Data is Stored, maintained and retrieved in a Database using a set of softwares called Database Management Systems (DBMS). One can compare a DBMS to a shopkeeper. A shopkeeper maintains a track of the goods, piles them in proper places and retrieves the goods when a customer buys.
Similarly, a DBMS does the job of storing information in the appropriate tables, maintaining a track of information stored, retrieves the information when the user gives a query to the database. More than just storing and retrieving information, a DBMS has few other aspects. Following are the different aspects of a DBMS
1. Modeling of data - This refers to the way information is organised and related to each other. There are different methods currently followed, like hierarchical, network, relational, object etc.,
2. Data structure - This refers to the way data is stored, what a record specifies, the fields contained in a record, the field definitions etc.,
3. Query mechanism - This refers to the component that helps maintaining the databases in terms of queries. The various aspects required in maintaining a database are security, user rights and permissions, data storage and retrieval etc.,
4. Transaction mechanism - This refers to the set of activities which are related to each other. This can be compared to the dealings related to a single customer in a shop. The dealings of one customer should not affect the dealings of another customer. Similarly, one transaction should not affect another transaction.
Trivia:
1. Relational Database Management System(RDBMS) is one of the most commonly used Database Management Systems(DBMS).
2. Some of the DBMS products available in market are
Related Articles
| Product | DBMS Type |
|---|---|
| IMS | Hierarchical |
| Microsoft Access | Relational |
| Microsoft SQL Server | Relational |
| IBM DB2 | Relational |
| Informix | Relational |
| Teradata | Relational |
| Oracle | Relational |
3. One example of a Navigational system is XML. As such there are no specific DBMS softwares exclusively supporting XML. But modern RDBMS softwares like Microsoft SQL Server 2005 support XML using XPath queries.
4. As a RDBMS system, Teradata mainly caters to Datawarehousing applications, unlike other RDBMS systems, which cater mainly Online Transaction applications or a mix of both.
