Data Structure
Networking
RDBMS
Operating System
Java
MS Excel
iOS
HTML
CSS
Android
Python
C Programming
C++
C#
MongoDB
MySQL
Javascript
PHP
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Mathematics
English
Economics
Psychology
Social Studies
Fashion Studies
Legal Studies
- Selected Reading
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
- Developer's Best Practices
- Questions and Answers
- Effective Resume Writing
- HR Interview Questions
- Computer Glossary
- Who is Who
What is data Abstraction in DBMS?
Data Abstraction is a process of hiding unwanted or irrelevant details from the end user. It provides a different view and helps in achieving data independence which is used to enhance the security of data.
The database systems consist of complicated data structures and relations. For users to access the data easily, these complications are kept hidden, and only the relevant part of the database is made accessible to the users through data abstraction.
Levels of abstraction for DBMS
Database systems include complex data-structures. In terms of retrieval of data, reduce complexity in terms of usability of users and in order to make the system efficient, developers use levels of abstraction that hide irrelevant details from the users. Levels of abstraction simplify database design.
Mainly there are three levels of abstraction for DBMS, which are as follows −
- Physical or Internal Level
- Logical or Conceptual Level
- View or External Level
These levels are shown in the diagram below −
Let us discuss each level in detail.
Physical or Internal Level
It is the lowest level of abstraction for DBMS which defines how the data is actually stored, it defines data-structures to store data and access methods used by the database. Actually, it is decided by developers or database application programmers how to store the data in the database.
So, overall, the entire database is described in this level that is physical or internal level. It is a very complex level to understand. For example, customer's information is stored in tables and data is stored in the form of blocks of storage such as bytes, gigabytes etc.
Logical or Conceptual Level
Logical level is the intermediate level or next higher level. It describes what data is stored in the database and what relationship exists among those data. It tries to describe the entire or whole data because it describes what tables to be created and what are the links among those tables that are created.
It is less complex than the physical level. Logical level is used by developers or database administrators (DBA). So, overall, the logical level contains tables (fields and attributes) and relationships among table attributes.
View or External Level
It is the highest level. In view level, there are different levels of views and every view only defines a part of the entire data. It also simplifies interaction with the user and it provides many views or multiple views of the same database.
View level can be used by all users (all levels' users). This level is the least complex and easy to understand.
For example, a user can interact with a system using GUI that is view level and can enter details at GUI or screen and the user does not know how data is stored and what data is stored, this detail is hidden from the user.
78K+ Views
