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1. What is a database?
A database is a structured collection of data
that represents a real-world element and is
created for a specific purpose.
2. What is DBMS?
It is a set of programs that allow users to
construct and manage databases. General-
purpose software allows users to define,
construct, and manipulate databases for
numerous applications.
3. What is a Database system?
The database and DBMS software together is
called a Database system.
4. What are the advantages of
DBMS?
e Redundancy is controlled.
e Unauthorized access is restricted.
« Providing multiple user interfaces.« Enforcing integrity constraints.
¢ Providing backup and recovery.
5. What are the disadvantages
of a File Processing System?
1. Data redundancy and inconsistency.
2. Difficult in accessing data.
3. Data isolation.
4. Data integrity.
5. Concurrent access is not possible.
6. Security Problems.
6. Describe the three levels of
data abstraction.
The are three levels of abstraction in DBMS:
«1. Physical level: The lowest level of
abstraction describes how data are
stored.
+ 2. Logical level: The next higher level of
abstraction, describes what data are
storedin the database and _ what
relationship is among those data.«3. View level: The highest level of
abstraction describes only part of the
entire database.
7. Define the "integrity rules"?
There are two Integrity Rules.
¢ 1. Entity Integrity: "Primary key cannot
have NULL value"
¢ 2. Referential Integrity: A foreign key can
be either NULL or the primary key of
another relation.
8. What is Data Independence?
Data independence refers to an application's
ability to function independently of data
storage and access strategies. Modifying the
schema definition at one level should not
affect the next higher level.
There are two forms of data independence:
¢1. Physical Data Independence:
Modifications at the physical level should
not influence logical levels.¢ 2. Logical Data Independence: Any
changes made at the logical level should
be reflected at the view level.
9. What is a view? How itis
related to data independence?
A view is a virtual table that is derived from
one or more base tables, rather than existing
independently. The view definition is
contained in the data dictionary rather than in
a separate file. Views do not reflect the
growth or restructure of basic tables. The
view protects users from the effects of
database restructure and growth. This
accounts for logical data independence.
10. What is a Data Model?
A collection of conceptual tools for
describing data, data relationships data
semantics, and constraints.11. What is the E-R model?
The data model is based on the real world,
consisting of basic things and_ their
relationships. In a database, entities are
defined by a set of attributes.
12. What is Object Oriented
model?
This concept is based on the collection of
items. Instance variables store values within
an object. An object also contains code that
performs operations on it. These code bodies
are referred to as methods. Classes are
created by grouping objects with similar
properties and actions.13. What is an Entity?
It is a ‘thing’ in the real world with an
independent existence.
14. What is an Entity type?
It is a collection (set) of entities that have the
same attributes.
15. What is an Entity Set?
It is a collection of all entities of a specific
entity type in the database.
16. What is an Extension of
Entity Type?
An entity set is made up of collections of
entities of the same kind.
17. What is a Weak Entity Set?
A weak entity set is one with insufficientproperties to generate a primary key, which
compromises its partial key and the primary
key of its parent entity.
18. What constitutes an
attribute?
It is a specific property that defines the entity.
19. What is the difference
between a relation schema and
a relation?
eA relation schema, indicated by R(A1,
A2...., An), consists of the relation name R
and alist of attributes (Ai).
«A relation is defined as a collection of
tuples
e. Let r be the relation that includes set
tuples (t1, t2, t3,.., tn). Each tuple (v1,
v2,..., vn) is an ordered list of n-values.
20. What is the Degree of a
Relationship?It represents the number of attributes In the
relation schema.
21. What is Relationship?
It is a relationship between two or more
entities.
22. What is a Relationship Set?
Acollection (or set) of similar relationships.
23. What is the relationship
type?
The term "relationship type" refers to a set of
associations or relationships between entity
kinds.
24. What is the Degree of
Relationship Type?
It is the number of entity types that
participate.25. What is Data Definition
Language (DDL)?
A database schema is specified by a set of
definitions stated in a particular language
known as DDL.
26. What is Data Manipulation
Language (DML)?
This language allows users to access or
manipulate data arranged by an acceptable
data model.
¢ 1. Procedural DML, also known as low-
level DML, requires users to declare data
requirements and methods for retrieval.
e 2. Non-Procedural DML or High level:
DML requires a user to specify what data
are needed without specifying how to get
those data.27. What is the Query
Evaluation Engine?
It executes low-level instructions produced by
the compiler.
28. What is normalization?
The approach involves analyzing relation
schemas based on Functional Dependencies
(FDs) and main keys to obtain desired
attributes (1).(2) Reduce redundancy.
Keeping insertion, deletion, and update
anomalies to a minimum.
29. What is Functional
Dependence?
A functional dependency (X Y) between two
subsets of R specifies a constraint on the
possible tuple for a relation state (r) of R. The
constraint states that for every two tuples t1
and t2 in r, if t1[X] = t2[X], t1[Y] = t2[Y]. This
means that the value of X in a tuple dictates
the value of Y.30. What is the Lossless Join
Property?
It prevents spurious tuple formation in
relation to schemas following
decomposition.
31. What is one NF (Normal
Form)?
The domain of the property shall only contain
atomic (simple, indivisible) values.
32. What is a Fully Functional
Dependency?
It is founded on the idea of full functional
reliance. A functional dependency xX Y is full if
removing any property A from X causes the
dependency to no longer hold.
33. What is 2NF?
A relational schema. R is in 2NF if it is in 1NF
and all non-prime attributes in R are totallvdependent on the primary key.
34. What is 3NF?
A relational schema. R is in 3NF if it is in 2NF
and for every FD X A, one of the following is
true.
¢ 1.Xis a super-key for R.
2. Ais R's prime property.
In other words, if all non-prime attributes are
not transitively dependent on the primary key
35. What is the BCNF (Boyce-
Codd Normal Form)?
A relation schema R is in BCNF if it is in 3NF
and satisfies an extra constraint: for every FD
A, X must be a candidate key.
36. What exacily is meant by
query optimization?
The phase that determines an effectiveexecution strategy for evaluating a query
using the least predicted cost is referred to as
query optimization.
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37. What is the definition of
durability in database
management systems?
When the DBMS informs the user that a
transaction has successfully completed, the
effects should persist even if the system fails
before all of its changes are written to disk.
The property is referred to as durability.
38. What exactly do you mean
by atomicity and aggregation?
¢ 1. Atomicity: Either all actions are
completed or none are. Users should not
worry about the impact of unfinished
transactions. The DBMS achieves this byundoing unfinished transactions.
« 2. Aggregation: A factor that represents
the interaction between entities and
relationships. It is utilized when we want
to express a relationship between
partnerships.
39. What is a query?
«A query in DBMS refers to user
commands used to communicate with a
database.
¢ There are two types of query languages:
data specification and data manipulation.
40. What do you mean by
Correlated subquery?
¢ Subqueries, or nested queries, are used to
bring back a set of rows to be used by the
parent query.
e Depending on how the subquery is
written, it can be executed once for the
parent query or it can be executed once
for each row returned by the parent query.
If the subquery is executed for each rowof the parent, this is called a correlated
subquery.
eA correlated subquery can be easily
identified if it contains any references to
the parent subquery columns in its
WHERE clause. Columns from the
subquery cannot be referenced anywhere
else in
e the parent query. The following example
demonstrates a non-correlated subquery.
Example
SELECT * FROM CUST WHERE ‘Oe a
CUST.CNUM = ORDER. CNUM)
41. What are the primitive
operations common to all
record management systems?
Addition, deletion, and modification.
42. What are the unary
operations in Relational
Algebra?PROJECTION and SELECTION.
43. Are the resultant relations
from the PRODUCT and JOIN
operations the same?
« PRODUCT: Concatenation of all rows
from one relation into another.
« JOIN Concatenation of rows from one
relation and related rows from another.
44, Which part of the RDBMS
manages the data dictionary?
How?
The kernel is solely responsible for
maintaining the data dictionary, which is a
collection of tables and database objects
stored in a certain database region.
45. What purpose does the
information in the data
dictionary serve?
The data dictionary confirms items’existence, allows access, and maps their
physical storage location.
46. How does one interface
with an RDBMS?
SQL is the language you use to communicate
with an RDBMS.
47. Define SQL and explain how
it differs from other
programming languages.
eSQL is a non-procedural language
designed for accessing data in
normalized relational databases.
¢ SQL differs from other programming
languages in that it specifies data
operations, not how to implement them.
48. Name the three major sets
of disk files that make up an
Oracle database.
A database consists of three majorcollections of files on disk. All of the files are
binary.
These are:
1. Database files.
2. Control files.
3. Redo logs.
The most significant of these are the
database files, which hold the actual data.
The design relies on control files and redo
logs to work properly. Oracle requires all three
sets of files to be present, open, and available
for database use. Without these files, the
database cannot be accessed, and the
administrator may need to use a backup to
retrieve some or all of the data.49. What is a Database Trigger?
A database trigger is a PL/SQL block that
automatically executes insert, update, and
delete operations on a table. The trigger can
be set to execute once for the entire
statement or for each row inserted, changed,
or deleted. Database triggers can be defined
for up to twelve events per table. A database
trigger can execute procedures written in
PL/SQL.
50. What is a Transaction
Manager?
This program module keeps the database
stable even during system failures and
prevents conflicts between ongoing
transactions.