Every organization must maintain data about its business, employees, and other relevant information. For example, a school holds data on their students’ details, their academic and co-curricular achievements, and the details of their teacher and administrative staff.

This data needs to be available to a user quickly and promptly. Furthermore, this data needs to be updated regularly; thus, organizing the data into a database is preferable.

A database is simply an organized collection of data. Database arranges information so that any specific piece of information can be easily accessed.  

Elements of database

There are four different types of databases:

1.      Hierarchical   

2.      2. Network   

3.      3. Relational  

4.      4. Object-oriented

Of these, the relational database model is the most popular. A relational database stores data in the form of tables. A table organizes data into rows called records and columns called fields. Records and fields together make a table. Each record defines information about one entity and gives complete details about it. Each field specifies the knowledge of a particular type for all records. Tables, fields, and records from the elements of a relational database. 

Database Management System

Database management involves creating, modifying, deleting, and adding data to the database. The software that performs these functions is called a Database Management System (DBMS). Access, MySQL, and Oracle are some popular DBMS software.

Functions of a DBMS 

When a lot of data is stored in various files, there is a possibility of data redundancy, inconsistency, incorrect data, etc.

 A DBMS provides an easy solution to all these problems by allowing centralized data control.

A DBMS provides the following benefits:

Reduces data redundancy    Data redundancy means duplication of data. For example, a school may have two separate files to maintain student records, one with students’ addresses and the other with their phone numbers.

A DBMS integrates these two files into a single database file. Now, the data is stored in a single place in the database. Hence, data duplication is reduced or virtually eliminated.

Controls data inconsistency  Suppose student addresses are stored in two files, ‘Bus Information’ and ‘Fees Information.’ A student informs the bus in-charge about an address change. So, the new address will be reflected in the ‘Bus Information’ file, but the exact change may not be made in the ‘Fees Information’ file.

 Hence, the two files would have two different addresses for the same student. This will not happen in an adequately maintained database.

Ideally, there will be no redundancy, and any change in one file will be automatically updated everywhere else.

Facilities share different data, and users can use the same database to extract data based on their individual needs.

Enforces standards   A DBMS makes it possible to apply specific standards in data representation. These standards could be an organization’s standards or national/international standards.

Ensures data security   In a DBMS, the database administrator has complete control over the database and ensures that the data is accessible only to authorized people. Different categories of users can be given additional permissions. For example, some may have the authority only to view the data, while others may also have the power to modify data.

Main trains integrity   A DBMS supports database integrity. For example, suppose a database contains information about the marks scored by the student in an examination.