database1

Data Independence

Physical representation and location of data and the use of that data are separated
•The application doesn’t need to know how or where the database has stored the data, but just how to ask for it.
•Moving a database from one DBMS to another should not have a material effect on application program
•Recoding, adding fields, etc. in the database should not affect applications

Database Application

An application program (or set of related programs) that is used to perform a series of database activities:
•Create
•Read
•Update
•Delete
•On behalf of database users

Metadata

Data about data

In DBMS means all of the characteristics describing the attributes of an entity,
E.G.:
–name of attribute
–data type of attribute
–size of the attribute
–format or special characteristics