Introduction to Databases

Database Fundamentals

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Welcome to Introduction to Databases.

 What you will learn

At the core of the lesson

You will learn how to do the following: Key terms:
• Identify different components of a database. • Data
• Differentiate between relational databases • Database
and nonrelational databases. • Data model
• List the elements of a well-designed • Relational data model
database. • Schema
• Describe the purpose and functions of a • Transactions
database management system (DBMS).
• Relational databases
• Nonrelational databases
• Database management system (DBMS)

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In this module, you will learn how to do the following:

• Identify different components of a database.
• Differentiate between relational databases and nonrelational databases.
• List the traits of a well-designed database.
• Describe the purpose and functions of a database management system (DBMS).
 Data and databases

What is data? What is a database?

• Data is raw bits and pieces of information. • A database is a collection of data that is organized
– Images, words, and phone numbers into files that are called tables.
are examples of data. – Tables are a logical way of accessing,
managing, and updating data.

Country table
Code Name Continent Region
ARG Argentina South America South America
AUS Australia Oceania Australia and New Zealand

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Data is raw bits and pieces of information. The bits of information that make up
images, words, and phone numbers that you see on mobile phones or computer
monitors are examples of data.

A database is a collection of bits of data that is organized into files, which are called
tables. Tables are a logical way of accessing, managing, and updating data.

In a database, data can also appear in other formats, such as figures, graphics,
images, and audio-video recordings.
 Data models

What is a data model?

• A data model represents the logical structure of the data that is stored in a database.
• Data models are used to determine how data can be stored and organized.
• The following items are examples of data models:
– Relational
– Semi-structured
– Entity relationship
– Object-based

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A data model represents the logical design and structure of a database. Data models
are used to determine how data can be stored and organized. Relational, semi-
structured, entity relationship, and object-based are all data model types. This course
focuses mainly on the relational data model.
 Relational model

Code Name Continent Region

ARG Argentina South America South America
Record AUS Australia Oceania
Australia and New
(rows) Zealand
BEN Benin Africa Eastern Africa
BLZ Belize North America Central America
Amazon Aurora
instance BWA Botswana Africa Southern Africa

country
Field (table)
World
(column)
(database)

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The relational model is a data model that Dr. Edgar F. Codd, a mathematician at IBM,
developed in the late 1960s. Codd developed it to improve handling of large amounts
of data. The relational model is based on a mathematical domain that is called
relational algebra.

This slide provides an example of a relational model. Looking at the model, start with
the database that is named World. Inside the World database is a table. Tables are
used to hold information about the objects to be represented in the database. The
country table can have multiple records (which are also known as rows) and fields
(which are also known as columns). Each row is a set of values for the columns of the
table. In this example, each record or row contains information about a country. This
table contains the country code, the country name, the country’s continent name,
and the country’s region name.

Databases exist on the backend, or behind most data-driven applications, data-driven

websites, and data-driven mobile apps.
 Schema

What is a schema? country city

• A database schema defines the organization

of a database.
Code ID
• It is based on the data model.
• It describes the elements of a database’s
design: Name Name
– Tables
– Columns
– Relationships Continent CountryCode
– Constraints

Region District

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A database schema describes the organization of the data in a database. It contains

the definition of tables, columns, constraints, and other elements identified in the
database’s data model.

The following are examples of elements defined in a schema:

• Tables represent the objects in the data model. For example, in the World
database, country and city are tables.
• Columns represent the attributes of the objects in a table. For, example, an object
in the country table has a Code, Name, Continent, and Region attribute.
• Relationships represent the relations that exist between tables. For example, a city
is located in a country. Therefore, in the city table, an attribute named
CountryCode holds the code for the country where the city is located.
• Constraints represent the rules that affect the types of data or object relationships
in the database. For example, a CountryCode value in the city table must exist as a
Code value in the country table.
 Small scale or distributed

Aurora instance in the AWS

Small scale or local Distributed across a company’s network
Cloud

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Databases can operate on a small scale. They might run on one computer and
support a single user.

Other databases are distributed across multiple systems and locations across a
company’s network, or they can be cloud-based databases that support millions of
users.
Relational databases

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You will now learn more information about relational databases.

 Relational database basics (1 of 2)
What is a relational database?

• A relational database is a collection of data items that have predefined relationships between them.

• A relational database is often referred to as a structured query language (SQL) database.

• The database requires a fixed definition of the structure of the data.

• The data is stored in tables with rows and columns.

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The following information describes relational database design:

• Tables are used to hold information about the objects to be represented in the
database.
• The data is spread across multiple tables and stored in rows and columns.
• Data is accessed and queried based on the database schema.
 Relational database basics (2 of 2)
Main reasons to use a relational database: Example relational databases:

• Natively supports SQL • MySQL

• Provides data integrity • Amazon Aurora
• Supports transactions • PostgreSQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
Use cases: • Oracle

• Ecommerce
• Customer relationship management (CRM):
Managing interactions with customers
• Business intelligence (BI) tools: Finance reporting
and data analysis

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Relational databases are popular and continue to be used because they provide many
benefits. For example, they support SQL, a language that is relatively simple to learn
and get started with to query the data in a relational database. Also, a relational
database provides features to protect the integrity of the data that you store. For
example, each column attribute in a table is defined to hold only a certain type of
data. If you attempt the enter a value that is of a different data type, the database
will not allow it.
 Relational database examples

Country table City table

Code Name Continent ID Name CountryCode

ARG Argentina South America 2 Qandahar AFG
AUS Australia Oceania 5 Amsterdam NLD
BEN Benin Africa 65 Abu Dhabi ARE
BLZ Belize North America 246 Belford Roxo BRA
BWA Botswana Africa 456 London GBR

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In relational databases, tables are used to hold information about the objects to be
represented in the database. Each table is organized in columns and rows. Each
column (or field) holds a special type of data, such as numbers, strings, or dates. Each
row is a set of values for the columns of the table. Each row in a table can also be
marked with a unique identifier, which is called a primary key. Rows among multiple
tables can become related by using foreign keys.

The following information provides examples:

• Each column in the table holds a certain type of data and stores the actual value of
an attribute. In the country table, under the Name column, the kind of data
expected is text or strings. Argentina and Belize are examples of actual values.
• The rows in the table represent a collection of related values of one object or
entity. In the city table, the row that has an ID of 2 represents the attributes of the
city of Qandahar. The ID value is followed by the values of Qandahar and AFG,
which represent the city’s name and country code, respectively.

Can you identify how the first table can relate to the second table? The tables can be
related by the CountryCode field.

These related fields can link multiple tables and are called primary keys and foreign
keys.
Nonrelational databases

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You will now learn more information about nonrelational databases.

 Nonrelational database basics (1 of 2)
What is a nonrelational database?

• A nonrelational database is a database that does not follow the relational model.

• An nonrelational database does not require a fixed definition of the structure of the data.

• A nonrelational database, which is often referred to as a NoSQL database, is a database that does
not use a table structure to store data.

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A nonrelational database is often referred to as a NoSQL database. NoSQL stands for

Not only SQL because you can use other languages in addition to SQL to access and
query a nonrelational database.
 Nonrelational database basics (2 of 2)

Use cases: Example of data that is stored as a JSON

document:
• Fraud detection
• Internet of Things (IoT) [
• Social networks {
"ID":1024,
Example NoSQL databases: "Name":"Mumbai (Bombay)",
"CountryCode":"IND",
• Amazon DynamoDB "District":"Maharashtra",
• MongoDB "Population":"10500000"
• Apache Hbase }
]

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In a relational database, objects are broken down into multiple tables (customers,
orders, and more) by using a fixed schema. With a nonrelational database, objects
are stored instead with flexible schemas with no constraints, or as documents in
JSON or XML formats.

NoSQL databases use various data models for accessing and managing data. These
types of databases are optimized specifically for applications that require large data
volumes, low latency, and flexible data models. These requirements are achieved by
relaxing some of the restrictions around data consistency that other databases use.
 Pros and cons of relational and nonrelational databases

Relational databases (SQL) Nonrelational databases (NoSQL)

Pros: Pros:
• Known and reliable technology • Flexible schema
• Simple-to-write complex queries • Good fit for storing and fast retrieval of massive
• Well-known SQL language amounts of data of different types
• Well-supported transactions • Horizontal scaling
• Good fit for hierarchical data
Cons:
• Use vertical scaling Cons:
• Include a fixed schema • Are a relatively new technology
• Do not guarantee data integrity
• Are not a good fit for complex queries or
transactional applications

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This slide shows the pros and cons of using relational (SQL) databases.
DBMS

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How do you manage stored data?

A DBMS is software that provides database functionality.

 DBMS basics (1 of 2)
What is a DBMS? The following are two variations of DBMSs:

• A DBMS is software or database as a service (DBaaS) that • Single-user DBMS applications,

provides database functionality. such as Microsoft Access
• It is used mainly for the following: • Multiple-user DMBS applications,
– Creating databases such as Oracle Database, Microsoft
SQL Server, MySQL, and IBM Db2
– Inserting data into a database
– Storing, retrieving, updating, or deleting data in a
database
• The primary benefit of a DBaaS is to avoid the cost of
installing and maintaining servers.

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How do you store and manage data in a database? You use a DBMS.

A DBMS is software or database as a service (DBaaS). It is used mainly for creating

databases; inserting data into a database; and storing, retrieving, updating, or
deleting data in the database.

If you want to avoid the cost of installing and maintaining the servers that your
database uses, use a DBaaS service. A DBaaS manages the infrastructure to support
your database so that you can focus on designing, creating, and maintaining the data
in your database.
 DBMS basics (2 of 2)
Locations

On-premises (data center): Data is stored on In the cloud (virtualized data center): Data is
computers and networks that the organization located outside the organization, such as in remote
owns. These computers and networks are located data centers that are owned by cloud providers
in the organization's own data center. such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).

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With traditional database management, a company uses a DBMS in an on-premises

data center. The company must invest in the hardware and software resources
needed to support the DBMS.

With DBaaS, the DMBS is in the cloud in a virtualized data center. The company needs
to pay for only the database-related cloud resources that they use.
 DBaaS

A few key points about cloud-based databases

• Hosted by third-party providers: • Fully managed:
– These database servers are hosted in – For example, with managed AWS databases,
third-party data centers and accessed you don’t need to manage database
over the internet (the cloud) instead of management tasks, such as server
being hosted on local networks. provisioning, patching, setup, configuration,
backups, or recovery.
• Reduced cost:
– These databases reduce the cost of • Faster:
installing and maintaining servers. – With these databases, you can use companies,
such as AWS, that offer large amounts of
storage and processing power in their data
centers.

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With DBaaS, database servers are hosted in third-party data centers. They are
accessed over the internet (the cloud) instead of being hosted on local networks.
 DBaaS examples

Amazon Relational Database Amazon Aurora Amazon DynamoDB

Service (Amazon RDS)

Amazon RDS manages common A part of Amazon RDS, Aurora DynamoDB is a fully
relational database is a fully managed relational managed NoSQL database
administrative tasks. database engine. service.

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Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that facilitates
setting up, operating, and scaling a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-
efficient, resizable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages
common database administration tasks.

Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database engine that is compatible with
MySQL and PostgreSQL. Aurora is part of the managed database service Amazon RDS.

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service. You can use
DynamoDB to create a database table that stores and retrieves any amount of data
and serves any level of request traffic. DynamoDB automatically spreads the table’s
data and traffic over a sufficient number of servers to handle the request capacity
that the customer specifies. It can handle the amount of data that is stored while
maintaining consistent and fast performance.
 Checkpoint questions

Which type of database is often referred to as a SQL database?

What is the purpose of a DBMS?

Name one component of a database.

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1. Which type of database is often referred to as a SQL database?

A relational database.

2. What is the purpose of a DBMS?

A DBMS is software that provides database functionality.

3. Name one component of a database.

Any one of the following answers is correct: data, data models, schema, and small
scale or distributed.
 Key takeaways • A relational database, which is often referred to as a SQL
database, provides the ability for data to be spread across
multiple tables.

• A nonrelational database, which is often referred to as a

NoSQL database, does not use a table structure to store
data.

• A DBMS is software that provides database functionality.

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This module includes the following key takeaways:

• A relational database, which is often referred to as a SQL database, provides the
ability for data to be spread across multiple tables.
• A nonrelational database, which is often referred to as a NoSQL database, does not
use a table structure to store data.
• A DBMS is software that provides database functionality.
Thank you

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Thank you for completing this module.