INTRODUCTION TO DBMS

1.
2.

As the name suggests, the database management system consists of two parts. They are:
Database and
Management System

What is a Database?
To find out what database is, we have to start from data, which is the basic building block of any DBMS.
Data: Facts, figures, statistics etc. having no particular meaning (e.g. 1, ABC, 19 etc).
Record: Collection of related data items, e.g. in the above example the three data items had no meaning. But if
we organize them in the following way, then they collectively represent meaningful information.
Roll
Name
Age
1
ABC
19
Table or Relation: Collection of related records.

Roll

Name

Age

1
2
3

ABC
DEF
XYZ

19
22
28

The columns of this relation are called Fields, Attributes or Domains. The rows are called Tuples or Records.
Database: Collection of related relations. Consider the following collection of tables:
T1

Roll

Name

Age

1
2
3

ABC
DEF
XYZ

19
22
28

T2

Roll

Address

1
2
3

KOL
DEL
MUM
T3

Roll
1
2
3

Year
I
II
I
T4

Year

Hostel

I
II

H1
H2

We now have a collection of 4 tables. They can be called a related collection because we can clearly find out
that there are some common attributes existing in a selected pair of tables. Because of these common attributes
we may combine the data of two or more tables together to find out the complete details of a student. Questions
like Which hostel does the youngest student live in? can be answered now, although Age and Hostelattributes
are in different tables.
In a database, data is organized strictly in row and column format. The rows are called Tuple or Record. The
data items within one row may belong to different data types. On the other hand, the columns are often
called Domain or Attribute. All the data items within a single attribute are of the same data type.

What is Management System?

A management system is a set of rules and procedures which help us to create organize and manipulate the
database. It also helps us to add, modify delete data items in the database. The management system can be
either manual or computerized.
The management system is important because without the existence of some kind of rules and regulations it is
not possible to maintain the database. We have to select the particular attributes which should be included in a
particular table; the common attributes to create relationship between two tables; if a new record has to be
inserted or deleted then which tables should have to be handled etc. These issues must be resolved by having
some kind of rules to follow in order to maintain the integrity of the database.

Three Views of Data

We know that the same thing, if viewed from different angles produces difference sights. Likewise, the database
that we have created already can have different aspects to reveal if seen from different levels of abstraction. The
term Abstraction is very important here. Generally it means the amount of detail you want to hide. Any entity can
be seen from different perspectives and levels of complexity to make it a reveal its current amount of abstraction.
Let us illustrate by a simple example.
A computer reveals the minimum of its internal details, when seen from outside. We do not know what parts it is
built with. This is the highest level of abstraction, meaning very few details are visible. If we open the computer
case and look inside at the hard disc, motherboard, CD drive, CPU and RAM, we are in middle level of
abstraction. If we move on to open the hard disc and examine its tracks, sectors and read-write heads, we are at
the lowest level of abstraction, where no details are invisible.
In the same manner, the database can also be viewed from different levels of abstraction to reveal different levels
of details. From a bottom-up manner, we may find that there are three levels of abstraction or views in the
database. We discuss them here.

The word schema means arrangement how we want to arrange things that we have to store. The diagram
above shows the three different schemas used in DBMS, seen from different levels of abstraction.
The lowest level, called the Internal or Physical schema, deals with the description of how raw data items (like
1, ABC, KOL, H2 etc.) are stored in the physical storage (Hard Disc, CD, Tape Drive etc.). It also describes the
data type of these data items, the size of the items in the storage media, the location (physical address) of the
items in the storage device and so on. This schema is useful for database application developers and database
administrator.
The middle level is known as the Conceptual or Logical Schema, and deals with the structure of the entire
database. Please note that at this level we are not interested with the raw data items anymore, we are interested
with the structure of the database. This means we want to know the information about the attributes of each
table, the common attributes in different tables that help them to be combined, what kind of data can be input into
these attributes, and so on. Conceptual or Logical schema is very useful for database administrators whose
responsibility is to maintain the entire database.
The highest level of abstraction is the External or View Schema. This is targeted for the end users. Now, an end
user does not need to know everything about the structure of the entire database, rather than the amount of
details he/she needs to work with. We may not want the end user to become confused with astounding amount of
details by allowing him/her to have a look at the entire database, or we may also not allow this for the purpose of
security, where sensitive information must remain hidden from unwanted persons. The database administrator
may want to create custom made tables, keeping in mind the specific kind of need for each user. These tables

are also known as virtual tables, because they have no separate physical existence. They are crated
dynamically for the users at runtime. Say for example, in our sample database we have created earlier, we have
a special officer whose responsibility is to keep in touch with the parents of any under aged student living in the
hostels. That officer does not need to know every detail except the Roll, Name, Addresss and Age. The
database administrator may create a virtual table with only these four attributes, only for the use of this officer.

Data Independence
This brings us to our next topic: data independence. It is the property of the database which tries to ensure that if
we make any change in any level of schema of the database, the schema immediately above it would require
minimal or no need of change.
What does this mean? We know that in a building, each floor stands on the floor below it. If we change the design
of any one floor, e.g. extending the width of a room by demolishing the western wall of that room, it is likely that
the design in the above floors will have to be changed also. As a result, one change needed in one particular
floor would mean continuing to change the design of each floor until we reach the top floor, with an increase in
the time, cost and labour. Would not life be easy if the change could be contained in one floor only? Data
independence is the answer for this. It removes the need for additional amount of work needed in adopting the
single change into all the levels above.
Data independence can be classified into the following two types:
1.

Physical Data Independence: This means that for any change made in the physical schema, the need
to change the logical schema is minimal. This is practically easier to achieve. Let us explain with an example.
Say, you have bought an Audio CD of a recently released film and one of your friends has bought an Audio
Cassette of the same film. If we consider the physical schema, they are entirely different. The first is digital
recording on an optical media, where random access is possible. The second one is magnetic recording on a
magnetic media, strictly sequential access. However, how this change is reflected in the logical schema is very
interesting. For music tracks, the logical schema for both the CD and the Cassette is the title card imprinted on
their back. We have information like Track no, Name of the Song, Name of the Artist and Duration of the Track,
things which are identical for both the CD and the Cassette. We can clearly say that we have achieved the
physical data independence here.

2.

Logical Data Independence: This means that for any change made in the logical schema, the need to
change the external schema is minimal. As we shall see, this is a little difficult to achieve. Let us explain with an
example.
Suppose the CD you have bought contains 6 songs, and some of your friends are interested in copying some of
those songs (which they like in the film) into their favorite collection. One friend wants the songs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6,
another wants 1, 3, 4, 5 and another wants 1, 2, 3, 6. Each of these collections can be compared to a view
schema for that friend. Now by some mistake, a scratch has appeared in the CD and you cannot extract the song
3. Obviously, you will have to ask the friends who have song 3 in their proposed collection to alter their view by
deleting song 3 from their proposed collection as well.

Database Administrator
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

The Database Administrator, better known as DBA, is the person (or a group of persons) responsible for the well
being of the database management system. S/he has the flowing functions and responsibilities regarding
database management:
Definition of the schema, the architecture of the three levels of the data abstraction, data independence.
Modification of the defined schema as and when required.
Definition of the storage structure i.e. and access method of the data stored i.e. sequential, indexed or
direct.
Creating new used-id, password etc, and also creating the access permissions that each user can or
cannot enjoy. DBA is responsible to create user roles, which are collection of the permissions (like read, write
etc.) granted and restricted for a class of users. S/he can also grant additional permissions to and/or revoke
existing permissions from a user if need be.
Defining the integrity constraints for the database to ensure that the data entered conform to some
rules, thereby increasing the reliability of data.
Creating a security mechanism to prevent unauthorized access, accidental or intentional handling of
data that can cause security threat.
Creating backup and recovery policy. This is essential because in case of a failure the database must be
able to revive itself to its complete functionality with no loss of data, as if the failure has never occurred. It is
essential to keep regular backup of the data so that if the system fails then all data up to the point of failure will
be available from a stable storage. Only those amount of data gathered during the failure would have to be fed to
the database to recover it to a healthy status.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Database Management System

We must evaluate whether there is any gain in using a DBMS over a situation where we do not use it. Let us
summarize the advantages.

1.

2.
3.

4.

1.
2.
3.

Reduction of Redundancy: This is perhaps the most significant advantage of using DBMS.
Redundancy is the problem of storing the same data item in more one place. Redundancy creates several
problems like requiring extra storage space, entering same data more than once during data insertion, and
deleting data from more than one place during deletion. Anomalies may occur in the database if insertion,
deletion etc are not done properly.
Sharing of Data: In a paper-based record keeping, data cannot be shared among many users. But in
computerized DBMS, many users can share the same database if they are connected via a network.
Data Integrity: We can maintain data integrity by specifying integrity constrains, which are rules and
restrictions about what kind of data may be entered or manipulated within the database. This increases the
reliability of the database as it can be guaranteed that no wrong data can exist within the database at any point of
time.
Data security: We can restrict certain people from accessing the database or allow them to see certain
portion of the database while blocking sensitive information. This is not possible very easily in a paper-based
record keeping.
However, there could be a few disadvantages of using DBMS. They can be as following:
As DBMS needs computers, we have to invest a good amount in acquiring the hardware, software,
installation facilities and training of users.
We have to keep regular backups because a failure can occur any time. Taking backup is a lengthy
process and the computer system cannot perform any other job at this time.
While data security system is a boon for using DBMS, it must be very robust. If someone can bypass
the security system then the database would become open to any kind of mishandling.

Entity Relationship Diagram

1.
2.
3.
4.

When a company asks you to make them a working, functional DBMS which they can work with, there are certain
steps to follow. Let us summarize them here:
Gathering information: This could be a written document that describes the system in question with
reasonable amount of details.
Producing ERD: ERD or Entity Relationship Diagram is a diagrammatic representation of the
description we have gathered about the system.
Designing the database: Out of the ERD we have created, it is very easy to determine the tables, the
attributes which the tables must contain and the relationship among these tables.
Normalization: This is a process of removing different kinds of impurities from the tables we have just
created in the above step.

How to Prepare an ERD

Step 1
Let us take a very simple example and we try to reach a fully organized database from it. Let us look at the
following simple statement:
A boy eats an ice cream.
This is a description of a real word activity, and we may consider the above statement as a written document
(very short, of course).
Step
2
Now we have to prepare the ERD. Before doing that we have to process the statement a little. We can see that
the sentence contains a subject (boy), an object (ice cream) and a verb (eats) that defines the relationship
between the subject and the object. Consider the nouns as entities (boy and ice cream) and the verb (eats) as a
relationship. To plot them in the diagram, put the nouns within rectangles and the relationship within a diamond.
Also, show the relationship with a directed arrow, starting from the subject entity (boy) towards the object entity
(ice cream).

Well, fine. Up to this point the ERD shows how boy and ice cream are related. Now, every boy must have a
name, address, phone number etc. and every ice cream has a manufacturer, flavor, price etc. Without these the
diagram is not complete. These items which we mentioned here are known as attributes, and they must be
incorporated in the ERD as connected ovals.

But can only entities have attributes? Certainly not. If we want then the relationship must have their attributes too.
These attribute do not inform anything more either about the boy or the ice cream, but they provide additional
information about the relationships between the boy and the ice cream.

Step
3
We are almost complete now. If you look carefully, we now have defined structures for at least three tables like
the following:
Boy

Name

Address

Phone

Ice Cream

Manufacture Flavor
r

Price

Eats

Date

Time

However, this is still not a working database, because by definition, database should be collection of related
tables. To make them connected, the tables must have some common attributes. If we chose the attribute Name
of the Boy table to play the role of the common attribute, then the revised structure of the above tables become
something like the following.
Boy

Name

Address

Phone

Ice Cream

Manufacture
r

Flavor

Price

Name

Eats

Date

Time

Name

This is as complete as it can be. We now have information about the boy, about the ice cream he has eaten and
about the date and time when the eating was done.

Cardinality of Relationship
While creating relationship between two entities, we may often need to face the cardinality problem. This simply
means that how many entities of the first set are related to how many entities of the second set. Cardinality can
be of the following three types.

One-to-One
Only one entity of the first set is related to only one entity of the second set. E.g. A teacher teaches a
student. Only one teacher is teaching only one student. This can be expressed in the following diagram as:

One-to-Many
Only one entity of the first set is related to multiple entities of the second set. E.g. A teacher teaches
students. Only one teacher is teaching many students. This can be expressed in the following diagram as:

Many-to-One
Multiple entities of the first set are related to multiple entities of the second set. E.g. Teachers teach a
student. Many teachers are teaching only one student. This can be expressed in the following diagram as:

Many-to-Many
Multiple entities of the first set is related to multiple entities of the second set. E.g. Teachers teach students. In
any school or college many teachers are teaching many students. This can be considered as a two way one-tomany relationship. This can be expressed in the following diagram as:

In this discussion we have not included the attributes, but you can understand that they can be used without any
problem if we want to.

The Concept of Keys

A key is an attribute of a table which helps to identify a row. There can be many different types of keys which are
explained here.
Super Key or Candidate Key: It is such an attribute of a table that can uniquely identify a row in a table.
Generally they contain unique values and can never contain NULL values. There can be more than one super
key or candidate key in a table e.g. within a STUDENT table Roll and Mobile No. can both serve to uniquely
identify a student.
Primary Key: It is one of the candidate keys that are chosen to be the identifying key for the entire table. E.g.
although there are two candidate keys in the STUDENT table, the college would obviously use Roll as the
primary key of the table.
Alternate Key: This is the candidate key which is not chosen as the primary key of the table. They are named so
because although not the primary key, they can still identify a row.
Composite Key: Sometimes one key is not enough to uniquely identify a row. E.g. in a single class Roll is
enough to find a student, but in the entire school, merely searching by the Roll is not enough, because there
could be 10 classes in the school and each one of them may contain a certain roll no 5. To uniquely identify the
student we have to say something like class VII, roll no 5. So, a combination of two or more attributes is
combined to create a unique combination of values, such as Class + Roll.
Foreign Key: Sometimes we may have to work with an attribute that does not have a primary key of its own. To
identify its rows, we have to use the primary attribute of a related table. Such a copy of another related tables
primary key is called foreign key.

Strong and Weak Entity

Based on the concept of foreign key, there may arise a situation when we have to relate an entity having a
primary key of its own and an entity not having a primary key of its own. In such a case, the entity having its own
primary key is called a strong entity and the entity not having its own primary key is called a weak entity.
Whenever we need to relate a strong and a weak entity together, the ERD would change just a little.
Say, for example, we have a statement A Student lives in a Home. STUDENT is obviously a strong entity having

a primary key Roll. But HOME may not have a unique primary key, as its only attribute Address may be shared by
many homes (what if it is a housing estate?). HOME is a weak entity in this case.
The ERD of this statement would be like the following

As you can see, the weak entity itself and the relationship linking a strong and weak entity must have double
border.

Different Types of Database

There are three different types of data base. The difference lies in the organization of the database and the
storage structure of the data. We shall briefly mention them here.
Relational
DBMS
This is our subject of study. A DBMS is relational if the data is organized into relations, that is, tables. In RDBMS,
all data are stored in the well-known row-column format.
Hierarchical
DBMS
In HDBMS, data is organized in a tree like manner. There is a parent-child relationship among data items and the
data model is very suitable for representing one-to-many relationship. To access the data items, some kind of
tree-traversal techniques are used, such as preorder traversal.
Because HDBMS is built on the one-to-many model, we have to face a little bit of difficulty to organize a
hierarchical database into row column format. For example, consider the following hierarchical database that
shows four employees (E01, E02, E03, and E04) belonging to the same department D1.

There are two ways to represent the above one-to-many information into a relation that is built in one-to-one
relationship. The first is called Replication, where the department id is replicated a number of times in the table
like the following.
Dept-Id
Employee Code
D1
E01
D1
E02
D1
E03
D1
E04
Replication makes the same data item redundant and is an inefficient way to store data. A better way is to use a
technique called the Virtual Record. While using this, the repeating data item is not used in the table. It is kept at
a separate place. The table, instead of containing the repeating information, contains a pointer to that place
where the data item is stored.

This organization saves a lot of space as data is not made redundant.

Network
DBMS
The NDBMS is built primarily on a oneto-many relationship, but where a parent-child representation among the
data items cannot be ensured. This may happen in any real world situation where any entity can be linked to any
entity. The NDBMS was proposed by a group of theorists known as the Database Task Group (DBTG). What
they said looks like this:
In NDBMS, all entities are called Records and all relationships are called Sets. The record from where the
relationship starts is called the Owner Record and where it ends is called Member Record. The relationship or
set is strictly one-to-many.

In case we need to represent a many-to-many relationship, an interesting thing happens. In NDBMS, Owner and
Member can only have one-to-many relationship. We have to introduce a third common record with which both
the Owner and Member can have one-to-many relationship. Using this common record, the Owner and Member
can be linked by a many-to-many relationship.
Suppose we have to represent the statement Teachers teach students. We have to introduce a third record,
suppose CLASS to which both teacher and the student can have a many-to-many relationship. Using the class in
the middle, teacher and student can be linked to a virtual many-to-many relationship.

Normalization

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

While designing a database out of an entityrelationship model, the main problem existing in that raw database
is redundancy. Redundancy is storing the same data item in more one place. A redundancy creates several
problems like the following:
Extra storage space: storing the same data in many places takes large amount of disk space.
Entering same data more than once during data insertion.
Deleting data from more than one place during deletion.
Modifying data in more than one place.
Anomalies may occur in the database if insertion, deletion, modification etc are no done properly. It
creates inconsistency and unreliability in the database.
To solve this problem, the raw database needs to be normalized. This is a step by step process of removing
different kinds of redundancy and anomaly at each step. At each step a specific rule is followed to remove
specific kind of impurity in order to give the database a slim and clean look.

Un-Normalized Form (UNF)

If a table contains non-atomic values at each row, it is said to be in UNF. An atomic value is something that can
not be further decomposed. A non-atomic value, as the name suggests, can be further decomposed and
simplified. Consider the following table:
Emp-Id
Emp-Name
Month
Sales
Bank-Id
Bank-Name
E01
AA
Jan
1000
B01
SBI
Feb
1200
Mar
850
E02
BB
Jan
2200
B02
UTI
Feb
2500
E03
CC
Jan
1700
B01
SBI
Feb
1800
Mar
1850
Apr
1725
In the sample table above, there are multiple occurrences of rows under each key Emp-Id. Although considered
to be the primary key, Emp-Id cannot give us the unique identification facility for any single row. Further, each
primary key points to a variable length record (3 for E01, 2 for E02 and 4 for E03).

First Normal Form (1NF)

A relation is said to be in 1NF if it contains no non-atomic values and each row can provide a unique combination
of values. The above table in UNF can be processed to create the following table in 1NF.

Emp-Name
Month
Sales
Bank-Id
Bank-Name
Emp-Id
E01
AA
Jan
1000
B01
SBI
E01
AA
Feb
1200
B01
SBI
E01
AA
Mar
850
B01
SBI
E02
BB
Jan
2200
B02
UTI
E02
BB
Feb
2500
B02
UTI
E03
CC
Jan
1700
B01
SBI
E03
CC
Feb
1800
B01
SBI
E03
CC
Mar
1850
B01
SBI
E03
CC
Apr
1725
B01
SBI
As you can see now, each row contains unique combination of values. Unlike in UNF, this relation contains only
atomic values, i.e. the rows can not be further decomposed, so the relation is now in 1NF.

Second Normal Form (2NF)

A relation is said to be in 2NF f if it is already in 1NF and each and every attribute fully depends on the primary
key of the relation. Speaking inversely, if a table has some attributes which is not dependant on the primary key
of that table, then it is not in 2NF.
Let us explain. Emp-Id is the primary key of the above relation. Emp-Name, Month, Sales and Bank-Name all
depend upon Emp-Id. But the attribute Bank-Name depends on Bank-Id, which is not the primary key of the
table. So the table is in 1NF, but not in 2NF. If this position can be removed into another related relation, it would
come to 2NF.
Emp-Id
Emp-Name
Month
Sales
Bank-Id
E01
AA
JAN
1000
B01
E01
AA
FEB
1200
B01
E01
AA
MAR
850
B01
E02
BB
JAN
2200
B02
E02
BB
FEB
2500
B02
E03
CC
JAN
1700
B01
E03
CC
FEB
1800
B01
E03
CC
MAR
1850
B01
E03
CC
APR
1726
B01
Bank-Id
Bank-Name
B01
SBI
B02
UTI
After removing the portion into another relation we store lesser amount of data in two relations without any loss
information. There is also a significant reduction in redundancy.

Third Normal Form (3NF)

A relation is said to be in 3NF, if it is already in 2NF and there exists no transitive dependency in that relation.
Speaking inversely, if a table contains transitive dependency, then it is not in 3NF, and the table must be split to
bring it into 3NF.
What
is
a
transitive
dependency?
Within
a
relation
if
we
see
A

B
[B
depends
on
A]
And
B

C
[C
depends
on
B]
Then
we
may
derive
A C[C depends on A]
Such derived dependencies hold well in most of the situations. For example if we have
Roll

Marks
And
Marks

Grade
Then
we
may
safely
derive
Roll Grade.
This third dependency was not originally specified but we have derived it.

The derived dependency is called a transitive dependency when such dependency becomes improbable.
For
example
we
have
been
given
Roll

City
And
City STDCode
If we try to derive Roll STDCode it becomes a transitive dependency, because obviously the STDCode of a
city cannot depend on the roll number issued by a school or college. In such a case the relation should be broken
into
two,
each
containing
one
of
these
two
dependencies:
Roll

City
And
City STD code

Boyce-Code Normal Form (BCNF)

1.
2.
3.

1.
2.
3.

A relationship is said to be in BCNF if it is already in 3NF and the left hand side of every dependency is a
candidate key. A relation which is in 3NF is almost always in BCNF. These could be same situation when a 3NF
relation may not be in BCNF the following conditions are found true.
The candidate keys are composite.
There are more than one candidate keys in the relation.
There are some common attributes in the relation.
Professor Code
Department
Head of Dept.
P1
Physics
Ghosh
P1
Mathematics
Krishnan
P2
Chemistry
Rao
P2
Physics
Ghosh
P3
Mathematics
Krishnan
Consider, as an example, the above relation. It is assumed that:
A professor can work in more than one department
The percentage of the time he spends in each department is given.
Each department has only one Head of Department.
The
relation
diagram
for
the
above
relation
is

Percent Time
50
50
25
75
100

given

as

the

following:

The given relation is in 3NF. Observe, however, that the names of Dept. and Head of Dept. are duplicated.
Further, if Professor P2 resigns, rows 3 and 4 are deleted. We lose the information that Rao is the Head of
Department of Chemistry.
The normalization of the relation is done by creating a new relation for Dept. and Head of Dept. and deleting
Head of Dept. form the given relation. The normalized relations are shown in the following.
Professor Code
Department
Percent Time
P1
Physics
50
P1
Mathematics
50
P2
Chemistry
25
P2
Physics
75

P3

Mathematics

100
Head of Dept.

Department
Physics
Mathematics
Chemistry
See
the

dependency

diagrams

Ghosh
Krishnan
Rao
for

these

new

relations.

Fourth Normal Form (4NF)

1.
2.
3.
4.

1.
2.

When attributes in a relation have multi-valued dependency, further Normalization to 4NF and 5NF are required.
Let us first find out what multi-valued dependency is.
A multi-valued dependency is a typical kind of dependency in which each and every attribute within a relation
depends upon the other, yet none of them is a unique primary key.
We will illustrate this with an example. Consider a vendor supplying many items to many projects in an
organization. The following are the assumptions:
A vendor is capable of supplying many items.
A project uses many items.
A vendor supplies to many projects.
An item may be supplied by many vendors.
A multi valued dependency exists here because all the attributes depend upon the other and yet none of them is
a primary key having unique value.
Vendor Code
Item Code
Project No.
V1
I1
P1
V1
I2
P1
V1
I1
P3
V1
I2
P3
V2
I2
P1
V2
I3
P1
V3
I1
P2
V3
I1
P3
The given relation has a number of problems. For example:
If vendor V1 has to supply to project P2, but the item is not yet decided, then a row with a blank for item
code has to be introduced.
The information about item I1 is stored twice for vendor V3.
Observe that the relation given is in 3NF and also in BCNF. It still has the problem mentioned above. The
problem is reduced by expressing this relation as two relations in the Fourth Normal Form (4NF). A relation is in
4NF if it has no more than one independent multi valued dependency or one independent multi valued
dependency with a functional dependency.
The table can be expressed as the two 4NF relations given as following. The fact that vendors are capable of
supplying certain items and that they are assigned to supply for some projects in independently specified in the
4NF relation.
Vendor-Supply
Item Code

Vendor Code
V1
V1
V2

I1
I2
I2

V2
V3

I3
I1
Vendor-Project
Project No.

Vendor Code
V1
V1
V2
V3

P1
P3
P1
P2

Fifth Normal Form (5NF)

These relations still have a problem. While defining the 4NF we mentioned that all the attributes depend upon
each other. While creating the two tables in the 4NF, although we have preserved the dependencies between
Vendor Code and Item code in the first table and Vendor Code and Item code in the second table, we have lost
the relationship between Item Code and Project No. If there were a primary key then this loss of dependency
would not have occurred. In order to revive this relationship we must add a new table like the following. Please
note that during the entire process of normalization, this is the only step where a new table is created by joining
two attributes, rather than splitting them into separate tables.
Project No.
Item Code
P1
11
P1
12
P2
11
P3
11
P3
13
Let us finally summarize the normalization steps we have discussed so far.
Input
Transformation
Output
Relation
Relation
All Relations Eliminate variable length record. Remove multi-attribute lines in table.
1NF
1NF Relation Remove dependency of non-key attributes on part of a multi-attribute key.
2NF
2NF
Remove dependency of non-key attributes on other non-key attributes.
3NF
3NF
Remove dependency of an attribute of a multi attribute key on an attribute of another BCNF
(overlapping) multi-attribute key.
BCNF
Remove more than one independent multi-valued dependency from relation by splitting 4NF
relation.
4NF
Add one relation relating attributes with multi-valued dependency.
5NF

Indexing
What is an Index?
An index is a small table having only two columns. The first column contains a copy of the primary or candidate
key of a table and the second column contains a set of pointers holding the address of the disk block where that
particular key value can be found.
The advantage of using index lies in the fact is that index makes search operation perform very fast. Suppose a
table has a several rows of data, each row is 20 bytes wide. If you want to search for the record number 100, the
management system must thoroughly read each and every row and after reading 99x20 = 1980 bytes it will find
record number 100. If we have an index, the management system starts to search for record number 100 not
from the table, but from the index. The index, containing only two columns, may be just 4 bytes wide in each of its
rows. After reading only 99x4 = 396 bytes of data from the index the management system finds an entry for
record number 100, reads the address of the disk block where record number 100 is stored and directly points at
the record in the physical storage device. The result is a much quicker access to the record (a speed advantage
of 1980:396).
The only minor disadvantage of using index is that it takes up a little more space than the main table. Additionally,
index needs to be updated periodically for insertion or deletion of records in the main table. However, the
advantages are so huge that these disadvantages can be considered negligible.

Types of Index

Primary
Index
In primary index, there is a one-to-one relationship between the entries in the index table and the records in the
main
table.
Primary
index
can
be
of
two
types:
Dense primary index: the number of entries in the index table is the same as the number of entries in the main
table. In other words, each and every record in the main table has an entry in the index.

Sparse
or
Non-Dense
Primary
Index:
For large tables the Dense Primary Index itself begins to grow in size. To keep the size of the index smaller,
instead of pointing to each and every record in the main table, the index points to the records in the main table in
a gap. See the following example.

As you can see, the data blocks have been divided in to several blocks, each containing a fixed number of
records (in our case 10). The pointer in the index table points to the first record of each data block, which is
known as the Anchor Record for its important function. If you are searching for roll 14, the index is first searched
to find out the highest entry which is smaller than or equal to 14. We have 11. The pointer leads us to roll 11
where a short sequential search is made to find out roll 14.
Clustering
Index
It may happen sometimes that we are asked to create an index on a non-unique key, such as Dept-id. There
could be several employees in each department. Here we use a clustering index, where all employees belonging
to the same Dept-id are considered to be within a single cluster, and the index pointers point to the cluster as a
whole.

Let us explain this diagram. The disk blocks contain a fixed number of records (in this case 4 each). The index
contains entries for 5 separate departments. The pointers of these entries point to the anchor record of the block
where the first of the Dept-id in the cluster can be found. The blocks themselves may point to the anchor record
of the next block in case a cluster overflows a block size. This can be done using a special pointer at the end of
each block (comparable to the next pointer of the linked list organization).
The previous scheme might become a little confusing because one disk block might be shared by records
belonging to different cluster. A better scheme could be to use separate disk blocks for separate clusters. This
has been explained in the next page.

In this scheme, as you can see, we have used separate disk block for the clusters. The pointers, like before, have
pointed to the anchor record of the block where the first of the cluster entries would be found. The block pointers
only come into action when a cluster overflows the block size, as for Dept-id 2. This scheme takes more space in
the memory and the disk, but the organization in much better and cleaner looking.
Secondary
Index
While creating the index, generally the index table is kept in the primary memory (RAM) and the main table,
because of its size is kept in the secondary memory (Hard Disk). Theoretically, a table may contain millions of
records (like the telephone directory of a large city), for which even a sparse index becomes so large in size that
we cannot keep it in the primary memory. And if we cannot keep the index in the primary memory, then we lose
the advantage of the speed of access. For very large table, it is better to organize the index in multiple levels.
See
the
following
example.

In this scheme, the primary level index, (created with a gap of 100 records, and thereby smaller in size), is kept in
the RAM for quick reference. If you need to find out the record of roll 14 now, the index is first searched to find
out the highest entry which is smaller than or equal to 14. We have 1. The adjoining pointer leads us to the
anchor record of the corresponding secondary level index, where another similar search is conducted. This finally
leads us to the actual data block whose anchor record is roll 11. We now come to roll 11 where a short
sequential search is made to find out roll 14.

Multilevel
Index
The Multilevel Index is a modification of the secondary level index system. In this system we may use even more
number of levels in case the table is even larger.

Index in a Tree like Structure

We can use tree-like structures as index as well. For example, a binary search tree can also be used as an index.
If we want to find out a particular record from a binary search tree, we have the added advantage of binary
search procedure, that makes searching be performed even faster. A binary tree can be considered as a 2-way
Search Tree, because it has two pointers in each of its nodes, thereby it can guide you to two distinct ways.
Remember that for every node storing 2 pointers, the number of value to be stored in each node is one less than
the number of pointers, i.e. each node would contain 1 value each.
M-Way
Search
Tree
The abovementioned concept can be further expanded with the notion of the m-Way Search Tree, where m
represents the number of pointers in a particular node. If m = 3, then each node of the search tree contains 3
pointers, and each node would then contain 2 values.
A sample m-Way Search Tree with m = 3 is given in the following.

Transaction Management
What is a Transaction?
A transaction is an event which occurs on the database. Generally a transaction reads a value from the database
or writes a value to the database. If you have any concept of Operating Systems, then we can say that a
transaction is analogous to processes.
Although a transaction can both read and write on the database, there are some fundamental differences
between these two classes of operations. A read operation does not change the image of the database in any
way. But a write operation, whether performed with the intention of inserting, updating or deleting data from the
database, changes the image of the database. That is, we may say that these transactions bring the database
from an image which existed before the transaction occurred (called the Before Image or BFIM) to an image
which exists after the transaction occurred (called the After Image or AFIM).

The Four Properties of Transactions

Every transaction, for whatever purpose it is being used, has the following four properties. Taking the initial letters
of these four properties we collectively call them the ACID Properties. Here we try to describe them and explain
them.
Atomicity: This means that either all of the instructions within the transaction will be reflected in the database, or
none of them will be reflected.
Say for example, we have two accounts A and B, each containing Rs 1000/-. We now start a transaction to
deposit
Rs
100/from
account
A
to
Account
B.
Read
A;
A
=
A

100;
Write
A;
Read
B;
B
=
B
+
100;
Write B;
Fine, is not it? The transaction has 6 instructions to extract the amount from A and submit it to B. The AFIM will
show Rs 900/- in A and Rs 1100/- in B.

Now, suppose there is a power failure just after instruction 3 (Write A) has been complete. What happens now?
After the system recovers the AFIM will show Rs 900/- in A, but the same Rs 1000/- in B. It would be said that Rs
100/- evaporated in thin air for the power failure. Clearly such a situation is not acceptable.
The solution is to keep every value calculated by the instruction of the transaction not in any stable storage (hard
disc) but in a volatile storage (RAM), until the transaction completes its last instruction. When we see that there
has not been any error we do something known as a COMMIT operation. Its job is to write every temporarily
calculated value from the volatile storage on to the stable storage. In this way, even if power fails at instruction 3,
the post recovery image of the database will show accounts A and B both containing Rs 1000/-, as if the failed
transaction had never occurred.
Consistency: If we execute a particular transaction in isolation or together with other transaction, (i.e.
presumably in a multi-programming environment), the transaction will yield the same expected result.
To give better performance, every database management system supports the execution of multiple transactions
at the same time, using CPU Time Sharing. Concurrently executing transactions may have to deal with the
problem of sharable resources, i.e. resources that multiple transactions are trying to read/write at the same time.
For example, we may have a table or a record on which two transaction are trying to read or write at the same
time. Careful mechanisms are created in order to prevent mismanagement of these sharable resources, so that
there should not be any change in the way a transaction performs. A transaction which deposits Rs 100/- to
account A must deposit the same amount whether it is acting alone or in conjunction with another transaction that
may be trying to deposit or withdraw some amount at the same time.
Isolation: In case multiple transactions are executing concurrently and trying to access a sharable resource at
the same time, the system should create an ordering in their execution so that they should not create any
anomaly
in
the
value
stored
at
the
sharable
resource.
There are several ways to achieve this and the most popular one is using some kind of locking mechanism.
Again, if you have the concept of Operating Systems, then you should remember the semaphores, how it is used
by a process to make a resource busy before starting to use it, and how it is used to release the resource after
the usage is over. Other processes intending to access that same resource must wait during this time. Locking is
almost similar. It states that a transaction must first lock the data item that it wishes to access, and release the
lock when the accessing is no longer required. Once a transaction locks the data item, other transactions wishing
to access the same data item must wait until the lock is released.
Durability: It states that once a transaction has been complete the changes it has made should be permanent.
As we have seen in the explanation of the Atomicity property, the transaction, if completes successfully, is
committed. Once the COMMIT is done, the changes which the transaction has made to the database are
immediately written into permanent storage. So, after the transaction has been committed successfully, there is
no question of any loss of information even if the power fails. Committing a transaction guarantees that the AFIM
has been reached.
There are several ways Atomicity and Durability can be implemented. One of them is called Shadow Copy. In
this scheme a database pointer is used to point to the BFIM of the database. During the transaction, all the
temporary changes are recorded into a Shadow Copy, which is an exact copy of the original database plus the
changes made by the transaction, which is the AFIM. Now, if the transaction is required to COMMIT, then the
database pointer is updated to point to the AFIM copy, and the BFIM copy is discarded. On the other hand, if the
transaction is not committed, then the database pointer is not updated. It keeps pointing to the BFIM, and the
AFIM is discarded. This is a simple scheme, but takes a lot of memory space and time to implement.
If you study carefully, you can understand that Atomicity and Durability is essentially the same thing, just as
Consistency and Isolation is essentially the same thing.

Transaction States
There

are

Active: The

the
initial

following
state

six
when

states
the

in

which

transaction

a
has

transaction
just

started

may

exist:

execution.

Partially Committed: At any given point of time if the transaction is executing properly, then it is going towards it
COMMIT POINT. The values generated during the execution are all stored in volatile storage.
Failed: If the transaction fails for some reason. The temporary values are no longer required, and the transaction
is set to ROLLBACK. It means that any change made to the database by this transaction up to the point of the
failure must be undone. If the failed transaction has withdrawn Rs. 100/- from account A, then the ROLLBACK
operation should add Rs 100/- to account A.
Aborted: When the ROLLBACK operation is over, the database reaches the BFIM. The transaction is now said
to have been aborted.
Committed: If no failure occurs then the transaction reaches the COMMIT POINT. All the temporary values are
written to the stable storage and the transaction is said to have been committed.
Terminated: Either committed or aborted, the transaction finally reaches this state.
The whole process can be described using the following diagram:

Concurrent Execution
A schedule is a collection of many transactions which is implemented as a unit. Depending upon how these
transactions are arranged in within a schedule, a schedule can be of two types:

Serial: The transactions are executed one after another, in a non-preemptive manner.
Concurrent: The transactions are executed in a preemptive, time shared method.
In Serial schedule, there is no question of sharing a single data item among many transactions, because not
more than a single transaction is executing at any point of time. However, a serial schedule is inefficient in the
sense that the transactions suffer for having a longer waiting time and response time, as well as low amount of
resource utilization.
In concurrent schedule, CPU time is shared among two or more transactions in order to run them concurrently.
However, this creates the possibility that more than one transaction may need to access a single data item for
read/write purpose and the database could contain inconsistent value if such accesses are not handled properly.
Let us explain with the help of an example.
Let us consider there are two transactions T1 and T2, whose instruction sets are given as following. T1 is the
same as we have seen earlier, while T2 is a new transaction.
T1
Read
A;
A
=
A

100;
Write
A;
Read
B;
B
=
B
+
100;
Write B;
T2
Read
A;
Temp
=
A
*
0.1;
Read
C;
C
=
C
+
Temp;
Write
C;
T2 is a new transaction which deposits to account C 10% of the amount in account A.
If we prepare a serial schedule, then either T1 will completely finish before T2 can begin, or T2 will completely
finish before T1 can begin. However, if we want to create a concurrent schedule, then some Context Switching
need to be made, so that some portion of T1 will be executed, then some portion of T2 will be executed and so
on. For example say we have prepared the following concurrent schedule.
T1
T2
Read A;
A = A - 100;
Write A;
Read A;
Temp = A * 0.1;
Read C;
C = C + Temp;
Write C;
Read B;
B = B + 100;
Write B;

No problem here. We have made some Context Switching in this Schedule, the first one after executing the third
instruction of T1, and after executing the last statement of T2. T1 first deducts Rs 100/- from A and writes the new
value of Rs 900/- into A. T2 reads the value of A, calculates the value of Temp to be Rs 90/- and adds the value
to C. The remaining part of T1 is executed and Rs 100/- is added to B.
It is clear that a proper Context Switching is very important in order to maintain the Consistency and Isolation
properties of the transactions. But let us take another example where a wrong Context Switching can bring about
disaster. Consider the following example involving the same T1 and T2
T1
T2
Read A;
A = A - 100;
Read A;
Temp = A * 0.1;
Read C;
C = C + Temp;
Write C;
Write A;
Read B;
B = B + 100;
Write B;
This schedule is wrong, because we have made the switching at the second instruction of T1. The result is very
confusing. If we consider accounts A and B both containing Rs 1000/- each, then the result of this schedule
should have left Rs 900/- in A, Rs 1100/- in B and add Rs 90 in C (as C should be increased by 10% of the
amount in A). But in this wrong schedule, the Context Switching is being performed before the new value of Rs
900/- has been updated in A. T2 reads the old value of A, which is still Rs 1000/-, and deposits Rs 100/- in C. C
makes an unjust gain of Rs 10/- out of nowhere.
In the above example, we detected the error simple by examining the schedule and applying common sense. But
there must be some well formed rules regarding how to arrange instructions of the transactions to create error
free concurrent schedules. This brings us to our next topic, the concept of Serializability.

Serializability
When several concurrent transactions are trying to access the same data item, the instructions within these
concurrent transactions must be ordered in some way so as there are no problem in accessing and releasing the
shared data item. There are two aspects of serializability which are described here:
Conflict
Serializability
Two instructions of two different transactions may want to access the same data item in order to perform a
read/write operation. Conflict Serializability deals with detecting whether the instructions are conflicting in any
way, and specifying the order in which these two instructions will be executed in case there is any conflict.
A conflict arises if at least one (or both) of the instructions is a write operation. The following rules are important
in Conflict Serializability:
1.
2.

3.

If two instructions of the two concurrent transactions are both for read operation, then they are not in
conflict, and can be allowed to take place in any order.
If one of the instructions wants to perform a read operation and the other instruction wants to perform a
write operation, then they are in conflict, hence their ordering is important. If the read instruction is performed
first, then it reads the old value of the data item and after the reading is over, the new value of the data item is
written. It the write instruction is performed first, then updates the data item with the new value and the read
instruction reads the newly updated value.
If both the transactions are for write operation, then they are in conflict but can be allowed to take place
in any order, because the transaction do not read the value updated by each other. However, the value that
persists in the data item after the schedule is over is the one written by the instruction that performed the last
write.
It may happen that we may want to execute the same set of transaction in a different schedule on another day.
Keeping in mind these rules, we may sometimes alter parts of one schedule (S1) to create another schedule (S2)
by swapping only the non-conflicting parts of the first schedule. The conflicting parts cannot be swapped in this
way because the ordering of the conflicting instructions is important and cannot be changed in any other
schedule that is derived from the first. If these two schedules are made of the same set of transactions, then both
S1 and S2 would yield the same result if the conflict resolution rules are maintained while creating the new
schedule. In that case the schedule S1 and S2 would be called Conflict Equivalent.
View
Serializability:
This is another type of serializability that can be derived by creating another schedule out of an existing schedule,
involving the same set of transactions. These two schedules would be called View Serializable if the following
rules are followed while creating the second schedule out of the first. Let us consider that the transactions T1 and

T2 are being serialized to create two different schedules S1 and S2 which we want to be View Equivalent and
both T1 and T2 wants to access the same data item.
1.
2.
3.

If in S1, T1 reads the initial value of the data item, then in S2 also, T1 should read the initial value of that
same data item.
If in S1, T1 writes a value in the data item which is read by T2, then in S2 also, T1 should write the value
in the data item before T2 reads it.
If in S1, T1 performs the final write operation on that data item, then in S2 also, T1 should perform the
final write operation on that data item.
Except in these three cases, any alteration can be possible while creating S2 by modifying S1.

Concurrency Control
When multiple transactions are trying to access the same sharable resource, there could arise many problems if
the access control is not done properly. There are some important mechanisms to which access control can be
maintained. Earlier we talked about theoretical concepts like serializability, but the practical concept of this can be
implemented by using Locks and Timestamps. Here we shall discuss some protocols where Locks and
Timestamps can be used to provide an environment in which concurrent transactions can preserve their
Consistency and Isolation properties.

Lock Based Protocol

A lock is nothing but a mechanism that tells the DBMS whether a particular data item is being used by any
transaction for read/write purpose. Since there are two types of operations, i.e. read and write, whose basic
nature are different, the locks for read and write operation may behave differently.
Read operation performed by different transactions on the same data item poses less of a challenge. The value
of the data item, if constant, can be read by any number of transactions at any given time.
Write operation is something different. When a transaction writes some value into a data item, the content of that
data item remains in an inconsistent state, starting from the moment when the writing operation begins up to the
moment the writing operation is over. If we allow any other transaction to read/write the value of the data item
during the write operation, those transaction will read an inconsistent value or overwrite the value being written
by the first transaction. In both the cases anomalies will creep into the database.
The simple rule for locking can be derived from here. If a transaction is reading the content of a sharable data
item, then any number of other processes can be allowed to read the content of the same data item. But if any
transaction is writing into a sharable data item, then no other transaction will be allowed to read or write that
same data item.
Depending upon the rules we have found, we can classify the locks into two types.
Shared Lock: A transaction may acquire shared lock on a data item in order to read its content. The lock is
shared in the sense that any other transaction can acquire the shared lock on that same data item for reading
purpose.
Exclusive Lock: A transaction may acquire exclusive lock on a data item in order to both read/write into it. The
lock is excusive in the sense that no other transaction can acquire any kind of lock (either shared or exclusive) on
that same data item.
The relationship between Shared and Exclusive Lock can be represented by the following table which is known
as Lock
Matrix.
Locks already existing
Shared
Exclusive

Shared
TRUE
FALSE

Exclusive
FALSE
FALSE

How Should Lock be Used?

In a transaction, a data item which we want to read/write should first be locked before the read/write is done.
After the operation is over, the transaction should then unlock the data item so that other transaction can lock that
same data item for their respective usage. In the earlier chapter we had seen a transaction to deposit Rs 100/from account A to account B. The transaction should now be written as the following:
Lock-X
(A);
(Exclusive
Lock,
we
want
to
both
read
As
value
and
modify
it)
Read
A;
A
=
A

100;
Write
A;
Unlock
(A);
(Unlocking
A
after
the
modification
is
done)
Lock-X
(B);
(Exclusive
Lock,
we
want
to
both
read
Bs
value
and
modify
it)
Read
B;

B
=
B
+
100;
Write
B;
Unlock (B); (Unlocking B after the modification is done)
And the transaction that deposits 10% amount of account A to account C should now be written as:
Lock-S
(A);
(Shared
Lock,
we
only
want
to
read
As
value)
Read
A;
Temp
=
A
*
0.1;
Unlock
(A);
(Unlocking
A)
Lock-X
(C);
(Exclusive
Lock,
we
want
to
both
read
Cs
value
and
modify
it)
Read
C;
C
=
C
+
Temp;
Write
C;
Unlock (C); (Unlocking C after the modification is done)
Let us see how these locking mechanisms help us to create error free schedules. You should remember that in
the previous chapter we discussed an example of an erroneous schedule:
T1
T2
Read A;
A = A - 100;
Read A;
Temp = A * 0.1;
Read C;
C = C + Temp;
Write C;
Write A;
Read B;
B = B + 100;
Write B;
We detected the error based on common sense only, that the Context Switching is being performed before the
new value has been updated in A. T2 reads the old value of A, and thus deposits a wrong amount in C. Had we
used the locking mechanism, this error could never have occurred. Let us rewrite the schedule using the locks.
T1
T2
Lock-X (A)
Read A;
A = A - 100;
Write A;
Lock-S (A)
Read A;
Temp = A * 0.1;
Unlock (A)
Lock-X(C)
Read C;
C = C + Temp;
Write C;
Unlock (C)
Write A;
Unlock (A)
Lock-X (B)
Read B;
B = B + 100;
Write B;
Unlock (B)
We cannot prepare a schedule like the above even if we like, provided that we use the locks in the transactions.
See the first statement in T2 that attempts to acquire a lock on A. This would be impossible because T1 has not
released the excusive lock on A, and T2 just cannot get the shared lock it wants on A. It must wait until the
exclusive lock on A is released by T1, and can begin its execution only after that. So the proper schedule would
look like the following:
T1
T2
Lock-X (A)
Read A;
A = A - 100;
Write A;
Unlock (A)
Lock-S (A)
Read A;

Temp = A * 0.1;
Unlock (A)
Lock-X(C)
Read C;
C = C + Temp;
Write C;
Unlock (C)
Lock-X (B)
Read B;
B = B + 100;
Write B;
Unlock (B)
And this automatically becomes a very correct schedule. We need not apply any manual effort to detect or
correct the errors that may creep into the schedule if locks are not used in them.

Two Phase Locking Protocol

The use of locks has helped us to create neat and clean concurrent schedule. The Two Phase Locking Protocol
defines the rules of how to acquire the locks on a data item and how to release the locks.
The Two Phase Locking Protocol assumes that a transaction can only be in one of two phases.
Growing Phase: In this phase the transaction can only acquire locks, but cannot release any lock. The
transaction enters the growing phase as soon as it acquires the first lock it wants. From now on it has no option
but to keep acquiring all the locks it would need. It cannot release any lock at this phase even if it has finished
working with a locked data item. Ultimately the transaction reaches a point where all the lock it may need has
been acquired. This point is called Lock Point.
Shrinking Phase: After Lock Point has been reached, the transaction enters the shrinking phase. In this phase
the transaction can only release locks, but cannot acquire any new lock. The transaction enters the shrinking
phase as soon as it releases the first lock after crossing the Lock Point. From now on it has no option but to keep
releasing
all
the
acquired
locks.
There are two different versions of the Two Phase Locking Protocol. One is called the Strict Two Phase Locking
Protocol and the other one is called the Rigorous Two Phase Locking Protocol.
Strict
Two
Phase
Locking
Protocol
In this protocol, a transaction may release all the shared locks after the Lock Point has been reached, but it
cannot release any of the exclusive locks until the transaction commits. This protocol helps in creating cascade
less schedule.
A Cascading Schedule is a typical problem faced while creating concurrent schedule. Consider the following
schedule once again.
T1
T2
Lock-X (A)
Read A;
A = A - 100;
Write A;
Unlock (A)
Lock-S (A)
Read A;
Temp = A * 0.1;
Unlock (A)
Lock-X(C)
Read C;
C = C + Temp;
Write C;
Unlock (C)
Lock-X (B)
Read B;
B = B + 100;
Write B;
Unlock (B)
The schedule is theoretically correct, but a very strange kind of problem may arise here. T1 releases the
exclusive lock on A, and immediately after that the Context Switch is made. T2 acquires a shared lock on A to
read its value, perform a calculation, update the content of account C and then issue COMMIT. However, T1 is
not finished yet. What if the remaining portion of T1 encounters a problem (power failure, disc failure etc) and
cannot be committed? In that case T1 should be rolled back and the old BFIM value of A should be restored. In
such a case T2, which has read the updated (but not committed) value of A and calculated the value of C based
on this value, must also have to be rolled back. We have to rollback T2 for no fault of T2 itself, but because we
proceeded with T2 depending on a value which has not yet been committed. This phenomenon of rolling back a

child transaction if the parent transaction is rolled back is called Cascading Rollback, which causes a tremendous
loss of processing power and execution time.
Using Strict Two Phase Locking Protocol, Cascading Rollback can be prevented. In Strict Two Phase Locking
Protocol a transaction cannot release any of its acquired exclusive locks until the transaction commits. In such a
case, T1 would not release the exclusive lock on A until it finally commits, which makes it impossible for T2 to
acquire the shared lock on A at a time when As value has not been committed. This makes it impossible for a
schedule to be cascading.

Rigorous Two Phase Locking Protocol

In Rigorous Two Phase Locking Protocol, a transaction is not allowed to release any lock (either shared or
exclusive) until it commits. This means that until the transaction commits, other transaction might acquire a
shared lock on a data item on which the uncommitted transaction has a shared lock; but cannot acquire any lock
on a data item on which the uncommitted transaction has an exclusive lock.

Timestamp Ordering Protocol

A timestamp is a tag that can be attached to any transaction or any data item, which denotes a specific time on
which the transaction or data item had been activated in any way. We, who use computers, must all be familiar
with the concepts of Date Created or Last Modified properties of files and folders. Well, timestamps are things
like that.
A timestamp can be implemented in two ways. The simplest one is to directly assign the current value of the
clock to the transaction or the data item. The other policy is to attach the value of a logical counter that keeps
incrementing as new timestamps are required.
The timestamp of a transaction denotes the time when it was first activated. The timestamp of a data item can be
of the following two types:
W-timestamp (Q): This means the latest time when the data item Q has been written into.
R-timestamp (Q): This means the latest time when the data item Q has been read from.
These two timestamps are updated each time a successful read/write operation is performed on the data item Q.

How should timestamps be used?

1.
2.

1.
2.
3.

The timestamp ordering protocol ensures that any pair of conflicting read/write operations will be executed in
their respective timestamp order. This is an alternative solution to using locks.
For Read operations:
If TS (T) < W-timestamp (Q), then the transaction T is trying to read a value of data item Q which has
already been overwritten by some other transaction. Hence the value which T wanted to read from Q does not
exist there anymore, and T would be rolled back.
If TS (T) >= W-timestamp (Q), then the transaction T is trying to read a value of data item Q which has
been written and committed by some other transaction earlier. Hence T will be allowed to read the value of Q,
and the R-timestamp of Q should be updated to TS (T).
For Write operations:
If TS (T) < R-timestamp (Q), then it means that the system has waited too long for transaction T to write
its value, and the delay has become so great that it has allowed another transaction to read the old value of data
item Q. In such a case T has lost its relevance and will be rolled back.
Else if TS (T) < W-timestamp (Q), then transaction T has delayed so much that the system has allowed
another transaction to write into the data item Q. in such a case too, T has lost its relevance and will be rolled
back.
Otherwise the system executes transaction T and updates the W-timestamp of Q to TS (T).