Which of the following is a characteristic of databases?

Data is of great importance to us and so is the operation of the available data. Our daily lives depend on data like the cost of food and medicines, the score of the match between our favorite teams, marks that we got in our exams, and the list goes on. Various big brands and businesses run on the basis of data. Operations on the data like searching for a Name in a list of thousands or storing this list of thousands in the most efficient manner possible are some of the most commonly used and most important operations in any kind of data. DBMS or Database Management System helps us do all of that and it is a very important topic to study about. In this article, we will discuss the Characteristics of DBMS (Database Management System) and understand them in-depth. 

Data

Data can be stated as nothing but raw facts and figures. For example: “Apple”, “Car”, 100976453, 3.14157, etc. Are you able to come to any conclusion or derive some meaning out of these Strings and Numbers? NO !! The reason is simple, these are just random facts/strings/numbers. Yes, they do have some meaning. We know that “Apple” is a String {Do not go into the real world meaning} and 100976453 is a number but these are just some random Strings and Numbers for us right now.

Information

When the data is processed, organized, and presented in a structured way then it is called information. Information can be very useful for various purposes. For example: the information about average score of a player in T20 format of  cricket may have a huge impact on the player’s selection in the team and also how he/she might play on the day of the match. Predictions generated using the mathematical tools of statistics and probability are all based on the information of the past. 

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Not just the predictions, information is very important for taking immediate actions too. For instance, the information of region and state-wise sales of a product of a particular company shows the regions where their sale is low. The company can identify the reasons for low sales and then improve in those areas.

Difference Between Data & Information

For simple understanding, we can say that Name, Roll Number, and percentage are all data but a report card of a student which has Name, Roll Number, and percentage of marks arranged in a systematic and organized manner is information. 

Let us understand this with the help of a simple example. What can you come up with the following raw pieces of Strings and Numbers: “Rohan”, 14, and 92.34? Nothing !! However, when you see it on a report card, you can conclude quickly that the name of the student is Rohan and the roll number of this student is 14 and he scored 92.34% marks in his exams.

Another example can be sports. Let us say that a player scored 56 runs in today’s cricket match. What is this? This is data about the player’s score. Now, if we have the record of the player’s score for the previous 20 matches and have a table or a chart with his average batting score for each innings with the average strike rate and batting duration, this is information. This information can be derived from the data i.e. the score of the player in each match.

Database

People often get confused between databases and information. Like we said that the average score of a player is not data rather information, the average scores of all the players of the Indian Cricket Team for a time span of say 4 years are not just information. It is a database. Hence, a database can be defined as a collection of logically related data (or inter-related data). This is because the average score and strike rate of all the players of the Indian Cricket Team is logically related as it represents the overall performance of the Indian Cricket Team. The scores of one player relate to another because this will be the criteria of the selection of the players for the upcoming world cup. 

Hence, to rephrase the definition again, a database is a collection of logically related data. For example database of a school (contains data about the students and faculty members), a database of a Library, etc.

Database Management System (DBMS):

A DBMS is a database plus some programs that help us to manage that database. So, DBMS is software. We can say that a Database Management System or DBMS is a collection of logically related data and the programs that are used to modify that data.

Some of the examples of the most commonly used DBMS are MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc.

So, now that we are clear with what a Database is and what DBMS is, and how similar or different they are from each other, let’s jump into the characteristics of DBMS.

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