IS 410 Vocab

Data

Stored representations of meaningful objects and events.

Metadata

data that describes the properties and context of user data.

Relational Databases

Database technology involving tables (relations) representing entities and primary/foreign keys representing relationships.

Information

data processed to increase knowledge in the person using the data.

Data warehouses

A central respitory for data, a data warehouse is a type of database specifically designed for fast query and analysis.

ERD (Entity Relation Diagrams)

A visual representation that shows how different entities in a database relate to one another.

EERD (Enhanced Entity Relation Diagrams)

Is an extension model of the ERD is used to represent complex database structures by incorporating additional concepts like subtypes, supertypes, and inheritance.

Data modeling and design tools

automated tools used to design databases and application programs

Repository

centralized storehouse of Metadata

DBMS (Database Management System)

software for managing the database

Application programs

software using the data

User interface

text, graphical displays, menus, and other displays for the user

Data/Database Administrators

personnel responsible for maintaining the database

System Developers

personnel responsible for designing databases and software

Planning

Preliminary understanding of business situation. Enterprise model and conceptual data modeling.

Analysis

Thorough analysis of business situation, leading to functional requirements. Detailed conceptual data modeling.

Design

Logical and physical database design, to develop technology and organization.

Implementation

Writing programs, building databases, testing, installing, training, and documenting.

Maintenance

Monitoring, repairing, and enhancing

Primary Key

An attribute or combination of attributes that uniquely identifies one and ONLY one instance of an entity.

Foreign Key

Are created any time an attribute relates to another entity in a (1:1) or (1:N) relationship.

Cardinality

Refers to the maximum number of times an instance in one entity an relate to instances of another entity.

Ordinality

Refers to the minimum number of times an instance in one entity can be associated with an instance in the related entity.

Inheritance

The concept that subtype entities inherit the values of all supertype attributes.

Supertype

An entity type that relates to one or more subtypes.

Subtype

A subgroup of entities with unique attributes.

Generalization

The process of defining a general entity type from a collection of specialized entity types.

Centralization

It defines subtypes of the supertype and determines the relationship between the two. Opposite of Generalization!

Disjoint Subtypes

simple attributes that must have alternative values to indicate any possible subtypes.

Overlapping Subtypes

composite attributes whose subparts pertain to various subtypes. Each subpart has a Boolean value that indicates whether or not the instance belongs to the associated subtype.

Attribute

Property or characteristic of an entity or relationship type.

Unary Relationship

Entities of the same entity type related to each other. This counts as (1:N) one to many.

Binary Relationship

Entities of 1 type related to entities of another.

Ternary Relationship

Entities of 3 different types involved in the same relationship.

Cardinality Constraints

The number of instances of one entity that can or must be associated with each instance of another entity.

Associative Entity

Is an entity, it has attributes, and a relationship. It serves to link other entities together in a (N:N) relationship.

Multivalued Attributes

May take on more than one value for a given entity or relationship instance.

Derived Attributes

Values can be calculated from related attribute values (not physically stored in the database).

Entity

Can have no relation and be independent, and the entity can have a relation if needed. (Person, place, or concept).

Time Stamp

A time value that is associated with a data value, often indicating when some event occurred that affected the data value.

Composite Attribute

An attribute that has meaningful component parts (sub-attributes). (Example: attributes about a person’s home address).

Required

Must have a value for every entity or relationship instance with which it is associated.

Optional

May not have a value for every entity or relationship instance with which it is associated.

Record

An ordered set of attribute values that describe an instance of an entity type.