Text 10. Basic features of database programs

With a database you can store, organize and retrieve a large collection of related information on computer. If you like, it is the electronic equivalent of an indexed filing cabinet. Let us look at some features and applications.

Information is entered on a database via fields. Each field holds a separate piece of information, and the fields are collected together into records. For example, a record about an employee might consist of several fields which give their name, address, telephone number, age, salary and length of employment with the company. Records are grouped together into files which hold large amounts of information. Files can easily be updated: you can always change fields, add new records or delete old ones. With the right database software, you are able to keep track of stock, sales, market trends, orders, invoices and many more details that can make your company successful.

Another feature of database programs is that you can automatically look up and find records containing particular information. You can also search on more than one field at a time. For example, if a managing director wanted to know all the customers that spend more than £7,000 per month, the program would search on the name field and the money field simultaneously.

A computer database is much faster to consult and update than a card index system. It occupies a lot less space, and records can be automatically sorted into numerical or alphabetical order using any field.

The best packages also include networking facilities, which add a new dimension of productivity to businesses. For example, managers of different departments can have direct access to a common database, which represents an enormous advantage. Thanks to security devices, you can share part of your files on a network and control who sees the information. Most aspects of the program can be protected by user-defined passwords. For example, if you wanted to share an employee’s personal details, but not their commission, you could protect the commission field.

In short, a database manager helps you control the data you have at home, in the library or in your business.

Database terminology is almost as slippery as the term «object-oriented programming». The word «database» can be used to describe everything from a single set of data, such as a telephone list, to a complex set of tools, such as SQL Server, and a whole lot in between.

Although relational databases do not have real-world analogies, most are intended to model some aspect of real world. It may be called the problem space. The problem space, by its nature, is messy and complex - if it were not, we would not need to build a model of it. But it is critical to the success of your project to limit the database system you are designing to a specific, well-defined set of objects and interactions; only by doing so can you make sensible decisions about the scope of your system.

The term data model is used to mean the conceptual description of the problem space. This includes the definition of entities, their attributes (a Customer, for example, is an entity, and it might have attributes Name and Address), and the entity constraints (such as, the Customer Name cannot be empty). The data model also includes a description of the relationships between entities and any constraints on those relationships - for example, managers are not allowed to have more than five individuals reporting to them. It does not include any reference to the physical layout of the system.

The definition of the physical layout - the tables and views that will be implemented - is the database schema or just schema. It is the translation of the conceptual model into a physical representation that can be implemented using a database management system. Note that the schema is still conceptual, not physical. The schema is nothing more than the data model expressed in the terms that you will use to describe it to the database engine - tables and triggers and such creatures. One of the benefits of using a database engine is that you do not ever have to deal with the physical implementation.

Once you have explained to the database engine what you want the data to look like, using either code or an interactive environment such as Microsoft Access, the engine will create some physical objects (usually, but not always, on a hard disk someplace) and you will store data in them. The combination of structure and data is referred to as a database. This database includes the physical tables; the defined views, queries, and stored procedures; and the rules the engine will enforce to protect the data.

The term «database» does not include the application, which consists of the forms and reports with which your users will interact, nor does it include any of the bits and pieces - things such as middleware or Microsoft Transaction Server - used to stick the form and back ends together. The term «database» also excludes the database engine. Thus, an Access.mdb file is a database, while Microsoft Jet is a database engine. Actually, an.mdb file can contain other things besides the database - forms and reports, for example.

To describe all these components - the application, the database, the database engine, and the middleware - the term database system is used. All of the software and data that goes into making a production system is part of the database system.