Database Processing, 13e (Kroenke/Auer)

Chapter 12: Big Data, DataWarehouse, and Business Intelligence Systems

1) Big Data is the name given to the enormous datasets generated by Web 2.0 applications.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 534-535

2) Business Intelligence (BI) systems are information systems that help users analyze and use
data.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 536

3) Business Intelligence (BI) systems support operational activities.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 536

4) Business Intelligence (BI) systems obtain data in three different ways.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 536-537 Fig 12-2

5) Business Intelligence (BI) reporting systems are used to filter data, sort data, group data and
make simple calculations based on the data.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 537 Fig 12-3

6) Business Intelligence (BI) reporting systems can analyze data using standard SQL.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 537

7) Business Intelligence (BI) reporting systems summarize the current status of business
activities and compare that status with past events, but not with predicted future activities.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 537

8) Data mining uses sophisticated statistical and mathematical techniques to perform what-if
analyses, to make predictions, and to facilitate decision making.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 537

9) Report delivery is more important for data mining than it is for reporting systems.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 537

10) A data warehouse is a database system that has data, programs and personnel specialized in
Business Intelligence (BI) processing.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 538
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11) Data warehouses are populated with data prepared by data extraction, transformation and
load (ETL) programs.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 538 Fig 12-4

12) Data warehouse data are frequently denormalized.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 538

13) Data warehouses also store the data warehouse metadata.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 538-539

14) Data warehouses often include data purchased from outside vendors.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 540 Fig 12-4

15) Metadata about the data's source, format, assumptions and constraints are kept in a data
warehouse metadata database.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 538-539

16) Problematic data are called "dirty data."

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 539-540

17) A data mart is a collection of data that addresses a particular component of a functional area
of a business.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 540-541 Fig 12-7

18) Operational databases store historical data.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542 Fig 12-8

19) Dimensional databases are used for analytical data processing.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 541 Fig 12-8

20) Dimensional databases use the star schema.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542

21) Operational databases contain a fact table.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542-543

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22) A star schema resembles a star, with a dimension table at the center and fact tables radiating
out from the center.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542-543

23) In a snowflake table, each dimension table is normalized.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542-543

24) Business Intelligence (BI) reporting systems are intended to create meaningful information
from disparate data sources and to deliver that information to the proper users on a timely basis.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

25) RFM analysis is a way of analyzing and ranking customers based on online survey data.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

26) In a common form of RFM analysis, customers are sorted into five groups and given an
associated score depending on their group.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 550

27) In a common form of RFM analysis, customers with an R score of 5 are in the 20% of
customers who have the most recent orders.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

28) In RFM analysis, R stands for "how recently."

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

29) In RFM analysis, F stands for "how frequently."

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

30) In RFM analysis, M stands for "how much money."

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

31) In a common form of RFM analysis, a score of 1 is "high" or "good" while a score of 5 is
"low" of "bad."
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 550

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32) In a common form of RFM analysis, an RFM score of {5 1 1} means that the customer
orders frequently and orders items of high monetary value but has not ordered anything for some
time.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 550-551

33) OLAP provides the ability to sum, count, average and perform other simple arithmetic
operations on groups of data.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 551

34) An OLAP cube is limited to three axes.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 551

35) The term drill down refers to the capability of seeing the data in smaller and smaller units.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 556

36) To create an OLAP report for an SQL Server 2012 database, use the PivotTable tool in SQL
Server 2012.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551

37) When creating an OLAP report based on SQL Server 2012 data, it is often a good idea to
create a view to organize the data needed for the OLAP report.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 552

38) Microsoft Excel 2013 allows us to connect directly to an SQL Server 2012 database when
building a PivotTable.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 553

39) Microsoft Excel 2013 cannot import SQL Server 2013 data directly into a PivotTable report,
but must first place the data into a worksheet.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 553

40) Although Microsoft Excel 2013 will create a PivotTable report using SQL Server 2012 data,
it does not have formatting tools that can be used with the report.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 553-559

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41) Data mining is the application of mathematical and statistical techniques to find patterns and
relationships that can be used to classify and predict future outcomes.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 560

42) Most data mining techniques are simple and easy to use.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 560

43) The movement that uses different database methods than the relational model and/or SQL is
called the NoSQL movement.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568

44) Most of NoSQL nonrelational database methodologies are known as structured storage.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568

45) NoSQL really stands of "Not only SQL."

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 568

46) Facebook uses the Apache Software Foundation's Cassandra NoSQL database.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 568

47) Amazon.com's Dynamo was an early example of structured storage.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568

48) Google's Bigtable was an early example of structured storage.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568

49) Structured storage column families are indistinguishable for relational database tables.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568

50) In the MapReduce process, the Reduce step is followed by the Map step.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 569-570 Fig12-34

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51) Business Intelligence (BI) systems do which of the following?
A) Analyze current and past activities
B) Predict future events
C) Record and process transactions
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 536

52) Business Intelligence (BI) systems fall into which of the following categories?
A) Processing
B) Reporting
C) Data mining
D) A and B
E) B and C
Answer: E
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 536-537

53) Business Intelligence (BI) systems obtain their data by which of the following means?
A) Read and process data from an operational database
B) Process extracts from operational databases
C) Process data purchased from data vendors
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: E
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 537 Fig 12-2

54) Business Intelligence (BI) reporting systems can do which of the following operations?
A) Filter data
B) Group data
C) Modify data
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 537

55) One Business Intelligence (BI) reporting system that uses extensions to SQL is:
A) cluster analysis.
B) OLAP.
C) regression analysis.
D) RFM analysis.
E) A, B, and C
Answer: B
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551

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56) Data mining applications are used to accomplish which of the following tasks?
A) Perform what-if analysis
B) Make predications
C) Facilitate decision making
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: E
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 560

57) Which of the following is (are) true about data mining applications?
A) They use sophisticated mathematical techniques.
B) They use sophisticated statistical techniques.
C) Their report delivery is more important than report delivery for reporting systems.
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: D
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 560

58) Which of the following is a reason that operational data are difficult to read?
A) Dirty data
B) Missing values
C) Nonintegrated data
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: E
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 539-540 Fig 12-5

59) We have obtained access to the company's operational data. In one record, we find that a
customer's age has been recorded as "337." This is an example of ________.
A) dirty data
B) inconsistent data
C) nonintegrated data
D) a "wrong format" problem
E) a "too much data" problem
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 539-540

60) We have obtained access to the company's operational data. We examine 50 records for
customers with phone numbers that should use the current area code of 345. Of these 50 records,
we find 10 that still use an older area code of 567. This is an example of ________.
A) dirty data
B) inconsistent data
C) nonintegrated data
D) a "wrong format" problem
E) a "too much data" problem
Answer: B
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 539-540

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61) We have obtained access to the company's operational data. We have been asked to produce a
report with an item by item analysis of sales, but the only sales figure available is the total sale
value for each order. This is an example of ________.
A) dirty data
B) inconsistent data
C) nonintegrated data
D) a "wrong format" problem
E) a "too much data" problem
Answer: D
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 539-540

62) A data warehouse database differs from an operational database because:

A) data warehouse data are not stored in tables.
B) data warehouse databases do not have metadata.
C) data warehouse data are often denormalized.
D) B and C
E) A, B, and C
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 542

63) Which of the following are components of a data warehouse?

A) Data extract, transform, and load (ETL) preparation programs
B) Data warehouse data
C) Data warehouse metadata
D) B and C
E) A, B, and C
Answer: E
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 538-539 Fig 12-4

64) A data mart differs from a data warehouse in that:

A) it has a smaller database.
B) it deals with a particular component or functional area of the business.
C) data mart users do not have the data management expertise of data warehouse employees.
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: E
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 540-541 Fig 12-7

65) Data warehouses use a(n) ________.

A) operational database
B) dimensional database
C) structured storage
D) A or B
E) All of the above
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542

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66) Slowly changing dimensions are handled by a(n) ________.
A) operational database
B) dimensional database
C) structured storage
D) A or B
E) All of the above
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542-543

67) Dimensional databases are used to track historical data, and therefore must have a ________.
A) time dimension
B) customer dimension
C) sales dimension
D) A or B
E) A and B
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542-543

68) Star schemas have a ________ at the center of the star.

A) fact table
B) dimension table
C) map table
D) reduce table
E) None of the above
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542

69) Snowflake schemas have normalized ________.

A) fact tables
B) dimension tables
C) map tables
D) reduce tables
E) None of the above
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 542

70) A Business Intelligence (BI) reporting system:

A) creates meaningful information from disparate data sources.
B) delivers information to users on a timely basis.
C) uses statistical procedures to predict future events.
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550

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71) RFM analysis analyzes and ranks customers based on:
A) their purchasing patterns.
B) their income status.
C) their residential location.
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550-551

72) The "R" in RFM analysis stands for ________.

A) rank
B) recent
C) relationship
D) readiness
E) random
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 550-551

73) The "M" in RFM analysis stands for ________.

A) money
B) mostly
C) modest
D) modern
E) modem
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550-551

74) RFM scores commonly range from ________, with ________ being the "high" or "most
desirable" (from the vendor's point of view) score.
A) 0 to 5; 0
B) 0 to 5; 5
C) 1 to 5; 1
D) 1 to 5, 5
E) 1 to 10, 10
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550-551

75) We have done an RFM analysis on our customer data. John Smith has a score of {5 1 1}.
This means that John:
A) has ordered recently, and orders a lot when he orders.
B) hasn't ordered recently, but orders a lot when he orders.
C) has ordered recently, but doesn't order a lot when he orders.
D) hasn't ordered recently, and doesn't order a lot when he orders.
E) None of the above is correct.
Answer: B
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 550-551

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76) OLAP stands for ________.
A) OnLine Analytical Processing
B) OffLine Analytical Processing
C) OnLine Analysis Process
D) OffLine Analysis Process
E) Old, Lazy And Particular
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551

77) In OLAP, the data item of interest is called a ________.

A) level
B) dimension
C) measure
D) member
E) slice
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 551

78) In OLAP, the characteristic of a measure is called a ________.

A) level
B) dimension
C) measure
D) member
E) slice
Answer: B
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551

79) An OLAP cube is called that because some products show OLAP displays on ________ axes.
A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four
E) a number that varies depending upon the analysis being done
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551

80) The term drill down means the user wants to ________.
A) summarize data
B) get older data
C) sort data
D) get more details
E) aggregate data
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 556 Fig 12-23

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81) To create an OLAP report for an SQL Server 2012 database, we can build a PivotTable in:
A) Microsoft Access 2013.
B) Microsoft Word 2013.
C) Microsoft Visio 2013.
D) Microsoft Excel 2013.
E) Microsoft PowerPoint 2013.
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551

82) To use an SQL Server 2012 database in an Microsoft Excel 2013 PivotTable, it is generally
useful to:
A) create a view in SQL Server 2012 to organize the data.
B) store the needed data in an Excel worksheet.
C) store the needed data in a Word document.
D) store the needed data in a PowerPoint slide show.
E) store the needed data in a Visio diagram.
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 552

83) To arrange the PivotTable columns and rows in Microsoft Excel 2013, we use the:
A) PivotTable Control.
B) PivotTable dialog box.
C) PivotTable Field List.
D) Pivot Table Wizard.
E) Pivot Table command tab.
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 553-559

84) To format a PivotTable in Microsoft Excel 2013, we use the:

A) Design command tab in the PivotTable Tools contextual command tab.
B) Format command tab in the PivotTable Tools contextual command tab.
C) Design command tab in the Report Tools contextual command tab.
D) Format command tab in the Report Tools contextual command tab.
E) Report Tools command tab.
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 553-59

85) When distributed databases break the database into sections and store the sections on
different servers, this is known as:
A) replication.
B) partitioning.
C) disbursing.
D) distributed two-phase locking.
E) None of the above.
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 561-562

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86) When distributed databases create copies of the database on different servers, this is known
as:
A) replication.
B) partitioning.
C) disbursing.
D) distributed two-phase locking.
E) None of the above.
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 561-562

87) DBMSs associated with the NoSQL movement are often known as ________.
A) RDBMSs
B) OODBMSs
C) SSDBMSs
D) HADBMs
E) structured storage
Answer: E
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568

88) The structured storage equivalent of an RDBMS table is a ________.

A) column
B) super column
C) column family
D) map
E) reduce
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568-570

89) In the MapReduce process, the first step is the ________ step.
A) column
B) super column
C) column family
D) map
E) reduce
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 569-570

90) Hadoop is a(n) ________.

A) RDMBS
B) OODBMS
C) distributed file system (DFS)
D) print system
E) Web server
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 570-571

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91) What are Business Intelligence (BI) systems?
Answer: Business Intelligence (BI) systems are information systems used by managers and
other business professionals to analyze past and current activities and to predict future events. BI
systems do not support the recording and processing of operational data—this is left to
transaction processing systems. Instead, BI systems are management support systems that
produce information for assessment, analysis, planning and control. There are two main
categories of BI systems: reporting systems and data mining applications.
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 536-537

92) Why is operational data sometimes unusable for Business Intelligence (BI) use?
Answer: Data in operational databases can suffer from a number of problems. These include: (1)
Dirty data—data that has problems with it, for example an age of "323;" (2) Missing values—
data values that are unknown, for example a person's age; (3) Inconsistent data—old data values
that needed to be updated may not have been—for example a ZIP code in an area that was split
into two new ZIP codes; (4) Data not integrated—when data from two or more data sets is used,
the data may be from two or more different DBMSs; (5) Data in the wrong format—data values
may have been recorded at an inappropriate value for the needed analysis—for example, distance
may have been recorded in miles when we need meters; (6) Too much data—it is possible to
simply have very large data sets in terms of records or fields.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 539-540 Fig 12-5

93) What is a data warehouse?

Answer: A data warehouse is a nonoperational database intended for use by Business
Intelligence (BI) applications. A data warehouse is a database system that has data, programs and
personnel who specialize in the preparation of data for Business Intelligence processing.
Database in data warehouses are frequently denormalized to speed up BI processes. The
components of a data warehouse include programs for data extraction/cleaning/preparation, data
warehouse DBMSs, data warehouse metadata and data warehouse data. The data warehouse
metadata database records the data warehouse data's source, format, assumptions, constraints and
other relevant facts.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 538-539 Fig 12-4

94) Compare the characteristics of an operational database and a dimensional database.

Answer: An operational database is used for structured transaction data processing, while a
dimensional database is used for unstructured analytical data processing. An operational database
uses current data, while a dimensional database uses both current and historical data. With an
operational database, data are inserted, modified and deleted by users, while in a dimensional
database data are loaded and updated systemically by the data warehouse administrators.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 542 Fig 12-8

95) What is a slowly changing dimension?

Answer: A slowly changing dimension is an attribute or set of attributes that can change over
time, but typically does not change that often. Address and phone number are examples of slowly
changing dimensions.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 542

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96) What is a star schema?
Answer: The star schema describes the arrangement of the tables in a dimensional database. A
fact table is the center of the star, while dimension tables are connected to the fact table and can
be illustrated as the points of the star.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 542-543

97) What is a conformed dimension?

Answer: A conformed dimension is a dimension table in a data warehouse that is used in more
than one star schema. Since the same table is reused, we can be sure that the data is consistent
within each start schema.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 547-550 Fig12-18

98) What is a reporting system?

Answer: A reporting system is one of the main categories of a Business Intelligence (BI) system.
Reporting systems are uses to filter data, sort data, group data and make simple calculations
based on the data. These systems summarize the current status of business activities and compare
the current status to past or predicted results. They are also used to classify entities such as
customers, employees, products, etc. Report delivery is a critical aspect of reporting systems.
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 550 Fig 12-3

99) What is a Microsoft Excel PivotTable?

Answer: A PivotTable is the reporting mechanism Excel uses to display OLAP reports. Both
measures (a dimensional database "fact") and dimensions are displayed and can be rearranged.
Drill-down is also available.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 551-559

100) What is a distributed database?

Answer: A distributed database is a database that has been partitioned, replicated or both.
Partitioning means breaking up the database into sections, and then storing those sections on
separate computers. Replicating means making copies of the database, and then storing those
copies on separate computers.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 561-563

101) What are objects, and how are they related to the object-oriented DBMS (OODBMS)?
Answer: An object-oriented DBMS is designed to store object data. Objects are the basis of
object-oriented programming (OOP). Objects have methods and properties. Methods are
computer programs that perform a task, and properties are data items particular to the object.
OODBMSs are designed to provide object persistence for OOP objects, which means providing
the means for storing object property values.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 563-564

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102) What is the NoSQL movement?
Answer: The NoSQL movement is a school of thought and a group of application developers
who want to use non-relational data structures and/or bypass SQL as a DML. The non-relational
database structures of the NoSQL movement are often known as structured storage. An example
is the Apache Software Foundation's Cassandra database, which powers Facebook and Twitter.
Some relational database vendors are trying to accommodate the movement without giving up
the relational underpinnings of their products.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 568-571

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