database structure,Types of Database Software

Difference among Bit, Byte and Words | entities,attributes,field,database,data bank

Difference among Bit, Byte and Words | Computer

Difference # Bit:

The computer does not have a large number of symbols for representing data. It has only two, 0 and 1 (called binary digits or bits). These correspond to the two electronic ox magnetic states used in computer circuits and storage.

The smallest unit used for feeding data and program into computer is bit. Information is handled in the computer by electrical components such as transistors, integrated circuits, semiconductors and wires, all of which can only indicate two states or conditions.

Transistors are either conducting or non-conducting; magnetic materials are either magnetized or non-magnetized in one direction or in the opposite direction; a pulse or voltage is present or not present.

These two possible states can be expressed with the help of bits -0 and 1. For example, the presence of current pulse in a circuit in computer may be represented by the bit 1 and the absence of current pulse in a circuit may be represented by the bit 0.

Difference # Byte:

A collection of some bits is called a byte. Byte is a group of adjacent bits (binary digits) operated upon as a unit. An 8 bit unit is commonly called a byte and has become the standard unit for storing a single character.

In many computers, it is 8-bit set encoding one alphanumeric character or two decimal digits. Alphanumeric is a contraction for alphabetic (A, B, C, etc.) and numeric, (0, 1, 2, etc.). A set of alphanumeric characters will usually include special characters too such as dollar sign, comma etc.

Difference # Words:

Some memory units are not made up of bytes but of words. A computer word consists of the data which is stored or retrieved when a memory location is specified Word is a collection of bits treated as a single unit. Word is an ordered set of characters handled as a unit by the computer. The word may be fixed or variable in length. The word length depends upon the number of bits or characters in a word.

The number of bits varies from 4, 8, 12, 16, 32 etc., up to 64 i.e., the word may be as long as 64 bits or as short as 8 bits. In a fixed word-length computer, the number of characters in a word does not vary, and an address will typically refer to one set of characters. In a variable word-length computer, each character or byte has an address and the word utilized by the computer can include a variable number of characters.

The length of the variable word is specified either by the instruction which calls for it or by a word- mark in storage. A byte is usually shorter than a word, typically consisting of 8 bits. In some computers the grouping of bits, bytes or words is flexible in design to meet the differing storage requirements of numbers, alphanumeric characters and instructions.

Database structure:

A database table consists of rows and columns. In database terminology, each row is called a record, object or entity. Each column is called a field or attribute. Database management systems (DBMS) are used to work with large databases.

a database is an organized collection of data. Instead of having all the data in a list with a random order, a database provides a structure to organize the data. One of the most common data structures is a database table. A databasetable consists of rows and columns.

Access organizes your information into tables: lists of rows and columns reminiscent of an accountant’s pad or a spreadsheet. In a simple database, you might have only one table. For most databases you will need more than one. For example, you might have a table that stores information about products, another table that stores information about orders, and another table with information about customers.

Each row is more correctly called a record, and each column, a field. A record is a meaningful and consistent way to combine information about something. A field is a single item of information — an item type that appears in every record. In the Products table, for instance, each row or record would hold information about one product. Each column or field holds some type of information about that product, such as its name or price.

Definition - What does Relational Database (RDB) mean?

A relational database (RDB) is a collective set of multiple data sets organized by tables, records and columns. RDBs establish a well-defined relationship between database tables. Tables communicate and share information, which facilitates data searchability, organization and reporting.

RDBs use Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standard user application that provides an easy programming interface for database interaction

PRIMARY KEY

The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a table.

Primary keys must contain UNIQUE values, and cannot contain NULL values.

A table can have only one primary key, which may consist of single or multiple fields.

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint

A FOREIGN KEY is a key used to link two tables together.

A FOREIGN KEY is a field (or collection of fields) in one table that refers to the PRIMARY KEY in another table.

The table containing the foreign key is called the child table, and the table containing the candidate key is called the referenced or parent table.

What is Data Warehousing?

A Data Warehousing (DW) is process for collecting and managing data from varied sources to provide meaningful business insights. A Data warehouse is typically used to connect and analyze business data from heterogeneous sources. The data warehouse is the core of the BI system which is built for data analysis and reporting.

A data mart is a subset of a data warehouse oriented to a specific business line. Data marts contain repositories of summarized data collected for analysis on a specific section or unit within an organization, for example, the sales department.

What Is Data Mining?

Data mining is a process used by companies to turn raw data into useful information. By using software to look for patterns in large batches of data, businesses can learn more about their customers to develop more effective marketing strategies, increase sales and decrease costs. Data mining depends on effective data collection, warehousing, and computer processing.

Data mining processes are used to build machine learning models that power applications including search engine technology and website recommendation programs.

How Data Mining Works

Data mining involves exploring and analyzing large blocks of information to glean meaningful patterns and trends. It can be used in a variety of ways, such as database marketing, credit risk management, fraud detection, spam Email filtering, or even to discern the sentiment or opinion of users.

The data mining process breaks down into five steps. First, organizations collect data and load it into their data warehouses. Next, they store and manage the data, either on in-house servers or the cloud. Business analysts, management teams and information technology professionals access the data and determine how they want to organize it. Then, application software sorts the data based on the user's results, and finally, the end-user presents the data in an easy-to-share format, such as a graph or table.

OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) is the technology behind many Business Intelligence (BI) applications. OLAP is a powerful technology for data discovery, including capabilities for limitless report viewing, complex analytical calculations, and predictive “what if” scenario (budget, forecast) planning.
For example, a user can request that data be analyzed to display a spreadsheet showing all of a company's beach ball products sold in Florida in the month of July, compare revenue figures with those for the same products in September and then see a comparison of other product sales in Florida in the same time period.

Data resource management is a managerial activity that applies information systems technology and management tools to the task of managing an organization's data resources. It includes the database administration function that focuses on developing and maintaining standards and controls for an organization's databases.

In our previous journey into the world of Database software, we defined what they are and the requirements your institution would have of them. Now, let’s discuss the different types of Database software and how they would fit for different institutions/enterprises. Let’s start by first classifying the various database management software.

Classification of Types of Database Software:

1. Operational Database
2. External Database
3. End User Database
4. Distributed Database
5. Data Warehouse Database
6. Analytical Database
7. Hypermedia Database

Operational Database software

Otherwise called as OLTP ( On-Line Transaction Processing ) Database software, are used to manage dynamic data in real time. This database software allows you to add, delete and modify the data in your database. Businesses find many uses of such databases, for example, customer relationship management transactions and financial operations. An operational database allows you to gather, enter and retrieve large amounts of data- be it specific or general, for example, legal notices, financial data, personal employee information, call logs etc. They can also be part of the purchasing process for an e-commerce business.

External Database software

An External Database software manages information gathered for use by different individuals or organizations, either via subscription or freely. External databases are accessed online by users to read privately owned data. The Internet Movie Database is one of the examples of an external database.

End-user Database software

An end user database software is simply a software which helps store data created by an end user. Examples of such software could include, word processors, spreadsheet managers etc. Any database software which allows the end user to create and manage data comes under this category.

Distributed Database software

A Distributed Database software is a software distributed at various geographical locations. This type of database system works under the control of one central database management system and the storage devices of the distributed database are connected to different CPUs. A distributed database can reside on LAN, WAN, internet, network servers or extranets. The advantage of distributing the database is the significant improvement in the performance of data rates and the advantage of not losing all your data even if one of the locations fails.

Data Warehouse Database software

Data Warehouse is a database software containing a collection of information extracted from various other databases and stored in one place. Data Warehouse can be used by end users or management personnel, primarily for reporting purposes and drawing insights. There are many benefits of using a Data Warehouse, such as retrieval of information from a Data Warehouse doesn’t affect the performance of the operational system. Automatic identification and resolving of inconsistent data, etc are some of the database software’s key advantages.

Analytical Database software

An analytical database software is used to store data from other databases for data analysis. The data in the analytical database software is edited, filtered and used by analysts of an organization. Businesses worldwide use analytical database software for the analysis of employees’ and organization’s performance.

Hypermedia Database software

The purpose of hypermedia database software is to store multimedia web pages. In a hypermedia database, data is stored online and it can be accessed by multiple users at the same time. In addition to the above database types, there can be other types of databases as well. For example, businesses in specific industries will have customized database solutions, targeted at the particular requirements and needs of the business, like Fedena ERP for Schools

Database Resources


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