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Data Dictionary
A data dictionary, or metadata repository, as defined in the ''IBM Dictionary of Computing'', is a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, and format". ''Oracle'' defines it as a collection of tables with metadata. The term can have one of several closely related meanings pertaining to databases and database management systems (DBMS): * A document describing a database or collection of databases * An integral component of a DBMS that is required to determine its structure * A piece of middleware that extends or supplants the native data dictionary of a DBMS Documentation The terms ''data dictionary'' and ''data repository'' indicate a more general software utility than a catalogue. A ''catalogue'' is closely coupled with the DBMS software. It provides the information stored in it to the user and the DBA, but it is mainly accessed by the various software modules of the DBMS itself, such as DDL and DML com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metadata Repository
A metadata repository is a database created to store metadata. Metadata is information about the structures that contain the actual data. Metadata is often said to be "data about data", but this is misleading. Data profiles are an example of actual "data about data". Metadata adds one layer of abstraction to this definition– it is data about the structures that contain data. Metadata may describe the structure of any data, of any subject, stored in any format. A well-designed metadata repository typically contains data far beyond simple definitions of the various data structures. Typical repositories store dozens to hundreds of separate pieces of information about each data structure. Comparing the metadata of a couple data items - one digital and one physical - clarify what metadata is: First, digital: For data stored in a database one may have a table called "Patient" with many columns, each containing data which describes a different attribute of each patient. One of these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Join (SQL)
A join clause in SQL – corresponding to a join operation in relational algebra – combines columns from one or more tables into a new table. Informally, a join stitches two tables and puts on the same row records with matching fields : INNER, LEFT OUTER, RIGHT OUTER, FULL OUTER and CROSS. Example tables To explain join types, the rest of this article uses the following tables: Department.DepartmentID is the primary key of the Department table, whereas Employee.DepartmentID is a foreign key. Note that in Employee, "Williams" has not yet been assigned to a department. Also, no employees have been assigned to the "Marketing" department. This is the SQL statement to create the above tables: CREATE TABLE department( DepartmentID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, DepartmentName VARCHAR(20) ); CREATE TABLE employee ( LastName VARCHAR(20), DepartmentID INT REFERENCES department(DepartmentID) ); INSERT INTO department VALUES (31, 'Sales'), (33, 'Engineering'), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data Validation
In computer science, data validation is the process of ensuring data has undergone data cleansing to ensure they have data quality, that is, that they are both correct and useful. It uses routines, often called "validation rules", "validation constraints", or "check routines", that check for correctness, meaningfulness, and security of data that are input to the system. The rules may be implemented through the automated facilities of a data dictionary, or by the inclusion of explicit application program validation logic of the computer and its application. This is distinct from formal verification, which attempts to prove or disprove the correctness of algorithms for implementing a specification or property. Overview Data validation is intended to provide certain well-defined guarantees for fitness and consistency of data in an application or automated system. Data validation rules can be defined and designed using various methodologies, and be deployed in various contexts. Thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scripting Language
A scripting language or script language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. Scripting languages are usually interpreted at runtime rather than compiled. A scripting language's primitives are usually elementary tasks or API calls, and the scripting language allows them to be combined into more programs. Environments that can be automated through scripting include application software, text editors, web pages, operating system shells, embedded systems, and computer games. A scripting language can be viewed as a domain-specific language for a particular environment; in the case of scripting an application, it is also known as an extension language. Scripting languages are also sometimes referred to as very high-level programming languages, as they sometimes operate at a high level of abstraction, or as control languages, particularly for job control languages on mainframes. The term ''scriptin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Object (computer Science)
In computer science, an object can be a variable, a data structure, a function, or a method. As regions of memory, they contain value and are referenced by identifiers. In the object-oriented programming paradigm, ''object'' can be a combination of variables, functions, and data structures; in particular in class-based variations of the paradigm it refers to a particular instance of a class. In the relational model of database management, an object can be a table or column, or an association between data and a database entity (such as relating a person's age to a specific person). Object-based languages An important distinction in programming languages is the difference between an object-oriented language and an object-based language. A language is usually considered object-based if it includes the basic capabilities for an object: identity, properties, and attributes. A language is considered object-oriented if it is object-based and also has the capability of polymor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portability (software)
A computer program is said to be portable if there is very low effort required to make it run on different platforms. The pre-requirement for portability is the generalized abstraction between the application logic and system interfaces. When software with the same functionality is produced for several computing platforms, portability is the key issue for development cost reduction. Strategies for portability Software portability may involve: * Transferring installed program files to another computer of basically the same architecture. * Reinstalling a program from distribution files on another computer of basically the same architecture. * Building executable programs for different platforms from source code; this is what is usually understood by "porting". Similar systems When operating systems of the same family are installed on two computers with processors with similar instruction sets it is often possible to transfer the files implementing program files between them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Key
A foreign key is a set of attributes in a table that refers to the primary key of another table. The foreign key links these two tables. Another way to put it: In the context of relational databases, a foreign key is a set of attributes subject to a certain kind of inclusion dependency constraints, specifically a constraint that the tuples consisting of the foreign key attributes in one relation, R, must also exist in some other (not necessarily distinct) relation, S, and furthermore that those attributes must also be a candidate key in S. In simpler words, a foreign key is a set of attributes that ''references'' a candidate key. For example, a table called TEAM may have an attribute, MEMBER_NAME, which is a foreign key referencing a candidate key, PERSON_NAME, in the PERSON table. Since MEMBER_NAME is a foreign key, any value existing as the name of a member in TEAM must also exist as a person's name in the PERSON table; in other words, every member of a TEAM is also a PERSON. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Class Library
In computer science, a library is a collection of non-volatile resources used by computer programs, often for software development. These may include configuration data, documentation, help data, message templates, pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications. In IBM's OS/360 and its successors they are referred to as partitioned data sets. A library is also a collection of implementations of behavior, written in terms of a language, that has a well-defined interface by which the behavior is invoked. For instance, people who want to write a higher-level program can use a library to make system calls instead of implementing those system calls over and over again. In addition, the behavior is provided for reuse by multiple independent programs. A program invokes the library-provided behavior via a mechanism of the language. For example, in a simple imperative language such as C, the behavior in a library is invoked by using C's normal function-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Form (programming)
In component-based programming (Visual Basic, .NET WinForms, Gambas, Delphi, Lazarus etc.), a form is a representation of a GUI window. A form contains components and controls typically including "OK" and "Cancel" buttons, these objects provide a high-level abstraction of standard or custom widgets which are typically much easier to manipulate than the GUI's underlying API. At design time, visual controls (buttons, text boxes, and the like) and non-visual components (timers, database connections, layout aids and so on) are placed on the form. These controls and components are positioned and sized interactively, and their properties and event handlers are set with a special editor typically laid out as a grid. At runtime, automatically generated code creates instances of these controls and components, and sets their properties. Historically, forms were often implemented as screens on a block-oriented terminal connected to a mainframe computer. HTML forms are conceptually v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menu (computing)
In user interface design, a menu is a list of options or commands presented to the user of a computer or embedded system. A menu may either be a system's entire user interface, or only part of a more complex one. Navigation A user chooses an option from a menu by using an input device. Some input methods require linear navigation: the user must move a cursor or otherwise pass from one menu item to another until reaching the selection. On a computer terminal, a reverse video bar may serve as the cursor. Touch user interfaces and menus that accept codes to select menu options without navigation are two examples of non-linear interfaces. Some of the input devices used in menu interfaces are touchscreens, keyboards, mice, remote controls, and microphones. In a voice-activated system, such as interactive voice response, a microphone sends a recording of the user's voice to a speech recognition system, which translates it to a command. Types of menus A computer using a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rapid Application Development
Rapid application development (RAD), also called rapid application building (RAB), is both a general term for adaptive software development approaches, and the name for James Martin's method of rapid development. In general, RAD approaches to software development put less emphasis on planning and more emphasis on an adaptive process. Prototypes are often used in addition to or sometimes even instead of design specifications. RAD is especially well suited for (although not limited to) developing software that is driven by user interface requirements. Graphical user interface builders are often called rapid application development tools. Other approaches to rapid development include the adaptive, agile, spiral, and unified models. History Rapid application development was a response to plan-driven waterfall processes, developed in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM). One of the problems with these methods is that they we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
