Management Information System

Assignment
ACID Test Properties
Submitted to
Ms. Maida Masood

Submitted by
Muhammad Umair
Roll No. 40
BBA 8 (Afternoon)

ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) is a set of

properties that guarantee that database transactions are processed
reliably. In the context of databases, a single logical operation on
the data is called a transaction. For example, a transfer of funds
from one bank account to another, even involving multiple changes
such as debiting one account and crediting another, is a single
transaction. A transaction is a sequence of operations performed as
a single logical unit of work. A logical unit of work must exhibit four
properties, called the atomicity, consistency, isolation, and
durability (ACID) properties, to qualify as a transaction.

Atomicity

refers to a state in which either all the operations or

transactions should occur or simply nothing occur. The series of
operation cannot be divided or performed partially. They should be
performed or are performed once in an all.
Example: if a potential customers is making a transaction like a)
reserving a seat by b) paying the price. He should perform both the
a & b steps or neither of the both. System will not allow passenger
to only reserving the seat and not paying for it or only paying and
not reserving. In both above conditions transaction will fail to
proceed.

Consistency property ensures that the database remains in a

consistent state before the start of the transaction and after the
transaction is over (whether successful or not). It transactions
violates the consistency of data, the entire transaction will be
reverted.
Example: a gender column of a database may only have the values
male, female or unknown. If a user attempts to enter something
else, say hermaphrodite then a database consistency rule kicks in
and disallows the entry of such a value.

Isolation

in the context of databases specifies when and how

the changes implemented in an operation become visible to other
parallel operations. Transaction isolation is an important part of any
transactional system.
For example, if Joe issues a transaction against a database at the
same time that Mary issues a different transaction both transactions
should operate on the database in an isolated manner. The
database should either perform Joes entire transaction before
executing Marys or vice-versa.

Durability refers to the guarantee that once the user has been
notified of success, the transaction will persist, and not be undone.
This means it will survive system failure, and that the database

system has checked the integrity constraints and won't need to

abort the transaction.
Example: For example, if a flight booking reports that a seat has
successfully been booked, then the seat will remain booked even if
the system crashes.