Question

Modern database tools support ________________, which entails separating data from the programs that manipulate data.

Answer 1

The correct answer: Data independence

Data independence is the type of data transparency that matters for a centralised DBMS. It refers to the immunity of user applications to changes made in the definition and organization of data. Physical data independence deals with hiding the details of the storage structure from user applications.

The logical structure of the data is known as the 'schema definition'. In general, if a user application operates on a subset of the attributes of a relation, it should not be affected later when new attributes are added to the same relation. Logical data independence indicates that the conceptual schema can be changed without affecting the existing schemas.

The physical structure of the data is referred to as "physical data description". Physical data independence deals with hiding the details of the storage structure from user applications. The application should not be involved with these issues since, conceptually, there is no difference in the operations carried out against the data.