhead involved in maintenance and use of secondary indexes that has to be balanced against
performance improvement gained when retrieving data.
This includes:
Adding an index record to every secondary index whenever tuple is inserted;
Updating a secondary index when corresponding tuple is updated;
Increase in disk space needed to store the secondary index;
Possible performance degradation during query optimization to consider all secondary
indexes.
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Result of normalization is a logical database design that is structurally consistent and has
minimal redundancy.
However, sometimes a normalized database design does not provide maximum processing
efficiency.
It may be necessary to accept the loss of some of the benefits of a fully normalized design in
favor of performance.
Also consider that denormalization:
Makes implementation more complex;
Often sacrifices flexibility;
May speed up retrievals but it slows down updates.
Denormalization refers to a refinement to relational schema such that the degree of
normalization for a modified relation is less than the degree of at least one of the original
relations.
Also use term more loosely to refer to situations where two relations are combined into one
new relation, which is still normalized but contains more nulls than original relations. No
fixed rule when to denormalize but ,
Consider denormalization in following situations, specifically to speed up frequent or critical
transactions:
Step 1 Combining 1:1 relationships
Step 2 Duplicating non-key attributes in 1:* relationships to reduce joins
Step 3 Duplicating foreign key attributes in 1:* relationships to reduce joins
Step 4 Introducing repeating groups
Step 5 Merging lookup tables with base relations
Step 6 Creating extract tables.
6. Monitoring and Tuning the operational system
The objective here is to monitor operational system and improve performance of system to
correct inappropriate design decisions or reflect changing requirements.
Importance of monitoring and tuning the operational system
Avoids procurement of additional hardware
Down size the hardware configuration less and cheaper hardware less
expensive maintenance.
Faster response time and high throughput more productive
Faster response time good staff moral, customer satisfaction
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Chapter Six
Relational Query Languages
In addition to the structural component of any data model equally important is the
manipulation mechanism. This component of any data model is called the ―query language‖.
Query languages: Allow manipulation and retrieval of data from a database.
Query Languages! = programming languages!
QLs not intended to be used for complex calculations.
QLs support easy, efficient access to large data sets.
Relational model supports simple, powerful query languages.
Formal Relational Query Languages
There are varieties of Query languages used by relational DBMS for manipulating
relations.
Some of them are procedural
User tells the system exactly what and how to manipulate the data
Others are non-procedural
User states what data is needed rather than how it is to be retrieved.
Two mathematical Query Languages form the basis for Relational Query Languages
Relational Algebra:
Relational Calculus:
We may describe the relational algebra as procedural language: it can be used to tell the
DBMS how to build a new relation from one or more relations in the database.
We may describe relational calculus as a non procedural language: it can be used to
formulate the definition of a relation in terms of one or more database relations.
Formally the relational algebra and relational calculus are equivalent to each other. For
every expression in the algebra, there is an equivalent expression in the calculus.
Both are non-user friendly languages. They have been used as the basis for other,
higher-level data manipulation languages for relational databases.
A query is applied to relation instances, and the result of a query is also a relation instance.
Schemas of input relations for a query are fixed
The schema for the result of a given query is also fixed! Determined by definition
of query language constructs.
Relational Algebra
The basic set of operations for the relational model is known as the relational algebra. These
operations enable a user to specify basic retrieval requests.
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The result of the retrieval is a new relation, which may have been formed from one or more
relations. The algebra operations thus produce new relations, which can be further
manipulated using operations of the same algebra.
A sequence of relational algebra operations forms a relational algebra expression, whose
result will also be a relation that represents the result of a database query (or retrieval request).
Relational algebra is a theoretical language with operations that work on one or more
relations to define another relation without changing the original relation.
The output from one operation can become the input to another operation (nesting is
possible)
There are different basic operations that could be applied on relations on a database
based on the requirement.
Selection ( ) Selects a subset of rows from a relation.
Projection ( ) Deletes unwanted columns from a relation.
Renaming: assigning intermediate relation for a single operation
Cross-Product ( x ) Allows to concatenate a tuple from one relation with all
the tuples from the other relation.
Set-Difference ( - ) Tuples in relation R1, but not in relation R2.
Union ( ) Tuples in relation R1, or in relation R2.
Intersection () Tuples in relation R1 and in relation R1
Join Tuples joined from two relations based on a condition
Join and intersection are derivable from the rest.
Using these, we can build up sophisticated database queries.
Table1: Sample table used to illustrate different kinds of relational operations. The relation
contains information about employees, IT skills they have & the school where they attend each
skill.
Employee
EmpID FName LName SkillID Skill SkillType School SchoolAdd SkillLevel
12 Abebe Mekuria 2 SQL Database AAU Sidist_Kilo 5
16 Lemma Alemu 5 C++ Programming Unity Gerji 6
28 Chane Kebede 2 SQL Database AAU Sidist_Kilo 10
25 Abera Taye 6 VB6 Programming Helico Piazza 8
65 Almaz Belay 2 SQL Database Helico Piazza 9
24 Dereje Tamiru 8 Oracle Database Unity Gerji 5
51 Selam Belay 4 Prolog Programming Jimma Jimma City 8
94 Alem Kebede 3 Cisco Networking AAU Sidist_Kilo 7
18 Girma Dereje 1 IP Programming Jimma Jimma City 4
13 Yared Gizaw 7 Java Programming AAU Sidist_Kilo 6
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1. Selection
Selects subset of tuples/rows in a relation that satisfy selection condition.
Selection operation is a unary operator (it is applied to a single relation)
The Selection operation is applied to each tuple individually
The degree of the resulting relation is the same as the original relation but the
cardinality (no. of tuples) is less than or equal to the original relation.
The Selection operator is commutative.
Set of conditions can be combined using Boolean operations ((AND), (OR), and
~(NOT))
No duplicates in result!
Schema of result identical to schema of (only) input relation.
Result relation can be the input for another relational algebra operation! (Operator
composition.)
It is a filter that keeps only those tuples that satisfy a qualifying condition (those
satisfying the condition are selected while others are discarded.)
Notation:
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2. Projection
Selects certain attributes while discarding the other from the base relation.
The PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning – one with the needed columns
(attributes) containing results of the operation and other containing the discarded
Columns.
Deletes attributes that are not in projection list.
Schema of result contains exactly the fields in the projection list, with the same names
that they had in the (only) input relation.
Projection operator has to eliminate duplicates!
Note: real systems typically don‘t do duplicate elimination unless the user explicitly
asks for it.
If the Primary Key is in the projection list, then duplication will not occur
Duplication removal is necessary to insure that the resulting table is also a relation.
Notation:
<Selected Attributes> <Relation Name>
Example: To display Name, Skill, and Skill Level of an employee, the query and the resulting
relation will be:
If we want to have the Name, Skill, and Skill Level of an employee with Skill SQL and SkillLevel
greater than 5 the query will be:
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3. Rename Operation
We may want to apply several relational algebra operations one after the other. The
query could be written in two different forms:
1. Write the operations as a single relational algebra expression by nesting the
operations.
2. Apply one operation at a time and create intermediate result relations. In the
latter case, we must give names to the relations that hold the intermediate
resultsRename Operation
If we want to have the Name, Skill, and Skill Level of an employee with salary greater than
1500 and working for department 5, we can write the expression for this query using the two
alternatives:
1. A single algebraic expression:
The above used query is using a single algebra operation, which is:
Then Result will be equivalent with the relation we get using the first alternative.
4. Set Operations
The three main set operations are the Union, Intersection and Set Difference. The properties of
these set operations are similar with the concept we have in mathematical set theory. The
difference is that, in database context, the elements of each set, which is a Relation in Database,
will be tuples. The set operations are Binary operations which demand the two operand
Relations to have type compatibility feature.
Type Compatibility
Two relations R1 and R2 are said to be Type Compatible if:
1. The operand relations R1(A1, A2, ..., An) and R2(B1, B2, ..., Bn) have the same number
of attributes, and
2. The domains of corresponding attributes must be compatible; that is, Dom
(Ai)=Dom(Bi) for i=1, 2, ..., n.
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To illustrate the three set operations, we will make use of the following two tables:
Employee
EmpID FName LName SkillID Skill SkillType School SkillLevel
12 Abebe Mekuria 2 SQL Database AAU 5
16 Lemma Alemu 5 C++ Programming Unity 6
28 Chane Kebede 2 SQL Database AAU 10
25 Abera Taye 6 VB6 Programming Helico 8
65 Almaz Belay 2 SQL Database Helico 9
24 Dereje Tamiru 8 Oracle Database Unity 5
51 Selam Belay 4 Prolog Programming Jimma 8
94 Alem Kebede 3 Cisco Networking AAU 7
18 Girma Dereje 1 IP Programming Jimma 4
13 Yared Gizaw 7 Java Programming AAU 6
a. UNION Operation
The result of this operation, denoted by R U S, is a relation that includes all tuples that
are either in R or in S or in both R and S. Duplicate tuple is eliminated.
The two operands must be "type compatible"
Eg: Relation One U Relation Two
Employees who attend Database in any School or who attend any course at AAU
EmpID FName LName SkillID Skill SkillType School SkillLevel
12 Abebe Mekuria 2 SQL Database AAU 5
28 Chane Kebede 2 SQL Database AAU 10
65 Almaz Belay 2 SQL Database Helico 9
24 Dereje Tamiru 8 Oracle Database Unity 5
94 Alem Kebede 3 Cisco Networking AAU 7
13 Yared Gizaw 7 Java Programming AAU 6
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b. INTERSECTION Operation
The result of this operation, denoted by R ∩ S, is a relation that includes all tuples that
are in both R and S. The two operands must be "type compatible"
The resulting relation for; R1 R2, R1 R2, or R1-R2 has the same attribute names as
the first operand relation R1 (by convention).
Some Properties of the Set Operators
Notice that both union and intersection are commutative operations; that is
R S = S R, and R S = S R
Both union and intersection can be treated as n-nary operations applicable to any number of
relations as both are associative operations; that is
R (S T) = (R S) T, and (R S) T = R (S T)
The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in general
R-S≠S–R
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Then the Cartesian product between Employee and Dept relations will be of the form:
Employee X Dept:
ID FName LName DeptID DeptName MangID
123 Abebe Lemma 2 Finance 567
123 Abebe Lemma 3 Personnel 123
567 Belay Taye 2 Finance 567
567 Belay Taye 3 Personnel 123
822 Kefle Kebede 2 Finance 567
822 Kefle Kebede 3 Personnel 123
Basically, even though it is very important in query processing, the Cartesian Product is not
useful by itself since it relates every tuple in the First Relation with every other tuple in the
Second Relation. Thus, to make use of the Cartesian Product, one has to use it with the Selection
Operation, which discriminate tuples of a relation by testing whether each will satisfy the
selection condition.
In our example, to extract employee information about managers of the departments (Managers
of each department), the algebra query and the resulting relation will be.
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6. JOIN Operation
The sequence of Cartesian product followed by select is used quite commonly to identify and
select related tuples from two relations, a special operation, called JOIN. Thus in JOIN
operation, the Cartesian Operation and the Selection Operations are used together.
JOIN Operation is denoted by a symbol.
This operation is very important for any relational database with more than a single relation,
because it allows us to process relationships among relations.
The general form of a join operation on two relations
R(A1, A2,. . ., An) and S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm) is:
R S
<join condition> is equivalent to (R X S)
<selection condition>
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The standard definition of natural join requires that the two join attributes, or each pair of
corresponding join attributes, have the same name in both relations. If this is not the case, a
renaming operation on the attributes is applied first.
R <Join Condition> S
Aggregate functions and Grouping statements
Some queries may involve aggregate function (scalar aggregates like totals in a report, or
Vector aggregates like subtotals in reports)
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Relational Calculus
A relational calculus expression creates a new relation, which is specified in terms of variables
that range over rows of the stored database relations (in tuple calculus) or over columns of the
stored relations (in domain calculus).
In a calculus expression, there is no order of operations to specify how to retrieve the query
result. A calculus expression specifies only what information the result should contain rather
than how to retrieve it.
In Relational calculus, there is no description of how to evaluate a query; this is the main
distinguishing feature between relational algebra and relational calculus.
Relational calculus is considered to be a nonprocedural language. This differs from relational
algebra, where we must write a sequence of operations to specify a retrieval request; hence
relational algebra can be considered as a procedural way of stating a query.
When applied to relational database, the calculus is not that of derivative and differential but
in a form of first-order logic or predicate calculus, a predicate is a truth-valued function with
arguments.
When we substitute values for the arguments in the predicate, the function yields an
expression, called a proposition, which can be either true or false.
If a predicate contains a variable, as in ‗x is a member of staff‘, there must be a range for
x. When we substitute some values of this range for x, the proposition may be true; for
other values, it may be false.
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If COND is a predicate, then the set of all tuples evaluated to be true for the predicate
COND will be expressed as follows:
{t | COND(t)}
Where t is a tuple variable and COND (t) is a conditional expression
involving t. The result of such a query is the set of all tuples t that satisfy
COND (t).
If we have set of predicates to evaluate for a single query, the predicates can be
connected using (AND), (OR), and ~(NOT)
A relational calculus expression creates a new relation, which is specified in terms of variables
that range over rows of the stored database relations (in tuple calculus) or over columns of the
stored relations (in domain calculus).
Tuple-oriented Relational Calculus
The tuple relational calculus is based on specifying a number of tuple variables. Each
tuple variable usually ranges over a particular database relation, meaning that the
variable may take as its value any individual tuple from that relation.
Tuple relational calculus is interested in finding tuples for which a predicate is true for
a relation. Based on use of tuple variables.
Tuple variable is a variable that ‘ranges over’ a named relation: that is, a variable whose
only permitted values are tuples of the relation.
If E is a tuple that ranges over a relation employee, then it is represented as
EMPLOYEE(E) i.e. Range of E is EMPLOYEE
Then to extract all tuples that satisfy a certain condition, we will represent it as all
tuples E such that COND(E) is evaluated to be true.
{E COND(E)}
The predicates can be connected using the Boolean operators:
(AND), (OR), (NOT)
COND(t) is a formula, and is called a Well-Formed-Formula (WFF) if:
Where the COND is composed of n-nary predicates (formula composed of n
single predicates) and the predicates are connected by any of the Boolean
operators.
And each predicate is of the form A B and is one of the logical operators { <,
, >, , , = }which could be evaluated to either true or false. And A and B are
either constant or variables.
Formulae should be unambiguous and should make sense.
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To find only the EmpId, FName, LName, Skill and the School where the skill is
attended where of employees with skill level greater than or equal to 8, the tuple based
relational calculus expression will be:
{E.EmpId, E.FName, E.LName, E.Skill, E.School | Employee(E) E.SkillLevel >= 8}
E.FName means the value of the First Name (FName) attribute for the tuple E.
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This means, for all tuples of relation employee where value for the SkillLevel attribute is
greater than or equal to 8.
Example:
Let‘s say that we have the following Schema (set of Relations)
Employee(EID, FName, LName, EDID)
Project(PID, PName, PDID)
Dept(DID, DName, DMangID)
WorksOn(WEID, WPID)
To find employees who work on projects controlled by department 5 the query will be:
{E | Employee(E) (P)(Project(P) (w)(WorksOn(w) PDID =5 EID=WEID))}
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Chapter Seven
Advanced Concepts in Database Systems
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Encryption
The encoding of the data by a special algorithm that renders the data unreadable
by any program without the decryption key
If a database system holds particularly sensitive data, it may be deemed
necessary to encode it as a precaution against possible external threats or
attempts to access it
The DBMS can access data after decoding it, although there is a degradation in
performance because of the time taken to decode it
Encryption also protects data transmitted over communication lines
To transmit data securely over insecure networks requires the use of a
Cryptosystem, which includes:
Authentication
All users of the database will have different access levels and permission for
different data objects, and authentication is the process of checking whether the
user is the one with the privilege for the access level.
Is the process of checking the users are who they say they are.
Each user is given a unique identifier, which is used by the operating system to
determine who they are
Thus the system will check whether the user with a specific username and
password is trying to use the resource.
Associated with each identifier is a password, chosen by the user and known to
the operation system, which must be supplied to enable the operating system to
authenticate who the user claims to be
Any database access request will have the following three major components
1. Requested Operation: what kind of operation is requested by a specific query?
2. Requested Object: on which resource or data of the database is the operation sought
to be applied?
3. Requesting User: who is the user requesting the operation on the specified object?
The database should be able to check for all the three components before processing any
request. The checking is performed by the security subsystem of the DBMS.
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3. Data warehousing
Data warehouse is an integrated, subject-oriented, time-variant, non-volatile database that provides
support for decision making.
Integrated centralized, consolidated database that integrates data derived from the
entire organization.
Consolidates data from multiple and diverse sources with diverse formats.
Helps managers to better understand the company‘s operations.
Subject-Oriented Data warehouse contains data organized by topics. Eg. Sales,
marketing, finance, etc.
Time variant: In contrast to the operational data that focus on current transactions, the
warehouse data represent the flow of data through time.
Data warehouse contains data that reflect what happened last week, last month,
past five years, and so on.
Non volatile Once data enter the data warehouse, they are never removed. Because
the data in the warehouse represent the company‘s entire history.
Differences between database and data warehouse
Because data is added all the time, warehouse is growing.
The data warehouse and operational environments are separated. Data warehouse receives its
data from operational databases.
Data warehouse environment is characterized by read-only transactions to very large data sets.
Operational environment is characterized by numerous update transactions to a few data
entities at a time.
Data warehouse contains historical data over a long time horizon.
Ultimately Information is created from data warehouses. Such Information becomes the basis
for rational decision making.
The data found in data warehouse is analyzed to discover previously unknown data
characteristics, relationships, dependencies, or trends.
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