What is Database Management System

 What is Data?

Ø  Data is a small unit of information.

Ø  It is present in a variety of forms like text, numbers, media(images, audio, video, graphs, charts), bytes, etc.

Ø  It can be stored in pieces of paper or electronic memory, etc.

Ø  In computing, Data is information that can be translated into a form for efficient movement and processing.

What is DBMS?

Ø  DBMS stands for Database Management System. We can break it like this

DBMS = Database + Management System.

Ø  Database is a collection of data and Management System is a set of programs to store and retrieve those data. Based on this we can define DBMS like this: DBMS is a collection of inter-related data and set of programs to store & access those data in an easy and effective manner.

Ø  It is also know as structured data

Ø  A database can organize data into tables, rows, columns, and index it to make it easier to find relevant information.

Ø  DBMS provides an interface to the user so that the various operations like creation, deletion, modification, etc. on database can be performed using the interface.

Ø  DBMS secure the data, that is the main advantage of DBMS over file system.

Ø  DBMS also secures the data from unauthorised access as well as corrupt data insertions.

Ø  It allows multiple users to access data simultaneously while maintaining the data consistency and data integrity.

Ø  DBMS allows the user to create their databases as per their requirement.

Ø  DBMS accepts the request from the application and provides specific data through the operating system.

Ø  The main purpose of the database is to operate a large amount of information by storing, retrieving, and managing data.

Ø  There are many dynamic websites on the World Wide Web nowadays which are handled through databases. For example, a model that checks the availability of rooms in a hotel. It is an example of a dynamic website that uses a database.

Ø  There are many databases software available like MySQL, Sybase, Oracle, MongoDB, Informix, PostgreSQL, SQL Server etc.

Ø  SQL or Structured Query Language is used to operate on the data stored in a database.

Ø  SQL depends on relational algebra and tuple relational calculus.

Ø  A cylindrical structure is used to display the image of a database.

Ø  Application: Company Information, Account information, manufacturing, banking, finance transactions, telecommunications and many more

DBMS allows following operations to the authorized users of the database:

Ø  Data Definition:

o   Creation of table, table schema creation, removal of table definition etc. comes under data definition. It is basically a layout of the table and their relation with the other tables in the database.

o   This allows to properly structure the data in such a way so that the data that is related or dependent on other data in real world can be represented the same way in database.

Ø  Data Modification: 

o   DBMS allows users to insert, update and delete the data from the tables.

o   These tables contain rows and columns, where row represents a record of data while column represents attributes of the records. You can also bulk update the several records in DBMS with a single click.

Ø  Data Retrieval: 

o   DBMS allows users to fetch data from the database. 

o   Searching and retrieval of data is fast in DBMS.

o   The size of the data doesn’t impact this operation, on the other hand in file system, the size of the data can hugely impact the search operation efficiency.

Ø  User administration: 

o   DBMS also allows user management such as organizing users in different groups with different access levels.

o   Granting users access to certain tables in database, revoking access from certain users etc.

o   This allows the admin of the database to efficiently manage the access to the database and prevent unauthorised access to the databases.