Relational Database Management Systems - Concepts and Terminologies
Published: 22 Mar 2007
In this article, Joydip examines the major terminologies and concepts that are related to Relational Database Management Systems.
by Joydip Kanjilal
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Continuing on my series of articles of terminologies and concepts, this article is an attempt to discuss the important terminologies and concepts related to Database Management Systems that are often asked in interviews. I have compiled this collection of terminologies and concepts giving preference to the most important ones only.



A database is a structured collection of interrelated data that is stored in a physical location with a specific name. A database can be a Flat File Database, Relational Database, Distributed Databases etc. A Database Management System is a system that helps us perform various operations on the data that is stored in a database.

Database Schema

Databases are designed to offer an organized mechanism for storing, managing, and retrieving information. A database schema defines the objects that are represented in the database and the structural description of the facts that are held in that database.

Database Models

A database model describes the database schema as per the stated requirements. These models are also called data models. There are three types of models. These are:

·         Relational Model

·         Hierarchical Model

·         Network Model

Relational Database Management System

A Relational Database Management System facilitates the organization, storage, access, security, and integrity of data and eliminates data redundancy.  It stores the data in a set of tables each of which contains a unique identifier. Typical examples of RDBMS software include Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.


Normalization may be defined as the process of designing the structure of the database in a way which will reduce redundancy and facilitate easy data manipulation and better performance. It is a process that breaks down data into record groups for faster and more efficient data processing. The most common forms of normalization applied to databases are called the normal forms. Database normalization is available in the following four levels:

·         First Normal Form

·         Second Normal Form

·         Third Normal Form and

·         Boyce Codd Normal Form


A tuple is a collection of one or more attributes. It is a row of information in a database table that is constructed over a given database schema. It should be noted that a tuple usually represents some object and its associated data. Further, a relation is defined as a set of n-tuples.

Stored Procedure

A stored procedure is a group of SQL statements that are stored in the database using a name such that these statements can be executed as a group by the database server. It is a group of executable code associated with a database which often facilitates common database operations. The use of stored procedures helps reduce network traffic, simplifies data management, and facilitates data security.


In a relational database an index is a copy of part of a table that is used to speed up data retrieval in a database.


Database triggers are stored procedures that are implicitly executed whenever an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement is issued against the associated table. It is used to maintain referential integrity in the database and may also be used to execute a stored procedure.

A trigger has basically the following three parts:

1.    A triggering event or statement

2.    A trigger restriction

3.    A trigger action

Database triggers are of the following types:

·         Row and Statement trigger

·         Before and After trigger

·         Instead Of trigger


A view is a logical table that contains the result set of a query. Unlike an ordinary table in the database, a view is a virtual table and its contents change as and when the data in the database table changes.


A constraint is used to restrict the type of data that can be stored in a database table. Hence, they facilitate implementing business rules into the database. A primary key constraint as an example, does not allow any row to contain a duplicate value.


A relation is a link between two tables and is defined as a set of tuples all of which have the same attributes. The following are the types of relations that can exist:

·         One-to-many

·         Many-to-many

·         One-to-one


A database table is a collection of rows and columns which describe the necessary structure to store data pertaining to a specific entity.


A field is an attribute pertaining to an entity, and it is organized as a column in a database table.

Primary Key

A primary key is responsible for uniquely identifying a particular record belonging to a specific entity. It is the unique identifier for each row of a database table.

Unique Key

A unique key is an attribute which is unique for that column of the table. A unique key unlike a primary key may or may not be null. Note that a primary key or candidate key should always be a unique key, but the reverse is not always true.

Composite Key

A candidate key is a unique identifier that enforces the rule that no tuple will be duplicated. A Composite key is composed of a number of attributes that together maintain the uniqueness.

Foreign Key

A foreign key is a reference to another key in a different table and is used to declare referential integrity constraints. These are actually integrity constraints which enforce that the principle "value of the attribute set is drawn from a candidate key in another relation."


A transaction is a unit of statements that are guaranteed either to be executed by the database server in whole or aborted altogether. A transaction abides by the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) property.


Replication is the process of synchronizing databases to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, and database performance.


Database clustering is one way of achieving higher availability of a database. It is focused on moving the database execution environment to another server in the cluster to address database server failure issues.

Distributed Databases

A distributed database is a collection of one or more logically interrelated databases that are distributed i.e., they are spread across the network.

Object Oriented Databases

Object Oriented databases organize the attributes "of a given object into a unit or template that can be stored or retrieved by its natural name". Object Database Management Systems are designed to work with Object Oriented Programming languages like C++, Java, C#, etc.

Data Description Language (DDL)

This is a language that is used to define data and their relationships to other data in a database.

Data Manipulation Language (DML)

This is a 4 GL programming language that defines how to manipulate the data that is stored in the database.



I am sure this article will help learners prepare themselves for interviews and face them with confidence. The earlier articles in this series include Operating Systems - Concepts and Terminologies and Microsoft .NET Terminologies at a glance. This article has discussed the most important terminologies related to Database Management Systems. Apart from providing a basic understanding of DBMS concepts, this article I feel would help the readers a lot when facing interviews confidently.

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