CS614- Data Warehousing

Solved Subjective
From Midterm Papers
MC100401285

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Feb 05,2013
PSMD01

CS614- Data Warehousing

SPRING 2012
1; what are the two extremes for technical architecture design? 2
Answer:- (Page 95)
Theoretically there can be two extremes i.e. free space and free performance. If storage is not an issue, then just
pre-compute every cube at every unique combination of dimensions at every level as it does not cost anything.
This will result in maximum query performance.
2;Different b/w non key or key data access?2
Answer:- (Page 231)
There are two ways to access data: non-keyed access and keyed access.
Non-keyed access uses no index. Each record of the database is accessed sequentially, beginning with the first
record, then second, third and so on.
3;Be a diplomat not a technologist?2
Answer:- (Page 320)
The biggest problem you will face during a warehouse implementation will be people, not the technology or the
development. Youre going to have senior management complaining about completion dates and unclear
objectives. Youre going to have development people protesting that everything takes too long and why cant
they do it the old way? Youre going to have users with outrageously unrealistic expectations, who are used to
systems that require mouse-clicking but not much intellectual investment on their part. And youre going to
grow exhausted, separating out Needs from Wants at all levels. Commit from the outset to work very hard at
communicating the realities, encouraging investment, and cultivating the development of new skills in your
team and your users (and even your bosses).
Most of all, keep smiling. When all is said and done, youll have a resource in place that will do magic, and
your grief will be long past. Eventually, your smile will be effortless and real.

4;Dirty bit?2
Answer:- (Page 438)
It can be boolean type column
This column will help us in keeping record of rows with errors, during data profiling
5;What are the problem face industry when the growth in usage of master table file increase?3
Answer:- (Page 12)
Data coherency i.e. the need to synchronize data upon update.
Program maintenance complexity.
Program development complexity.
Requirement of additional hardware to support many tapes.
6;Indexing using I/O bottelneck?3
Answer:- (Page 221)
Throwing more hardware at the problem doesn't really help, either. Expensive and multiprocessing servers can
certainly accelerate the CPU-intensive parts of the process, but the bottom line of database access is disk
access, so the process is I/O bound and I/O doesn't scale as fast as CPU power. You can get around this by
putting the entire database into main memory, but the cost of RAM for a multi-gigabyte database is likely to be
higher than the server itself! Therefore we index.
7; what is mean by the classification process? How we measure the accuracy of classifiers? 3
Answer:- (Page 259)
Classification means that based on the properties of existing data, we have made or groups i.e. we have made
classification.
Accuracy is the measure of correctness of your model e.g. in classification we have two data sets, training and
test sets. A classification model is built based on the data properties and relationships in training data. Once
built the model is tested for accuracy in terms of % correct results as the classification of the test data is already
known. So we specify the correctness or confidence level of the technique in terms % accuracy.
8;SQL server meta services advantages(3)
Answer:- (Page 385)
We may maintain meta data information of the databases involved in the packages and we may keep version
information of each package. Furthermore package can be stored in a structured file and Microsoft visual basic
file.
9;Why pilot strategy is recommended for construction of DWH(5)
Answer:- (Page 334)
Will adopt a pilot project approach, because:
A full-blown DWH requires extensive investment.
Show users the value of DSS.
Establish blue print for full-blown system.
Identify problem areas.
Reveal true data demographics.
Pilot projects are supposed to work with limited data.
2

10: Purpose of DTS services(5)

Answer:- (Page )
Many organizations need to centralize data to improve corporate decision-making. However, their data may be
stored in a variety of formats and in different locations. Data Transformation Services (DTS) address this vital
business need by providing a set of tools that let you extract, transform, and consolidate data from disparate
sources into single or multiple destinations supported by DTS connectivity.
DTS allows us to connect through any data source or destination that is supported by OLE DB. This wide range
of connectivity that is provided by DTS allows us to extract data from wide range of legacy systems.
Heterogeneous source systems store data with their local formats and conventions. While consolidating data
from variety of sources we need to transform names, addresses, dates etc into a standard format. For example
consider a student record management system of a university having four campuses. A campus say A follows
convention to store city codes LHR for Lahore. An other campus say B stores names of cities Lahore,
campus C stores city names in block letters LAHORE, and the last campus D store city names as lahore.
When the data from all the four campuses is combined as it is and query is run How many students belong to
Lahore? We get the answer only from campus B because no other convention for Lahore matches to the one
in query.
To combine data from heterogeneous sources with the purpose of some useful analysis requires transformation
of data. Transformation brings data in some standard format.
11: Explain analytic dta application specification in kimbill 5 marks
Answer:- (Data Warehouse Toolkit, Page 363)
Following the business requirements definition, we need to review the findings and collected sample reports to
identify a starter set of approximately 10 to 15 analytic applications. We want to narrow our initial focus to the
most critical capabilities so that we can manage expectations and ensure on-time delivery. Business community
input will be critical to this prioritization process. While 15 applications may not sound like much, the number
of specific analyses that can be created from a single template merely by changing variables will surprise you.
Before we start designing the initial applications, its helpful to establish standards for the applications, such as
common pull-down menus and consistent output look and feel. Using the standards, we specify each
application template, capturing sufficient inklllformation about the layout, input variables, calculations, and
breaks so that both the application developer and business representatives share a common understanding.
During the application specification activity, we also must give consideration to the organization of the
applications. We need to identify structured navigational paths to access the applications, reflecting the way
users think about their business. Leveraging the Web and customizable information portals are the dominant
strategies for disseminating application access.
12: Business rules are validated using student database in LAB 5 marks

CS614- Data Warehousing

SPRING 2012
Why an organization refuses to visit a person to understand the strategy of Data Warehouse system? 2
Marks
What are the methods used to develop DWH? 2 Marks
Answer:- (Page 283)
Development methodologies
Waterfall model
Spiral model
RAD Model
Structured Methodology
Data Driven
Goal Driven
User Driven
Define Forward proxy? 2 Marks
Answer:- (Page 369)
It is outside of our control because it belongs to a networking company or an ISP.
Differentiate between data driven DSS and Knowledge driven DSS? 2 Marks
Answer:- Click here for detail
Knowledge-Driven DSS based on Expert System technologies attempts to reason about an input using its
knowledge base and logical rules for problem solving.
Model-Driven DSS has a sequence of predefined instructions (a model) for responding to a change in inputs.
Define Classification Process? How to measure the accuracy of Classifier? 3 Marks
Answer:- Rep
What operations are provided by MS DTS? 3 Marks
Answer:- (Page 375)
DTS Overview: Operations
A set of tools for
Providing connectivity to different databases
Building query graphically
Extracting data from disparate databases
Transforming data
Copying database objects
Providing support of different scripting languages( by default VB-Script and J-Script)

Why a pilot project strategy is highly recommended in DWH construction? 3 Marks

Answer:- Rep
Some activities are represented by different format in different data sectors. What issues can be there
regarding database structure in DWH 3 Marks
Answer:- (Page 168)
Within the data warehousing field, data cleansing is applied especially when several databases are merged.
Records referring to the same entity are represented in different formats in the different data sets or are
represented erroneously. Thus, duplicate records will appear in the merged database. The issue is to identify
and eliminate these duplicates. The problem is known as the merge/purge problem. Instances of this problem
appearing in literature are called record linkage, semantic integration, instance identification, or object identity
problem.
Fundamental strengths and weakness of k-mean clustering? 5 Marks
Answer:- (Page 281)
Strength
Relatively efficient: O(tkn), where n is # objects, k is # clusters, and t is # iterations. Normally, k, t << n.
Often terminates at a local optimum. The global optimum may be found using techniques such as:
deterministic annealing and genetic algorithms
Weakness
Applicable only when mean is defined, then what about categorical data?
Need to specify k, the number of clusters, in advance
Unable to handle noisy data and outliers
Not suitable to discover clusters with non-convex shapes

Write a query to find out total numbers of female students registered in BS Telecom. 3 Marks
Answer:- (Page 425)
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT r.SID) AS Expr1
FROM Registration r INNER JOIN
Student s ON r.SID = s.SID AND
s.[Last Degree] IN ('F.Sc.', 'FSc',
'HSSC', 'A-Level', 'A level') AND
r.Discipline = 'TC' AND s.Gender = '1

BOOK
ISBN
TITLE
PUBLISHER
ADDRESS
Is this table is in First and second normal form? If yes then what about third normal form? 5 Marks

What issues may occur during data acquisition and cleansing in agriculture case study? 5 Marks
Answer:- (Page 341)
The pest scouting sheets are larger than A4 size (8.5 x 11), hence the right end was cropped when
scanned on a flat-bed A4 size scanner.
The right part of the scouting sheet is also the most troublesome, because of pesticide names for a single
record typed on multiple lines i.e. for multiple farmers.
As a first step, OCR (Optical Character Reader) based image to text transformation of the pest scouting
sheets was attempted. But it did not work even for relatively clean sheets with very high scanning
resolutions.
Subsequently DEOs (Data Entry Operators) were employed to digitize the scouting sheets by typing.
The pest scouting sheets are larger than A4 size (8.5 x 11), hence the right end was cropped when scanned on
a flat-bed A4 size scanner. The right part of the scouting sheet is also the most troublesome, because of
pesticide names for a single record typed on multiple lines i.e. for multiple farmers.
As a first step, OCR (Optical Character Reader) based image to text transformation of the pest scouting sheets
was attempted. But it did not work even for relatively clean sheets with very high scanning resolutions, such as
600 dpi. Subsequently DEOs (Data Entry Operators) were employed to digitize the scouting sheets by typing.
To reduce spelling errors in pesticide names and addresses, drop down menu or combo boxes with standard and
correct names were created and used.

CS614- Data Warehousing

SPRING 2012
Qno.1 How time contiguous log entries and HTTP secure socket layer are used for user session identification?
What are the limitations of these techniques?
Answer:- (Page 365)
Using Time-contiguous Log Entries
A session can be consolidated by collecting time-contiguous log entries from the same host (Internet
Protocol, or IP, address).
Limitations
The method breaks down for visitors from large ISPs
Different IP addresses
Browsers that are behind some firewalls.
Limitations
This method breaks down for visitors from large ISPs because different visitors may reuse dynamically
assigned IP addresses over a brief time period.
Different IP addresses may be used within the same session for the same visitor.
This approach also presents problems when dealing with browsers that are behind some firewalls.

Using HTTP's secure sockets layer (SSL)

Offers an opportunity to track a visitor session
Limitations
To track the session, the entire information exchange needs to be in high overhead SSL
Each host server must have its own unique security certificate.
Visitors are put-off by pop-up certificate boxes.
Limitations
The downside to using this method is that to track the session, the entire information exchange needs to
be in high overhead SSL, and the visitor may be put off by security advisories that can pop up when
certain browsers are used.
Each host server must have its own unique security certificate.
Qno.2 What is the process of gathering information about columns, what is the purpose? Describe briefly
Answer:- (Page 440)
Data profiling, gathering information about columns, fulfils the following two purposes
Identify the type and extent to which transformation is required
Gives us a detailed view of data quality

Qno.3 what is mean by click stream? how it can be useful in a web DWH environment
Answer:- (Page 363)
Web-intensive businesses have access to a new kind of data, in some cases literally consisting of the gestures of
every Web site visitor. This is called as the clickstream. In its most elemental form, the clickstream is every
page event recorded by the web server. The clickstream contains a number of new dimensions such as page,
session, and referrer-that were previously unknown in conventional DWH environment.

Qno.4 Differentiate between DDS, Data mining and Data Warehouse DWH
Answer:- http://dwbi1.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/what-is-big-data-data-warehouse-data-mining/
A DDS is a database that stores the data warehouse data in a different format than OLTP.
Data mining is the process of exploring data to find the patterns and relationships that describe the data and to
predict the unknown or future values of the data. The key value of data mining is the ability to understand why
some things happened in the past and the ability to predict what will happen in the future.
A data warehouse is a system that retrieves and consolidates data periodically from the source systems into a
dimensional or normalized data store.
Qno.5 Suppose that we collected data of agriculture from the Punjab, We are require underutilized process data
to be successful and what your suggestion after decode the data?

Qno.6 What affect on the Data Warehouses if the data across an erroneous record, what should be taken
measure by support decision?
Answer:- (Page 159)
Erroneous data leads to unnecessary costs and probably bad reputation when used to support business
processes.
Move all such records to exception table.
Qno.7 Differentiate between Range partitioning and Expression Partitioning
Answer:- (Page 66)
The most common use of range partitioning is on date. This is especially true in data warehouse deployments
where large amounts of historical data are often retained.
Expression partitioning is usually deployed when expressions can be used to group data together in such a way
that access can be targeted to a small set of partitions for a significant portion of the DW workload.
Qno.8 What are the two extremes for technical architecture design?
Answer:- Rep
Qno.9 What should be done in the case where golden copy is missing dates
Answer:- (Page 457)
If the dates are missing we must need to consult golden copy. If gender is missing we are not required to
consult golden copy. Name can help us in identifying the gender of the person.
When golden copy is unavailable replace with a global value 1/1/50

CS614- Data Warehousing

SPRING 2012
1. Horizontal splitting of tables
Answer:- (Page 55)
Horizontal splitting breaks a relation into multiple record set specifications by placing different rows into
different tables based upon common column values. For the multi-campus example being considered; students
from Islamabad campus in the Islamabad table, Peshawar students in corresponding table etc. Each file or table
created from the splitting has the same record lay out or header.
2. Nested loop join and its variants
Answer:- (Page 239)
Traditionally Nested-Loop join has been and is used in OLTP environments, but for many reasons, such a join
mechanism is not suitable for VLDB and DSS environments. Nested loop joins are useful when small subsets
of data are joined and if the join condition is an efficient way of accessing the inner table.

3. Hash based join and its working

Answer:- (Page 245)
Hash joins are suitable for the VLDB environment as they are useful for joining large data sets or tables. The
choice about which table first gets hashed plays a pivotal role in the overall performance of the join operation,
and left to the optimizer.
4. Define DWH, data mining & knowledge discovery in database
Answer:- (Page 254)
Knowledge Discovery
--Overall process of discovering useful knowledge
Data Mining (Knowledge-driven exploration)
-- Query formulation problem.
-- Visualize and understand of a large data set.
-- Data growth rate too high to be handled manually.
Data Warehouses (Data-driven exploration):
-- Querying summaries of transactions, etc. Decision support
5. Kimball's life cycle model
Answer:- (Page )
DWH Lifecycle: Key steps
1. Project Planning
2. Business Requirements Definition
3. Parallel Tracks
3.1 Lifecycle Technology Track
3.1.1 Technical Architecture
3.1.2 Product Selection
3.2 Lifecycle Data Track
3.2.1 Dimensional Modeling
3.2.2 Physical Design
3.2.3 Data Staging design and development
3.3 Lifecycle Analytic Applications Track
3.3.1 Analytic application specification
3.3.2 Analytic application development
4. Deployment
5. Maintenance

6. Why should companies entertain students to visit their company's place?

Answer:- (Page 328)
You are students, and whom you meet were also once students.
You can do an assessment of the company for DWH potential at no cost.
Since you are only interested in your project, so your analysis will be neutral.
Your report can form a basis for a professional detailed assessment at a later stage.
If a DWH already exists, you can do an independent audit.
7. Static & dynamic attributes and examples from agriDWH
Answer:- (Page 342)

8. Write SQL to fetch total number of female students registered in BS telcom (5 marks)
Answer:- Rep
9. Is it possible to have erroneous data in DWH? How this will impact business processes? (5 marks)
Answer:- (Page )
Any record having value other than 0 or 1 is erroneous.
Erroneous data leads to unnecessary costs and probably bad reputation when used to support business
processes. Consider a company using a list of consumer addresses and buying habits and preferences to
advertise a new product by direct mailing. Invalid addresses cause the letters to be returned as undeliverable.
People being duplicated in the mailing list account for multiple letters sent to the same person, leading to
unnecessary expenses and frustration. Inaccurate information about consumer buying habits and preferences
contaminate and falsify the target group, resulting in advertisement of products that do not correspond to
consumers needs. Companies trading such data face the possibility of an additional loss of reputation in case of
erroneous data.
10. How is hardware utilization different in DWH? (2 marks)
Answer:- (Page 24)
Although there are peaks and valleys in the operational processing, but ultimately there is relatively static
pattern of utilization. There is an essentially different pattern of hardware utilization in the data warehouse
environment i.e. a binary pattern of utilization, either the hardware is utilized fully or not at all. Calculating a
mean utilization for a DWH is not a meaningful activity. Therefore, trying to mix the two environments is a
recipe for disaster. You can optimize the machine for the performance of one type of application, not for both.
10

11. In case of non uniform distribution, what will be the impact on performance? (5 marks)
Answer:http://help.sap.com/saphelp_470/helpdata/en/06/8a983b8e847725e10000000a114084/content.htm
Changes in the B* tree structure can lead to a non-uniform distribution of the data pages. If certain branches of
the B* tree have more pages than others, data page distribution is not uniform. This can affect performance,
because more accesses are generally required to find data.
Non-uniform distributions are detected by SAP DB when INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements are
performed, and the tree is rebalanced when the current operation is carried out. This means that the tree is
constantly maintained for optimum operation. During this procedure, page entries are moved to new locations
and page pointers are redirected. As a result, data pages are used more efficiently.
Uniform distribution of data prevents individual data regions from overflowing. The only restriction on the size
of tables is the storage space available in the database system.
12. Why pilot project methodology is highly recommended in DWH?
Answer:- Rep

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
Write the Bit Map index advantages ( 2 )
Answer:- (Page 235)
Very low storage space.
Reduction in I/O, just using index.
Counts & Joins
Low level bit operations.
Differentiate drill down and pivoting approach ( 2 )
Answer:- Click here for detail
Data drilling (also drilldown) refers to any of various operations and transformations on tabular, relational, and
multidimensional data.
A pivot query allows multiple representations of data according to different dimensions.
Explain non standardized attributes of 1/0 and 0/1 stored in attribute library do what problem ( 2 )
Answer:- (Page 405)
Different conventions for representing

11

Keep the Competition HOT explain in Fradut selection and instat ( 2 )

Answer:- (Page 305)
Even if single winner, keep at least two in
Use virtual competition to bargain with the winner
Skew Problem in hash Join how can be solved ( 2 )
Answer:- (Page 247)
Make available other hash functions to be chosen by the optimizer; that better distribute the input.
What is the task performed by the import & export data wizard to load data ( 3 )
Answer:- (Page 411)
Import and Export Data Wizard provides the easiest method of loading data.
The wizard creates package which is a collection of tasks
Tasks can be as follows:
Establish connection through source / destination systems
Creates similar table in SQL Server
Extracts data from text files
Apply very limited basic transformations if required
Loads data into SQL Server table
What are the three major applications for accessing information stored on the web ( 3 )
Answer:- (Page 350)
(i) Keyword-based search or topic-directory browsing with search engines such as Google or Yahoo
(ii) Querying deep Web sourceswhere information, such as amazon.coms book data and realtor.coms realestate data, hides behind searchable database query forms
(iii)Random surfing that follows Web linkage pointers.
The success of these techniques, especially with the more recent page ranking in Google and other search
engines shows the Webs great promise to become the ultimate information system.
Differences between one way clustering and two way clustering how they are use together ( 3 )
Answer:- (Page 271)
1. One-way Clusteringmeans that when you clustered a data matrix, you used all the attributes. In this technique a similarity matrix is
constructed, and then clustering is performed on rows. A cluster also exists in the data matrix for each
corresponding cluster in the similarity matrix.
2. Two-way Clustering/BiclusteringHere rows and columns are simultaneously clustered. No any sort of similarity or dissimilarity matrix is
constructed. Biclustering gives a local view of your data set while one-way clustering gives a global view. It is
possible that you first take global view of your data by performing one-way clustering and if any cluster of
interest is found then you perform two-way clustering to get more details. Thus both the methods complement
each other.
12

Briefly explain the types of constraints that we use in DTS (5)

Answer:- (Page 395)
Unconditional: If you want Task 2 to wait until Task 1 completes, regardless of the outcome, link Task 1 to
Task 2 with an unconditional precedence constraint.
On Success: If you want Task 2 to wait until Task 1 has successfully completed, link Task 1 to Task 2 with an
On Success precedence constraint.
On Failure: If you want Task 2 to begin execution only if Task 1 fails to execute successfully, link Task 1 to
Task 2 with an On Failure precedence constraint. If you want to run an alternative branch of the workflow
when an error is encountered, use this constraint.
Give single example of DWH of
Financial service/insurance
Tale communication
Transportation Company
Government

(5)

Answer:- (Page 323)

Example DWH Target Organizations
Financial service/insurance.
Union Bank
State Bank of Pakistan
Telecommunications.
UFone
PTCL
PAKNET
Transportation.
PIA
Government.
NADRA
For example, as per www.paksearch.com Muslim Commercial Bank has 900+ branches all over Pakistan. With
an average of 500 customers per branch, the total number of customers is in the order of half a million. It would
not be surprising if the weekly ATM transactions all over Pakistan run into millions. Such banks are potential
candidates for a data warehouse. Same is true for telecommunication companies. As per recent government
figures, there are 10+ million mobile phone users in Pakistan, and as per www.fdi.com the number of mobile
phone users of Mobilink is 3.7 million. Again, it would not be surprising to have literally millions of mobile
phone calls made/received per day. So these businesses fall under the category which you should be looking at
to select and study as part of your semester project.
NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority) probably has the largest data warehouse in Pakistan
and is the repository of the 1998 census which covered the entire population of Pakistan, which at time stood at
130 millions. As part of the census (source: www.nadra.gov.pk) 64 million NDFs or National Data Forms were
collected and scanned which are presently stored in a 4.2 Tera byte DWH in NADRA.
13

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
Q.1-Difference between one-to-one scalar transformation and one-to-many transformation on data
warehouse? (2)
Answer:- (Page 144)
Simple scalar transformation is a one-to-one mapping from one set of values to another set of values using
straightforward rules.
A one-to-many transformation is more complex than scalar transformation. As a data element form the source
system results in several columns in the DW.
Q.2-What will be effect if we program Package by using DTS object Model?(2)
Answer:- (Page 144)
Package can also be programmed by using DTS object model instead of using graphical tools but DTS
programming is rather complicated.
Q.3-Name of the authority who is recording Pest scouting data? Also given year this authority is
working?(2)
Answer:- (Page 333)
DPWQCP 1984
Q.4-What is meant by the statement keep the competition hot ?(2)
Answer:- Rep
Q.5-What is the basic concept of Inverted Index?(2)
Answer:- (Page 232)
An inverted index is an optimized structure that is built primarily for retrieval, with update being only a
secondary consideration.
Q.6-Give the possible reason to use enrichment during data transformation?(3)
Answer:- (Page 136)
This task is the rearrangement and simplification of individual fields to make them more useful for the data
warehouse environment. You may use one or more fields from the same input record to create a better view of
the data for the data warehouse. This principle is extended when one or more fields originate from multiple
records, resulting in a single field for the data warehouse.

14

Q.7-Document Architecture Requirement of Kimballs model with example? (3)

Answer:- (Page 302)
Document Architecture Requirements
Once the business requirements definition process is leveraged and supplemental IT interviews conducted, the
findings need to be documented. A simplistic MATRIX can be used for this purpose. The rows of the matrix
list each business requirement that has an impact on the architecture, while matrix columns contain the list of
architectural implications.
As an example supposes that a business is spread globally and there is a need to deliver global sales
performance data on a nightly basis. The technical implications might include 24/7 worldwide availability, data
mirroring for loads, robust metadata for support global access, adequate network bandwidth, and sufficient
staging horsepower to handle the complex integration of operational data and so on.
Q.8-Tasks perform through import / export wizard to load data?(3)
Answer:- Rep
Q.9-What is meant by click stream? How can be useful in Web DWH environment?(3)
Answer:- Rep
Q.10- List and explain fundamental advantages of Bit map index?(3)
Answer:- Rep
Q.11-Explain the seven steps for the extracting data using SQL and DTS wizard? (5)\
Answer:- (Page 413)
1. Launch the Wizard
2. Choose a Data Source
3. Choose a Database
Specification of file format incase of Text files
4. Specify the Destination
5. Choose Destination Database
Selection of existing database or creation of a new database
6. Select a table
Selection of existing table or creation of a new table
7. Finalizing and Scheduling the package
Q.12-What is difference between the data matrix and similarity/ dissimilarity matrix in term of rows and
columns? Which one is the symmetric? (5)
Answer:- (Page 270)
Data matrix means the table or database used as the input to the DM algorithm. What will be the dimensions
or size of that table normally? The size of records (rows) is much greater than the number of columns. The
attributes may be 10, 15 or 25 but the number of rows far exceeds the number of columns e.g. a customer table
may have 20-25 attributes but the total records may be in millions. As I said previously that the mobile users in
Pakistan are about 10 million. If a company even has 1/3 of the customers then 3.3 lakh customer records in the
customer table. Thus greater number of rows than columns and there will be indices i and j in the table and you
can pick the particular contents of a cell by considering the intersection of the two indices.
15

Similarity or dissimilarity matrix is the measure the similarity or dissimilarity obtained by pair wise comparison
of rows. First of all you measure the similarity of the row1 in data matrix with itself that will be 1. So 1 is
placed at index 1, 1 of the similarity matrix. Then you compare row 1 with row 2 and the measure or similarity
value goes at index 1, 2 of the similarity matrix and son. In this way the similarity matrix is filled. It should be
noted that the similarity between row1 and row2 will be same as between row 2 and 1. Obviously, the
similarity matrix will then be a square matrix, symmetric and all values along the diagonal will be same (here
1). So if your data matrix has n rows and m columns then your similarity matrix will have n rows and n
columns. What will be the time complexity of computing similarity/dissimilarity matrix? It will be O (n2) (m),
where m accounts for the vector or header size of the data. Now how to measure or quantify the similarity or
dissimilarity? Different techniques available like Pearson correlation and Euclidean distance etc. but in this
lecture we have used Pearson correlation which you might have studied in your statistics course.

i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

Give the simple example of company name that using the DWH
Financial Services/insurance
Telecommunication
Transportations
Government
Answer:- Rep

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
Q1: What sorts of objectives metric are use by companies what are possible issues in formulation these
metric? 2 marks
Answer:- (Page 186)
When performing objective assessments, companies follow a set of principles to develop metrics specific to
their needs, there is hard to have one size fits all approach. Three pervasive functional forms are (i) simple
ratio, (ii) min or max operation, and (iii) weighted average.
Refinements of these functional forms, such as addition of sensitivity parameters, can be easily incorporated.
Often, the most difficult task is precisely defining a dimension, or the aspect of a dimension that relates to the
company's specific application. Formulating the metric is straightforward once this task is complete.
Q2: which script language is used to perform complex transformation in DTS package? 2 marks
Answer:- (Page 373)
Complex transformations are achieved through VB Script or Java Script that is loaded in DTS package.

16

Q3: Cleansing can be breaking down in Whom many steps, write their names?
Answer:- (Page 168)
break down the cleansing into six steps:
elementizing, standardizing, verifying, matching, house holding, and documenting.

2 marks

Q4: What do you mean by keep competition hot in context of production selection and transformation
while designing a data warehouse . 2 marks
Answer:- (Page 305)
Make private not public commitment.
Dont let the vendor you are completely sold.
During trial period, put to real use.
Near the end of trial, negotiate.
Q5: Who murge column are selected in case of sort merge? 2 marks
Answer:- (Page 243)
There may be multiple equalities in the WHERE clause, in such a case, the merge columns are taken from only
some of the given equality clauses.
Q6: purposes dta data profiling
3 marks
Answer:- (Page 264)
Data profiling, gathering information about columns, fulfils the following two purposes
Identify the type and extent to which transformation is required
Gives us a detailed view of data quality
Q7: What issues may Accor during data acquisition and cleansing in agriculture case
Study? 3marks
Answer:- Rep
Q8: Meant of classification process, How measure accuracy of classification?
Answer:- Rep

3marks

Q9: Data parallelism explain with example

3 marks
parallel execution is to completely
parallelize those parts of a computation that are not constrained by data dependencies.
The smaller the portion of the program that must be executed sequentially (s), the greater
the scalability of the computation.
Q10: Under what condition an operation can be execute in parallel? 3 marks
Answer:- (Page 201)
Parallel execution dramatically reduces response time for data-intensive operations on large databases typically
associated with Decision Support Systems (DSS) and data warehouses. You can also implement parallel
execution on certain types of online transaction processing (OLTP) and hybrid systems.

17

Q.11: Explain anayletic dta application specification in kimbill

Answer:- Rep

5 marks

Q12: 2 real life examples of clustering. 5 marks

Answer:- (Page 264)
Marketing: Discovering distinct groups in customer databases, such as customers who make lot of longdistance calls and dont have a job. Who are they? Students. Marketers use this knowledge to develop
targeted marketing programs.
Insurance: Identifying groups of crop insurance policy holders with a high average claim rate. Farmers
crash crops, when it is profitable.
Land use: Identification of areas of similar land use in a GIS database.
Seismic studies: Identifying probable areas for oil/gas exploration based on seismic data.

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
Q1: IN ROUND ROBIN THE DISTRIBUTION IS Pre DEFINED. DO YOU AGREE OR NOT
SUPPORT YOURE ANSWER WITH REASON? 2
Answer:- (Page 66)
In round robin distribution is Not pre-defined. Round-robin spreads data evenly across the partitions, but does
not facilitate partition elimination. Round-robin is typically used only for temporary tables where partition
elimination is not important and co-location of the table with other tables is not expected to yield performance
benefits.
Q2: what are major operations of data mining? 2
Answer:- Click here for detail
Data Mining methods may be classified by the function they perform or according to the class of application
they can be used in

Predictive modeling
Segmentation (Clustering)
Dependency Modeling
Summarization
Change and deviation detection

18

Q3: which scripting language is used to perform complex transformation in DST package? 2
Answer:- Rep
Q4: a person wanted to visit and understand the data warehouse implementation strategies adopted in
that organization has refused to allow. What may be the carrier of this refusal?
Q4: how the applications of parallelism differ for OLTP and DSS environment? 2
Answer:- (Page 205)
There is a big difference.
In DSS Parallelization of a SINGLE query
In OLTP Parallelization of MULTIPLE queries Or Batch updates in parallel
Q5: keeping view the uniform distribution in hash based partition .if the partitions are not
uniformly distributed across the process? 3
Answer:- (Page 218)
There can be two types of skews i.e. non uniform distribution when the data is distributed across the processors.
One type of skew is dependent in the properties of the data, consider the example of data about cancellation of
reservations. It is obvious that most cancellations in the history of airline travel occurred during the last quarter
of 2001. Therefore, whenever the data is distributed based on date for year 2001 it will be always skewed. This
can also be looked at from the perspective of partition skew, as date is typically seen to result in non-uniform
istribution of data.
Q6: what is the task performed through import export data wizard to load data? 3
Answer:- Rep
Q7: what is mean by click stream? How it can be useful in a web DWH environment? 3
Answer:- Rep
Q8: what is mean by the classification process? How we measure the accuracy of classifiers? 3
Answer:- Rep
Q9: discuss need for indexing with reference to i/o speed? 3
Answer:- (Page 220)
Consider the Find operation in Windows; a user search is initiated and a search starts through each file on the
hard disk. When a directory is encountered, the search continues through each directory. With only a few
thousand files on a typical laptop, a typical find operation takes a minute or longer.

Q10: why a pilot project strategy is highly recommended in DWH construction? 5

Answer:- Rep

19

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
Issues of cluster index (2)
Answer:- (Page 237)
Cluster Index: Issues
Works well when a single index can be used for the majority of table accesses.
Selectivity requirements for making use of a cluster index are much less stringent than for a non-clustered
index.
High maintenance cost to keep sorted order or frequent reorganizations to recover clustering factor.
Fixed strategy of standardizing column(2)
Answer:- (Page 480)
There are no fixed strategies to standardize the columns. Again it depends on the project designer what
methodology he/she devises. We can devise a simple methodology that can later be used for other columns as
well.
Be a diplomat and not technologist(2)
Answer:- Rep
Define Dense and Sparse index, advantage and disadvantages (3)
Answer:- (Page 223)
Dense Index: Adv. & Dis. Adv.
For each record store the key and a pointer to the record in the sequential file. Why?
It uses less space, hence less time to search. Time (I/Os) logarithmic in number of blocks used by the index.
Can also be used as secondary index, i.e. with another order of records.
Dense Index: Every key in the data file is represented in the index file
ProA dense index, if fits in the memory, costs only one disk I/O access to locate a record given a key
Con: A dense index, if too big and doesnt fit into the memory, will be expense when used to find a record
given its key
Sparse Index: Adv & Dis Adv
Store first value in each block in the sequential file and a pointer to the block.
Uses even less space than dense index, but the block has to be searched, even for unsuccessful searches.
Time (I/Os) logarithmic in the number of blocks used by the index.
Weaknesses of K-mean clustering(3)
Answer:- Rep

20

SQL server meta services advantages(3)

Answer:- Rep
Issued faced in data cleansing of AgriDWH(3)
Answer:- Rep
Problems which may face in construction of AgriDWH(3)
Answer:- (Page 339)
At the pilot level of Agri-DWH the most important aspects were what mean what. The issues of who can
access what and how, was not there, as there were only one or two users. The business metadata issues in the
context of business rule will be briefly discussed in this section.
Why pilot strategy is recommended for construction of DWH(5)
Answer:- Rep
Strength and weaknesses of k-mean clustering(5)
Answer:- Rep

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
Q #1: Why Justification is required in project planning?
Answer:- (Page 292)
Justification requires an estimation of the benefits and costs associated with a data warehouse. The anticipated
benefits grossly outweigh the costs. IT usually is responsible for deriving the expenses.
Q #2: Define forward proxy?
Answer:- Rep
Q #3: Is there any fixed strategy to standardize a column?
Answer:- Rep
Q #4: Major operation of data mining?
Answer:- Rep
Q #5: In Round-Robin the distribution is pre-defined, you agree or not? Support your answer.
Answer:- Rep

21

Q #6: Differentiate in dense index and spars index? What are advantages and disadvantages of these?
Answer:- Rep
Q #7: what is classification process? How we measure the accuracy of classifiers?
Answer:- Rep
Q #8: For what reason trivial quires give wrong result in Agri-DWH? Explain with Example.
Q #9: Purposes of data profiling?
Answer:- Rep
Q #10: TQM benefits? Why organizations prefer this technique on other techniques?
Q #11: How mistakes should avoid in data warehouse process?
Q #12: How time contiguous log entries and HTTP secure socket layer are used for user session
identification? Limitation of this.
Answer:- (Page 365)
Using Time-contiguous Log Entries
A session can be consolidated by collecting time-contiguous log entries from the same host (Internet
Protocol, or IP, address).
Limitations
The method breaks down for visitors from large ISPs
Different IP addresses
Browsers that are behind some firewalls.
In many cases, the individual hits comprising a session can be consolidated by collating time-contiguous log
entries from the same host (Internet Protocol, or IP, address). If the log contains a number of entries with the
same host ID in a short period of time (for example, one hour), one can reasonably assume that the entries are
for the same session.
Limitations
This method breaks down for visitors from large ISPs because different visitors may reuse dynamically
assigned IP addresses over a brief time period.
Different IP addresses may be used within the same session for the same visitor.
This approach also presents problems when dealing with browsers that are behind some firewalls.
Using HTTP's secure sockets layer (SSL)
Offers an opportunity to track a visitor session
Limitations
To track the session, the entire information exchange needs to be in high overhead SSL
Each host server must have its own unique security certificate.
Visitors are put-off by pop-up certificate boxes.
This offers an opportunity to track a visitor session because it may include a login action by the visitor and the
exchange of encryption keys.
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Limitations
The downside to using this method is that to track the session, the entire information exchange needs to be in
high overhead SSL, and the visitor may be put off by security advisories that can pop up when certain browsers
are used.
Each host server must have its own unique security certificate.

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
i) K-mean weakness
Answer:- Rep
ii) Classification process and its accuracy?
Answer:- Rep
iii) Diff b/w data matrix & similarity/dissimilarity matrix
Answer:- Rep
iv) Name of authority to pest
v) Do you think it will create the problem of non-standardized attributes, if one source uses 0/1 and
second source uses 1/0 to store male/female attribute respectively? Give a reason to support your answer.
Answer:- Rep
vi) Inverted index
Answer:- Rep
vii)Diff b/w knowledge Discovery,data mining and DWH
Answer:- Rep
viii) Why DASD is better than tape storage w.r.t access time
Answer:- (Page 13)
it took milliseconds to locate a record on a DASD i.e. orders of magnitude better performance than the
magnetic tape. With DASD came a new type of system software known as a DBMS (Data Base Management
System). The purpose of the DBMS was to facilitate the programmer to store and access data on DASD. In
addition, the DBMS took care of such tasks as storing data on DASD, indexing data, accessing it etc.

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ix) Transient cookie & persistent cookie

Answer:- (Page 367)
Using Transient Cookies
Let the Web browser place a session-level cookie into the visitor's Web browser.
Cookie value can serve as a temporary session ID
Using Persistent Cookies
Establish a persistent cookie in the visitor's PC
Limitations
No absolute guarantee that even a persistent cookie will survive.
Certain groups of Web sites can agree to store a common ID tag
xi) clickstream
Answer:- Rep
xii) Data profiling is a process of gathering information about columns, what are the purpose that it must
fulfill? Describe briefly
Answer:- Rep

CS614- Data Warehousing

Fall 2011
1) How Business validation rule implemented in DTS? 5
2) Clickstream? How it is useful in a web dwh environment. 3
Answer:- Rep
3) Data profiling is a process of gathering information about columns, what are the purpose that it must
fulfill? Describe briefly 5
Answer:- Rep
4) Why a Pilot project strategy Is highly recommended in dwh construction. 5
Answer:- Rep
5) Need for indexing with reference to i/o speed 3
Answer:- Rep

24

Question No: 6 ( Marks: 5 )

Explain Analytic Applications Development Phase of Analytic Applications Track of Kimballs Model?
Answer:- (Data Warehouse Toolkit, Page 362)
When we move into the development phase for the analytic applications, we again need to focus on standards.
Standards for naming conventions, calculations, libraries, and coding should be established to minimize future
rework. The application development activity can begin once the database design is complete, the data access
tools and metadata are installed, and a subset of historical data has been loaded. The application template
specifications should be revisited to account for the inevitable changes to the data model since the
specifications were completed.
Each tool on the market has product-specific tricks that can cause it to jump through hoops backwards. Rather
than trying to learn the techniques via trial and error, you should invest in appropriate tool-specific education or
supplemental resources for the development team.
While the applications are being developed, several ancillary benefits result. Application developers, armed
with a robust data access tool, quickly will find needling problems in the data haystack despite the quality
assurance performed by the staging application. This is one reason why we prefer to get started on the
application development activity prior to the supposed completion of staging. Of course, we need to allow time
in the schedule to address any flaws identified by the analytic applications. The developers also will be the first
to realistically test query response times. Now is the time to begin reviewing our performance-tuning strategies.
The application development quality-assurance activities cannot be completed until the data is stabilized. We
need to make sure that there is adequate time in the schedule beyond the final data staging cutoff to allow for an
orderly wrap-up of the application development tasks.
8) Which script language is used to perform complex transformation in dts package 2
Answer:- Rep
9) What types of operations are performed by MS DTS. 3
Answer:- Rep
10) Name of the pest scouting org and the year of its starting.
Answer:- Rep

2 marks

25

CS614- Data Warehousing

Spring 2011
1- Define parallelism explain it with example, under what condition an operation can be executed in
parallel.
Answer:- (Page 204)
Parallel execution is to completely parallelize those parts of a computation that are not constrained by data
dependencies. The smaller the portion of the program that must be executed sequentially (s), the greater the
scalability of the computation.
Parallel execution is to completely parallelize those parts of a computation that are not constrained by data
dependencies. The smaller the portion of the program that must be executed sequentially (s), the greater the
scalability of the computation.
2- What is value validation process?
Answer:- (Page 159)
Value validation is the process of ensuring that each value that is sent to the data warehouse is accurate.
3- Explain analytic application specification phase of analytic application track of Kimball's Model?
Answer:- Rep
4- How gender guide is used if large number of records, gender is missing?
Answer:- (Page 458)
If for very large number of records gender is missing, it would become impossible for us to manually check
each and every individuals name and identify the gender. In such cases we can formulate a mechanism to
correct gender. We can either use a standard gender guide or create a new table Gender_guide. Gender_guide
contains only two columns name and gender. Populate Gender_guide table by a query for selecting all distinct
first names from student table. Then manually placing their gender.
5- How page dimensions is useful to check the static and dynamic nature of the web pages.
Answer:- (Page 362)
The page dimension describes the page context for a Web page event. The grain of this dimension is the
individual page. Our definition of page must be flexible enough to handle the evolution of Web pages from the
current, mostly static page delivery to highly dynamic page delivery in which the exact page the customer sees
is unique at that instant in time. We will assume even in the case of the dynamic page that there is a well
defined function that characterizes the page, and we will use this to describe the page. We will not create a page
row for every instance of a dynamic page, because that would yield a dimension with an astronomical number
of rows, yet the rows would not differ in interesting ways. What we want is a row in this dimension for each
interesting, distinguishable type of page. Static pages probably get their own row, but dynamic pages would be
grouped by similar function and type.

26

6- Give name of activities to be performed in planning and design phase as discussed in agri-DWH case
study
Answer:- (Page 335)
1. Determine Users' Needs
2. Determine DBMS Server Platform
3. Determine Hardware Platform
4. Information & Data Modeling
5. Construct Metadata Repository
7- What are the three methods of creating a DTS package
Answer:- (Page 380)
Package can be created by one of the following three methods:
Import/Export wizard
DTS Designer
Programming DTS applications

27