Business Rules and Data Models

Abstract

Business Rules and Data Models

Database applications are highly used in any business environment today. Most companies store all company data into a database for easy retrieval and analysis of such information. To be able to understand all the components of a database and its benefits, we first must define a database and its parts. The definition of database is data organized into files for retrieval and use (Greg Anderson, 2011). For easier understanding, a database is considered your electronic filing system. Before the creation and development of databases Colleges and Universities used to keep paper records of student contact information, courses, grades, and professors using a paper system. Imagine how long it took them to retrieve your information as a student to determine what your next course was going to be along with tracking your GPA. Relational Databases describe the relationship between two or more tables. As previously mentioned, databases are a fundamental tool for all business as they offer the ability of organizing and sorting large amounts of data (Greg Anderson, 2011), no business is able to function properly without these applications. We owe the development of this application to Edgar F. Codd from IBM in the 1970’s.  

Database Concepts

To understand how a database management system works, we need to review the components that put together a database. A database has the ability to store various tables. A table or entity contain data from rows (also called records or tuple) and columns (called field or attributes) similar to an Excel spreadsheet. Index is the tool utilized to retrieve data quickly. To understand how indexing works, just imagine it as the sorting mechanism used to find information requested faster. Therefore, fields can be set as the index for faster access when records are sorted (Greg Anderson, 2011). Entities, attributes, relationships and constraints are all the components for a data model (Carlos Coronel,...