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1外文资料原文DatabaseSystems1.IntroductiontoDatabaseSystemToday,morethanatanyprevioustime,thesuccessofanorganizationdependsonitsabilitytoacquireaccurateandtimelydataaboutitsoperation,tomanagethisdataeffectively,andtouseittoanalyzeandguideitsactivities.Phrasessuchastheinformationsuperhighwayhavebecomeubiquitous,andinformationprocessingisarapidlygrowingmultibilliondollarindustry.Theamountofinformationavailabletousisliterallyexploding,andthevalueofdataasanorganizationalassetisbeingwidelyrecognized.Thisparadoxdrivestheneedforincreasinglypowerfulandflexibledatamanagementsystems.Adatabaseisacollectionofdata,typicallydescribingtheactivitiesofoneormorerelatedorganizations.Forexample,auniversitydatabasemightcontaininformationaboutthefollowing.●Entitiessuchasstudents,faculty,courses,andclassrooms.●Relationshipsbetweenentities,suchasstudents’enrollmentincourses,facultyteachingcourses,andtheuseofroomsforcourses.Adatabasemanagementsystem,orDBMS,issoftwaredesignedtoassistinmaintainingandutilizinglargecollectionsofdata,andtheneedforsuchsystems,aswellastheiruse,isgrowingrapidly.ThealternativetousingaDBMSistouseadhocapproachesthatdonotcarryoverfromoneapplicationtoanother,forexample,tostorethedatain2filesandwriteapplication-specificcodetomanageit.Theareaofdatabasemanagementsystemsisamicrocosmofcomputerscienceingeneral.Theissuesaddressedandthetechniquesusedspanawidespectrum,includinglanguages,object-orientationandotherprogrammingparadigms,compilation,operatingsystemsconcurrentprogramming,datastructures,algorithms,theory,parallelanddistributedsystems,userinterfaces,expertsystemsandartificialintelligence,statisticaltechniques,anddynamicprogramming.Databasemanagementcontinuestogainimportanceasmoreandmoredataisbroughton-line,andmadeevermoreaccessiblethroughcomputernetworking.Todaythefieldisbeingdrivenbyexcitingvisionssuchasmultimediadatabases,interactivevideo,digitallibraries,ahostofscientificprojectssuchasthehumangenomemappingeffortandNASA’sEarthObservationSystemproject,andthedesireofcompaniestoconsolidatetheirdecision-makingprocessesandminetheirdatarepositoriesforusefulinformationabouttheirbusiness.Commercially,databasemanagementsystemsrepresentoneofthelargestandmostvigorousmarketsegments.Thusthestudyofdatabasesystemscouldprovetoberichlyrewardinginmorewaysthanone.2.DatabaseconsistsAdatabaseconsistsofafileorasetoffiles.Theinformationinthesefilesmaybebrokendownintorecords,eachofwhichconsistsofoneormorefields.Fieldsarethebasicunitsofdatastorage,andeachfieldtypicallycontainsinformationpertainingtooneaspectorattributeoftheentitydescribedbythedatabase.Usingkeywordsandvarioussortingcommands,userscanrapidlysearch,rearrange,group,andselectthefieldsinmanyrecordstoretrieveorcreatereportsonparticularaggregatesofdata.Databaserecordsandfilesmustbeorganizedtoallowretrievalofthe3information.Earlysystemswerearrangedsequentially(i.e.,alphabetically,numerically,orchronologically);thedevelopmentofdirect-accessstoragedevicesmadepossiblerandomaccesstodataviaindexes.Queriesarethemainwayusersretrievedatabaseinformation.Typically,theuserprovidesastringofcharacters,andthecomputersearchesthedatabaseforacorrespondingsequenceandprovidesthesourcematerialsinwhichthosecharactersappear.Ausercanrequest,forexample,allrecordsinwhichthecontentofthefieldforaperson’slastnameisthewordSmith.Inflatdatabases,recordsareorganizedaccordingtoasimplelistofentities;manysimpledatabasesforpersonalcomputersareflatinstructure.Therecordsinhierarchicaldatabasesareorganizedinatreelikestructure,witheachlevelofrecordsbranchingoffintoasetofsmallercategories.Unlikehierarchicaldatabases,whichprovidesinglelinksbetweensetsofrecordsatdifferentlevels,networkdatabasescreatemultiplelinkagesbetweensetsbyplacinglinks,orpointers,toonesetofrecordsinanother;thespeedandversatilityofnetworkdatabaseshaveledtotheirwideuseinbusiness.Relationaldatabasesareusedwhereassociationsamongfilesorrecordscannotbeexpressedbylinks;asimpleflatlistbecomesonetable,or“relation”,andmultiplerelationscanbemathematicallyassociatedtoyielddesiredinformation.Object-orienteddatabasesstoreandmanipulatemorecomplexdatastructures,called“objects”,whichareorganizedintohierarchicalclassesthatmayinheritpropertiesfromclasseshigherinthechain;thisdatabasestructureisthemostflexibleandadaptable.3.StructureoftheRelationaldatabaseTherelationalmodelisthebasisforanyrelationaldatabasemanagementsystem(RDBMS).Arelationalmodelhasthreecorecomponents:acollectionofobjectsorrelations,operatorsthatactonthe4objectsorrelations,anddataintegritymethods.Inotherwords,ithasaplacetostorethedata,awaytocreateandretrievethedata,andawaytomakesurethatthedataislogicallyconsistent.Arelationaldatabaseusesrelations,ortwo-dimensionaltables,tostoretheinformationneededtosupportabusiness.3.1.Tables,Row,andColumnsAtableinarelationaldatabase,alternativelyknownasarelation,isatwo-dimensionalstructureusedtoholdrelatedinformation.Adatabaseconsistsofoneormorerelatedtables.Note:Don'tconfusearelationwithrelationships.Arelationisessentiallyatable,andarelationshipisawaytocorrelate,join,oras