What Is Database ?
Database Tutorial
The database is defined as an organized collection of interrelated data that can be efficiently stored, accessed and managed by using a database management system ( DBMS ).
The database is a vital component of the many software applications. The main function of the database is to store the data in an organized manner. The organized data can be easily managed, modified and retrieved.
Some of the largest and most commonly used social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are all powered by the databases.
The databases are crucial components of the e commerce platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba. The database stores the information about every transaction done by the millions of customers.
The term database is used in the context of a database management system ( DBMS ). The DBMS is a special type of application software used to create, manage, modify and access the data stored into the databases.
The term database simply means the organized collection of data. Since the data is stored into the database in an organized manner, the data can be easily operated upon by the DBMS to perform the desired operations.
A professionally designed database can significantly improve the software performance. And therefore, the database design is an important step for any software system to work efficiently.
The database design is a specialist job. And therefore, the software professionals with database design skills are the highest paid professionals in the software industry. The database skills can help you put your career on the fast track.
 In this article, you will learn in detail, what is database?, importance of the database,  different types of databases, how data is organized into the database, database components and how database works in a software system.
What Is Database In DBMS ?
Table Of Contents
What Is Data ?
The term data is defined as recordable information about an object or entity. In other words, the data includes facts, figures, statistics, observations, values that can be recorded.
The data in its raw form cannot be meaningfully used. The raw data needs to digitally processed with the help of a computer system and a software application.
Most database system designed to store the data consist of three components. These components include first application software, second DBMS and the third component is database.
The data can provide vital information about the business operations of the company. Most businesses and companies generate large volumes of data related to their business operations.
However, the storage and the management of data is big challenge. And therefore, the software applications are developed that helps the business enterprise to record and manage the information related to the business operations.
The information derived by processing the data is referred as management information system abbreviated in short as MIS reports.
The information provides, vital insights to the company management, related to the, various business operations of the company.
The term data, in the context of database is defined as any facts, figures, observations, statistics, or any such similar things that can be recorded and digitally processed with the help of a computer system.
The data must be recordable so that, the raw data can be processed with the help of a computer system and the data processing software.
Let us consider one example of the data for a customer database.
The data pertaining to the customer might include Customer Name, contact numbers, customer address, purchase transaction history, product preferences and so on.
What Is Database ?
The term database is defined as an organized collection of interrelated data that can be efficiently stored, accessed and managed by using a database management system ( DBMS ).
The database is simply used to store the data. The database can be created, accessed, modified and managed by using a DBMS.
The DBMS stands for database management system. The DBMS is a special software designed to create, manage and communicate with the database.
Different types of databases are available ( Oracle , MySQL, MS SQL Server ). The database type selection depends upon the type of the data to be stored and other software requirements.
The database system user can interact with the database through an application software. The application software translates the user commands into SQL commands.
The SQL commands are interpreted and executed by the DBMS to perform various database operations. The processed data is then presented to the database user.
The relational database is the most commonly used database. The relational database is created, modified and managed by using a RDBMS.
The RDBMS stands for relational database management system. The logical structure of the relational database consist of number of interrelated tables. Each table in the relational model represents a database entity.
The relational database are used to store interrelated data. MySQL is one of the most popular RDBMS used to power some of the largest and complex web applications.
Types Of Database
Different types of databases are available for various database system applications. The database selection depends upon the system requirements.
- Flat File Database
- Centralized Database.
- Distributed Database.
- Relational Database.
- Non Relational Database.
- NoSQL Database.
- Cloud Database.
- Object-oriented Databases.
- Hierarchical Databases.
- Network Databases.
- Graph Databases.
- Enterprise Database.
Components Of Database
The database system can be designed using six components. These database components include :
- Database System Hardware
- Application Software.
- Database Management System.
- Data
- Stored Procedures.
- Database Access Language.
Database System Hardware
The database hardware components include all the system hardware components such as frontend computers, database servers, data storage devises and other system hardware components.
Application Software
The application software provides an interface to the database user to perform various database operations. The application software can be customized as per the requirements of the database user.
Database Management System
The database management system ( DBMS ) consist of group of software used to create, access and manage the databases.
The application software communicates with the database using a database communication language through a DBMS software.
The DBMS interacts with the database to execute various database operation commands.
Data
The data is the most crucial element of the database. The raw data simply means facts, figures, observations and values. The raw data is unorganized that cannot be used for any meaningful application.
And therefore, the raw data is processed using a computer system and a software application. The processed data is an organized information that can be used for many useful applications.
Database Access Language
The application software provides user interface and translates the user commands into a database communication language such as SQL. The SQL is a standard database communication language supported many DBMS.
The SQL stands for Structured Query Language is a standard database access language. The SQL commands can be directly interpreted and executed by the database management system ( DBMS ).
Stored Procedures
The procedures are set of SQL statement commands and rules designed to perform a specific database operation. The procedures are also referred as stored procedures.
The procedures can be created to perform complex and reputative database operations with single command.
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