OODB – CS42002
Object Relational Database Comparison
Presentation Report
By
Neil Black
Steven Bruce
Marisa Di Filippo
OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Contents
Relational Databases
3
Object Orientated Databases
5
Object-Relational Databases
8
Database Comparison
9
References
11
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Relational Databases
In order to make a comparison of the different databases we first need to have an
understanding of the main types of database on offer. The first and by far the most
common is the relational database.
A relational database uses records relating to each other in a table in order to store
information. For example, all the records for employees of a company would be
stored in one table, the EMPLOYEE table. A table is easily visualised as a tabular
arrangement of data, not unlike a spreadsheet, consisting of vertical columns and
horizontal rows. This can be shown in the table below.
EMP_ID
1
2
78
79
200
FIRST_NAME
Neil
Marisa
Steven
Hannah
Fraggle
EMPLOYEE
LAST_NAME
Black
DI Filippo
Bruce
Bains
Eater
DEPT
1
1
2
3
3
SALERY
750000
100
35789
10
1
A table consists of a number of records. The field names of each record in the table
are the same, although the field values may differ. Every employee record has a salary
field, called SALARY. The values in the SALARY field can be different for each
employee.
Each field occupies one column and each record occupies one row. In each column of
the table, you put a specific category of information for the employees, such as their
ID number, first name, and department. Each row in the table contains the information
relating to a specific employee, together as one record. Each record is a unique entry
and is independent of any other record in the table.
Every table in the relational database has a field or a combination of fields that
uniquely identifies each record in the table. This unique identifier is called the
primary key. The primary key provides the means to distinguish one record from all
the others in a table. It allows the user and the database system to identify, locate, and
refer to one particular record in the table.
The database designers determine the best candidate field for the primary key. The
employee's first and last names together could be a primary key, that is until a new
employee with the same name is hired. Then the key would no longer be unique.
Sometimes the designers have to define a new ID number or code field, just so a table
has a primary key. For the EMPLOYEE table, the primary key would be the
employee ID number. No two employees can have the same ID number.
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
When a field in one table matches the primary key of another table, the field is
referred to as a foreign key. A foreign key is a field or a group of fields in one table
whose values match those of the primary key of another table. You can think of a
foreign key as the primary key of a foreign table.
Using the above table we can see how two tables in a relational database relate.
EMP_ID
1
2
78
79
200
DEPT
1
2
3
FIRST_NAME
Neil
Marisa
Steven
Hannah
Fraggle
EMPLOYEE
LAST_NAME
Black
DI Filippo
Bruce
Bains
Eater
DEPARTMENT
DESCRIPTION
Executive Decisions
Girly Chats
Toilet Inspectors
DEPT
1
2
3
2
3
SALERY
750000
100
35789
10
1
LOCATION
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Glasgow
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Object Orientated Databases.
Over the past decode or so, a relatively new technology has been merging in the
database market, Object Orientated Databases (OODB).
We can think of an OODB as the combination of two things, the advantages of object
technology and the advantages of database technology.
First of all lets remind our self of the basics of object technology.
Objects
AS the name may suggest, objects are a fundamental part of object orientation.
Objects are basically an entity that is uniquely identifiable, they can be characterised
by there behaviour, have an updateable state that can be accessible or hidden and
objects can have relations to other objects.
Abstraction
As we are showing here by the simple fact were using Object Orientation (OO) within
the context of a database system. OO is not simply restricted to programming or
databases. We user abstraction to find out how complex an issue is, and then we use it
to solve the problem.
Encapsulation
This means that the object not only contains the data, but the instructions for
processing that data. This means objects can be reused.
Classes and Instances
Objects are defined by their classes. Attributes, behaviours, relationships to other
objects are all defined in a class. An instance is simply an individual occurrence of a
class.
Inheritance
New Objects can inherit characteristics and behaviour from previously created
objects.
Messages and Methods
Methods are used to access data. An object is sent a message to invoke a method.
Simple as that.
Polymorphism
Polymorphism means that a message can produce different results depending on
which object it is sent to.
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
We all know that the purpose of a database is to provide persistent data that can be
shared across many users concurrently. Data integrity, system recovery, reduced data
redundancy, the ability to run ad hoc queries and provide a secure environment for a
common interface to the data are also a must in most modern database systems.
OODB’s not only contain all of these features but also contain some impressive
improvements on top.
OODB’s are best suited to storing small amounts of complex data. They also tend to
access the data faster. One reason for this is because the storage and memory models
are the same (both based on the concept of objects). Code does not need to be
converted from the flat architecture of the storage model to the object application
language.
Today there are two types of databases in use, one that is modelled after an OO
language and one that is independent of any OO language in particular. Building an
OODB after a current OO language has one major advantage; there is no mapping
between the database and language needed. Of course this means that the database is
limited to the language model. With language independent OODB’s, developers have
access to a richer database model, but, they must map the database to the language
model.
Some of the OODB specific features are as follows.
Object Identity
In the object database model, Object Ids (OID) are used to identify data and maintain
uniqueness instead, this means there is no need for primary and foreign keys.
Navigation of objects occurs by moving across (traversing) OID’s. Data integrity is
also maintained through the use of OID’s. Therefore, no OID is ever reused to avoid
data corruption.
OID’s can be either physical or logical. Physical object ID’s might include a page id
and a container id. One issue that arises with the use of physical ID’s is that data may
become corrupted. If object ID’s are never reused to avoid corruption, then
fragmentation is unavoidable. Alternatively, logical ID’s are independent of a disk
address and a node address. These are often called links or handles.
Locking
Another feature of an OODB is the three ways of locking. These are container
locking, page locking, and object locking. With container locking, to get at an object,
the entire container must be locked. Similarly, in page locking an entire page must be
locked in order to access a particular object. The lowest level is the locking of the
object itself.
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Object Access
In an object database, an object server "serves" objects to the client. The objects can
be served page by page, which is very fast if all the desired objects are on the same
page. Groups of objects called clusters can also be accessed. This is a way of
optimising objects that are used for the same application. Clusters can be logical or
physical.
Dynamic Space Compaction
The object database architecture can become fragmented because of the physical
movement of objects, physical OID’s being used, and the clustering of objects
together, as mentioned above. Also, pages of objects are often loaded again and again,
which over time causes fragmentation. Some object databases can dynamically
reorganize space, which again over time offers increased performance.
Navigation
The object model in memory is the object model in disk, and this greatly increases the
access speed for the database. Therefore accessing data is faster than relational access
methods. Navigating to an object the first time is faster than a relational join because
there is no join processing. Navigation to a previous object is also faster because the
object cache is stored in the client’s virtual memory. There is no need to access the
server, and the transaction therefore runs at the same speed the memory can be
accessed at.
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Object-Relational Databases
The object-relational model is an amalgamation of the relational and object models
that try to unify aspects of both. There is no official definition of what an object
relational database management system is. The system tries to add object-orientated
functions to tables. The data is still stored in table structures but some of the tabular
entries have richer data structures, known as data types. This approach provides more
structure for modelling a greater degree to complex data and functions, but still lacks
the object requirements of encapsulation within operations with data. It also has
limited support for relationships, identity, inheritance, composition, polymorphism or
creating user defined persistent classes and integration with host languages like Java.
ORDBMS supports an extended form of SQL, SQL-3. The extensions allow support
of the object model. Typical extensions include queries with nested objects, inclusion
of methods and function in search predicates and queries with abstract data types.
The complexity of data that can be processed using ORDBMS is much less than can
be achieved using an OODBMS. They are unable to navigate by following references,
many to many relationships and across relationships to form composite objects. The
complexity of the relationship between the data being represented can be as much a
problem as the complexity of the data itself.
The ORDBMS is in fact still relational because the data is stored in tables, with the
extensions used as the language for data definition, manipulation and query but the
introduction of SQL4 will turn this into a collection of objects.
The expert knowledge that has been gained from using RDBMS can be applied to the
RDBMS once the SQL extensions have been mastered and this can be used to allow
users to migrate from ODBMS towards ORDBMS.
There are various products available for ORDBMS, such as UniSQL, Informix and
IBM and the level of performance and operability varies according to the vendor. The
product to use has to be decided upon according to the application, with trade offs
according to the product chosen.
The ORDBMS’s are gaining in popularity and are expected to eventually outsell
relational databases. Object-relational databases allows organizations to continue
using their existing systems, without having to make major changes, and allows them
to start using object-oriented systems in parallel.
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Database Comparison.
Relational
Table/Record Based
Relation expressed with keys
Object Oriented
Limited complexity of relationships
Defined Types
Flexible Querying (SQL)
Language Independence
Transaction Management – Multi user
concurrency
Limited support for distribution
Difficulty to represent containment
Difficult to process recursive relationships
Object Based
Relationships built in to objects and
containers
Complex relationships
Variety of Data Types
Object SQL
Often connected to a language
Fault tolerance and high throughput
Easily distributed
Abstraction
Fast retrieval
Comparison of Database Management Systems
Criteria
Defining standard
RDBMS
ORDBMS
ODBMS
SQL2 (ANSI X3H2)
SQL-3
ODMG-V2.0
Support for object- Poor;
Limited mostly to
oriented
25% of coding time new data types
programming
mapping the
program object to
the database
Direct and extensive
Simplicity of use
Table structures
Same as RDBMS,
easy to understand; with some confusing
many end-user tools extensions
available
OK for
programmers; some
SQL access for end
users
Simplicity of
development
Provides
independence of
data from
application, good
for simple
relationships
Provides
independence of
data from
application, good
for simple
relationships
Objects are a natural
way to model; can
accommodate a wide
variety of types and
relationships
Extensibility and
content
None
Limited mostly to
new data types
Can handle arbitrary
complexity; users
can write methods
and on any structure
Criteria
RDBMS
ORDBMS
ODBMS
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
Performance versus Level of safety
interoperability
varies with vendor,
must be traded off;
achieving both
requires extensive
testing
Level of safety
varies with vendor,
must be traded off;
achieving both
requires extensive
testing
Level of safety
varies with vendor;
most ODBMSs
allow programmers
to extend DBMS
functionality by
defining new classes
Distribution,
Extensive
replication, and
federated databases
Extensive
Varies with vendor;
a few provide
extensive support
Product maturity
Immature;
Relatively mature
extensions are new,
are still being
defined, and are
relatively unproven
Very mature
Well established
Experienced people Extensive supply of Can take advantages SQL accommodated,
and the popularity tools and trained
of RDBMS tools
but intended for
of SQL
developers
and developers
object-oriented
programmers.
Software systems
Provided by major Provided by major ODBMS vendors
RDBMS companies RDBMS companies beginning to emulate
RDBMS vendors,
but none offers large
markets to other
ISVs
Vendor viability
Expected for the
major established
RDBMS vendors
Expected for the
major RDBMS
vendors; UniSQL.
Less of an issue than
it was; some
shakeout still
expected
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OODB CS42002 Presentation Report by Neil Black, Steven Bruce and Marisa Di Filippo
References
Title
Author
Publisher
Databases: From
Relational to object
orientated systems
Claude Delobel
Christopher Lecluse
Philippe Richard
Thomson Publishing
Relational Database
Principles
Colin Ritchie
Continuum
Object Orientated
Database Management
An Object Orientated
Database System
Kemper Moerkotte
Prentice Hall
K. R. Dittrich
U. Dayal
A. P. Buchanan
Michael Stonebraker
Springer-Verlag
Object-Relational
DBMS’s: -the Next Great
Wave
Morgan Kaufmann
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