S1301- -- -DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS DATABASE

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS DATABASE MANAGEMENT

SYSTEMS DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
TWO MARKS
:
UNIT: 1
INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL
MODELLING INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL
MODELLING INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL
MODELLING INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL
MODELLING
1.

Define database management system?

Database management system (DBMS) is a collection of interrelated data and aset
of programs to access those data.
2.

List any eight applications of DBMS.

a)

Bankingb)

Airlinesc)

Universitiesd)

Credit card transactionse)

Tele communicationf)

Financeg)

Salesh)
Manufacturingi)

Human resources
3.

What are the disadvantages of file processing system?

The disadvantages of file processing systems area)

Data redundancy and inconsistencyb)

Difficulty in accessing datac)

Data isolationd)

Integrity problemse)

Atomicity problemsf)

Concurrent access anomalies

4.

What are the advantages of using a DBMS?

The advantages of using a DBMS are

a)

Controlling redundancyb)

Restricting unauthorized accessc)

Providing multiple user interfacesd)

Enforcing integrity constraints.e)

Providing back up and recovery
5.

Give the levels of data abstraction?

a)

Physical levelb)

logical levelc)

view level
6.

Define instance and schema?Instance:

Collection of data stored in the data base at a particular moment iscalled an
Instance of the database.
Schema:
The overall design of the data base is called the data base schema.
7.

Define the terms 1) physical schema 2) logical schema.Physical

schema:
The physical schema describes the database design at thephysical level, which is
the lowest level of abstraction describing how the data areactually stored.
Logical schema:
The logical schema describes the database design at the logicallevel, which
describes what data are stored in the database and what relationship existsamong
the data.
8.

What is conceptual schema?

The schemas at the view level are called subschemas that describe different
viewsof the database.
9.
Define data model?
A data model is a collection of conceptual tools for describing data,
datarelationships, data semantics and consistency constraints.
10.

What is storage manager?

A storage manager is a program module that provides the interface between
thelow level data stored in a database and the application programs and queries
submitted tothe system.
11.

What are the components of storage manager?

The storage manager components includea)

Authorization and integrity managerb)

Transaction managerc)

File managerd)

Buffer manager
12.

What is the purpose of storage manager?

The storage manager is responsible for the followinga)

Interaction with he file managerb)

Translation of DML commands in to low level file system commandsc)

Storing, retrieving and updating data in the database13.

List the data structures implemented by the storage manager
.The storage manager implements the following data structurea)

Data filesb)

Data dictionaryc)

indices
14.

What is a data dictionary?

A data dictionary is a data structure which stores meta data about the structure
of the database ie. the schema of the database.
15.

What is an entity relationship model?

The entity relationship model is a collection of basic objects called entities
andrelationship among those objects. An entity is a thing or object in the real
world that isdistinguishable from other objects.
16.

What are attributes? Give examples.

An entity is represented by a set of attributes. Attributes are descriptive
propertiespossessed by each member of an entity set.
Example:
possible attributes of customer entity are customer name, customer id,customer
street, customer city.
17.

What is relationship? Give examples

A relationship is an association among several entities.
Example:
A depositor relationship associates a customer with each account thathe/she has.
18.

Define the termsi)

Entity setii)

Relationship setEntity set:

The set of all entities of the same type is termed as an entity set.
Relationship set
: The set of all relationships of the same type is termed as arelationship set.
19.

Define single valued and multivalued attributes.Single valued

attributes
: attributes with a single value for a particular entity arecalled single valued
attributes.
Multivalued attributes
: Attributes with a set of value for a particular entity arecalled multivalued
attributes.
20.

What are stored and derived attributes?Stored attributes

: The attributes stored in a data base are called stored attributes.
Derived attributes:
The attributes that are derived from the stored attributes arecalled derived
attributes.
21.

What are composite attributes?

Composite attributes can be divided in to sub parts.
22.
Define null values.
In some cases a particular entity may not have an applicable value for an
attributeor if we do not know the value of an attribute for a particular entity. In
these cases nullvalue is used.
23.

Define the termsi)

Entity typeii)

Entity setEntity type:

An entity type defines a collection of entities that have the sameattributes.
Entity set:
The set of all entities of the same type is termed as an entity set.
24.

What is meant by the degree of relationship set?

The degree of relationship type is the number of participating entity types.
25.

Define the terms

i)

Key attributeii)

Value setKey attribute

: An entity type usually has an attribute whose values are distinctfrom each
individual entity in the collection. Such an attribute is called a key attribute.
Value set:
Each simple attribute of an entity type is associated with a value setthat specifies
the set of values that may be assigned to that attribute for each individualentity.
26.
Define weak and strong entity sets?
Weak entity set: entity set that do not have key attribute of their own are
calledweak entity sets.Strong entity set: Entity set that has a primary key is termed
a strong entity set.
27.

What does the cardinality ratio specify?

Mapping cardinalities or cardinality ratios express the number of entities to
whichanother entity can be associated. Mapping cardinalities must be one of
thefollowing:
•

One to one
•

One to many
•

Many to one
•

Many to many
28.

Explain the two types of participation constraint.

•

Total:
The participation of an entity set E in a relationship set R is said tobe
total
if every entity in E participates in at least one relationship in R.
•

Partial:
if only some entities in E participate in relationships in R, theparticipation of entity
set E in relationship R is said to be
partial.29.

Define the termsi)

DDLii)

DMLDDL:
Data base schema is specified by a set of definitions expressed by a
speciallanguage called a data definition language.

DML:
A data manipulation language is a language that enables users to access
ormanipulate data as organized by the appropriate data model.
30.

Write short notes on relational model

The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent both data and
therelationships among those data. The relational model is an example of a
recordbased model.
31.

Define tuple and attribute

•

Attributes:
column headers
•

Tuple
: Row32.
Define the term relation
.Relation is a subset of a Cartesian product of list domains.
33.

Define tuple variable

Tuple variable is a variable whose domain is the set of all tuples.
34.

Define the term Domain.

For each attribute there is a set of permitted values called the
domain
of thatattribute.
35.

What is a candidate key?

Minimal super keys are called
candidate keys.
36.

What is a primary key?

Primary key
is chosen by the database designer as the principal means of identifying an entity
in the entity set.
37.

What is a super key?

A
super key
is a set of one or more attributes that collectively allows us toidentify uniquely an
entity in the entity set.
38.

Define- relational algebra.

The relational algebra is a procedural query language. It consists of a set
of operations that take one or two relation as input and produce a new relation
asoutput.
39.

What is a SELECT operation?

The
select
operation selects tuples that satisfy a given predicate. We use thelowercase letter
σσσσ
to denote selection.

40.

What is a PROJECT operation?

The project operation is a unary operation that returns its argument relation
withcertain attributes left out. Projection is denoted by pie (
ππππ
).41.

Write short notes on tuple relational calculus.

The tuple relational calculation is anon procedural query language. It describesthe
desired information with out giving a specific procedure for obtaining
thatinformation.A query or expression can be expressed in tuple relational
calculus as{t
|
P (t)}which means the set of all tuples‘t’ such that predicate P is true
for‘t’.Notations used:
•

t[A]
→
the value of tuple ‘t’ on attribute, A
•

t
∈
r
→
tuple ‘t’ is in relation ‘r’
•

→
there existsDefinition for ‘there exists’ (
∃
):
∃
t
∈
r(Q(t))which means there exists a tuple ‘t’ in relation ‘r’such that predicate Q(t) is
true.
•

→
for allDefinition for ‘for all’ (
∀
):
∀
t
∈
r(Q(t))which means Q(t) is true for all tuples ‘t’ in relation‘r’.
•

⇒
→
ImplicationDefinition for Implication (
⇒
):P
⇒
Q means if P is true then Q must be true.
42.

Write short notes on domain relational calculus

The domain relational calculus uses domain variables that take on values from
anattribute domain rather than values for entire tuple.
43.

Define query language?

A query is a statement requesting the retrieval of information. The portion

of DML that involves information retrieval is called a query language.
44.

Write short notes on Schema diagram.

A database schema along with primary key and foreign key dependencies can
bedepicted pictorially by schema diagram. Each relation appears as a box
withattributes listed inside it and the relation name above it.
45. What is foreign key?
A relation schema r1 derived from an ER schema may include among itsattributes
the primary key of another relation schema r2.this attribute is called a
foreign key
from r1 referencing r2.

UNIT: 2
RELATIONAL MODEL RELATIONAL MODEL RELATIONAL
MODEL RELATIONAL MODEL
1.
What are the parts of SQL language?
The SQL language has several parts:

data - definitition language

Data manipulation language

View definition

Transaction control

Embedded SQL

Integrity

Authorization
2.

What are the categories of SQL command?

SQL commands are divided in to the following categories:1.

data - definitition language2.

data manipulation language3.

Data Query language4.

data control language5.

data administration statements6.

transaction control statements

3.

What are the three classes of SQL expression?

SQL expression consists of three clauses:

Select

From

where
4.

Give the general form of SQL query?Select

A
1
,A
2
…………., An
From
R
1
,R
2
……………, R
m
Where
P
5.

What is the use of rename operation?

Rename operation is used to rename both relations and a attributes.It uses the as
clause, taking the form:Old-name
as
new-name
6.

Define tuple variable?

Tuple variables are used for comparing two tuples in the same relation. The
tuplevariables are defined in the
from
clause by way of the
as
clause.
7.

List the string operations supported by SQL?

1)

Pattern matching Operation2)

Concatenation3)

Extracting character strings4)

Converting between uppercase and lower case letters.

8.

List the set operations of SQL?

1)

Union2)

Intersect operation3)

The except operation

9.

What is the use of Union and intersection operation?Union

: The result of this operation includes all tuples that are either in r1 or in r2or in
both r1 and r2.Duplicate tuples are automatically eliminated.
Intersection:
The result of this relation includes all tuples that are in both r1 andr2.
10.

What are aggregate functions? And list the aggregate functions

supported bySQL?
Aggregate functions are functions that take a collection of values as input
andreturn a single value.Aggregate functions supported by SQL are

Average: avg

Minimum: min

Maximum: max

Total: sum
Count: count
11.

What is the use of group by clause?Group by

clause is used to apply aggregate functions to a set of tuples.Theattributes given in
the
group by
clause are used to form groups.Tuples with thesame value on all attributes in the
group by
clause are placed in one group.
12.

What is the use of sub queries?

A sub query is a select-from-where expression that is nested with in anotherquery.
A common use of sub queries is to perform tests for set membership,
makesetcomparisions, and determine set cardinality.
13.

What is view in SQL? How is it defined?

Any relation that is not part of the logical model, but is made visible to a user as
avirtual relation is called a view.We define view in SQL by using the
create view
command. The form of the
create view
command is
Create view

v
as <query expression>
14.

What is the use of with clause in SQL?

The
with
clause provides a way of defining a temporary view whose definition isavailable
only to the query in which the
with
clause occurs.
15.

List the table modification commands in SQL?

Deletion

Insertion

Updates

Update of a view
16.

List out the statements associated with a database transaction?

Commit work

Rollback work
17.

What is transaction?
Transaction is a unit of program execution that accesses and possibly
updatedvarious data items.
18.
List the SQL domain Types?

SQL supports the following domain types.1)

Char(n) 2) varchar(n) 3) int 4) numeric(p,d)5) float(n) 6) date.

19.

What is the use of integrity constraints?

Integrity constraints ensure that changes made to the database by authorized
usersdo not result in a loss of data consistency. Thus integrity constraints guard
againstaccidental damage to the database.
20.

Mention the 2 forms of integrity constraints in ER model?

Key declarations

Form of a relationship
21.

What is trigger?
Triggers are statements that are executed automatically by the system as the
sideeffect of a modification to the database.
22.

What are domain constraints?

A domain is a set of values that may be assigned to an attribute .all values
thatappear in a column of a relation must be taken from the same domain.
23.

What are referential integrity constraints?

A value that appears in one relation for a given set of attributes also appears for
acertain set of attributes in another relation.
24.

What is assertion? Mention the forms available.

An assertion is a predicate expressing a condition that we wish the databasealways
to satisfy.

Domain integrity constraints.

Referential integrity constraints

25.

Give the syntax of assertion?Create assertion

<assertion name>
check
<predicate>26.

What is the need for triggers?Triggers are useful mechanisms for alerting humans
or for starting certain tasksautomatically when certain conditions are met.
27.

List the requirements needed to design a trigger.

The requirements are

Specifying when a trigger is to be executed.

Specify the actions to be taken when the trigger executes.

28.
Give the forms of triggers?

The triggering event can be insert or delete.

For updated the trigger can specify columns.

The referencing old row as clause

The referencing new row as clause

The triggers can be initiated before the event or after the event.
29.

What does database security refer to?

Database security refers to the protection from unauthorized access and
maliciousdestruction or alteration.
30.

List some security violations (or) name any forms of malicious

access.

Unauthorized reading of data

Unauthorized modification of data

Unauthorized destruction of data.

31.

List the types of authorization.

Read authorization

Write authorization

Update authorization

Drop authorization
32.

What is authorization graph?

Passing of authorization from one user to another can be represented by
anauthorization graph.
33.

List out various user authorization to modify the database schema.

Index authorization

Resource authorization

Alteration authorization

Drop authorization
34.

What are audit trails?

An audit trail is a log of all changes to the database along with information suchas
which user performed the change and when the change was performed.

35.

Mention the various levels in security measures.

Database system

Operating system

Network

Physical

human
36.

Name the various privileges in SQL?

Delete

Select
Insert

update
37.

Mention the various user privileges.

All privileges directly granted to the user or role.

All privileges granted to roles that have been granted to the user or role.
38.

Give the limitations of SQL authorization.

The code for checking authorization becomes intermixed with the rest of
theapplication code.

Implementing authorization through application code rather than specifying

itdeclaratively in SQL makes it hard to ensure the absence of loopholes.
39.

Give some encryption techniques?

DES

AES
Public key encryption
40.

What does authentication refer?

Authentication refers to the task of verifying the identity of a person.
41.

List some authentication techniques.

Challenge response scheme

Digital signatures

Nonrepudiation

42.

Define Boyce codd normal form

A relation schema R is in BCNF with respect to a set F of functionaldependencies
if, for all functional dependencies in F
+
of the form.
α->β,
where
α

43.

List the disadvantages of relational database system

Repetition of data

Inability to represent certain information.

44.

What is first normal form?

The domain of attribute must include only atomic (simple, indivisible) values.
45.

What is meant by functional dependencies?

Consider a relation schema R and
α
C
R and
β
C
R. The functional dependency
α

β
holds on relational schema R if in any legal relation r(R), for all pairs of tuples t1
and t2 in r such that t1 [
α
] =t1 [
α
], and also t1 [
β
] =t2 [
β
].
46.
What are the uses of functional dependencies?

To test relations to see whether they are legal under a given set of
functionaldependencies.

To specify constraints on the set of legal relations.

47.

Explain trivial dependency?

Functional dependency of the form
α

β
is trivial if
β

C
α
. Trivial functionaldependencies are satisfied by all the relations.
48.

What are axioms?

Axioms or rules of inference provide a simpler technique for reasoning
aboutfunctional dependencies.
49.

What is meant by computing the closure of a set of functional

dependency?
The closure of F denoted by F
+
is the set of functional dependencies logicallyimplied by F.
50.

What is meant by normalization of data?

It is a process of analyzing the given relation schemas based on their
FunctionalDependencies (FDs) and primary key to achieve the properties

Minimizing redundancy

Minimizing insertion, deletion and updating anomalies

.

51.

Define canonical cover?

A canonical cover F
c
for F is a set of dependencies such that F logically impliesall dependencies in F
C
and F
c
logically implies all dependencies in F. F
c
musthave the following properties.
52.

List the properties of canonical cover.

F
c
must have the following properties.
No functional dependency in F
c
contains an extraneous attribute.

Each left side of a functional dependency in F

c
is unique.
53.

Explain the desirable properties of decomposition.

Lossless-join decomposition

Dependency preservation

Repetition of information
54.

What is 2NF?
A relation schema R is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-prime attribute A in
Ris fully functionally dependent on primary key.

UNIT: 3
DATA STORAGE AND QUERY PROCESSING DATA STORAGE
AND QUERY PROCESSING DATA STORAGE AND QUERY
PROCESSING DATA STORAGE AND QUERY PROCESSING
1. Give the measures of quality of a disk.
Capacity

Access time

Seek time

Data transfer rate

Reliability

Rotational latency time.

2. Compare sequential access devices versus random access devices
with an examplesequential access devices random access devices
Must be accessed from the beginning It is possible to read data from any location
Eg:- tape storage Eg:-
disk storageAccess to data is much slower Access to data is fasterCheaper than dis
k Expensive when compared with disk
3.

What are the types of storage devices?

Primary storage

Secondary storage

Tertiary storage
4. Draw the storage device hierarchy according to their speed and
their cost.5.

What are called jukebox systems?

Jukebox systems contain a few drives and numerous disks that can be loaded
intoone of the drives automatically.
6. What is called remapping of bad sectors?
If the controller detects that a sector is damaged when the disk is
initiallyformatted, or when an attempt is made to write the sector, it can logically
map the sectorto a different physical location.
7. Define access time.
Access time is the time from when a read or write request is issued to when
datatransfer begins.
8.

Define seek time.

The time for repositioning the arm is called the seek time and it increases with
thedistance that the arm is called the seek time.
9.

Define average seek time.

The average seek time is the average of the seek times, measured over a
sequenceof random requests.CacheMain memoryFlash memoryMagnetic
disk Optical disk Magnetic tapes

10.

Define rotational latency time.

The time spent waiting for the sector to be accessed to appear under the head
iscalled the rotational latency time.
11. Define average latency time.
The average latency time of the disk is one-half the time for a full rotation of
thedisk.
12. What is meant by data-transfer rate?
The data-transfer rate is the rate at which data can be retrieved from or stored tothe
disk.
13. What is meant by mean time to failure?
The mean time to failure is the amount of time that the system could
runcontinuously without failure.
14. What are a block and a block number?
A block is a contiguous sequence of sectors from a single track of one platter.Each
request specifies the address on the disk to be referenced. That address is in
theform of a block number.
15. What are called journaling file systems?
File systems that support log disks are called journaling file systems.
16. What is the use of RAID?
A variety of disk-organization techniques, collectively called redundant arrays
of independent disks are used to improve the performance and reliability.
17. Explain how reliability can be improved through redundancy?
The simplest approach to introducing redundancy is to duplicate every disk.
Thistechnique is called mirroring or shadowing. A logical disk then consists of
two physicaldisks, and write is carried out on both the disk. If one of the disks fails
the data can beread from the other. Data will be lost if the second disk fails before
the first fail ed disk isrepaired.
18. What is called mirroring?

The simplest approach to introducing redundancy is to duplicate every disk.

Thistechnique is called mirroring or shadowing.
19. What is called mean time to repair?
The mean time to failure is the time it takes to replace a failed disk and to
restorethe data on it.
20. What is called bit-level striping?
Data striping consists of splitting the bits of each byte across multiple disks.
Thisis called bit-level striping.
21. What is called block-level striping?
Block level striping stripes blocks across multiple disks. It treats the array of
disksas a large disk, and gives blocks logical numbers.
22. What are the two main goals of parallelism?

Load –balance multiple small accesses, so that the throughput of suchaccesses

increases.

Parallelize large accesses so that the response time of large accesses isreduced
23. What are the factors to be taken into account when choosing a
RAID level?
o

Monetary cost of extra disk storage requirements.

o

Performance requirements in terms of number of I/O operations

o

Performance when a disk has failed.

o

Performances during rebuild.

24. What is meant by software and hardware RAID systems?
RAID can be implemented with no change at the hardware level, using
onlysoftware modification. Such RAID implementations are called software
RAID systemsand the systems with special hardware support are called hardware
RAID systems.
25. Define hot swapping?
Hot swapping permits the removal of faulty disks and replaces it by new
oneswithout turning power off. Hot swapping reduces the mean time to repair.
26. Which level of RAID is best? Why?
RAID level 1 is the RAID level of choice for many applications with
moderatestorage requirements and high I/O requirements. RAID 1 follows
mirroring and providesbest write performance.
27. Distinguish between fixed length records and variable length
records?Fixed length records
Every record has the same fields and field lengths are fixed.
Variable length records
File records are of same type but one or more of the fields are of varying size.
28. What are the ways in which the variable-length records arise in
databasesystems?

Storage of multiple record types in a file.

Record types that allow variable lengths for one or more fields.

Record types that allow repeating fields.

29. Explain the use of variable length records.

They are used for Storing of multiple record types in a file.

Used for storing records that has varying lengths for one or more fields.

Used for storing records that allow repeating fields

30. What is the use of a slotted-page structure and what is the
information presentin the header?
The slotted-page structure is used for organizing records within a single block.The
header contains the following information.
The number of record entries in the header.

The end of free space

An array whose entries contain the location and size of each record.
31. What are the two types of blocks in the fixed –length
representation? Definethem.
•

Anchor block: Contains the first record of a chain.

•

Overflow block: Contains the records other than those that are the firstrecord of a
chain.

32. What is known as heap file organization?

In the heap file organization, any record can be placed anywhere in the file
wherethere is space for the record. There is no ordering of records. There is a
single file foreach relation.
33. What is known as sequential file organization?
In the sequential file organization, the records are stored in sequential
order,according to the value of a “search key” of each record.
34. What is hashing file organization?
In the hashing file organization, a hash function is computed on some attribute
of each record. The result of the hash function specifies in which block of the file
the recordshould be placed.
35. What is known as clustering file organization?
In the clustering file organization, records of several different relations are storedin
the same file.
36. What is an index?
An index is a structure that helps to locate desired records of a relation
quickly,without examining all records.
37. What are the two types of ordered indices?

Primary index

Secondary index
38. What are the types of indices?

Ordered indices

Hash indices
39. What are the techniques to be evaluated for both ordered
indexing and hashing?

Access types

Access time

Insertion time

Deletion time

Space overhead
40. What is known as a search key?
An attribute or set of attributes used to look up records in a file is called a
searchkey.
41. What is a primary index?
A primary index is an index whose search key also defines the sequential order
of the file.
42. What are called index-sequential files?
The files that are ordered sequentially with a primary index on the search key
arecalled index-sequential files.
43. What are the two types of indices?

Dense index

Sparse index
44. What are called multilevel indices?
Indices with two or more levels are called multilevel indices.
45. What are called secondary indices?
Indices whose search key specifies an order different from sequential order of
thefile are called secondary indices. The pointers in secondary index do not point
directly tothe file. Instead each points to a bucket that contains pointers to the file.
46. What are the disadvantages of index sequential files?
The main disadvantage of the index sequential file organization is
thatperformance degrades as the file grows. This degradation is remedied by
reorganizationof the file.
47. What is a B+-Tree index?
A B+-Tree index takes the form of a balanced tree in which every path from
theroot of the root of the root of the tree to a leaf of the tree is of the same length.
Draw the structure of a B+ tree and explain briefly.
A node contains up to n-1 search key values and n pointers.
P1 K1 P2 K2 …………. Pn-1 Kn-1 Pn
48. What is B-Tree?
A B-tree eliminates the redundant storage of search-key values .It allows
searchkey values to appear only once.
49. What is hashing?
Hashing allows us to find the address of a data item directly by computing a
hashfunction on the search key value of the desired record.
50. How do you create index in SQL?
We create index by he create index command.
Create index
<index name>
on
<relation name> (<attribute list>)
51. Distinguish between static hashing and dynamic hashing?Static
hashing
Static hashing uses a hash function in which the set of bucket adders isfixed. Such
hash functions cannot easily accommodate databases thatgrow larger over time.
Dynamic hashing
Dynamic hashing allows us to modify the hash function dynamically.Dynamic
hashing copes with changes in database size by splitting andcoalescing buckets as
the database grows and shrinks.
52. What is a hash index?
A hash index organizes the search keys, with their associated pointers, into a
hashfile structure.
53. What can be done to reduce the occurrences of bucket overflows
in a hash fileorganization?

To reduce bucket overflow the number of bucket is chosen to be(nr/fr)*(1+d).

We handle bucket overflow by using

•

Overflow chaining(closed hashing)

•
Open hashing
54. Differentiate open hashing and closed hashing (overflow
chaining)Closed hashing (overflow chaining)

If a record must be inserted in to a bucket b, and b is already full, the

systemprovides an overflow bucket for b, and inserts the record in to the overflow
bucket. If theoverflow bucket is also full, the system provides another overflow
bucket, and so on. Allthe overflow buckets of a given buckets are chained together
in a linked list, overflowhandling using linked list is known as closed hashing.
Open hashing
The set of buckets is fixed, and there are no overflow chains. Instead, if a bucketis
full, the system inserts records in some other bucket in the initial set of buckets.
55. What is linear probing?
Linear probing is a type of open hashing. If a bucket is full the system
insertsrecords in to the next bucket that has space. This is known as linear probing.
56. What is called query processing?
Query processing refers to the range of activities involved in extracting data froma
database.
57. What are the steps involved in query processing?
The basic steps are:

parsing and translation

optimization

evaluation
58. What is called an evaluation primitive?
A relational algebra operation annotated with instructions on how to evaluate
iscalled an evaluation primitive.
59. What is called a query evaluation plan?
A sequence of primitive operations that can be used to evaluate ba query is aquery
evaluation plan or a query execution plan.
60. What is called a query –execution engine?
The query execution engine takes a query evaluation plan, executes that plan,
andreturns the answers to the query.

61. How do you measure the cost of query evaluation?

The cost of a query evaluation is measured in terms of a number of
differentresources including disk accesses, CPU time to execute a query, and in a
distributeddatabase system the cost of communication
62. List out the operations involved in query processing
Selection operationJoin operations.Sorting.ProjectionSet operationsAggregation
63. What are called as index scans?
Search algorithms that use an index are referred to as index scans.
64. What is called as external sorting?
Sorting of relations that do not fit into memory is called as external sorting.
65. Explain nested loop join?Nested loop join consists of a pair of
nested for loops.Example: r|

|
Θ
s
r is the outer relation and s is the inner relation.
66. What is meant by block nested loop join?
Block nested loop join is the variant of the nested loop join where every block
of the inner relation is paired with every block of the outer relation. With in each
pair of blocks every tuple in one block is paired with every tuple in the other
blocks to generateall pairs of tuples.
67. What is meant by hash join?
In the hash join algorithm a hash function h is used to implement partition tuplesof
both relations.
68. What is called as recursive partitioning?
The system repeats the splitting of the input until each partition of the build
inputfits in the memory. Such partitioning is called recursive partitioning.

69. What is called as an N-way merge?

The merge operation is a generalization of the two-way merge used by
thestandard in-memory sort-merge algorithm. It merges N runs, so it is called an
N-waymerge.
70. What is known as fudge factor?
The number of partitions is increased by a small value called the fudge
factor,which is usually 20 percent of the number of hash partitions computed.
71.

Define query optimization.

Query optimization refers to the process of finding the lowest –cost method
of evaluating a given query.

UNIT: 4
TRANSACTION PROCESSING TRANSACTION
PROCESSING TRANSACTION PROCESSING TRANSACTION
PROCESSING
1. What is transaction?
Collections of operations that form a single logical unit of work are
calledtransactions.
2. What are the two statements regarding transaction?
The two statements regarding transaction of the form:

Begin transaction

End transaction
3. What are the properties of transaction?
The properties of transactions are:
Atomicity

Consistency

Isolation

Durability
4. What is recovery management component?
Ensuring durability is the responsibility of a software component of the
basesystem called the recovery management component.
5. When is a transaction rolled back?
Any changes that the aborted transaction made to the database must be
undone.Once the changes caused by an aborted transaction have been undone,
then thetransaction has been rolled back.
6. What are the states of transaction?
The states of transaction are

Active

Partially committed

Failed

Aborted
Committed

Terminated
7. What is a shadow copy scheme?
It is simple, but efficient, scheme called the shadow copy schemes. It is based
onmaking copies of the database called shadow copies that one transaction is
active at atime. The scheme also assumes that the database is simply a file on disk.
8. Give the reasons for allowing concurrency?
The reasons for allowing concurrency is if the transactions run serially, a
shorttransaction may have to wait for a preceding long transaction to complete,
which can leadto unpredictable delays in running a transaction.So concurrent
execution reduces the unpredictable delays in running transactions.
9. What is average response time?
The average response time is that the average time for a transaction to
becompleted after it has been submitted.
10. What are the two types of serializability?
The two types of serializability is

Conflict serializability

View serializability
11. Define lock?
Lock is the most common used to implement the requirement is to allow
atransaction to access a data item only if it is currently holding a lock on that item.
12. What are the different modes of lock?
The modes of lock are:

Shared
Exclusive
13. Define deadlock?
Neither of the transaction can ever proceed with its normal execution.
Thissituation is called deadlock.
14. Define the phases of two phase locking protocol

Growing phase: a transaction may obtain locks but not release any lock.

Shrinking phase: a transaction may release locks but may not obtain any
newlocks.
15. Define upgrade and downgrade?
It provides a mechanism for conversion from shared lock to exclusive lock
isknown as upgrade.It provides a mechanism for conversion from exclusive lock
to shared lock isknown as downgrade.
16. What is a database graph?
The partial ordering implies that the set D may now be viewed as a
directedacyclic graph, called a database graph.
17. What are the two methods for dealing deadlock problem?
The two methods for dealing deadlock problem is deadlock detection
anddeadlock recovery.
18. What is a recovery scheme?
An integral part of a database system is a recovery scheme that can restore
thedatabase to the consistent state that existed before the failure.
19. What are the two types of errors?
The two types of errors are:

Logical error
System error
20. What are the storage types?
The storage types are:

Volatile storage

Nonvolatile storage
21. Define blocks?
The database system resides permanently on nonvolatile storage, and ispartitioned
into fixed-length storage units called blocks.
22. What is meant by Physical blocks?
The input and output operations are done in block units. The blocks residing onthe
disk are referred to as physical blocks.

23. What is meant by buffer blocks?

The blocks residing temporarily in main memory are referred to as buffer blocks.
24. What is meant by disk buffer?
The area of memory where blocks reside temporarily is called the disk buffer.
25. What is meant by log-based recovery?
The most widely used structures for recording database modifications is the
log.The log is a sequence of log records, recording all the update activities in the
database.There are several types of log records.
26. What are uncommitted modifications?
The immediate-modification technique allows database modifications to be
outputto the database while the transaction is still in the active state. Data
modifications writtenby active transactions are called uncommitted modifications.
27. Define shadow paging.
An alternative to log-based crash recovery technique is shadow paging.
Thistechnique needs fewer disk accesses than do the log-based methods.
28.
Define page.
The database is partitioned into some number of fixed-length blocks, which
arereferred to as pages.
29.

Explain current page table and shadow page table.

The key idea behind the shadow paging technique is to maintain two page
tablesduring the life of the transaction: the current page table and the shadow page
table. Boththe page tables are identical when the transaction starts. The current
page table may bechanged when a transaction performs a write operation.
30. What are the drawbacks of shadow-paging technique?
•

Commit Overhead
•

Data fragmentation

Garbage collection
30.

Define garbage collection.

Garbage may be created also as a side effect of crashes. Periodically, it isnecessary
to find all the garbage pages and to add them to the list of free pages. Thisprocess
is called garbage collection.
32.

Differentiate strict two phase locking protocol and rigorous two

phase lockingprotocol.
In
strict two phase locking protocol
all exclusive mode locks taken by atransaction is held until that transaction
commits.
Rigorous two phase locking protocol
requires that all locks be held until thetransaction commits.
33.

How the time stamps are implemented

•

Use the value of the system clock as the time stamp. That is a transaction’stime
stamp is equal to the value of the clock when the transaction enters thesystem.
•

Use a logical counter that is incremented after a new timestamp has beenassigned;
that is the time stamp is equal to the value of the counter.
34.

What are the time stamps associated with each data item?
•

W-timestamp (Q) denotes the largest time stamp if any transaction thatexecuted
WRITE (Q) successfully.
•

R-timestamp (Q) denotes the largest time stamp if any transaction thatexecuted
READ (Q) successfully.

UNIT: 5
CURRENT TRENDS CURRENT TRENDS CURRENT
TRENDS CURRENT TRENDS
1. What is meant by object-oriented data model?
The object-oriented paradigm is based on encapsulation of data and code relatedto
an object in to a single unit, whose contents are not visible to the outside world.
2. What is the major advantage of object-oriented programming
paradigm?
The ability to modify the definition of an object without affecting the rest of
thesystem is the major advantage of object-oriented programming paradigm.
3.

What are the methods used in object-oriented programming

paradigm?
*read-only*update
4. What is the main difference between read-only and update
methods?
A read-only method does not affect the values of a variable in an object,
whereasan update method may change the values of the variables.
5. What is the use of keyword ISA?
The use of keyword ISA is to indicate that a class is a specialization of
anotherclass.
6. Differentiate sub-class and super-class?
The specialization of a class is called subclasses.eg: employee is a subclass
of person and teller is a subclass of employee.Conversely, employee is a super
classof teller, and person is a super class of employee.
7. What is substitutability?
Any method of a class-say A can equally well be invoked with any
objectbelonging to any subclasses B of A. This characteristic leads to code reuse,
sincethe messages, methods, and functions do not have to be written again for
objectsof class B.
8. What is multiple inheritance?
Multiple inheritance permits a class to inherit variables and methods frommultiple
super classes.

9. What is DAG?
The class-subclass relationship is represented by a directed acyclic
graph.eg:employees can be temporary or permanenet.we may create subclasses
temporaryand permanenet, of the class employee.
10. What is disadvantage of multiple inheritance?
There is potential ambiguity if the same variable or method can be inherited
frommore than one superclass.eg: student class may have a variable dept
identifying astudent's department, and the teacher class may correspondingly have
a variabledept identifying a teacher's department.
11. What is object identity?
An object retains its identity even if some or all the values of variables
ordefinitions of methods change overtime.
12. What are the several forms of identity?
*Value*Name*Built-in
13. What is a value?
A data value is used for identity. This form of identity is used in
relationalsystems.eg: The primary key value of a tuple identifies the tuple.
14. What is a Name?
A user-supplied name is used for identity. This form of identity is used for files
infile systems. The user gives each file a name that uniquely identifies it,
regardlessof its contents.
15What is a Built-in
A notation of identity is built-into the data model or programming language andno
user-supplied identifier is required. This form of identity is used in object-oriented
systems.
16 What is meant by object identifiers?
Object-oriented systems use an object identifier to identify objects.
Objectidentifiers are unique: that is each object has a single identifier, and no two

objects have the same identifier.

17. What are composite objects?
Objects that contain other objects are called complex objects or compositeobjects.
18. What is object containment?
References between objects can be used to model different real-world concepts.
19. Why containment is important in oosystems?
Containment is an important concept in oosystems because it allows
differentusers to view data at different granularities.
20. Define object-relational systems?
Systems that provide object-oriented extensions to relational systems are
calledobject-relational systems.
21. How persistent programming languages differ from traditional
programminglanguages?
Database languages differ from traditional programming languages in that they
directlymanipulate data that are persistent-that is, data that continue to exist even
after theprogram terminated. Relation in a database and tuples in a relation are
examples of persistent data. In contrast, the only persistent data that traditional
programminglanguages directly manipulate are files.
22. Define atomic domains?
A domain is atomic if elements of the domain are considered to be
indivisibleunits.
23. Define 1NF?
First normal form is one which requires that all attributes have atomic domains.
24. What is nested relational model?
The nested relational model is an extension of relational model in which
domainsmay be either atomic or relation valued.
25. List some instances of collection types?
*sets*arrays*multisets

26. How to create values of structured type?

Constructor functions are used to create values of structured types. A functionwith
the same name as a structured type is a constructor function for the structured
type.
27. Write a query to define tables students and teachers as sub
tables of people?
Create table students of student under peopleCreate table teachers of teacher under
people
28. What is a homogeneous distributed database?
In homogeneous distributed databases, all sites have identical
databasemanagement system software, are aware of one another, and agree to
cooperate inprocessing user's requests.
29. What is a heterogeneous distributed database?
In a heterogeneous distributed database, different sites may use different schemas,
and different dbms s/w.The sites may not be aware of one another, and they may
provide only limited facilities for cooperation in transaction processing.
30. What are the two approaches to store relations in distributed
database?
*Replication*Fragmentation
31. What are the two different schemes for fragmenting a relation?
*horizontal*vertical
32. What is horizontal fragmentation?
Horizontal fragmentation splits the relation by assuming each tuple of r to one
ormore fragments.
33. What is vertical fragmentation?
Vertical fragmentation splits the relation by decomposing the scheme R of relation
r.
34. What are the various forms of data transparency?
*fragmentation transparency*replication transparency*location transparency
35. Define decision tree classifiers?

As the name suggests decision tree classifiers use a tree: each leaf node has an
associatedclass, and each internal node has a predicate associated with it.

16 Mark QuestionsUnit 1
1. Explain the architecture of DBMS with a neat block diagram
•

Storage manager
•

Query processor
•

Block diagram2. Explain ER model in detail

•
Attribute set
•

Entity set
•

Mapping cardinalities
•

Relationship sets
•

Keys3. Explain the design issues of ER-model

•

Use of entity sets Vs Attribute sets

•

Use of Entity sets Vs Relationship sets

•

Binary Vs Nary relationship sets

•

Placement of relationship sets4. Explain the various relational algebra operations

•

Select operations
•

Project operations
•

Union operation
•
Set difference operations
•

Cartesian product operations

•

Rename operations5. Draw an ER diagram for a banking enterprise

•

Data requirements
•

Entity sets
•

Relationship sets
•

ER diagram

Unit II1.

Explain nested Queries with examples

•

Set membership
•

Set comparison
•

Test for empty relations2.

Explain embedded SQL and dynamic SQL in detail
•

Explanation3.

Explain the integrity constraints supported by SQL

•

Domain constraints
•

Referential integrity4.

Explain triggers with example.

•

Need for triggers

•

Explanations
•

When not to use triggers5.

Explain security and authorization and Security in SQL

•

Security violations
•

Authorization
•

Privileges
•
Roles6. Explain the different normal forms in detail
•

1 normal form
•

2 nd normal form
•

3 rd normal form
•

4 th normal form
•

BCNF

UNIT III
1.

Explain RAID levels in detail

•

RAID LEVEL0
•

RAID LEVEL1
•

RAID LEVEL2
•

RAID LEVEL3
•

RAID LEVEL4
•

RAID LEVEL5
•

RAID LEVEL62.

Explain file organization in details.

•

Sequential file organization

•

Clustering file organization

•

Heap file organization

•

Hash file organization3.

Explain indexing and hashing

•

Primary index
•

Multilevel index
•

Secondary index
•
Hash functions
•

Dynamic hashing4.

Explain B+ tree index in detail

•

Structure
•

Queries
•

Updates5.

Explain Query processing in detail.

•

Parsing and translation

•

Optimization
•

Evaluation

Unit IV
1.

Explain ACID in detail.

•
Atomicity
•

Consistency
•

Isolation
•

Durability2.

Explain serializability
•

Conflict serializability
•

View serializability3.

Explain lock based protocols

•

Shared
•

Exclusive4.

Explain two phase locking in detail.

•

Strict two phase locking

•

Rigorous two phase locking5.

Explain log based recovery in detail.
•

Immediate database modifications

•

Deferred modification

UNIT V
1.

Explain XML in detail

•

Structure
•

Document schema
•

Xml schema2.

Explain distributed Database in detail

•

Data replication
•

Fragmentation
•

Transparency3.
Explain Data mining in detail
•

Classification
•

Decision tree classifiers

•

Regression
•

Association4.

Explain Data warehousing in detail

•

Components
•

Schema5.

Explain OODM in detail

•

Object structure
•

Object classes
•

Inheritance
•

Multiple inheritenceidentity