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DATABASE CONCEPTS—RDBMS TOOL 1
It is often said that, ‘Information is Power’. Information is the processed data and a collection of ordered
and related data which is referred to as a Database. A single group of data may not have specific utility. We
have to combine interrelated data to make it useful and to provide necessary and meaningful information.
Since the beginning of human civilization, people have been trying to get information that was acquired
through experience, in some form or another. As time passed, humans invented a technology to understand,
write and store data or information. Prior to industrialization, most people were engaged in agriculture, and
the methods of providing information were limited. Thus, the data used to be stored in voluminous storage
in the form of books, and the collection of books was perhaps the first read ‘database’. Earlier, There were
paper-based methods that were manually used for the processing, storage and retrieval of information.
The growth and industrialization led several organisations with large administrative structures to handle
large volumes of data in a more organised manner. The main difference between modern databases and
the conventional method of storing the data (i.e. old paper-based data) lies in the ability to retrieve and
manipulate data. In the beginning, a lot of problems occurred in gathering, organising, retrieving, storing,
and securing the data. Hence, there was a need for proper storage of data and to handle and manage the
data in an efficient manner. This led to the maintenance and collection of related and ordered data in such
a way that the information gathered from it could be accessed quickly and easily. Such assembled data
resulted into an organised ‘database’. A ‘Database’ is a collection of logically related data that allows easy
and efficient storage, retrieval and manipulation of data.
A database constitutes the most important component of an information system. Data is the basic
source of an information. Owing to the rapid growth of information technology in the last few decades,
organisations and institutions have realized the value of databases, as a resource and the importance with
which this resource can be managed and manipulated.
1.1 Basic concepts
Computer processes data, on the basis of a pre-loaded or given set of instructions to produce multiple types
of information, which can be stored, retrieved and used as and when required. It is made up of several
electronic components that work together according to the set of instructions to provide results or produce
information with high speed and accuracy.
A computer works on IPO (Input Process Output) cycle. It accepts input from the user, does arithmetical
calculations and logical comparisons (process) over it and produces output in the form of information.
Input means the feeding of raw data into the computer. Input devices such as keyboard, mouse, scanner,
etc. are used to feed (input) data into the computer.
Output is the desired information or result that is received from the computer after the processing of raw
data. Output devices such as monitor, printer, speaker, etc are used to produce output from the computer.
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