Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1. Authoring Geodatabases
For a very long time, mankind recorded historical events in the form of drawings, inscrip-
tions, and topics. Topics were organized into physical volumes, and volumes were arranged
by their topic on shelves in a library. This system worked very well for centuries. We can
place as many topics as the shelf space can handle. With the information age and the inven-
tion of the byte, data is stored and retrieved electronically. It started with simple sequential
text files. As more complex structures were introduced, we started depending on computers
to store our data. This required a completely new system to structure, organize, and manage
the digital data. For this, a system by which computers can efficiently browse and retrieve
stored information was required, which led to the invention of the database.
Note
A database is an organized collection of related data that's designed for efficient storage
and retrieval. In this system, data is stored in a series of relations called tables. Each table
contains a set of related data, where a row contains one instance of data and a column con-
tains information that describes that instance.
Many
database management systems
(
DBMS
) have been introduced over the years. They
have all been designed to organize digital information. When networking came into the pic-
ture, DBMSs evolved; now, multiple users can read the same piece of information from dif-
ferent locations (or from different continents). They can update the same table; therefore,
the multiediting environment, database replications, and other niche technologies spawned
from this field.
Note
DBMS is a software that allows multiple users to interact with a database. They come
either in the client-server model or the file-based model. These may include the server,
which manages the database and listens for incoming client connections, and the client,
which connects to the server.
After that short tour of the evolution of databases, we need to focus on the topic of this
topic. A database is a fascinating storage system. It allows you to retrieve, store, and edit
different types of information such as text, images, music, and videos. However, for people
like us who work with maps, we feel there is a missing element in that compound, that is,
location. Adding location information to a database helps applications bring life to the tab-
ular records in the database and make it available visually. For instance, you can add x and
