Data Management and Database Systems

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to data management and database systems, focusing on definitions and important concepts.

Database Administrator

A professional responsible for managing database systems, such as maintaining records, permissions, and data backups.

IT Infrastructure

The collection of hardware, software, and network resources that support the delivery of IT services.

Patient Records Database

A database used to store and manage patient information, appointments, and payments.

Data Backup

The process of creating copies of data to prevent loss in case of a failure.

Relational Database

A type of database that allows information to be accessed from multiple views with linked entries.

Flat File System

A simple database structure that stores data in a single table with a one-dimensional view.

Database Management System (DBMS)

Software that interacts with the database and manages access, data retrieval, and data manipulation.

Primary Key

A unique identifier for a record in a database table.

Foreign Key

A field in one table that uniquely identifies a row in another table, establishing a relationship between the two.

Database Table

A structured set of data organized into rows and columns in a database.

Record

A collection of related data fields in a database table, represented as a row.

Field

A single piece of data stored in a database table, represented as a column.

Database Model

A conceptual framework for organizing and managing data in a database.

Hierarchical Database

A database model organized in a tree-like structure with parent-child relationships.

Data Type

A classification that specifies the type of data that can be stored, such as integers, strings, or booleans.

Application Layer

The component of a database that interacts with the end-users and processes requests.

Arithmetic Operations

Mathematical calculations that can be performed on data, based on its data type.

Boolean Values

Data type that represents truth values, such as True or False.

Data Integration

Combining data from different sources into a unified view for better analysis and decision-making.

Data Analysis

The process of inspecting, cleaning, and modeling data to discover useful information.

SQL (Structured Query Language)

A programming language used to manage and manipulate relational databases.

Data Redundancy

The duplication of data within a database, often leading to inconsistencies.

Normalization

The process of organizing data in a database to reduce redundancy and improve integrity.

Database Query

A request for data or information from a database.

User Access Management

The process of determining and controlling who can access and manipulate data in a database.

Data Retrieval

The process of obtaining data from a database based on specific queries.

Data Conversion

The process of changing data from one format to another.

Entity-Relationship Diagram (ER Diagram)

A visual representation of the relationships between entities in a database.

Medical Billing Database

A database that manages patient billing information and insurance claims.

Data Security

Protecting data from unauthorized access and breaches.

Data Storage Capacity

The maximum amount of data that can be stored in a database system.

Cloud Database

A database that is hosted in a cloud computing environment.

Transaction Management

The process of managing all changes made by transactions to ensure data integrity.

Application Software

Programs that perform specific tasks for users, often interfacing with databases.

Data Maintenance

The ongoing process of managing and updating data in a database to ensure accuracy.

Based on an analysis of a company's needs, a database should be installed so that each line of a simple, delimited text document holds exactly one record.

What is the name of the database that satisfies this need?

Flat-file

The leader of an IT department has decided to use a database in which access to the data is restricted to the paths in the trees and is, therefore, predictable.

Which type of database is described?

Hierarchical

The leader of an IT department has decided to use a database in which data is stored in a variety of tables that can be joined together in logical ways.

Which type of database is described?

Relational

Based on an analysis of a company's needs, a database should be installed so that records are stored in structures consisting of data and methods.

What is the name of the database that satisfies this need?

Object-oriented

An IT department employee is identifying the integer data in a system.

What is one example of this type of data?

The year in which a major event happened

An IT department employee is identifying the floating point data in a system.

What is one example of this type of data?

An approximation of π as 3.14159

A developer is creating an application and needs a variable to store the scientific name of a tree species.

Which data type should be used for this purpose?

Character string

A programmer needs to create a variable that holds an indication of whether a file does or does not have an error in it.

What is the name of the data type that should be used?

boolean

A database variable needs to be restricted to only accept several alphanumeric characters.

What is the name of the appropriate data type?

Character string

A developer is updating the application layer of a database application.

What does this layer of the database application do?

It communicates with the end user and can be fairly complex.

NoSQL

A class of database management systems that do not follow the traditional relational model, allowing for flexible data storage and retrieval. NoSQL databases utilize a variety of data models such as document, key-value, column-family, or graph. They are designed to scale horizontally and can handle large volumes of unstructured or semi-structured data.