DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Three schema Architecture
o The three schema architecture is also called ANSI/SPARC
architecture or three-level architecture.
o This framework is used to describe the structure of a specific
database system.
o The three schema architecture is also used to separate the user
applications and physical database.
o The three schema architecture contains three-levels. It breaks the
database down into three different categories.
The three-schema architecture is as follows:
In the above diagram:
o It shows the DBMS architecture.
o Mapping is used to transform the request and response between
various database levels of architecture.
o Mapping is not good for small DBMS because it takes more time.
o In External / Conceptual mapping, it is necessary to transform the
request from external level to conceptual schema.
o In Conceptual / Internal mapping, DBMS transform the request from
the conceptual to internal level.
1. Internal Level
o The internal level has an internal schema which describes the
physical storage structure of the database.
o The internal schema is also known as a physical schema.
o It uses the physical data model. It is used to define that how the
data will be stored in a block.
o The physical level is used to describe complex low-level data
structures in detail.
2. Conceptual Level
o The conceptual schema describes the design of a database at the
conceptual level. Conceptual level is also known as logical level.
o The conceptual schema describes the structure of the whole
database.
o The conceptual level describes what data are to be stored in the
database and also describes what relationship exists among those
data.
o In the conceptual level, internal details such as an implementation
of the data structure are hidden.
o Programmers and database administrators work at this level.
3. External Level
o At the external level, a database contains several schemas that
sometimes called as subschema. The subschema is used to describe
the different view of the database.
o An external schema is also known as view schema.
o Each view schema describes the database part that a particular user
group is interested and hides the remaining database from that user
group.
o The view schema describes the end user interaction with database
