Chapter 1: Databases and Database Users

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental database concepts, DBMS architecture, characteristics, user roles, and core terminology based on Fundamentals of Database Systems Chapter 1.

Database

A collection of related data with an implicit meaning, designed, built, and populated for a specific purpose to represent some aspect of the real world.

Data

Known facts that can be recorded and that have implicit meaning.

Miniworld

An aspect of the real world represented by a database, also referred to as the universe of discourse (UoD).

Database Management System (DBMS)

A general-purpose computerized software system that enables users to create and maintain a database by defining, constructing, manipulating, and sharing it.

Defining a Database

The process of specifying data types, structures, and constraints for data to be stored in a database.

Meta-Data

Database definition or descriptive information stored by the DBMS in the form of a database catalog or dictionary.

Database Catalog

A structure managed by the DBMS that stores meta-data describing file structures, data types, storage formats, and constraints.

Database System Environment

An integrated environment comprising users, application programs, DBMS software (query processing and access software), meta-data, and stored data.

Query

A request sent to the DBMS by an application program or user that typically causes data to be retrieved.

Transaction

An executing program or process that includes one or more database accesses, such as reading or updating database records.

Program-Data Independence

The property of a database system where data file structures are stored in the catalog separately from access programs, allowing file structures to change without changing programs.

Program-Operation Independence

The property where an operation's interface (name and argument data types) is defined separately from its implementation, allowing implementation changes without affecting programs.

Data Abstraction

The characteristic that allows program-data and program-operation independence by providing a conceptual representation of data without storage or implementation details.

Data Model

A type of data abstraction using logical concepts (objects, properties, interrelationships) to provide a conceptual representation while hiding storage and implementation details.

View

A subset of the database or derived virtual data that provides a distinct perspective tailored to specific user needs.

Concurrency Control

Software inside a DBMS ensuring that multiple users attempting to update the same data do so in a controlled manner so the results are correct.

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)

Applications in a multiuser DBMS environment that require concurrent transactions to execute correctly and efficiently.

Isolation Property

A transaction property ensuring that each transaction appears to execute independently from other concurrent transactions.

Atomicity Property

A transaction property ensuring that either all database operations in a transaction are executed successfully or none are executed.

Database Administrator (DBA)

The chief administrator accountable for authorizing database access, coordinating and monitoring database use, and acquiring needed hardware/software resources.

Database Designers

Actors responsible for identifying data to be stored in the database and selecting appropriate structures to represent and store that data.

End Users

People whose jobs require direct access to the database for querying, updating, and generating reports.

System Analysts

Software engineers who determine end-user requirements and create specifications for standard canned transactions.

Application Programmers

Software developers who implement canned transaction specifications as programs, and then test, debug, document, and maintain them.

Data Normalization

A database design technique that stores each logical data item in only one place to eliminate redundancy, ensure consistency, and save storage space.

Referential Integrity Constraint

An integrity rule specifying that a record in one table must be related to a corresponding record in another table.

Key Constraint

An integrity constraint specifying that every record in a relation must have a unique value for a designated key attribute.

Trigger

A rule automatically activated by update operations performed on a database table.

Deductive Database Systems

Database systems that provide capabilities for defining deduction rules to infer new information from stored database facts.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

The primary standard for interchanging data on the Web among various types of databases and Web pages.