Lecture Notes

Introduction to Database Management

Integrated Meteorological Training Course

for Scientific Assistants

May 2013

G. K. Sawaisarje
Scientist-C
National Data Center
O/o ADGM(R), Shivajinagar, Pune-411 005

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 Contents

1. File based systems (pre-database systems)

1.1 Reasons for studying File based systems

1.2 Examples of managing Organization data

1.3 Specialized Vocabulary

1.4 Motivation for Database Management systems (DBMS)

1.5 Data Redundancy

2. Database and Database Management system

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Benefits of using DBMS

2.3 Data Processing and Data Management

2.4 Characteristics of a database

2.5 Functions of DBMS

2.6 DBMS Architecture

2.7 Data Dictionary

2.8 Relational Database Management system (RDBMS)

2.9 Data Definition language with examples

2.10 Data Manipulation language with examples

2.11 Data control language statements

2.12 Data Query language statements

2.13 Examples
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File based systems (Pre-database systems)

In the old days (period 1970-1990), the data processing activity was mainly associated
with data in files. These data stored in files with specific file formats describing the
record structure composed of related or non-related data fields with varying or fixed data
formats. The data processing is done with C, C++, FORTRAN, COBOL which is
subjective to data file formats. The application designed or written by programmer for
one type of file cannot be applied for other types of files. So it is mainly file dependent
data processing system. For example, in processing surface observations data which are
stored in data file formats namely TAB II (day’s summary) and TAB III (synoptic hour),
the data processing procedures are not the same.
FORMAT FOR DAILY SURFACE TABLE II DATA

COL NO. CODE AND EXPLANATION

1 - 5 Index No. of the station
6 - 7 Last two digits of the year
8 - 9 Month (01 - January ,..., 12 - December)
10 – 11 Date
12 – 14 Maximum Temperature (in 0.1 degree C) Ref. Note (i)
15 – 17 Minimum Temperature (in 0.1 degree C) Ref. Note (i)
18 – 19 Average Wind Speed (in Kilometers per hour)
20 – 23 Total Rainfall (in 0.1 mm) in 24 hours ending 0830 hrs IST
24 - 26 Evaporation (in 0.1 mm)in 24 hours ending 0830 hours IST
27 - 30 Duration of Rainfall in 24 Hours (in Hours and Minutes)
31 – 33 Duration of sunshine (0.1 Hour)
34 - 35 Total Number of squalls
36 Nature of squall (code)Ref Note(ii)
37 - 39 Max Force (km/h)
40 Wind Direction of Highest Squall (Direction
in 8 points of compass) Highest Squall
41 - 44 Time of occurrence (in Hours and Minutes)
45 - 46 Duration(in minutes)
47 Rain
48 Drizzle
49 Snow
Day with weather 0 means the type of weather has
50 Sleet
not occurred, 1 means the type of weather has
51 Hail
occurred. e.g. if column 49 has value 1 then it
52 Thunder means that snowfall has occurred during the day.
53 Dust Storm
54 Fog
55 Gale
56 Type
57 Time of Commencement I
58 - 60 Duration (minutes)
61 Type
62 Time of Commencement II
63 - 65 Duration (minutes) Description of weather
66 Type Ref. Note (iv)
67 Time of Commencement III
68 - 70 Duration (minutes)
71 Type
72 Time of Commencement IV
73 – 75 Duration (minutes)
76 – 77 Blank
78 – 79 Century
80 Indicator 1
(Digit '1' is entered to indicate the Day's Summary data)

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 FORMAT FOR DAILY SURFACE TABLE III DATA

COL NO. ELEMENT

1-5 Index No. of the station
6-7 Year in two digits (last two digits)

8-9 Month (01 - January,...,12 - December)

10-11 Hour (in code)
Code Time (UTC) Time (IST) Code Time (UTC) Time (IST)
00 00 0530 12 03 0830
24 06 1130 36 09 1430
48 12 1730 60 15 2030
72 18 2330 84 21 0230

12-13 Date
14-18 Station Level Pressure (in 0.1 hPa)
19-23 Mean Sea Level Pressure (in 0.1 hPa) or Height in geo-potential Meters from
the nearest standard level. Height is reported by the stations of which
station height is above 800 GPM. Other stations will report Mean Sea Level
Pressure

24-26 Dry Bulb Temperature (in 0.1°C) Ref. Note (i)

27-29 Wet Bulb Temperature (in 0.1°C) Ref. Note (i)
30-32 Dew Point Temperature (in 0.1°C) Ref. Note (i)
33-35 Relative Humidity in %, i.e. 090 means 90 %.
36-38 Vapour Pressure (in 0.1 hPa)
39-40 Wind Direction in 16 points of compass(in code) Ref.Note (ii)
41-43 Wind Speed in Km. per hour
44-45 Average Wind speed in km/h. Available only for 0830 and 1730 hrs. For other
hours it will be kept blank. In case of 0830 hrs, it represents average wind
speed from 1730 hrs of previous day to the 0830 hrs of present day. In case
of 1730 hrs it means average speed from 0830 to 1730 hrs of the same day.

46-47 Visibility (in Codes) Ref. Note (iv)

48 Form of Low cloud (in code) Ref. Note (v)
49 Amount of Low cloud (in oktas) Ref. Note (x)
50 Form of Medium cloud (in code) Ref. Note (vi)
51 Amount of Medium cloud (in oktas) Ref. Note (x)
52 Form of High Cloud (in code) Ref. Note (vii)
53 Amount of High cloud (in oktas) Ref. Note (x)
54 Direction of low cloud in 8 points of compass
(in code)
55 Direction of medium cloud in 8 points of
compass (in code)
56 Direction of high cloud in 8 points of compass Ref. Note (iii)
(in code)

57 Total amount of cloud (in oktas)

58 Height of lower cloud layer(in code) Ref. Note (viii)
59 Form of individual Layer of cloud (in code) Ref. Note (ix)
60 Amount of individual Layer of cloud (oktas) Ref. Note (x)

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61-62 Height of individual Layer of cloud (in code)
i) Code 00 means cloud height is < 30 meters.
ii) Code 01 to 50 then cloud height (in meters) = code x 30
e.g. if code is 43 then cloud height = 43 x 30 i.e. 1290 meters
iii) Codes 51 to 55 are not used
iv) Code 56 to 80 then cloud height (in meters)
= (code-50) x 300
e.g. if code is 77 then cloud height = (77-50) x 300
i.e. 8100 meters
v) Code 81 to 88 then cloud height (in meters)
= 9000+(code-80) x 1500
e.g. if code is 87 then cloud height = 9000+(87-80) x 1500 i.e. 19500
meters
vi) Code 89 means cloud height is > 21000 meters.
vii) Code 90 to 99
90 - <50 m 91 - 50 to 100 m
92 - 100 to 200 m 93 - 200 to 300 m
94 - 300 to 600 m 95 - 600 to 1000 m
96 - 1000 to 1500 m 97 - 1500 to 2000 m
98 - 2000 to 2500 m 99 - 2500 m or more or no
clouds

63-66 Total Rainfall since previous observation

(in 0.1 mm) Ref. Note (xi)
67-69 Total Evaporation (in 0.1 mm)
70-71 Direction of Wave in 16 points of compass (in code)
Ref. Note (ii)
72 Period of wave (in code)
0 - 20 or 21 sec 1 - over 21 sec 2 - 0.8 to 1.2 sec
3 - 1.3 to 1.7 sec 4 - 8 or 9 sec 5 - 10 or 11 sec
6 - 12 or 13 sec 7 - 14 or 15 sec 8 - 16 or 17 sec
9 - 18 or 19 sec X - calm or period not determined

73 Height of wave (in code)

0 - 0.0 to 0.2 m 1 - 0.3 to 0.7 m 2 - 0.8 to 1.2 m
3 - 1.3 to 1.7 m 4 - 1.8 to 2.2 m 5 - 2.3 to 2.7 m
6 - 2.8 to 3.2 m 7 - 3.3 to 3.7 m 8 - 3.8 to 4.2 m
9 - 4.3 to 4.7 m X - WAVE NOT OBSERVED
FOR HEIGHTS ABOVE 4.7 m 50 IS ADDED TO WAVE DIRECTION

74-76 Water Temperature (in 0.1°C)

77 Blank
78-79 Century
80 Indicator for synoptic hour data (2 is entered)

There are several reasons for studying the file systems

1. File systems provide a useful historical perspective (or viewpoint) on the way we
handle data.

2. Problems may arise in form of duplication in database software if users of new

software are unaware of pitfalls of data management. For example, two file formats
which are different but containing same element having same data type need to be
addressed properly in database software.

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 RADIATION DATA
(Hourly Values)

1980 onwards

Hourly Radiation ending at Hour

Weather Weather
remark 1 remark 2
(Local Apparent Time)

Bright hours of sunshine

Commencement time

Commencement time
Cessation Time

Cessation Time
10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20
5

Daily Total
Data Type
Index No.

Century
Month

Type

Type
Year

Date

75 - 76
10 – 11

14 – 16

17 – 19

20 – 22

23 – 25

26 – 28

29 – 31

32 – 34

35 – 37

38 – 40

41 – 43

44 – 46

47 – 49

50 – 52

53 – 55

56 – 58

59 – 61
62 – 65

66 – 68

71 – 72

73 – 74

77 – 78

79 – 80

81 – 82
12 -13

69 -70
6–7

8–9
1- 5

Data type : 22 – Bimetallic, 33 – Global, 44 – Diffuse, 88 – Direct,

99 – Global on Inclined Plane, 00 - Reflected Radiation

Hourly Values in Mega Joules / m2 to the second place of decimal

Total Radiation Value in Whole Calories / cm2 / min

Conversion Factor : 1Mega Joule = 23.88 cal/cm2/min

1 cal/cm2 = 0.04187 MJ/m2

1 watt / m2 = 5.99 * 10 –5 MJ / m2

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 RADIATION DATA FORMAT
(Hourly Values)

1980 Onwards

Col No. Element Explanation

1–5 Index Number Five digit station indicator

6–7 Year Last Two digits of the year

8–9 Month 01 – Jan, 02 – Feb ,………., 12 – Dec

10 – 11 Date 01, 02,.....

12 – 13 Data Type In code. 22 – Bimetallic, 33 – Global, 44 – Diffuse, 88 – Direct,

99 – Global on Inclined Plane, 00 – Reflected Radiation

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Hourly Radiation Value in Mega Joules / m to the second place of decimal for the

Hour (Local Apparent Time) Ending at

( –1 Value means no data)

Col No. Hour Col No. Hour

14 – 16 5 38 – 40 13

17 – 19 6 41 – 43 14

20 – 22 7 44 – 46 15

23 – 25 8 47 – 49 16

26 – 28 9 50 – 52 17

29 – 31 10 53 – 55 18

32 – 34 11 56 – 58 19

35 – 37 12 59 – 61 20

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Col No. Element Explanation
2
62 – 65 Total Total radiation for the day in Whole Mega Joules / m

66 – 68 Sunshine Bright hours of Sunshine to the first place of decimal

69 – 70 Type Ref Note (i)

71 – 72 Commencement time First weather remark

73 – 74 Cessation time

75 – 76 Type ( Ref Note (i)

77 – 78 Commencement time Second weather remark

79 – 80 Cessation time

81 – 82 Century First two digits of year

Note : (i) Weather Code

Code Type Code Type Code Type

01 Blue Sky 06 Passing Showers 11 Distant Lightening

02 Cloudy Weather 07 Drizzle 12 Fog

03 Overcast 08 Show 13 Haze

04 Squalls 09 Hail 14 Mist

05 Rain 10 Thunder

2
Conversion Factor : 1Mega Joule = 23.88 cal/cm /min

2 2
1 cal/cm = 0.04187 MJ/m

2 5 2
1 watt / m = 5.99 * 10 – MJ / m

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3. Use of relative simple characteristics of file systems may help to make the complexity of
database design easier to understand.

4. To convert an obsolete file system to a database system knowledge of the file system’s basic
limitation will be useful.

Examples of managing organization data can be

1. A file folder in a doctor’s office might contain a patient data, one file folder for each
patient. However finding and using data in growing collection of file folders becomes
time consuming and cumbersome task that it becomes less and less likely that such data
would ever generate useful information.

2. For instance of data center, with following questions, which tend to be long and growing.

a. What climate products sold well during the past week, month, quarter or year ?

b. What data is frequently asked for ?

c. What is the current daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly sales rupee volume ?

d. How do the current period’s sales of data requests compare to those of last week, last
month, or last quarter ?

e. Were the various data requests increasing, decreasing or remaining stable during the
past week, month, quarter, or year ?

f. Did sales show trends that could change the inventory requirements ?

Data processing systems provide quick access to data required on questioning by high
authorities. The retrieved data can be utilized to produce reports required for information
exchange between offices/organizations. Data processing specialists in data center create the
necessary computer file structures, often write the software to manage the data within those
structures and design the application programs to produce reports based on the file data. The
description of computer files requires a specialized vocabulary which can be summarized below.

1. DATA “Raw Facts”, such as telephone numbers, maximum temperature and so on. Data
have to be organized in some logical manner to derive some useful meaning. The
smallest piece of data that is “recognized” by the computer is a single character which
requires one byte of computer storage.

2. FIELD A character or group of characters that have specific meaning. A field is used to
define and store data.
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 3. RECORD A logically connected set of one or more fields that describe a person, place or
thing.

4. FILE A collection of related records.

File system when grows to a larger size, can be handled by more complex computer. Data
Processing Managers spend more time in managing technical and human resources.

Why to study File based systems ?

1. Understanding the shortcomings of the file system enables us to understand the reasons
for development of database. For example, if a file is a sequence of ASCII codes, then
you can dump it to display the record structure. A record may appear as:

008 11 2 14 JONES 45601 AT7Y 0000 45

The word JONES, leads you to suspect that is a personnel record but rest of the record
doesn’t supply much more information. Therefore it appears that data are not self
describing and proper documentation is required to describe the fields in the file. So data
are meaningful only in the context of program written by the programmer.

2. Each data retrieval task requires extensive programming in third generation language
namely FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation), COBOL (Common Business Oriented
Language), BASIC (Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). The
programmers must be familiar with physical file structure, i.e. how and where files are
stored in computer. It becomes difficult and time consuming to reference every file in a
program to establish the precise location of the various files and system components and
data characteristics. So complex coding to access paths is required.

As the file becomes more complex, the access paths become difficult to manage and any
ad-hoc queries fail to produce necessary reports using third generation language. Each
file must have its own file management system so that access to file can be made. The
access steps might be any one of the following:

a. Creating file structure

b. Adding data to the file

c. Deleting data from the file

d. Modifying the data contained in the file

e. Listing file contents

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 Data Processing managers must plan the file structures very carefully because making
changes in an existing structure can be difficult in a file system. For example, to change
just one field in the original data file requires a program that

a. Puts the new file structure in to a program of computer.

b. Opens original file, using a different buffer

c. Reads a record from the original file.

d. Transforms the original data to conform to new structure’s storage requirements.

e. Writes the transformed data into the new file structure.

Then, the original file is deleted and finally all programs using data files must be
modified to fit revised structure. Thus any file structure change however minor, forces
modification in all the programs that uses data in the file.

3. Structure and data dependence

Structural dependence requires modification of related programs using data file and data
file structure. Data dependence means all data subject to change when any of the file’s
data characteristics change. For example, changing field from integer to decimal requires
changes in all programs that access the file. The system access program must tell the
computer “what” and “how” to do it, i.e. noting the differences as given below.

How the human beings views the data (Data logical format)

How the computer sees the data (Data physical format)

Each program must contain specification of opening of a specific file type, record
specification, and its field definitions. Based on the programming and management point
of view, it makes file system extremely troublesome.

Example of file system

Daily surface TAB II data

43117100213341216010000 0000 100001000970186702807026 201

43117100214363214010011 0034 100001000970096703007019 201
43117100216356217020000 0000 110001000980156801558010 201

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Daily surface TAB III data

4311710012415096501018326622220106823514004029745001190965 0000 202

4311710012416096641019528220416104818314004029700000000009 0000 202
4311710012417096591019227418412604014611004029700001200929 0000 202

For example, In case of daily surface TAB II data, there could be several records for specific
index (cols. 1-5). If addition of field (cols. 6-11) i.e. date to specific index is done, it would be
appropriate to construct unique record identifier (cols. 1-11). From user’s point of view, it is a
much better or flexible record definitions which fulfil reporting requirements by breaking fields
in to their component parts.

Data Redundancy

It means the same data stored in many different locations. This leads to data inconsistency and
data anomalies. Data inconsistency is different and conflicting versions of same data or data that
lack data integrity. Data entry errors occur when complex entries are made in several different
files and / or recur frequently in one or more files. Data anomalies define anomaly as an
abnormality. Due to data redundancy abnormal conditions sets in by forcing field value changes
in different locations. The data integrity needs to be maintained for any correct field value
changes in many places. So data anomalies exist.

If we modify any value of parameter it may give rise to cascading effect to its related fields. If
new fields are added to data records it may conflict with existing programs or adding new values
to empty field as corrections may lead to inconsistencies. If we delete any value in records it may
give rise to anomalies to existing data.

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Database and Database Management system

A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed,

managed, and updated. In one view, databases can be classified according to types of content:
bibliographic, full-text, numeric, and images. For example this information may be relevant to
meteorology in context of National Data Center (NDC) of India Meteorological Department
which is collected from various parts of our country. The different types of data that may
constitute a database can be Rainfall, surface, Autographic (Hourly), Upper-air, OLR, Marine,
Ozone, Radiation, Agro-met, Aviation, Air-Pollution, Current Weather data etc. To project on
this further, multiple data types kept together in one place, such as flat file system (ASCII,
American Standard Code for Information Interchange) could be a coherent collection of data. Thus
the flat file system is a database and the data types in the flat file system, is the data that fills the
database. In simple terms, a shared collection of logically related data, designed to meet the
information needs of multiple users in an organization is database. The term database is often
erroneously referred to as a synonym for a “database management system (DBMS)”. DBMS is a
system that allows inserting, updating, deleting and processing of data. Data constitute the
building blocks of information and information is produced by processing the data and is used to
reveal the meaning of data. The primary goal of DBMS is to provide a way to store and retrieve
database information that is convenient and efficient. Some of DBMS developed by software
houses were Oracle, Ingress, Sybase, Dbase 3+, Foxbase, Foxpro, MS Access and so on.

There are many benefits of using DBMS.

1) The amount of data redundancy in stored data can be reduced

2) No more data inconsistencies

3) Stored data can be shared by a single or multiple users.

4) Standards can be set and followed.

5) Data integrity can be maintained. Data integrity refers to the problem of ensuring that
database contains only accurate data.

6) Security of data can be simply implemented.

7) Data independence can be achieved, i.e. data and programs that manipulate the data are
two different entities.

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Management of data also involves both defining structures for storage of information and
providing mechanisms for the manipulation of information. In addition, the database system
must ensure the safety of the information stored, despite system crashes or attempts at
unauthorized access. If data is shared among several users, the system must avoid possible
anomalous results. For example, consider station Pune, with daily temperature data for the month
of May. If two observers retrieve temperature (say maximum and minimum respectively) for the
station Pune from daily temperature data table at about the same time, the result of the
concurrent executions may leave the temperature data table in an incorrect or (inconsistent) state.
In particular, the table may retrieve either maximum temperature or minimum temperature,
rather than maximum and minimum temperature. In order to guard against this possibility, some
form of supervision must be maintained in the system.

Data Processing and data Management

Data Processing is the term generally used to describe what can be done by large mainframe
computers from the late 1940’s until the early 1980’s (and which continues to be done in most
large organizations to a greater or lesser extent even today). Large volumes of raw transaction
data fed into programs that update a master file, with fixed format reports written to paper. In
this context raw is used to indicate the facts which have not yet been processed to reveal their
meaning. Example are minimum temperature, dry bulb temperature etc. and transaction data are
data describing an event (the change as a result of a transaction) and is usually described with
verbs. Transaction data always has a time dimension, a numerical value and refers to one or more
objects (i.e. the reference data) ,i.e day with weather phenomenon thunderstorm with its time of
occurrence and duration.

The term data management refers to an expansion of this concept, where the raw data, previously
copied manually from paper to punch cards, and later into data entry terminals. The master file
concept has been largely displayed by database management systems, and static reporting
replaced or augmented by ad-hoc reporting and direct inquiry including downloading of data by
users or customers. Nowadays the presence of internet and personal computers simultaneously at
large number of places has been a driving force in the transformation of data processing to the
more global concept of data management systems.

Characteristics of database

1. Concurrent use

A database system allows several users to access the database concurrently. Answering
different questions from different users with the same (base) data is a central aspect of an
information system. Such concurrent use of data increases the economy of a system.
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2. Structured and described data

A fundamental feature of database approach is that the database systems does not
necessarily contain the data but also the complete definition and description of these data.
These descriptions are basically static information , from the geographical characteristics
of the station, to the sensor information , the observing programme at station level and so
on. It is commonly known as “the data about the data” (Metadata) i.e all the key
information concerning the origin of the data in the widest sense.

3. Separation of data and Applications

The structure of database is described through metadata which is also stored in the
database. Application software does not need any knowledge about the physical data
storage like encoding, format, storage place etc. It only communicates with the help of a
management system of a DBMS via a standardized interface with the help of a
standardized language like SQL. The access to the data and the metadata is entirely done
by the DBMS. In this way all the applications can be totally separated from the data.
Therefore database internal reorganizations or improvement of efficiency do not
influence on the application software.

4. Data integrity

It is a byword for the quality and reliability of the data of the DBMS. In a broader sense
data integrity includes also the protection of the database from the unauthorized access
and unauthorized changes. Data reflects facts of real world. For example the data tables
storing climate data with an observation structure. An observation being considered as a
group of meteorological elements associated to a particular station at a given time.
Therefore, there is one table for one data type.

5. Data persistence

It means in a DBMS all data is maintained as long as it is not deleted explicitly. The life
span of data needs to be determined directly or indirectly to the user and must not be
dependent on the system features. Additionally data once stored in a database must not be
lost.

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Functions of DBMS

The DBMS provides functions to define the structure of the data in the application. These
include defining and modifying the record structure, the type and size of fields and the various
constraints to be satisfied by the data in the field.

Once the data structure is defined, data needs to be inserted, modified and deleted. These
functions which perform these operations are part of DBMS. These functions can handle plashud
and unplashud data manipulation needs. The queries that form part of the application are called
plashud queries. Any ad-hoc queries which are performed on a need basis are called unplashud
queries.

The DBMS contains modules which handle security and integrity of the data in the application.

Recovery of the data after system failure and concurrent access of records by multiple users is
also handled by DBMS.

The maintenance of data dictionary which contains the data definition of the application is also
one of the functions of DBMS.

Optimizing the performance of the queries is one of the important functions of DBMS.

DBMS Architecture

Three important characteristics of the database approach are

1. Isolation of programs and data (program-data and program-operation independence)

2. Support of multiple user views and

3. Use of a catalog to store the database description (schema)

To help achieve and visualize these characteristics, a three schema architecture was proposed.

The goal is to separate the user applications and the physical database. In this architecture, the
schemas can be defined at the following three levels.

I) The internal level has the internal schema which describes the physical storage structure
of the database. The internal schema uses the physical data model and describes the complete
details of data storage and access paths of the database.

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 II) The conceptual level has the conceptual schema which describes the structure of the
whole database for a community of users. The conceptual schema hides the details of
physical storage structures and concentrates on describing entities (a thing with distinct or
independent existence), data types, relationships, user operations, and constraints. A high
level data model or an implementation data model can be used at this level.

III) The external or view level includes a number of external schemes or user views.

The ANSI (American National Standards Institute)/SPARC three level architecture. This shows that a data
model can be an external model (or view), a conceptual model, or a physical model. This is not the only
way to look at data models, but it is a useful way, particularly when comparing models. (Matthew West
and Julian Fowler (1999). Developing )High Quality Data Models. The European Process Industries STEP
Technical Liaison Executive (EPISTLE).

Data Dictionary

The data dictionary is a term that refers to as a DBMS component that stores the definition of
data characteristics and relationships. In other words, it is a set of tables database uses to
maintain information about its own databases. It contains information about tables, indexes,
clusters and so on. There exist two types of data dictionary: integrated and stand alone.
Integrated data dictionary is included with the DBMS. For example all relational DBMS include
a built in data dictionary that is frequently accessed and updated by the RDBMS. Database
Administrator may use stand alone data dictionary systems especially in case of older DBMS.
The data dictionary may be classified as active or passive. In case of active data dictionary it is
automatically updated by the DBMS with every database access, thereby keeping its access
information up to date. However a passive data dictionary requires a batch process to be run.
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Data dictionary access information is normally used by the DBMS for query optimization
purpose.

The main function of data dictionary is to store description of all objects that interact with the
database. The data dictionary typically stores descriptions of all.

1. Data elements that are defined in all tables of all databases. Specifically, data dictionary
stores the name, display formats, internal storage formats, and validation rules. It tells
where an element is used, by whom it is used and so on.

2. Tables defined in all databases. The data dictionary may like store the name of table
creator, the data of creation access authorizations, the number of columns and so on.

3. Indexes defined for each database tables. For each index the DBMS stores at least the
index name and the attributes used, the location, specific index characteristics and the
creation date.

4. Define databases. Who created each database, the date of creation where the database is
located, who the DBA is and so on.

5. Programs that access the database including screen formats, report formats, application
formats, SQL queries and so on.

6. Access authorization for all users of the databases.

7. Relationships among data elements, which elements are involved. Whether the
relationship are mandatory or optional, the connectivity and cardinality (i.e. number of
elements in a set) and so on.

The most commonly used DBMS is the relational database management system (RDBMS)
which is based on relational model as introduced by Dr. Edgar F. Codd. In RDBMS relationship
between two tables or files can be specified at the time of table creation. In this, there are
multiple levels of security.

1. Logging in at O/S level

2. Command level (i.e. RDBMS level)

3. Object level

Many tables are grouped in one database in RDBMS. Structured Query Language (SQL) is a
language that provides an interface to relational database systems. In common usage SQL also
encompasses DML (Data Manipulation Language), for INSERTs, UPDATEs, DELETEs and

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DDL (Data Definition Language), used for creating and modifying tables and other database
structures.

Examples of DDL

1. CREATE To create objects in the database

2. ALTER Alters the structure of the database

3. DROP Delete objects from the database

4. TRUNCATE Remove all records from a table, including all spaces allocated for the
records are removed

5. COMMENT Add comments to the data dictionary

6. GRANT Gives user’s access privileges to database

7. REVOKE With draw access privileges given to the GRANT Command

Examples of DML

1. INSERT Insert data in to a table

2. UPDATE Updates existing data within a table

3. DELETE Deletes all records from a table, the space for the records remain

4. CALL call a PL/SQL or JAVA subprogram

5. EXPLAIN PLAN Explain access path to data

6. LOCK Table control concurrency

Examples of Data Control language statements

1. COMMIT save a work done

2. SAVEPOINT Identify a point in a transcation to which you can later roll back

3. ROLLBACK Restore database to original since the last COMMIT

4. SET TRANSCATION Change transaction options like what rollback segment to use

5. GRANT REVOKE Grant or take back permissions to or from the oracle users.

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Examples of data Query language statements

1. SELECT Retrieve data from a database.

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Example of SQL Query

CREATE TABLE TB2

(TB2_INDEX varchar2(5),
TB2_ DATE DATE(YYYYMMDD),
TB2_MAXT NUMBER(3,1),
TB2_MINT NUMBER(3,1),
TB2_AVG_WSP NUMBER(2) ,
TB2_RF NUMBER(4, 1));

Retrieve data using

SYNTAX select<list colname>from tablename;

SELECT TB2_INDEX,TB2_DATE,TB2_RF
FROM TB2
WHERE TB2_MAXT > 30.1
AND TB2_AVG_WSP >10;

SORT THE OUTPUT

SYNTAX select<list colname>
from tablename
WHERE <CONDITION>
ORDER BY <COL_NAME>;

SELECT TB2_INDEX,TB2_DATE,TB2_RF
FROM TB2
WHERE TB2_MAXT > 30.1
AND TB2_AVG_WSP >10
ORDER BY TB2_INDEX,TB2_DATE;

SYNTAX SELECT * FROM TABLENAME;

THIS IS SIMPLEST COMMAND RETRIEVE EVERY THING FROM TABLE BUT USE OF THIS
COMMAND IS DEPRICATED AT LARGE DATABSES AS THIS WILL SLOW DOWN THE DATABASE.

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