August 2009
Intermediate to advanced
893 pages
26h 48m
English
Content preview from Database Systems: Concepts, Design and Applications
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1.3. Data Dictionary
Data dictionary (also called information repositories) are mini database management systems that manages metadata. It is a repository of information about a database that documents data elements of a database. The data dictionary is an integral part of the database management systems (DBMSs) and stores metadata, or information about the database, attribute names and definitions for each table in the database. Data dictionaries aid the database administrator in the management of a database, user view definitions as well as their use.
The most general structure of a data dictionary is shown in Fig. 1.8. It contains descriptions of the database structure and database use. The data in the data dictionary are maintained by several ...