Basic Terms of Database
Data
Collection of raw facts and figures is known as Data.
Information
Organized Data is called information.
Field
It is the smallest unit of information. It is also called attribute or column.
Record
Collection of fields is known as a record. It is also called a tuple or row.
File
Collection of records is known as a file.
Table
It may be defined as a collection of rows or columns. In oracle it is also known as a relation or entity. In oracle each table must have a unique name.
Database
Database is a collection of data which is useful for us. It may also be defined as the collection of interrelated tables.
Database Management System (DBMS)
It is software used for adding, modifying, deleting and managing data on computer.
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
In RDBMS information is stored in the form of tables and relation between various tables can be established.
Oracle
Oracle is an RDBMS (Relational Database Management System). It is a database application associated with storage of data on computer. Oracle is one of the largest selling RDBMS software across the world.
Advantages of Oracle
- It provides security of data because only that person can access the data who is having a valid username and password.
- It supports Client/Server architecture so it provides sharing of data i.e. data stored on one computer can be accessed by any other computer on a network.
- Oracle provides various data types that are suitable for handling all types of data needed in real life.
- Oracle has a large number of inbuilt SQL commands that can handle almost all types of database queries and requirements of users.
- Oracle provides automatic locking facility because of which only one user on a network can use oracle resources at a time so that data is not corrupted due to simultaneous access by various users.
- Oracle provides the facility of creation of cursors, which can be used to apply some operation of all the records of a database table.
- Oracle provides the facility of creation of triggers which can be used to apply restrictions on a particular database object so that we can either prevent operations on database object or take a notice of whatever operation are being performed by a particular user.
- Oracle provides a facility of Exception handling in PL/SQL, which can be used to handle runtime errors, generated during the execution of a PL/SQL block.
- Oracle provides facility of indexing due to which searching and traversing records from a table becomes fast.
- Oracle provides facility of sequence, which can be used to put values in a particular table automatically.
- Oracle provides a large number of constraints which can be applied on database objects. These constraints are used to apply certain restrictions of database objects.
- Oracle is a relational database management system due to which it provides connectivity of various Programming Languages like Visual Basic, Java and .NET.
- Oracle provides facility of joining the contents of two tables.
- Oracle provides the facility of creation of large number of users with specific rights so that more than one user can work on Oracle with specific rights.
- Oracle provides the facility of grouping the data.
- Oracle provides the facility of viewing the data depending upon a particular condition.
- Oracle allows users to create functions, which can be called by any other function or within any PL/SQL block.
- Oracle provides large number of inbuilt functions which can handle different types of data and format them as per the requirement.
- Oracle provides the facility of packaging a number of functions under one name.