Page 203 - Computer - 10(A&B)

3 3 Database Management System

Session 1

The Concept of Database Management System

Data is an integral part of our everyday life as we use and store data in different forms. The contact details,
birthdays or anniversaries of the people we know, marks scored by the students, prices of the items we purchase
in our day to day life, are some of the examples of data with which we are dealing every day without actually
realising it. Similarly, organisations also deal with different types of data like number of employees working
in the company, their personal details, salaries, products, stocks, prices, etc. All of these are the raw facts or
figures which in themselves are not very useful i.e., unorganised form of data. If the data related to each other is
organised in a structured way i.e., in a meaningful manner, it can be extremely helpful in taking crucial decisions.

Data
Data is any raw and unorganised fact that requires to be processed to make it meaningful. Data can be simple
and meaningles at the same time, unless it is organised. Generally, data comprises facts, observations, perceptions,
numbers, characters, symbols, image, etc.
Data is always interpreted, by a human or machine, to derive meaning. So, data in itself is meaningless. Data
contains numbers, statements, and characters in a raw form.

Information
Information is a set of data which is processed in a meaningful way
according to the given requirement. Information is data processed,
structured, or presented in a given context to make it meaningful and
useful.
It is processed data which possesses context, relevance, and purpose. It
also involves manipulation of raw data.
Information assigns meaning and improves the reliability of the data.
It helps to ensure undesirability and reduces uncertainty. So, when the
data is transformed into information, it never consist useless details.

Database Concepts
Database is an organised collection of logically related data values in such a way that they can be used to generate
useful information which is necessary for the decision making process. The database can be maintained manually or
electronically in a computer. It is easy to maintain small databases manually, but large databases, like the information
related to the functioning of various departments in an organisation are very cumbersome to store and process
manually. An electronic database stored in the computer is the best solution to this problem as the data in the computer
is not only just stored effectively, but can also be manipulated and retrieved very quickly and accurately. The data
in a database is stored in the form of tables consisting of logically related rows and columns. For example, to store
the personal information of the employees working in an organisation, the table can have columns like employee
number, employee name, address, phone numbers, age, date of joining, etc.

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