<database> A database management system which performs data
validation and processing traditionally done by application
programs. Most DBMSs provide some data validation,
e.g. rejecting invalid dates or alphabetic data entered into
money fields, but often most processing is done by application
programs. There is however no limit to the amount of
processing that can be done by an intelligent database as long
as the process is a standard function for that data.
Examples of techniques used to implement intelligent databases
are constraints, triggers and stored procedures.
Moving processing to the database aids data integrity
because it is guaranteed to be consistent across all uses of
the data. Mainframe databases have increasingly become more
intelligent and personal computer database systems are rapidly
following.
