Short Description for Database approach
Database approach:
Techniques which have been developed in order to administer stored data
Motives:
- Data integrity: Data “represents what it is supposed to represent”
Various connotations of integrity:
- Correct (reasonable)
- Accurate (up to date)
- Consistent (doesn't contradict itself)
- Data is a unique resource(IRM: Information Resource Management) : “Information Resource Management”
- Big during the 1970:s and early 1980:s
- Organizations have different resources Personnel, capital, knowledge, machines, etc Data also a resource, but unique
- Huge organization-wide, centralized databases Techniques for data modelling
- e.g. Entity-Relationships (ER diagrams)
- Often more flexible, convenient than a group of files Data Independence
- The ability to change the physical structure (storage structure) for a group of data without having to change the programs that access these data.
- If an application uses files (and not a database) a programmer would have to:
- Change the way the data is defined in the program
- Change the statements that read/write the data to files
- But, neither of these have anything to do with the application logic of the program.