Introduction to RDBMS: A relational DBMS is special system software that is used to manage the organization, storage, access, security

and integrity of data. This specialized software allows application systems to focus on the user interface, data validation and screen navigation. When there is a need to add, modify, delete or display data, the application system simply makes a "call" to the RDBMS. Although there are many different types of database management systems, relational databases are by far the most common. Other types include hierarchical databases and network databases. Although database management systems have been around since the 1960s, relational databases didn't become popular until the 1980s when the power of the computer skyrocketed and it became feasible to store data is sets of related tables and provided realtime data access. A relational DBMS stores information in a set of "tables", each of which has a unique identifier or "primary key". The tables are then related to one another using "foreign keys". A foreign key is simply the primary key in a different table.

In the above example, "Customer ID" is the Primary Key (PK) in one table and the Foreign Key (FK) in another. The arrow represents a one-to-many relationship between the two tables. The relationship indicates that one customer can have one or more orders. A given order, however, can be initiated by one and only one customer. When designing a relational database, it is normally a good thing to "normalize" the database. There are different degrees of normalization, but in general, relational databases should be normalized to the "third normal form". Simply put, this means that the attributes in each table should "depend on the key, the whole key and nothing but the key".

Keys 1. Candidate key

A Candidate key is a set of one or more attributes that can uniquely identify a row in a given table Let's explain candidate key in detail using an example. Consider a table employee as given below:

(Assume that employee_id and email are unique) In this example, attribute Employee_Id can uniquely identify a row of the table employee. Hence Employee_Id is a candidate key. Similarly the attribute Email can also uniquely identify a row of the table employee. Hence Email is also a candidate key. Hence for the table employee, we have two candidate keys - Employee_ID and Email.

2. Super key
Any superset of a candidate Key is a super key. Let's explain super key in detail using the same employee table mentioned above. Here we can have many superkeys like {Employee_ID,FirstName}, {Employee_ID,LastName}, {Employee_ID,FirstName,LastName}, {Email,FirstName} etc because any superset of a candidate key is a superkey

3. Primary key
The Database designer will choose one key from the list of available candidate Keys to uniquely identify row in the given table. This key is known as primary key.

To select primary key from all candidate keys,

Preference is given to numeric column(s) Preference is given to single attribute Preference is given to minimal composite key

4. Foreign key A Foreign Key is a set of attribute (s) whose values are required to match values of a Candidate key in the same or another table Let's explain foreign key in detail using an example. Consider an employee table and a department table as given below:

Here we can say that Department_ID of employee table is a foreign key refering Department_Number which is a candidate key of the department table.

A table which has a foreign Key referring to its own candidate key is known as selfreferencing table. The constraint that values of a given foreign key must match the values of the corresponding candidate key is known as referential constraint. There are many different vendors that currently produce relational database management systems (RDBMS). Relational databases vary significantly in their capabilities and in costs. Some products are proprietary while others are open source. The leading vendors of RDBMS are listed below: RDBMS Vendors Computer Associates IBM INFORMIX Software Oracle Corporation Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation MySQL AB PostgreSQL Dvlp Grp Sybase DB2 INFORMIX Oracle MS Access SQL Server MySQL PostgreSQL Sybase 11 RDBMS INGRES

Features of RDBMS: