FUNDAMENTALS OF

DATABASES
Introduction to Databases

NGUYEN Hoang Ha
Email: [Link]@[Link]
 About the lecturer
 Full name: Hoang Ha NGUYEN

 Email: [Link]@[Link]

 Diploma: PhD in Computer Science at Aix-Marseille University 2016

 Position: Lecturer at University of Science and Technology of Hanoi

 Research interests:
 Computer graphics:
 3D reconstruction: building 3D models of objects from point cloud

 Object modelling, synthesizing realistic images of objects.

 Mesh optimization

 Augmented Reality

 Computer Vision
 Object recognition and classification: landmarks on insect wings, hand gestures

 3D reconstruction from multiple views

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 Course information
 Credit: 4
 Moodle page:
 Materials
 Assignment submissions
 Prescribed book: Nguyen Hoang Ha and Le Huu Ton, Fundamentals of
Databases, USTH’s textbook 2025
 Referenced book: Jeffrey D. Ullman, Jennifer Widom: A First Course in
Database Systems, Pearson, 3rd Edition (2007)
 Software: MySQL & MySQL Workbench
 Assessment
 Attendance: 10%
 Middle term test (Moodle-based): 40%
 Rewards (+2, +1), Penalties (-2, - 1)
 Final Test: 50%
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 Objectives
 Understand concepts of
 Information,
 Data,
 Database,
 DBMS,
 DBS

 Know the importance of studying databases

 Identify database users
 Explore the history of databases
 Discuss current database trends

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 Content
 Introduction, basic definitions
 History of DB
 Trends in DB Technology
 DBMS
 Database users
 Database languages
 Relational databases
 Advantage and disadvantage

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 Why study Databases
 Beside computation we need to store and exploit
data to get desired information
 Databases relate to most of domains in Computer
Science: Information system, OS, languages, datamining,
multimedia
 Datasets increasing in diversity and volume.
 Airline Reservation, Banking, Medicine, Corporate
 Digital libraries, interactive video, Human Genome
project, EOS project
 ...

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 Database application examples

Contact List
Items on e-commerce websites
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 Databases are everywhere
 Applications:
 Online retailers: e-commerce, order tracking, customized
recommendations
 Banking: transactions
 Airlines: reservations, schedules
 Universities: registration, grades
 Sales: customers, products, purchases
 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain
 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions
 Social network platforms

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 Basic Definitions
 Data:
 Known facts that can be recorded and have an implicit meaning
 Anything in a form suitable for use with a computer
 distinguished from program (Wikipedia)
 Database:
 Nothing more than a collection of data existing over a long period of time
 Purposes
 To store data
 To provide an organizational structure for data
 To provide a mechanism for creating, modifying, deleting, and querying data
 Database Management System (DBMS)
 A software package/ system to facilitate the creation and maintenance of a
computerized database.
 Database System
 The DBMS together with the data itself. Sometimes, the applications included.

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 Data, Information, Database, Metadata

a. Data
c. Database
BI12-001
Nguyễn Ngọc Kỳ
Student

(8, 6, 10)
AssesmentResult

( Philosophy , Basic Programming , Algebra )

b. Information
GPA of BI12-001: 8
d. Metadata of Student table

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 A Sample Database

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Main Characteristics of the Database Approach

 Self-describing nature of a database system: A

DBMS catalog stores the description of the
database. (The description is called meta-data).
 Isolation between programs and data: program-
data independence. Allows changing data storage
structures and operations without having to change
the DBMS access programs.

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Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
 Data Abstraction: A data model is used to hide storage
details and present the users with a conceptual view of the
database.
 Support of multiple views of the data: Each user may see a
different view of the database, which describes only the data
of interest to that user.

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 Content
 Introduction, basic definitions
 History of DB
 Trends in DB Technology
 DBMS
 Database users
 Database languages
 Relational databases
 Advantage and disadvantage

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 History of DB Technology
The first DBMS evolved from file systems
Late 60s:
 1969: Charles Bachman network data model
 IBM IMS hierarchical data model
 70s:
 Edgar Codd relational model
 SQL was developed by IBM
 1979: Oracle Version 2, the first commercial RDBMS
product using SQL

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 History of DB Technology (cont)
 80s: SQL IBM R was introduced in 1981 (based on Codd’s
research)
 Late 80s-90s:
 DB2, Oracle, Informaix, Sybase
 OODBMSs were introduced

 90s:
 SQL was standardized by ANSI in 1992
 From 2000:
 XML
 db40
 NoSQL: MongoDB (2007)

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 Content
 Introduction, basic definitions
 History of DB
 Trends in DB Technology
 DBMS
 Database users
 Database languages
 Relational databases
 Advantage and disadvantage

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 DB Technology’s Trends
 Smaller and Smaller Systems
 Originally: DBMS’s were large, expensive software running on large
computer
 Today: can run on PC, Mobile…
 Bigger and Bigger Systems
 Size of data has been increasing continuously
 Parallel computing

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 DB Technology’s Trends (cont)
 Client-Server and Multi-Tier Architecture
 DBMS is a server, application is client
 Two – tier, three - tier (Website) Architecture
 Multimedia Data
 Common form of multimedia data:Video, audio, radar
signals, satellite images..
 Big size
 Information Integration
 Data Warehouse
 Data Mining

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 3-tier Model

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 Client-Server Model

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 DB Technology’s Trends (cont)
 Data on the Web and E-commerce Applications
 XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
<?xml version = “1.0” encoding = “utf-8” ?>
<BARS>
<BAR><NAME>Joe’s Bar</NAME>
<BEER><NAME>Bud</NAME>
<PRICE>2.50</PRICE></BEER>
<BEER><NAME>Miller</NAME>
<PRICE>3.00</PRICE></BEER>
</BAR>
<BAR> …
</BARS>
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 DB Technology’s Trends (cont)
 New demand, new functionality
 Scientific Applications
 Image Storage and Management
 Audio and Video data management
 Data Mining
 Time Series and Historical Data Management

 → Need more research and development of DB

systems

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 Content

 Introduction, basic definitions

 History of DB
 Trends in DB Technology
 DBMS
 Database users
 Database languages
 Relational databases
 Advantage and disadvantage

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 What is DBMS
 A Database Management System (DBMS) is a
software package designed to maintain and utilize
databases
 A very large, integrated collection of data.
 Models real-world enterprise
 Entities (e.g., students, courses)
 Relationships (e.g., how students relate to courses)

 Software that enables users to define, create and

maintain the database and provides controlled
access to the database

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 Typical DBMS Functionalities
 Define a database : in terms of data types,
structures and constraints
 Construct or Load the Database on a secondary
storage medium
 Manipulating the database : querying, generating
reports, insertions, deletions and modifications to
its content
 Concurrent Processing and Sharing by a set of
users and programs – yet, keeping all data valid and
consistent

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 Database Users
 Actors on the scene
 Database administrators (DBA): responsible for
authorizing access to the database, for co-ordinating and
monitoring its use, acquiring software, and hardware
resources, controlling its use and monitoring efficiency of
operations.
 Database Designers: responsible to define the content,
the structure, the constraints, and functions or
transactions against the database. They must communicate
with the end-users and understand their needs.
 End-users: they use the data for queries, reports and
some of them actually update the database content.

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 Database Users (cont’)
 Workers behind the scene:
 DBMS system designers and implementers: design
and implement the DBMS modules and interfaces as a
software package
 Tool developers: design and implement tool - the
software packages that facilitate database system design
and use, and help improve performance
 Operators and maintenance personnel: system
administration personnel who are responsible for the
actual running and maintenance of the hardware and
software environment for the database system

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 Database Languages
 DDL (Data-Definition Language)
 Is Computer language for defining data structure
 Initial: a subset of SQL: CREATE, DROP, ALTER
 Generic sense: any formal language for describing data or information
structures, like XML schemas.

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 Database Languages (cont’)
 DML (Data-manipulation language)
 Computer language used by computer programs or database users to
retrieve, insert, delete and update data
 Most Popular is SQL: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
 Other: IMS/DL1, CODASYL databases (such as IDMS)

 DCL (Data-control language)

 For DBA

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 DBMS Structure
 Single box: system
component
 Double box: memory data
structure
 Solid line: control & data
flow
 Dashed line: data flow only

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 Relational Database
 Base on Codd’s theory
 Is Database that conforms to the relational model
 The most common DB model today

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RDBMS Products Dominate the DBMS Industry
 Relational databases are organized in tables
 IBM has DB2
 Microsoft has SQL Server
 Oracle has 9i
 Sybase has SQL Anywhere
 Teradata has V2R5.0
 Teradata is also one of the industry leaders in data
warehouse/store software and data mining
 Data mining derives knowledge from information in data
files

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 Advantages of Using the DBMS
 Providing backup and recovery services.
 Providing multiple interfaces to different classes of users.
 Representing complex relationships among data.
 Enforcing integrity constraints on the database.
 Drawing Inferences and Actions using rules

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 When not to use a DBMS
 Main inhibitors (costs) of using a DBMS:
 High initial investment and possible need for additional hardware.
 Overhead for providing generality, security, concurrency control,
recovery, and integrity functions.
 When a DBMS may be unnecessary:
 If the database and applications are simple, well defined, and not
expected to change.
 If there are stringent real-time requirements that may not be met
because of DBMS overhead.
 If access to data by multiple users is not required.

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 When not to use a DBMS (cont’)
 When no DBMS may suffice:
 If the database system is not able to handle the complexity of data
because of modeling limitations
 If the database users need special operations not supported by the
DBMS.

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 Summary
 Introduction, basic definitions
 History of DB
 Trends in DB Technology
 DBMS
 Database users
 Database languages
 Relational databases
 Advantages and disadvantages

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