ADABAS

ADABAS (acronym for Adaptable DAta BAse System^[1]) is Software AG’s primary database management system.

History

First released in 1970, ADABAS is considered by some to have been one of the earliest commercially available database products. Initially released on IBM mainframe systems using DOS/360, OS/MFT or OS/MVT, ADABAS is now available on a range of other systems including OpenVMS, Unix (including Linux and Linux on zSeries) and Windows servers. ADABAS has maintained its position as one of the world's fastest OLTP databases,^{[citation needed]} offering 24x7 functioning, Parallel Sysplex support, real-time replication capability, SQL and XML access and other leading edge capabilities. Historically, ADABAS was used in conjunction with Software AG's programming language NATURAL, so that many legacy applications that use ADABAS as a database on the back-end are also developed with NATURAL as well. ADABAS was used as the central IBM mainframe database repository for the ICI "Works Records System" spreadsheet developed in 1974, six years prior to later commercial spreadsheets such as Visicalc for the IBM PC.

Technical information

ADABAS is an inverted list database. It has been described as "Post-relational" but “Relational Like" in its characteristics. Some differences:

• Files, not Tables as the major organizational unit
• Records, not Rows as content unit within the organizational unit
• Fields, not Columns as components of a content unit
• No embedded SQL engine. SQL or another external query mechanism must be provided. SQL engine called ADASQL is available - it supports most of the SQL statements and can be used to access ADABAS using COBOL programs.
• Search facilities may use indexed fields or non indexed fields or both.
• Does not natively enforce referential integrity constraints, i.e. parent-child relations must be maintained by application code.
• Supports two methods of denormalization: repeating groups in a record ("periodic groups"); and multiple field values in a record ("multi-value fields").

It has proven to be very successful in providing efficient access to data and maintaining the integrity of the database.^{[citation needed]} ADABAS is now widely used in applications that require very high volumes of data processing or in high transaction online analytical processing environments.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Adabas D

Bibliography

• Pratt, Philip J.; Adamski, Joseph J. (1987). DATABASE SYSTEMS: Management and Design. Boston: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87835-227-9. 

External links

• ADABAS product home page
• ADABAS and Natural Developer Community

References

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