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A series of tasks that are carried out as a single unit of work are referred to as “transactions” in database management systems (DBMS). In this blog, you will learn about the acid properties present in the database management system.

The acronym of the ACID properties is given down below

• Atomicity
• Consistency
• Isolation
• Durability

Atomicity

Atomicity is similar to a cookie recipe. A recipe involves numerous steps, and if you miss one, your cookies won’t turn out correctly.

In a similar way, a database transaction has numerous steps, and if any of those steps fail, the whole thing doesn’t work. Similar to how you must combine all the ingredients needed to make cookies, atomicity acts as a magic wand to ensure that each process occurs at the same time.

Take another example, such as the scenario of an online purchase. Your payment is taken by the website, which then sends you the purchased item. Atomicity makes sure that if a website accepts your payment, it also provides you with the ordered item. The website will also return your money if there is any reason it couldn’t give you the item.

There are two operations that are involved in atomicity. These are the commit and rollback operations.

• The commit operation signals the completion of a transaction and renders all modifications made during the transaction irreversible. This indicates that the modifications are permanent since they are recorded in the database. When a transaction’s modifications are legitimate and need to be saved to the database, this process is used.
• The rollback process, on the other hand, undoes all the modifications performed by the transaction and puts the database back in its initial configuration. This operation is used when a transaction’s changes are invalid or when there was a problem with the transaction’s execution. Even if a transaction fails, the rollback operation guarantees that the database will remain consistent.

Consistency

Consistency is a rule that makes sure that data stays in its proper place and follows all the rules.

When you bake a cake, you have to use the proper amount of sugar, flour, eggs, etc. Your cake won’t come out properly if you use too much or too little of a certain ingredient.

Similarly to this, a database needs to ensure that all the data is accurate and complies with the regulations. For instance, a rule in a database might state that a person’s name cannot be left blank. Consistency ensures that the name is filled in and that the rule is followed.

Isolation

Imagine two children coloring a picture at the same time, one doing the sky and the other the grass. The picture will not look good if one of the children colors too quickly and crosses over the other child’s region.

In the same way, isolation in the database means one person’s work doesn’t mess up another person’s work.

Durability

Make sure to save any projects you are working on so they don’t get lost while you are working on them. Your work becomes durable when you save it, so it will continue to exist even if the computer shuts down or there is a power outage.

A database must ensure that the information is preserved and remains there even if something goes wrong in a similar manner. Imagine building a sandcastle at the beach, but a strong wave comes along and sweeps it away since it isn’t durable.

Conclusion

Finally, it should be noted that the ACID properties—Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability—are key ideas in database management systems. They preserve the data’s integrity and consistency and make ensuring transactions are completed reliably. Atomicity makes that a transaction is handled as a single, indivisible unit of work and that all of its activities are finished, or none of them are. Consistency guarantees that a transaction changes the database’s state from invalid to valid. Concurrent transactions won’t conflict with one another thanks to isolation. Durability guarantees that a transaction’s consequences are irreversible when it is committed and endure any later crashes or failures.

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