Relational Database Components

The database component of Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 is a Structured Query Language (SQL)–based, scalable, relational database with integrated Extensible Markup Language (XML) support for Internet applications. Each of the following terms describes a fundamental part of the architecture of the SQL Server 2000 database component:

Database

A database is similar to a data file in that it is a storage place for data. Like a data file, a database does not present information directly to a user; the user runs an application that accesses data from the database and presents it to the user in an understandable format.

Database systems are more powerful than data files in that data is more highly organized. In a well-designed database, there are no duplicate pieces of data that the user or application must update at the same time. Related pieces of data are grouped together in a single structure or record, and relationships can be defined between these structures and records.

When working with data files, an application must be coded to work with the specific structure of each data file. In contrast, a database contains a catalog that applications use to determine how data is organized. Generic database applications can use the catalog to present users with data from different databases dynamically, without being tied to a specific data format.

A database typically has two main parts: first, the files holding the physical database and second, the database management system (DBMS) software that applications use to access data. The DBMS is responsible for enforcing the database structure, including:

• Maintaining relationships between data in the database.
  
  
• Ensuring that data is stored correctly, and that the rules defining data relationships are not violated.
  
  
• Recovering all data to a point of known consistency in case of system failures.

Relational Database

Although there are different ways to organize data in a database, relational databases are one of the most effective. Relational database systems are an application of mathematical set theory to the problem of effectively organizing data. In a relational database, data is collected into tables (called relations in relational theory).

A table represents some class of objects that are important to an organization. For example, a company may have a database with a table for employees, another table for customers, and another for stores. Each table is built of columns and rows (called attributes and tuples in relational theory). Each column represents some attribute of the object represented by the table. For example, an Employee table would typically have columns for attributes such as first name, last name, employee ID, department, pay grade, and job title. Each row represents an instance of the object represented by the table. For example, one row in the Employee table represents the employee who has employee ID 12345.

When organizing data into tables, you can usually find many different ways to define tables. Relational database theory defines a process called normalization, which ensures that the set of tables you define will organize your data effectively.

Scalable

SQL Server 2000 supports having a wide range of users access it at the same time. An instance of SQL Server 2000 includes the files that make up a set of databases and a copy of the DBMS software. Applications running on separate computers use a SQL Server 2000 communications component to transmit commands over a network to the SQL Server 2000 instance. When an application connects to an instance of SQL Server 2000, it can reference any of the databases in that instance that the user is authorized to access. The communication component also allows communication between an instance of SQL Server 2000 and an application running on the same computer. You can run multiple instances of SQL Server 2000 on a single computer.

SQL Server 2000 is designed to support the traffic of the largest Web sites or enterprise data processing systems. Instances of SQL Server 2000 running on large, multiprocessor servers are capable of supporting connections to thousands of users at the same time. The data in SQL Server tables can be partitioned across multiple servers, so that several multiprocessor computers can cooperate to support the database processing requirements of extremely large systems. These groups of database servers are called federations.

Although SQL Server 2000 is designed to work as the data storage engine for thousands of concurrent users who connect over a network, it is also capable of working as a stand-alone database directly on the same computer as an application. The scalability and ease-of-use features of SQL Server 2000 allow it to work efficiently on a single computer without consuming too many resources or requiring administrative work by the stand-alone user. The same features allow SQL Server 2000 to dynamically acquire the resources required to support thousands of users, while minimizing database administration and tuning. The SQL Server 2000 relational database engine dynamically tunes itself to acquire or free the appropriate computer resources required to support a varying load of users accessing an instance of SQL Server 2000 at any specific time. The SQL Server 2000 relational database engine has features to prevent the logical problems that occur if a user tries to read or modify data currently used by others.

Structured Query Language

To work with data in a database, you have to use a set of commands and statements (language) defined by the DBMS software. Several different languages can be used with relational databases; the most common is SQL. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) define software standards, including standards for the SQL language. SQL Server 2000 supports the Entry Level of SQL-92, the SQL standard published by ANSI and ISO in 1992. The dialect of SQL supported by Microsoft SQL Server is called Transact-SQL (T-SQL). T-SQL is the primary language used by Microsoft SQL Server applications.

Extensible Markup Language

XML is the emerging Internet standard for data. XML is a set of tags that can be used to define the structure of a hypertext document. XML documents can be easily processed by the Hypertext Markup Language, which is the most important language for displaying Web pages.

Although most SQL statements return their results in a relational, or tabular, result set, the SQL Server 2000 database component supports a FOR XML clause that returns results as an XML document. SQL Server 2000 also supports XPath queries from Internet and intranet applications. XML documents can be added to SQL Server databases, and the OPENXML clause can be used to expose data from an XML document as a relational result set.