The ability to program computers to perform automatic
functions for us has catalyzed the rapid expansion of technology in our daily
lives in the late 20th and early 21s century justly in
accordance with Moore’s law. Databases are now used in almost every facet and
industry. Databases are systematic collections of organized data, information
such as: name, age, DOB, address, credit card number, pictures, file types,
etc. Several databases are incorporated into a Database Management System which is essentially a collection of
programs which enables its users to access, manipulate, represent, and control
access to data.
There are four major types of Database Management Systems (DBMS):
Hierarchical, Network, Relational, and Object Oriented. Hierarchical employs
the parent-child relationship it looks like a tree with nodes representing records
and branches representing fields. Network employs many to many relationships, which
results in complex database structures. Relational defines database
relationships in forms of tables. Object oriented supports storage of new data
types, the data to be stored is in the form of objects and the objects to be
stored have attributes. Relational DBMS is the most popular on the market which
uses the programming language we are evaluating, SQL. Some common relational
database management systems that use SQL are: Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL
Server, Access, and Ingres.
The programming language SQL
which stands for Structured Query
Language is the standard language for dealing with relational databases. It
can be used to insert, search, create, update, and delete database records as
well as helps in optimizing and maintaining of databases via syntaxes and
statements. In SQL technical talk this is called: Modify, Insert, Remove, and
Request. A rational database contains unique tables which store information
in their columns and rows. The columns contain data names, data types, and
other attributes which can identify the information being stored. Meanwhile,
rows contain the actual records of informational data. Below is an example of
what a SQL table could look like.
SQL is an extremely important tool to companies because it allows them to easily manage large quantities of information virtually without the need of huge file rooms full of paper, the hassle of using manual catalogs, and wasted manpower time. Once a database has been created it can be accessed remotely, edited, and managed by people with little to no computer skills. This capability can save thousands if not millions of dollars in labor costs a year to companies. Additionally, for companies that have and manage construction or installation work orders such as Philadelphia Water and Gas (PGW) or Comcast it allows their customers’ work-orders to be streamlined directly to the servicemen.
References
1. "What Is SQL?" SQLCourse. ITBusinessEdge, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.
2. Engle,Scott. Drxel, Info 210, Database Management Systems. 2014, Lecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment