Database Basics

OLTP

Online transaction processing - a specialized, highly concurrent (sharable) architecture requiring rapid access to very small amounts of data.

Object Database Model

Provides a three-dimensional structure to data where any item in a database can be retrieved from any point very rapidly. Performs well when retrieving a single unique item but poorly when retrieving more than a single item.

RDBMS

Relational database management system - a term used to describe an entire suite of programs for both managing a relational database and communicating with that relational database engine. MS Access is an example.

Datatype

Restricts the values in fields. For example, allowing only a date or number to be entered into a field

Data

The actual stored descriptive information such as the names or addresses of customers

A database consists of what?

The physical files you set up on a computer when installing the database software

Normalization

The process of organizing data to minimize redundancy

Database

A collection of related and organized information. A structured object consisting of data and metadata

Application

A computer program with a user-friendly interface that performs a task

A database model is what?

A concept to create tables in a database. It is how the data is organized and ordered.

Transactional Databases

A database base based on small changes to the database, or transactions. The primary function of the database is to add new data, change existing data, delete existing data, done in small chunks, such as individual records. Examples are Client-server databases or OLTP.

Hybrid Databases

A mixture containing both OLTP type concurrency requirements and data warehouse type throughput requirements. Cost effective in less demanding environments.

Transactional Database

A model designed to process several small pieces of information for several of different people at the same time

Object-Relational Database Model

A model including object oriented modeling capabilities into relational databases, but not vice versa.

Network Database Model

A refinement to the hierarchical database model allowing child tables to have more than one parent creating a networked-like table structure. It supports a many-to-many relationships

Data warehouse

An application that requires frequent updates and extensive reporting requiring large amounts of properly stored data, low concurrency, and relatively low response times.

File system database model

Database stored in a "flat file", or single text file containing no structure

DSS

Decision support systems (DSS databases) - used to support decisions. Data warehouse databases are examples as they can house several years worth of historical data to provide effective forecasting capabilities.

Metadata

Describes the structured applied by the database to the data including the fields for the names or addresses of customers, lengths of each field, and datatypes

Relational Database Model

Improves restrictions of a hierarchical structure by allowing any table to be accessed directly without having to access all parent objects and allows any table to be linked together, regardless of hierarchical structure.

Hierarchical Database Model

Inverted tree-like structure with the tables taking on a child / parent relationship. Each child has a single parent table. It supports a one-to-many relationship.