How to Create a DBMS in Three Easy Steps

 How to Create a DBMS in Three Easy Steps

INTRO

Creating your own database management system from scratch can seem like an intimidating task, but it doesn’t have to be if you follow these three easy steps: first, create a relational database that can be opened with any major RDBMS platform; second, create the table structure in that database; and third, begin programming the functions that will help you interact with those tables. With only three easy steps to complete, you’ll soon be able to create your own DBMS to store and retrieve information for your business or organization.

Overview of steps

In this tutorial, we'll be looking at how to create and maintain databases using MS Access. Â The first step is creating the database. Â To do this, click File from the top menu and then select New. Â This will bring up the Create Database window. Give your database a name (try not to use any spaces), such as MyDatabaseName, or pick an existing one if you have one you want to work with. Next, decide what kind of data will go into your new database. Will it contain text? Numbers? Dates? Decide what type of data each field will hold by clicking on Field Type on the left-hand side of the screen and selecting Text, Number or Date for each field that needs those options. If you are unsure about what type of data to put in which field, leave it as Text for now. Finally enter information into each field by filling out its respective form with appropriate content: name, address, email address etcetera.

Step 1: Define each entity, identify attributes, and assign appropriate data types.

In defining each entity, identify the attributes that are pertinent to your data type and what each of those entities is going to represent. Define the types of relationships between those entities. There are four basic relationship types: One-to-One, One-to-Many, Many-to-One, and Many-to-Many. A one-to-one relationship means one record in one table relates to only one other record in another table. A one-to-many relationship means that for every row of records in one table there may be many rows of records related back to it from another table. A many-to-one relationship means that for every row of records from another table there may be only one row of records back from it on the first table. And finally, a many-to-many relationship means for every row on the first table there may be more than just one row back from the second tables related to it, or vice versa

Step 2: Determine relationships between entities (1-to-1, 1-to-many, many-to-many).

It is important to establish what type of relationships will exist between entities, and how these relationships will be stored and represented within the system.

A one-to-one relationship is where a single row (entity) can have many values for the same attribute (or column), but only one value for that attribute can exist on another row (entity). An example would be two people who are friends with each other. Each person may have multiple friends, but each friend has only one friend - themselves. One entity cannot share data with more than one other entity. In contrast, a 1-to-many relationship occurs when an entity contains the primary key of another entity as a part of its own primary key and stores them together in its own table(s). For example, let's say you want to keep track of all purchases made by your customers at your store over time.

Step 3: Normalize data using standard normalization rules.

Normalization is the process of removing redundant data. When it comes to designing databases, normalization is imperative to prevent messy data that can become overly complicated and time-consuming to use. There are three main types of normalization: First Normal Form (1NF), Second Normal Form (2NF), and Third Normal Form (3NF). 

1NF data needs only one field per table. 2NF data needs one field per relationship; there should be no more than one relationship between two tables. 3NF data has both properties from 1NF and 2NF. An example of a normalized database might be when you store zip codes for people's addresses. If you have an address for each person, then your database would need at least 5 fields: Street Address, City Name, State or Province Name, Postal Code Type, and Postal Code Value. But if you have the same street address for all people with different city names (say different states) but the same postal code type then your database would only need 4 fields: Street Address Value, City Name Value, State or Province Name Value, and Postal Code Type Value.    

Example #1: A garden store database application

The first step is to create the schema and define your tables. This should include, as an example, tables for your customers (name, address, phone number), catalog items (description, price), and plants (genus name, color). To do this, use the CREATE TABLE command. For instance:

CREATE TABLE customers(customerID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT UNIQUE NOT NULL, customerName VARCHAR(200) UNIQUE NOT NULL);

The next step is to specify what data can be stored inside these table columns. You may want a photo of each plant or the description of its habitat.

Example #2: A university students database application

For this example, we will be using the sample database application from Amazon: University Students Database Application. In order to download the application onto your laptop or desktop you need three things. 

1) Setup Databases on your laptop or desktop machine 2) Upload the university_students_sampel application (zip file) from our cloud storage 3) Unzip university_students_sampel and open it for editing on your local machine.

How to create a DBMS in three easy steps