Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from Modules 1 through 5 of Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management (14th Edition).

Data

Raw facts, such as a telephone number, birth date, customer name, or YTD sales value, that have not yet been processed to reveal meaning.

Information

The result of processing raw data to reveal its meaning, requiring context to provide value for decision making.

Metadata

Data about data through which end-user data is integrated and managed, describing data characteristics and relationships.

Database Management System (DBMS)

A collection of programs that manages the database structure and controls shared access to the data stored in the database.

Operational Database

A database specifically designed to support a company's day-to-day business operations.

Analytical Database

A database that stores historical data and business metrics used exclusively for tactical or strategic decision making.

Data Warehouse

A core component of an analytical database that stores data in a format optimized for decision support.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

A set of tools used for retrieving, processing, and modeling data from a data warehouse.

NoSQL

A generation of database management systems not based on the traditional relational model, designed to handle high volume, variety, and velocity of data.

Structural Dependence

A condition in file systems where access to a file depends on its structure, requiring application updates whenever the file structure changes.

Data Independence

A condition existing when data storage characteristics can be modified without affecting an application program's ability to access the data.

Data Redundancy

A condition that exists when the same data is stored unnecessarily at different locations within a database environment.

Data Anomaly

An abnormality that develops in a database when not all required changes in redundant data are completed successfully.

Data Dictionary

A DBMS component that stores detailed descriptions and definitions of data elements and their relationships.

Data Model

A relatively simple representation of complex real-world data structures used as a communication tool and database blueprint.

Entity

A person, place, thing, concept, or event about which data will be collected and stored.

Business Rule

A brief, precise, and unambiguous description of a policy, procedure, or principle within an organization used to define data model components.

Schema

The conceptual organization of the entire database as viewed by the database administrator.

Subschema

The portion of the database seen by specific application programs that produce required user information.

Data Manipulation Language (DML)

The set of commands and environment used to manipulate and manage data stored within a database.

Schema Data Definition Language (DDL)

The language that enables a database administrator to define and structure schema components.

Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)

A database system that manages relational tables and performs all underlying data storage and processing details.

Object-Oriented Data Model (OODM)

A semantic data model where data and its associated relationships are stored together in a single structure called an object.

Big Data

A movement focused on managing massive volumes of web- and sensor-generated data characterized by volume, velocity, and variety (the 3 Vs).

Hadoop

A Java-based, open-source, high-speed, fault-tolerant distributed storage and computational framework.

External Model

The end users' specific view of the data environment, represented by external schemas.

Conceptual Model

A global, bird's-eye view of the entire database for an organization, independent of software and hardware.

Internal Model

The representation of a database as seen by the DBMS, which is software dependent but hardware independent.

Physical Model

The lowest level of data abstraction describing physical storage devices and access methods, being both software and hardware dependent.

Logical Independence

A condition existing when the internal model can be modified without affecting the conceptual model.

Tuple

A row in a relational table that represents a single entity occurrence within an entity set.

Attribute Domain

The specific range of allowable values for a given column or attribute in a relation.

Functional Dependence

A state in which knowing the value of one or more attributes uniquely determines the value of one or more other attributes.

Determinant

An attribute whose value determines the value of another attribute in a functional dependency.

Full Functional Dependence

A condition where the entire collection of attributes in a composite determinant is necessary to determine the dependent attribute.

Composite Key

A key that is composed of more than one attribute.

Superkey

Any key (attribute or combination of attributes) that uniquely identifies any row in a table.

Candidate Key

A minimal superkey that contains no subset of attributes that is itself a superkey.

Entity Integrity

The rule stating that each row in a table must have a known, unique identity, requiring primary key entries to be unique with no null values.

Referential Integrity

The rule requiring that every non-null foreign key value must match an existing primary key value in the related table.

Foreign Key (FK)

An attribute or combination of attributes in one table whose values match the primary key in another table.

Relvar

Short for relation variable, a container variable that holds relation data rather than the relation itself.

SELECT (Relational Operator)

A relational algebra operator that selects a subset of rows based on a specified condition (also called RESTRICT).

PROJECT (Relational Operator)

A relational algebra operator that selects a specified subset of columns from a table.

UNION (Relational Operator)

An operator that merges all rows from two union-compatible tables into a single table while removing duplicate rows.

INTERSECT (Relational Operator)

An operator that yields only the rows that are common to two union-compatible tables.

DIFFERENCE (Relational Operator)

An operator that yields all rows present in one table that are not found in another union-compatible table.

PRODUCT (Relational Operator)

An operator that yields all possible pairs of rows from two tables, also known as the Cartesian product.

DIVIDE (Relational Operator)

A relational algebra operator used to answer questions about one set of data being associated with all values of another set.

System Catalog

A detailed system data dictionary describing all objects, tables, and metadata within the database.

Homonym

The use of the exact same name to label different attributes in a database design.

Synonym

The use of different attribute names to describe the exact same real-world attribute.

Index

An orderly arrangement used to logically and efficiently access rows in a table based on an index key.

Required Attribute

An attribute that must contain a value and cannot be left empty.

Optional Attribute

An attribute that does not require a value and may be left null.

Composite Attribute

An attribute that can be subdivided into smaller, meaningful components.

Simple Attribute

An attribute that cannot be subdivided into smaller components.

Single-Valued Attribute

An attribute that can hold only a single value for a given entity instance.

Multivalued Attribute

An attribute that can hold multiple values for a single entity instance.

Derived Attribute

An attribute whose value is calculated from other stored attributes rather than directly saved.

Cardinality

A property expressing the minimum and maximum number of entity occurrences associated with one occurrence of a related entity, written as (x,y).

Existence Dependence

A condition where an entity can exist in the database only when associated with a related parent entity occurrence.

Weak Relationship

A non-identifying relationship in which the primary key of the related entity does not contain a primary key component of the parent entity.

Strong Relationship

An identifying relationship in which the primary key of the related entity contains a primary key component of the parent entity.

Weak Entity

An entity that is existence-dependent and derives at least part of its primary key from its parent entity.

Optional Participation

A relationship condition where an entity occurrence does not require a corresponding entity occurrence in the related entity set.

Mandatory Participation

A relationship condition where an entity occurrence requires a corresponding entity occurrence in the related entity set.

Unary Relationship

A relationship degree in which an association exists within a single entity set.

Binary Relationship

A relationship degree involving associations between two different entity sets.

Ternary Relationship

A relationship degree involving associations among three different entity sets.

Recursive Relationship

A relationship maintained between occurrences of the same entity set.

Associative Entity

A bridge or composite entity used to represent an M:N relationship by establishing 1:M relationships with both parent entities.

Extended Entity Relationship Model (EERM)

A data model that incorporates advanced semantic constructs such as supertypes, subtypes, and entity inheritance into the traditional ER model.

Entity Supertype

A generic entity type related to one or more entity subtypes containing shared, common attributes and relationships.

Entity Subtype

A specific entity type containing unique characteristics while inheriting common attributes from an entity supertype.

Specialization Hierarchy

An organizational structure depicting higher-level supertypes and lower-level subtypes in 'is-a' relationships.

Subtype Discriminator

An attribute in a supertype entity that determines to which subtype a supertype instance belongs.

Disjoint Subtypes

Subtypes that contain nonoverlapping, unique subsets of the supertype entity set.

Overlapping Subtypes

Subtypes containing nonunique subsets of the supertype entity set, allowing an instance to belong to multiple subtypes simultaneously.

Partial Completeness

A constraint specifying that not every supertype occurrence must be a member of a subtype.

Total Completeness

A constraint specifying that every supertype occurrence must be a member of at least one subtype.

Specialization

The top-down process of identifying specific lower-level entity subtypes from a higher-level entity supertype.

Generalization

The bottom-up process of identifying a generic higher-level supertype from lower-level entity subtypes.

Entity Cluster

A virtual entity type combining multiple interrelated entities and relationships into a single abstract object on an ERD.

Natural Key

A real-world identifier used in day-to-day business vocabulary to uniquely identify real-world objects.

Surrogate Key

An artificial primary key created by a database designer without intrinsic meaning to ensure unique entity identification.

Time-Variant Data

Data whose values change over time and for which a historical record of changes must be retained.

Fan Trap

A design trap occurring when an entity is in two 1:M relationships with other entities, creating an unexpressed or ambiguous association among them.