The Significance of ACID Properties in Modern Transactional Database Technologies

The Significance of ACID Properties in Modern Transactional Database Technologies

A database is used to store information that can be retrieved later for use. The information in a database must then be organized in a particular manner to ensure data integrity is maintained. ACID properties, such as atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability, are some of the measures implemented to maintain data integrity during and after a transaction (Deepak, 2016). Atomicity ensures that a transaction is either complete or unsuccessful. Consistency ensures that a database remains stable before and after a transaction is made. Isolation ensures that a transaction executes without interfering with another. Durability ensures that once a transaction is committed into a database, it is not altered even in the event of system failure. There are two types of databases: relational and non-relational (Machado et al., 2017). ACID properties are mainly used in relational databases, while non-relational databases use BASE properties. ACID properties work well in databases that allow updating transactions, while BASE properties are ideal for databases that do not update transactions.

Significance of Atomicity

In modern transactional databases, atomicity ensures that half a transaction is not committed into the database (Deepak, 2016). This ensures that only a complete transaction is stored in a database. For example, when a customer is using Internet banking and the transaction details are incomplete or partly erroneous, the transaction cannot be completed. A transaction failure message would be displayed, meaning the transaction did not take place and, therefore, not stored in the database. In such a scenario, the transaction details would be checked against the number of fields for a record and the null restriction before committing the transaction. The error message for the failed transaction would inform the customer of the details to review before initiating another transaction. Without the atomicity property, the database would have several incomplete or erroneous records, compromising data integrity. This would require much data cleaning and transaction reversals, especially where transactions involve money.

Significance of Consistency

Consistency ensures that the database state remains stable before and after a transaction is made (Deepak, 2016). A database should always have complete and accurate data. The data should be stored in a defined manner. This means that a transaction should not disrupt how data is stored in the database. It should instead fit into the existing structure and maintain the completeness of the database. For example, the database should have constraints set to ensure that a transaction does not pass atomicity unless it passes the constraints check. When a client is making a transaction, the system should remind him of things like the type of data allowed for the available fields and display a message to inform the client when a constraint is violated. Consistency also ensures that data is not duplicated in the database (Deepak, 2016). This means that two similar transactions cannot be committed into the database. Once the first transaction is committed, the second transaction will be flagged and halted.

Significance of Isolation

Isolation ensures that transactions are executed and committed into the database independently (Deepak, 2016). Therefore, one transaction cannot be coupled with another during execution. This ensures that several transactions are executed concurrently without affecting the other. Consequently, the system’s performance and data integrity are optimized. For example, several customers using a banking system simultaneously in the same or different locations can make transactions without interfering with each other’s transactions. When the transactions are committed into the database, the database determines when the transactions can be viewed by allocating date and time. Therefore, multiple database users logged in to the database can view the transactions as they hit the database. For example, transactions made simultaneously by different departments in an organization would be committed into the database, and the database users would view them as they hit the database.

Significance of Durability

Durability ensures that transactions that are committed into the database are not disrupted even when system failure occurs (Deepak, 2016). Meaning that when a transaction is complete, it cannot be reviewed as incomplete regardless of what happens to the system. For example, once a customer has made a cash transaction and passes the ACID properties’ requirements, hence, committed into the database, the transaction remains so even when the system breaks down. In the event of a system breakdown, the database backup would be used to restore the system, and all the transactions made before the system breakdown would be restored accurately. Therefore, durability ensures that no transaction is distorted or lost after it is committed into the database or after it is considered a complete transaction. This is an important property because it ensures that data integrity is maintained. Another example is that of data captured by staff in a company, such as customer mailing addresses. Once the mailing details are captured and stored in the database, that data is not lost because of system breakdown because it has already been committed into the database. A database backup would always be used to recover the customer’s mailing address details.

References

Deepak, G. C. (2016). A Critical Comparison of NOSQL Databases in the Context of Acid and Base [Master’s thesis]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232792366.pdf

Machado, K., Kank, R., Sonawane, J., & Maitra, S. (2017). A Comparative Study of ACID and BASE in Database Transaction Processing. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 8(5), 116-119. https://www.ijser.org/researchpaper/A-Comparative-Study-of-ACID-and-BASE-in-Database-Transaction-

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

“The Significance of ACID Properties in Modern Transactional Database Technologies”

The Significance of ACID Properties in Modern Transactional Database Technologies

ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability)