In order to remove all limitations of the File Based Approach, a new approach was required that must be more effective known as Database approach.
The Database is a shared collection of logically related data, designed to meet the information needs of an organization. A database is a computer based record keeping system whose over all purpose is to record and maintains information. The database is a single, large repository of data, which can be used simultaneously by many departments and users. Instead of disconnected files with redundant data, all data items are integrated with a minimum amount of duplication.
The database is no longer owned by one department but is a shared corporate resource. The database holds not only the organization’s operational data but also a description of this data. For this reason, a database is also defined as a self-describing collection of integrated records. The description of the data is known as the Data Dictionary or Meta Data (the ‘data about data’). It is the self-describing nature of a database that provides program-data independence.
Self-describing nature of a database system: A DBMS catalog stores the description of the database. The description is called meta-data which is data about data. This allows the DBMS software to work with different databases.
Insulation between programs and data: Also known as program-data independence. Without making any change to DBMS access programs the data storage structures and operations can be changed.
Data Abstraction: The availability of data model approach helps in hiding the physical view of data i.e. the storage details and other internal level information and provides the conceptual view of database.
Support of multiple views of the data: The database approach allows each user to have their own view of the database which describes only the data of interest to that user. There are various benefits of having multiple views such as:
Sharing of data and multi-user transaction processing: The database approach allows a set of concurrent users to retrieve and to update the database. Spreadsheets cannot offer several users the ability to view and work on the different data in the same file, because once the first user opens the file it is locked to other users. Other users can read the file, but may not edit data. For example, when one user is changing data then the database should not allow other users who query the same data to view the changed, unsaved data. Instead the user should only view the original data.