Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir

at www.majidtahir.com

Syllabus Content
9- Databases
Candidates should be able to:
Define a single-table database from given data storage requirements
Notes and guidance
fields
records
validation
Suggest suitable basic data types
Notes and guidance
Including:
text/alphanumeric
character
Boolean
Integer
Real
Date/time
Understand the purpose of a primary key and identify a suitable primary key for a
given database table
Read, understand and complete structured query language (SQL) scripts to
query data stored in a single database table
Notes and guidance
Limited to:
 SELECT
 FROM
 WHERE
 ORDER BY
 SUM
 COUNT
 Identifying the output given by an SQL statement that will query the given
contents of a database table

What is a Database?
A database, also called electronic database is organized collection of data or
information typically stored electronically in a computer system for storage, rapid search
and retrieval of data.

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 1

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

A database management system (DBMS) extracts information from the database in

response to queries.
Database Entity:
Database entity is a thing, person, place, unit, object or any item about which the data
should be captured and stored in the form of properties, and tables.
Table: In Relational database model, a table is a collection of data elements organized
in terms of rows and columns.

Record: Record is the storage representation of a row of data.

Field: A database field is a set of data values, of the same data type, in a table. It is also
referred to as a column or an attribute.

Flat- File database (Single table database):

A flat file database is a type of database that stores data in a single table. This is unlike
a relational database, which makes use of multiple tables and relations.
Flat-File databases hold all of their data in one table only.
They are only suitable for very simple databases.
The patient database is an example of a flat-file as all of the information is stored in one
single table:

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 2

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

Limitations of a Flat-File Database

The problems with using a flat-file databases are as follows:
Duplicated Data is often unnecessarily entered.
Database space is wasted with this duplicated data.
Duplicated Data takes a long time to enter and update (unnecessarily).

What is Data Redundancy?

Data Redundancy is where you store the same data many times (duplicate data) in your table.
This repeated data needs to be typed in over and over again which takes a long time.
For example:-
The patients database contains several entries of duplicate data:
 Doctor Id
 Dr. Hyde
 Room 03

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 3

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

What is the solution to Data Redundancy?

To avoid the data redundancy with flat-file databases is to create
a relational database.

Primary Key:
The primary key is a field which uniquely identifies each record in the table. It cannot be
duplicated or contain a null value e.g. Candidate number for a school student in Table. Every
student must have a Candidate number. It cannot a blank value or duplicated.

Relational Databases
Relational Databases use two or more tables linked together
(to form a relationship).
Relational Databases do not store all the data in the same table.
Repeated data is moved into it's own table as shown in the image below:

What is a relationship?
A relationship is formed when our two tables are joined together.
Relationships make use of key fields and primary keys to allow the two tables
to communicate with each other and share their data.
Key fields are identified using a primary key as shown in the image below:

Once the tables are linked together each one can read data from the other.
This means that we only need to enter the details of each doctor once instead of
many separate entries.
How do you form the relationship? (Link the tables)
In order to link the tables we need to use a common field.

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 4

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

A common field is data that appears in BOTH tables.

If you look at the image below you will see that the common field in the patient
database is Doctor Id:

What is a foreign key?

A foreign key is a regular field in one table which is being used as the key field
(primary key) in another table.
Foreign keys are used to provide the link (relationship) between the tables.
For example:-
In our patient database, Doctor Id is a key field in the Doctor Table but is also being used in
the Patient Table as a foreign key:

The foreign key (Doctor Id in the patient table) can then be used to match to the
primary key (Doctor Id in the doctor table) and share the correct data.

For example:-
A patient with a Doctor Id 01 will be automatically assigned to Doctor Hyde & Room 03.

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 5

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

What are Data Types used in Databases?

Each field will require a data type to be selected.

A data type classifies how the data is stored, displayed and the operations that can be
performed on the stored value.

These database data types are specified in the syllabus.

They are available to use as Access data types, but the names Access uses may be different.

Data Types in syllabus:

text/alphanumeric (stores text)
character (stores a single character)
Boolean (Yes/ No, or True/False)
Integer ( stores Whole number)
Real ( stores decimal number)
Date/time (stores Date and Time)

Validation:
The role of validation was discussed in earlier chapters. Some validation checks will be
automatically provided by the database management software that is used to construct
and maintain the database.
Other validation checks need to be set up by the database developer during the
construction of the database.
There are many different types of validation checks including:
range checks
length checks
type checks
presence checks
format checks

Database Queries:
Queries allow users to search and sort data held in a database. There are two different
ways to create queries.

The first is to use the built in query generator that comes with most database software.

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 6

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

The example below shows a complex query searching two tables to find any student
named Smith who is taught Spanish.

The query below has been created using an in built query generator.

More advanced users may want to create some code to perform queries.

SQL is an example of a language used to create queries within database applications.

The same query in SQL could be written as:

SELECT surname, forename, tutor, language, cost p/h

FROM Students, Tutors
WHERE Students.Surname ='Smith' AND Tutors.Language = 'spanish';

Past paper (sample exam style questions):

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 7

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

Explain why the query-by-example is incorrect, and write a correct query-by-example. Explanation
...............................................................................................................................

Re-Write correct query:

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 8

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

Answers:

Queries in SQL:
Databases allow us to store and filter data to find specific information. A database can
be queried using a variety of methods, although this depends on the software you are
using.
Databases can use query languages or graphical methods to interrogate the data.

Query Language:
Query language is a written language used only to write specific queries. This is
a powerful tool as the user can define precisely what is required in a database. SQL is a
popular query language used with many databases.

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 9

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

Boolean Operators:
Boolean operators are used to filter databases using AND, OR or NOT. They can
search multiple fields at the same time to help us retrieve the data that we need.
AND
AND is used to search records that contain one piece of information AND another.

A query for the words brown AND shoes would return results that contain the words
brown and shoes.
In general, search engines treat the query brown shoes as brown AND shoes,
which means that all results will contain both words, eg brown trousers and red
shoes for sale.

OR
OR is used to search for records that contain EITHER one piece of information OR
another.

for example black shoes OR white shoes. This would present results for any shoes
that were black or white.
Most search engines use the OR function best if the search statements are defined by
speech marks, eg "brown shoes" OR "black jeans" would show pages which
either contain brown shoes or black jeans.

NOT
NOT is used to exclude results.
The query shoes NOT brown will return results that contain the word shoes but
NOT the word brown.

Arithmetic operators
A query can also be performed using arithmetic operators. These help to make
specific searches related to numerical data.

Functions of arithmetic operators

This table shows some arithmetic operators and their functions:

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 10

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

Operator Meaning

= Equals

< Less than

<= Less than or equal to

> Greater than

>= Greater than or equal to

<> Not equal to

Using arithmetic operators

The table below shows some BBC TV programme listings:

ID Title Genre Duration (mins) Channel

01 EastEnders Drama 30 BBC1

02 Dragons' Den Entertainment 60 BBC2

03 The Voice Entertainment 75 BBC3

04 Blue Peter Children's 25 CBBC

05 Wild Brazil Nature 60 BBC4

06 Match of the Day Sport 80 BBC1

07 Tom and Dom Comedy 10 CBBC

Queries are useful for searching for specific conditions. You might want to find
entertainment programmes on BBC3. A query for these conditions would look like this:

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 11

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

SELECT * FROM Programmes

WHERE Genre = “Entertainment”
AND Channel = “BBC3”;
This would return the programme 'The Voice'.

03 The Voice Entertainment 75 BBC3

You may want a programme that is less than 20 minutes long or is a nature programme.
A query for these conditions would look like this:

SELECT * FROM Programme

WHERE Duration < 20
OR Genre ='Nature';
This would return the programmes "Tom and Dom" and "Wild Brazil".

05 Wild Brazil Nature 60 BBC4

07 Tom and Dom Comedy 10 CBBC

Working with SQL: Step 2

You can query this table using SQL code. You may decide that you wish to sort the
programmes by duration.

The SQL code needed would look like the example below:

SELECT Duration, Title

FROM Programmes
ORDER BY Duration;

 the SELECT statement states which fields to look at - the Title and Duration fields
 the FROM statement states which table to look at - Programmes
 the ORDER BY statement sorts the Duration field in ascending order by default
This table shows the results from this query:

Duration Title

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 12

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

Duration Title

25 Blue Peter

30 EastEnders

50 Newsnight

60 Wild Brazil

75 The Voice

90 Sherlock

Working with SQL: Step 3

The SQL WHERE statement is used to isolate one record or several records with
similar attributes.
Title Genre Duration
ID

01 EastEnders Drama 30

02 Newsnight Current affairs 50

03 The Voice Entertainment 75

04 Blue Peter Children's 25

05 Wild Brazil Nature 60

06 Sherlock Drama 90

The following code searches the Title field of the table to find the words 'The Voice'.

SELECT ID, Title, Genre, Duration

FROM Programmes
WHERE Title = "The Voice";

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 13

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

 the WHERE statement specifies which text to look for

This table shows the results from this query:
Title Genre Duration
ID

03 The Voice Entertainment 75

Alternatively, you could find all of the programmes which are less than 30 minutes long
using this code:

SELECT ID, Title, Genre, Duration

FROM Programmes
WHERE Duration <30; or

SELECT * FROM Programmes

WHERE Duration < 30;

This table shows the results from this query:

Title Genre Duration

ID

04 Blue Peter Children's 25

Wildcards
The wildcard uses the * symbol, and is used in place of any number of unknown
characters. For example, the following code searches for all programmes with the
letter i in the title:
SELECT * FROM Programmes
WHERE Title LIKE “*i*” ;

This table below shows the results from this query:

ID Title Genre Duration

02 Newsnight Current Affairs 50

03 The Voice Entertainment 75

05 Wild Brazil Nature 60

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 14

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

COUNT() Syntax
The COUNT() function returns the number of rows that matches a
specified criterion.

SELECT COUNT(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

DEMO DATABASE
Table Products

SELECT COUNT ProductID

FROM Products;
RESULT COUNT
COUNT(Price) 5

The COUNT() function returns the number of rows that matches a

specified criteria.

SUM() Syntax
The SUM() function returns the total sum of a numeric column.

SELECT SUM(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
Demo Database
Below is a selection from the "Order" table in the sample database:

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 15

 Ch 9- Database (Computer Science 2210) CS (2210) with Majid Tahir
at www.majidtahir.com

SELECT SUM Quantity

FROM Order ;
RESULT
SUM 76
(Quantity)

References:
https://www.bbc.com/education/guides/z37tb9q/revision/8
https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_count_avg_sum.asp
Cambridge (Hodder) O level Book by David Watson & Helen Williams

www.majidtahir.com WhatsApp: +923004003666 Online classes at www.fiqar.org 16