Biyani's Think Tank

Concept based notes

Database Management System

(BCA-II)

Bhavana Sangamnerkar
M.Sc. (Comp. Prog.), PGDCA
H.O.D.
Revised by: Shiv Kishore Sharma
Information Technology
Biyani Girls College, Jaipur
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Published by :
Think Tanks
Biyani Group of Colleges

Concept & Copyright :

Biyani Shikshan Samiti
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Ph : 0141-2338371, 2338591-95 Fax : 0141-2338007
E-mail : [email protected]
Website :www.gurukpo.com; www.biyanicolleges.org

ISBN : 978-93-81254-43-1

Edition : 2011
Price :

on that may have crept in is not intentional. It may be taken note of that neither the publisher nor the author will be responsible for any da

Leaser Type Setted by :

Biyani College Printing Department

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Database Management System 3

Preface
I am glad to present this book, especially designed to serve the needs of the
students. The book has been written keeping in mind the general weakness in
understanding the fundamental concepts of the topics. The book is self-explanatory
and adopts the “Teach Yourself” style. It is based on question-answer pattern. The
language of book is quite easy and understandable based on scientific approach.
Any further improvement in the contents of the book by making corrections,
omission and inclusion is keen to be achieved based on suggestions from the
readers for which the author shall be obliged.
I acknowledge special thanks to Mr. Rajeev Biyani, Chairman & Dr. Sanjay
Biyani, Director (Acad.) Biyani Group of Colleges, who are the backbones and main
concept provider and also have been constant source of motivation throughout this
Endeavour. They played an active role in coordinating the various stages of this
Endeavour and spearheaded the publishing work.
I look forward to receiving valuable suggestions from professors of various
educational institutions, other faculty members and students for improvement of the
quality of the book. The reader may feel free to send in their comments and
suggestions to the under mentioned address.

Note: A feedback form is enclosed along with think tank. Kindly fill the
feedback form and submit it at the time of submitting to books of
library, else NOC from Library will not be given.

Author

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4

Syllabus
M.Sc.-IT (1st Sem.)
Database Management System

Data and Information [Basic Concepts, Problems of Early Information Systems,

Advantages of a DBMS]

Database Architectures [Three Levels of the Architecture : External, Conceptual and

Internal Level],

Centralized and Distributed

Database Models : Hierarchical [Concepts of a Hierarchy, IMS Hierarchy]

Relational [Concepts of Relational Model, Relational Algebra, Relational Calculus]

Network [Concepts of a Network, DBTG Network, DBA Schema Declaration]

Object Oriented Database [Only Basic Information about OODBMS and ORDBMS]

Database Query Languages [Basic Retrieval Capability, Retrieval and Explosion, Update
Commands, QBEI, Client/ Server Design]

Standard Query Language [Basic SQL Query, Nested Queries Aggregate Operators, Null
Values, Embedded SQL, Cursor, Dynamic SQL Query Optimization [Query Evaluation
Plans, Pipelined Evaluation, Iterator Interface for Operators and Access Methods, Relational
Query Optimizer]

Data Management Issues : Backup, Recovery, Maintenance, and Performance.

Database Design [Schema Refinement, Functional Dependencies, Normal Forms,

Decompositions, Normalization]

Tuning [Tuning Indexes, Tuning Queries and Views, Tuning the Conceptual Schema,
DBMS Benchmarking]

Security [Access Control, Discretionary and Mandatory Access Control, Encryption] and
Implementation.

Enterprise Wide Data Application [Information only]

Building Client/Server Databases [Information only]

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Database Management System 5

Object Oriented Databases [Information only]

Internet Databases [Information only]

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) [Information only]

Accessing Remote Data Sources

Transaction Management [Information only].

Databases and Tools : MS-Access SQL Visual Basic ORACLE [Wherever required these
tools should be used].

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Content
S. No. Name of Topic
1. Data and Information
1.1 Basic Concepts
1.2 Problems of Early Information Systems
1.3 Advantages of DBMS
2. Database Architecture
2.1 Theory of Abstraction
2.2 Level of Architectures
2.3 Types of Users
2.4 Centralized and Distributed Databases
3. Data Models
3.1 Hierarchical Model
3.2 Relational Model
3.3 Network Model
4. Relational Algebra & Relational Calculus
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Basic Retrieval Capacity
5. Concept of Network
5.1 Concept of Network
5.2 DBTG
5.3 DBA Schema Declaration
6. Types of DBMS
6.1 Object Oriented DBMS
6.2 Object Relational DBMS
7. Data and Query Processing
7.1 Basic Retrieval Capacity
7.2 Query Language
7.3 Query Processing
7.4 Client/Server Design

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Database Management System 7

8. Structured Query Languages

8.1 Basic SQL & Keys
8.2 Nested Queries
8.3 QBEL & Quel
8.4 Aggregate Operators
9. Advanced Features of SQL
9.1 Embedded SQL
9.2 Dynamic SQL
9.3 Cursors
10. Query Optimization Techniques
10.1 Query Optimization
10.2 Query Evaluation Plans
10.3 Relational Query Optimizer
10.4 Pipelined Evaluation
11. Database Management Issues
11.1 Backup & Recovery
11.2 Maintenance & Performance
12. Database Design
12.1 Scheme Refinement
12.2 Functional Dependency
12.3 Normalization & Normal Forms
12.4 Demoralization
13. Database Tuning
13.1 Tuning Indexes
13.2 DBMS Bench Marking
14. Database Security & its Implementation
14.1 Access Control
14.2 Discretionary & Mandatory Access Control
14.3 Encryption
15. Advanced Database Technologies
15.1 Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
15.2 Accessing Remote Data Sources
15.3 Transaction Management
16. Unsolved Paper 2011 to 2006
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8

Chapter-1

Data and Information

Q.1 What do you mean by Data and Information?

Ans.: Data are plain facts. The word "data" is plural for "datum." When data are
processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to
make them useful, they are called Information. It is not enough to have data
(such as statistics on the economy). Data themselves are fairly useless, but
when these data are interpreted and processed to determine its true meaning,
they becomes useful and can be named as Information.

Q.2 What do you mean by

Database? Ans.: Definitions of
Database :
An organized body of related information.
In computing, a database can be defined as a structured collection of
records or data that is stored in a computer so that a program can
consult it to answer queries. The records retrieved in answer to queries
become information that can be used to make decisions.

An organized collection of records presented in a standardized format

searched by computers.

A collection of data organized for rapid search and retrieval by a

computer.

A collection of related data stored in one or more computerized files in

a manner that can be accessed by users or computer programs via a
database management system.

An organized collection of information, data, or citations stored in

electronic format that can be searched for specific information or
records by techniques specific to each database.

A logical collection of interrelated information, managed and stored as

a unit, usually on some form of mass-storage system such as magnetic
tape or disk.

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Database Management System 9

A database is a structured format for organizing and maintaining

information that can be easily retrieved. A simple example of a
database is a table or a spreadsheet.

A database in an organized collection of computer records. The most

common type of database consists of records describing articles in
periodicals otherwise known as a periodical index.

A database collects information into an electronic file, for example a

list of customer addresses and associated orders. Each item is usually
called a ‗record‘ and the items can be sorted and accessed in many
different ways.

A set of related files that is created and managed by a Database

Management System (DBMS).
A computerized collection of information.

Integrated data files organized and stored electronically in a uniform

file structure that allows data elements to be manipulated, correlated,
or extracted to satisfy diverse analytical and reporting needs.

A collection of information stored in one central location. Many times,

this is the source from which information is pulled to display products
or information dynamically on a website.

Relational data structure used to store, query, and retrieve

information.

An organized set of data or collection of files that can be used for a

specified purpose. A collection of interrelated data stored so that it
may be accessed with user friendly dialogs.

A large amount of information stored in a computer system.

Q.3 What are the basic objectives of the Database?

Ans.: A database is a collection of interrelated data stored with minimum
redundancy to serve many users quickly and efficiently. The general objective
is to make information access easy, quick, inexpensive, and flexible for the
user. In data base design, several specific objectives can be considered as
follows:
(i) Controlled Redundancy
(ii) Ease of Learning and Use

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(iii) Data Independence

(iv) Most Information in Low Cost
(v) Accuracy and Integrity
(vi) Recovery from failure
(vii) Privacy and Security
(viii) Performance

Q.4 Define the Database Management System.

Ans.: (i) A Database Management System (DBMS), or simply a Database
System (DBS), consists of :
A collection of interrelated and persistent data (usually referred
to as the Database (DB)).
A set of application programs used to access, update and
manage that data (which form the data Management System
(MS)).
(ii) The goal of a DBMS is to provide an environment that is both
convenient and efficient to use in :
Retrieving information from the database.

Storing information into the database.

(iii) Databases are usually designed to manage large bodies of information.
This involves :
Definition of structures for information storage (data modeling).
Provision of mechanisms for the manipulation of information
(file and systems structure, query processing).
Providing for the safety of information in the database (crash
recovery and security).
Concurrency control if the system is shared by users.

Q.5 Describe the basic components of DBMS. Why do we need DBMS.

Or
What are the Advantages of DBMS over conventional file system.
Ans.: There are four basic components of Database Management System :
(i) Data : Raw facts which we want to feed in the computer.

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Database Management System 11

(ii) Hardware : On which the data to be processed.

(iii) Software : The interface between the hardware and user, by which the
data will change into the information.
(iv) User : There are so many types of users some of them are application
programmer, endcase users and DBA.

Purpose of Database Systems :

(i) To see why database management systems are necessary, let's look at a
typical ``File-Processing System'' supported by a conventional
operating system.

The application is a savings bank :

Savings account and customer records are kept in permanent

system files.

Application programs are written to manipulate files to perform

the following tasks :
 Debit or credit an account.
 Add a new account.
 Find an account balance.
 Generate monthly statements.
(ii) Development of the System proceeds as follows :

New application programs must be written as the need arises.

New permanent files are created as required.

but over a long period of time files may be in different formats,

and

Application programs may be in different languages.

(iii) So we can see there are problems with the Straight File-Processing
Approach :

Data Redundancy and Inconsistency :

 Same information may be duplicated in several places.

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12

 All copies may not be updated properly.

Difficulty in Accessing Data :

 May have to write a new application program to satisfy
an unusual request.
 E.g. find all customers with the same postal code.
 Could generate this data manually, but a long job.
Data Isolation :
 Data in different files.
 Data in different formats.
 Difficult to write new application programs.
Multiple Users :
 Want concurrency for faster response time.
 Need protection for concurrent updates.
 E.g. two customers withdrawing funds from the same
account at the same time - account has $500 in it, and
they withdraw $100 and $50. The result could be $350,
$400 or $450 if no protection.
Security Problems :
 Every user of the system should be able to access only the
data they are permitted to see.
 E.g. payroll people only handle employee records, and
cannot see customer accounts; tellers only access account
data and cannot see payroll data.
 Difficult to enforce this with application programs.

Integrity Problems :
 Data may be required to satisfy constraints.
 E.g. no account balance below $25.00.
 Again, difficult to enforce or to change constraints with
the file-processing approach.
Above all problems lead to the development of Database Management
Systems.
Advantages :
An organized and comprehensiveness of recording the result of the
firms activities.

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Database Management System 13

A receiver of data to be used in meeting the information requirement

of the MIS users.
Reduced data redundancy.
Reduced updating errors and increased consistency.
Greater data integrity and independence from applications programs.
Improved data access to users through use of host and query
languages.
Improved data security.
Reduced data entry, storage, and retrieval costs.
Facilitated development of new applications program.
Standard can be enforced: Standardized stored data format is
particularly desirable as an old data to interchange or migration
(change) between the system.
Conflicting requirement can be handled.
Disadvantages :
It increases opportunity for person or groups outside the organization
to gain access to information about the firms operation.
It increases opportunity for fully training person within the
organization to misuse the data resources intentionally.
The data approach is a costly due to higher H/W and S/W
requirements.
Database systems are complex (due to data independence), difficult,
and time-consuming to design.
It is not maintain for all organizations .It is only efficient for
particularly large organizations.
Damage to database affects virtually all applications programs.
Extensive conversion costs in moving form a file-based system to a
database system.
Initial training required for all programmers and users.

Q.6 Define the Overall System Structure of Database Management

System. Ans.: Overall System Structure :
a) Database systems are partitioned into modules for different functions.
Some functions (e.g. file systems) may be provided by the operating
system.

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14

Components include :

File Manager manages allocation of disk space and data

structures used to represent information on disk.

Database Manager : The interface between low-level data and

application programs and queries.

Query Processor translates statements in a query language into

low-level instructions the database manager understands. (May
also attempt to find an equivalent but more efficient form.)

DML Precompiler converts DML statements embedded in an

application program to normal procedure calls in a host
language. The precompiler interacts with the query processor.

DDL Compiler converts DDL statements to a set of tables

containing metadata stored in a data dictionary.
In addition, several data structures are required for physical system
implementation :

Data Files : store the database itself.

Data Dictionary : stores information about the structure of the

database. It is used heavily. Great emphasis should be placed on
developing a good design and efficient implementation of the
dictionary.

Indices : provide fast access to data items holding particular values.

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 Database Management System 15

Users

Naïve Application Sophisticated Database

Users Users Users Administrator

Application Interface
Application Programs Query Database Scheme

Data Manipulation Language Precompiler Data Definition Language Compiler

Query Processor

Application Programs Object Code Database Management System

Database Manager

File Manager

Data Files

Disk Storage Data Dictionary

Figure : Database System Structure

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Chapter-2

Database Architecture

Q.1 What do you mean by Data Abstraction?

Ans.: The major purpose of a database system is to provide users with an abstract
view of the system. The system hides certain details of how data is stored,
created and maintained. Complexity should be hidden from the database
users, which is known as Data Abstraction.
Levels of Abstraction :
A common concept in computer science is levels (or less commonly layers) of
abstraction, where in each level represents a different model of the same
information and processes, but uses a system of expression involving a
unique set of objects and compositions that are applicable only to a particular
domain. Each relatively abstract, a "higher" level builds on a relatively
concrete, "lower" level, which tends to provide an increasingly "granular"
representation. For example, gates build on electronic circuits, binary on
gates, machine language on binary, programming language on machine
language, applications and operating systems on programming languages.
Each level is embeded, but not determined, by the level beneath it, making it
a language of description that is somewhat self-contained.

Q.2 Explain the Database Architecture with its various levels.

Ans.: Many users of database systems are 6
not deeply familiar with computer
data structures, database developers often hide complexity through the
following levels :

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 Database Management System 17

End Case User‟s External Level

Level

DBA‟s Level Conceptual Level

Application Internal
Programmers Level Level

Physical Level : The lowest level of abstraction describes how the data is
actually stored. The physical level describes complex low-level data
structures in detail.
Logical Level : The next higher level of abstraction describes what data are
stored in the database, and what relationships exist among those data. The
logical level thus describes an entire database in terms of a small number of
relatively simple structures. Although implementation of the simple
structures at the logical level may involve complex physical level structures,
the user of the logical level does not need to be aware of this complexity.
Database administrators, who must decide what information to keep in a
database, use the logical level of abstraction.
View Level : The highest level of abstraction describes only part of the entire
database. Even though the logical level uses simpler structures, complexity

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18

remains because of the variety of information stored in a large database.

Many users of a database system do not need all this information; instead,
they need to access only a part of the database. The view level of abstraction
exists to simplify their interaction with the system. The system may provide
many views for the same database.

Q.3 How will you define different Database Users in Database Management
System?
Ans.: The Database Users fall into several categories :

Application Programmers are computer professionals interacting with

the system through DML calls embedded in a program written in a
host language (e.g. C, PL/1, Pascal) :
 These programs are called Application Programs.
 The DML Precompiler converts DML calls (prefaced by a
special character like $, #, etc.) to normal procedure calls in a
host language.
 The host language compiler then generates the object code.
 Some special types of programming languages combine Pascal-
like control structures with control structures for the
manipulation of a database.
 These are sometimes called Fourth-Generation Languages.
 They often include features which to generate forms and
display data.

Sophisticated Users interact with the system without writing

programs :
 They form requests by writing queries in a database query
language.
 These are submitted to a query processor that breaks a DML
statement down into instructions for the database manager
module.

Specialized Users are sophisticated users writing special database

application programs. These may be CADD systems, knowledge-based
and expert systems, complex data systems (audio/video), etc.

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Database Management System 19

Naive Users are unsophisticated users who interact with the system by
using permanent application programs (e.g. automated teller
machine).

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Chapter-3

Data Models

Q.1 Define various Data Models.

Ans.: Data Models: Data models are a collection of conceptual tools for describing
data, data relationships, data semantics and data constraints. There are three
different groups :
(i) Object-Based Logical Models.
(ii) Record-Based Logical Models.
(iii) Physical Data Models.
We'll look at them in more detail now :
(i) Object-Based Logical Models :

Describe data at the conceptual and view levels.

Provide fairly flexible structuring capabilities.

Allow one to specify data constraints explicitly.

Over 30 such models, including :

a) Entity-Relationship Model
b) Object-Oriented Model
c) Binary Model
d) Semantic Data Model
e) Info Logical Model
f) Functional Data Model
*** At this point, we'll take a closer look at the Entity-Relationship (E-R)
and Object-Oriented models.

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Database Management System 21

a) The E-R Model : The entity-relationship model is based on a

perception of the world as consisting of a collection of basic objects
(entities) and relationships among these objects :

An entity is a distinguishable object that exists.

Each entity has associated with it a set of attributes describing

it.

E.g. number and balance for an account entity.

A relationship is an association among several entities.

E.g. A cust_acct relationship associates a customer with each

account he or she has.

The set of all entities or relationships of the same type is called

the entity set or relationship set.

Another essential element of the E-R diagram is the mapping

cardinalities, which express the number of entities to which
another entity can be associated via a relationship set.

The overall logical structure of a database can be expressed graphically

by an E-R diagram :

Rectangles: represent entity sets.

Ellipses: represent attributes.

Diamonds: represent relationships among entity sets.

Lines: link attributes to entity sets and entity sets to

relationships.

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22

street

name city number balance

customer Cust. Acct. account

Figure : Entity-Relationship Model

b) Object-Oriented Model :
 The object-oriented model is based on a collection of objects,
like the E-R model.

An object contains values stored in instance variables

within the object.

Unlike the record-oriented models, these values are

themselves objects.

Thus objects contain objects to an arbitrarily deep level of

nesting.

An object also contains bodies of code that operate on the

object.

These bodies of code are called methods.

Objects that contain the same types of values and the

same methods are grouped into classes.

A class may be viewed as a type definition for objects.

Analogy: the programming language concept of an

abstract data type.

The only way in which one object can access the data of
another object is by invoking the method of that other
object.

This is called sending a message to the object.

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Database Management System 23

Internal parts of the object, the instance variables and

method code, are not visible externally.

Result is two levels of data abstraction.

 For example, consider an object representing a bank account.

The object contains instance variables number and

balance.

The object contains a method pay-interest which adds

interest to the balance.

Under most data models, changing the interest rate

entails changing code in application programs.

In the object-oriented model, this only entails a change

within the pay-interest method.
 Unlike entities in the E-R model, each object has its own unique
identity, independent of the values it contains :

Two objects containing the same values are distinct.

Distinction is created and maintained in physical level by

assigning distinct object identifiers
(ii) Record-Based Logical Models :

Also describe data at the conceptual and view levels.

Unlike object-oriented models, they are used to

 Specify overall logical structure of the database, and
 Provide a higher-level description of the implementation.

Named so because the database is structured in fixed-format

records of several types.

Each record type defines a fixed number of fields, or attributes.

Each field is usually of a fixed length (this simplifies the

implementation).

Record-based models do not include a mechanism for direct

representation of code in the database.

Separate languages associated with the model are used to

express database queries and updates.

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24

The three most widely-accepted models are the relational,

network, and hierarchical.

This course will concentrate on the relational model.

The network and hierarchical models are covered in

appendices in the text.
a) The Relational Model :
Data and relationships are represented by a collection of tables.
Each table has a number of columns with unique names, e.g.
customer, account.

Following tabler shows a sample relational database.

name street city number number balance
Lowery Maple Queens 900 900 55
Shiver North Bronx 556 556 10000
Shiver North Bronx 647 647 105366
Hodges Sidehill Brooklyn 801 801 10533
Hodges Sidehill Brooklyn 647
Figure : A Sample Relational Database.
b) The Network Model :

Data are represented by collections of records.

Relationships among data are represented by links.

Organization is that of an arbitrary graph.

Following figure shows a sample network database that is the

equivalent figure of the relational database.

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Database Management System 25

Lowery Maple Queens 900 55

556 100000

Shiver North Bronx

647 105366

Hodges Sidehill Brooklyn 801 10533

Figure : Sample Network Database

c) The Hierarchical Model :

Similar to the network model.

Organization of the records is as a collection of trees, rather

than arbitrary graphs.

Following figure shows a sample hierarchical database that is

the equivalent figure of the relational database

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26

BANK

Lowery Maple Queens

Hodges Sidehill Brookly

Shiver North Bronx

90055 647105366 801 10533

556100000 647105366

Figure : A Sample Hierarchical Database

The relational model does not use pointers or links, but relates records
by the values they contain. This allows a formal mathematical
foundation to be defined.
(iii) Physical Data Models :
a) Are used to describe data at the lowest level.
b) Very few models, e.g.
Unifying model
Frame memory

Q.2 Define the components of Data Models.

Ans.: A data model underlines the structure of a database and defines the
relationship between the different entities, a data model consist of three main
components.
(i) Structures : The structure portion specifies hoe elementary data item
are grouped into layers.

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Database Management System 27

(ii) Operation : The operation component provides mechanism for

inaction relation, retrieval & modification of data
(iii) Constraints : The constraint define conditions that must be met for the
data to be complete & correct. Constraints are used to control the
condition under which a particular data object may exist be altered &
do forth.
Three major types of constraints are on values depends & referential
integrity :–

Constraints Description

Values The allowable, valid values for attribute may be

States as a list, a range, type of character etc. For
Values may be 1,2 or 3 only range from 0 to 60
or be 1,2 or 3 only range from 0 to 60 or be
numeric only.

Dependencies The allowable values for attribute may depend

on it other values for the attribute may depend
on it other values. For Ex. The Employee
eligibility for overtime is depending upon
his/her other status code.

Relational Entity and relationship often have reference

Integrity condition that must be met for e.g. there may be
existence dependencies in which for one entity
to exist. An illustration of this is sales order, for
an order to exist there must be a customer.

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28

Q.3 Explain IMS Hierarchy in terms of DBMS?

Ans.: IMS Hierarchy : IMS (Information Management System) is a database and
transaction management system that was first introduced by IBM in 1968.
Since then, IMS has gone through many changes in adapting to new
programming tools and environments. IMS is one of two major legacy
database and transaction management subsystems from IBM that run on
mainframe MVS (now z/OS) systems. The other is CICS (Customer
information service system). It is claimed that, historically, application
programs that use either (or both) IMS or CICS services have handled and
continue to handle most of the world's banking, insurance, and order entry
transactions.
IMS consists of two major components, the IMS Database Management
System (IMS DB) and the IMS Transaction Management System (IMS TM). In
IMS DB, the data is organized into a hierarchy. The data in each level is
dependent on the data in the next higher level. The data is arranged so that its
integrity is ensured, and the storage and retrieval process is optimized. IMS
TM controls I/O (input/output) processing, provides formatting, logging,
and recovery of messages, maintains communications security, and oversees
the scheduling and execution of programs. TM uses a messaging mechanism
for queuing requests. IMS's original programming interface was DL/1 (Data
Language/1). Today, IMS applications and databases can be connected to
CICS applications and DB2 databases. Java programs can access IMS
databases and services.

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Database Management System 29

Chapter-4

Relational Algebra &

Relational Calculus

Q.1 Define the following terms.

Ans.: (i) Instances and Schemas :
a) Databases change over time.
b) The information in a database at a particular point in time is
called an Instance of the database.
c) The overall design of the database is called the database
Schema.
d) Analogy with programming languages :

Data type definition - Schema

Value of a variable - Instance
e) There are several schemas, corresponding to levels of
abstraction :
Physical Schema
Conceptual Schema
Sub-Schema (can be many)
(ii) Data Independence :
a) The ability to modify a scheme definition in one level without
affecting a scheme definition in a higher level is called Data
Independence.
b) There are two kinds :

Physical Data Independence :

 The ability to modify the physical scheme without
causing application programs to be rewritten
 Modifications at this level are usually to improve
performance

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30

Logical Data Independence :

 The ability to modify the conceptual scheme
without causing application programs to be
rewritten
 Usually done when logical structure of database is
altered
c) Logical data independence is harder to achieve as the
application programs are usually heavily dependent on the
logical structure of the data. An analogy is made to abstract data
types in programming languages.
(iii) Data Definition Language (DDL) :
a) Used to specify a database scheme as a set of definitions
expressed in a DDL.
b) DDL statements are compiled, resulting in a set of tables stored
in a special file called a data dictionary or data directory.
c) The data directory contains metadata (data about data).
d) The storage structure and access methods used by the database
system are specified by a set of definitions in a special type of
DDL called a Data Storage and Definition language
Basic Idea : hide implementation details of the database schemes from the
users.
(iv) Data Manipulation Language (DML) :
a) Data Manipulation is : -
Retrieval of information from the database.
Insertion of new information into the database.
Deletion of information in the database.
Modification of information in the database.
b) A DML is a language which enables users to access and
manipulate data.
c) The goal is to provide efficient human interaction with the
system.
d) There are two types of DML :
Procedural : The user specifies what data is needed and
how to get it.

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Database Management System 31

Nonprocedural : The user only specifies what data is

needed.
 Easier for user.
 May not generate code as efficient as that
produced by procedural languages.
e) A Query Language is a portion of a DML involving information
retrieval only. The terms DML and query language are often
used synonymously.

Q.2 What do you mean by Database Manager and explain its responsibilities
for DBMS.
Ans.: Database Manager :
a) The Database Manager is a Program Module which provides the
interface between the low-level data stored in the database and the
application programs and queries submitted to the system.
b) Databases typically require lots of storage space (gigabytes). This must
be stored on disks. Data is moved between disk and main memory
(MM) as needed.
c) The goal of the database system is to simplify and facilitate access to
data. Performance is important. Views provide simplification.
d) So the database manager module is responsible for :

Interaction with the File Manager : Storing raw data on disk

using the file system usually provided by a conventional
operating system. The database manager must translate DML
statements into low-level file system commands (for storing,
retrieving and updating data in the database).

Integrity Enforcement : Checking that updates in the database

do not violate consistency constraints (e.g. no bank account
balance below $25).

Security Enforcement : Ensuring that users only have access to

information they are permitted to see.

Backup and Recovery : Detecting failures due to power failure,

disk crash, software errors, etc., and restoring the database to its
state before the failure.

Concurrency Control : Preserving data consistency when there

are concurrent users.

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32

e) Some small database systems may miss some of these features,

resulting in simpler database managers. (For example, no concurrency
is required on a PC running MS-DOS.) These features are necessary on
larger systems.

Q.3 Explain the concept of Relational Algebra.

Introduction :
Relational algebras received little attention until the publication of E.F.
Codd's relational model of data in 1970. Codd proposed such an algebra as a
basis for database query languages. The first query language to be based on
Codd's algebra was ISBL, and this pioneering work has been acclaimed by
many authorities as having shown the way to make Codd's idea into a useful
language. Business System 12 was a short-lived industry-strength relational
DBMS that followed the ISBL example. In 1998 Chris Date and Hugh Darwen
proposed a language called Tutorial D intended for use in teaching relational
database theory, and its query language also draws on ISBL's ideas. Rel is an
implementation of Tutorial D. Even the query language of SQL is loosely
based on a relational algebra, though the operands in SQL (tables) are not
exactly relations and several useful theorems about the relational algebra do
not hold in the SQL counterpart (arguably to the detriment of optimisers
and/or users).
Because a relation is interpreted as the extension of some predicate, each
operator of a relational algebra has a counterpart in predicate calculus. For
example, the natural join is a counterpart of logical AND (). If relations R and
S represent the extensions of predicates p1 and p2, respectively, then the
natural join of R and S (R S) is a relation representing the extension of the
predicate p1 p2.
It is important to realise that Codd's algebra is not in fact complete with
respect to first-order logic. Had it been so, certain insurmountable
computational difficulties would have arisen for any implementation of it. To
overcome these difficulties, he restricted the operands to finite relations only
and also proposed restricted support for negation (NOT) and disjunction
(OR). Analogous restrictions are found in many other logic-based computer
languages. Codd defined the term relational completeness to refer to a
language that is complete with respect to first-order predicate calculus apart
from the restrictions he proposed. In practice the restrictions have no adverse
effect on the applicability of his relational algebra for database purposes.

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Database Management System 33

As in any algebra, some operators are primitive and the others, being
definable in terms of the primitive ones, are derived. It is useful if the choice
of primitive operators parallels the usual choice of primitive logical operators.
Although it is well known that the usual choice in logic of AND, OR and
NOT is somewhat arbitrary, Codd made a similar arbitrary choice for his
algebra.
The six primitive operators of Codd's algebra are the selection, the projection,
the Cartesian product (also called the cross product or cross join), the set union,
the set difference, and the rename. (Actually, Codd omitted the rename, but the
compelling case for its inclusion was shown by the inventors of ISBL.) These
six operators are fundamental in the sense that none of them can be omitted
without losing expressive power. Many other operators have been defined in
terms of these six. Among the most important are set intersection, division,
and the natural join. In fact ISBL made a compelling case for replacing the
Cartesian product by the natural join, of which the Cartesian product is a
degenerate case.
Altogether, the operators of relational algebra have identical expressive
power to that of domain relational calculus or tuple relational calculus.
However, for the reasons given in the Introduction above, relational algebra
has strictly less expressive power than that of first-order predicate calculus
without function symbols. Relational algebra actually corresponds to a subset
of first-order logic that is Horn clauses without recursion and negation.
The Relational Algebra is a procedural query language.

Six fundamental operations :

Unary
 Select
 Project
 Rename
Binary
 Cartesian product
 Union
 Set-difference

Several other operations, defined in terms of the fundamental

operations :

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34

 Set-intersection
 Natural join
 Division
 Assignment

Operations produce a new relation as a result.

There are some relations which we are using in our queries :
(i) Account
account_number branch_name balance
A-101 Downtown 500
A-102 SFU 400
A-201 Brighton 900
A-215 Mianus 700
A-217 Brighton 750
A-222 Laugheed Mall 700
A-305 Round Hill 350
(ii) Branch
branch_name branch-city assets
Brighton Brooklyn 7100000
Downtown Vaneouver 9000000
Mianus Horseneck 400000
North Town Rye 3700000
SFU Burnaby 1700000
Pownal Bennington 300000
Lougheed Mall Burnaby 2100000
Round Hill Horseneck 8000000
(iii) Customer
customer_name customer_street customer_city
Adams Spring Pittsfield
Brooks Senator Brooklyn
Curry North Rye

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Database Management System 35

Glenn Sand Hill Woodside

Green Walnut Stamford
customer_name customer_street customer_city
Hayes Main Harrison
Johnson Alma PaloAlto
Jones Main Harrison
Lindsay Park Pittsfield
Smith North Rye
Turner Putnam Stamford
Williams Nassau Princeton
(iv) Depositor
customer-name account-number
Hayes A-102
Johnson A-101
Johnson A-201
Jones A-217
Lindsay A-222
Smith A-215
Turner A-305
(v) Loan
Loan_number branch_name amount
L-11 Round Hill 900
L-14 Downton 1500
L-15 SFU 1500
L-16 SFU 1300
L-17 Downtown 1000
L-23 Laugheed Mall 2000
L-93 Mianus 500
(vi) Borrower

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36

customer_name loan-number
Adams L-16
Curry L-93
Hayes L-15
Jackson L-14
Jones L-17
Smith L-11
Smith L-23
Williams L-17
Fundamental Operations :
(i) The Select Operation :
Select selects tuples that satisfy a given predicate. Select is denoted by
a lowercase Greek sigma (), with the predicate appearing as a
subscript. The argument relation is given in parentheses following the
.
For example, to select tuples (rows) of the borrow relation where the
branch is ``SFU'', we would write
bname = “SFU”(borrow)
Let Figure be the borrow and branch relations in the banking example :

bname loan# ename amount bname assets bcity

Downtown 17 Jones 1000 Downtown 9,00,000 Vaneouver
Lougheed 23 Smith 2000 Lougheed 21,000,000 Burnaby
Mall Mall
SFU 15 Hayes 1500 SFU 17,000,000 Burnaby

Figure : The borrow and branch Relations

The new relation created as the result of this operation consists of one
tuple :
(SFU, 15, Hayes, 1500)

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Database Management System 37

We allow comparisons using =, ≠, <, ≤, > and ≥ in the selection

predicate.
We also allow the logical connectives (or) and (and). For example :
bname = “Downtown” amount > 1200(borrow)

ename banker
Hayes Jones
Johnson Johnson
Figure : The client Relation
Suppose there is one more relation, client, shown in Figure, with the
scheme
Client_scheme = (ename, banker)
we might write
ename = banker(client)
to find clients who have the same name as their banker.
(ii) The Project Operation :
Project copies its argument relation for the specified attributes only.
Since a relation is a set, duplicate rows are eliminated.
Projection is denoted by the Greek capital letter pi ( ). The attributes
to be copied appear as subscripts.
For example, to obtain a relation showing customers and branches, but
ignoring amount and loan#, we write
∏bname, ename(borrow)

We can perform these operations on the relations resulting from other

operations.
To get the names of customers having the same name as their bankers,
∏ename(ename = banker(client))
Think of select as taking rows of a relation, and project as taking
columns of a relation.
(iii) The Cartesian Product Operation :
The Cartesian Product of two relations is denoted by a cross (x),
written
r1 x r2 for relations r1 and r2

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38

The result of r1 x r2 is a new relation with a tuple for each possible

pairing of tuples from r1 and r2.
In order to avoid ambiguity, the attribute names have attached to them
the name of the relation from which they came. If no ambiguity will
result, we drop the relation name.
The result client x customer is a very large relation. If r1 has n1 tuples,
and r2 has n2 tuples, then r = r1 x r2 will have n1n2 tuples.
The resulting schema is the concatenation of the schemas of r1 and r2,
with relation names added as mentioned.
To find the clients of banker Johnson and the city in which they live,
we need information in both client and customer relations. We can get
this by writing
banker = “Johnson”(client x customer)
However, the customer. name column contains customers of bankers
other than Johnson. (Why?)
We want rows where client. name = customer. name. So we can write

client . ename = customer . ename(banker = “Johnson”(client x

customer))
to get just these tuples.
Finally, to get just the customer's name and city, we need a projection :
∏client . ename , ecity (client . ename = customer . ename(banker = “Johnson”(client x
customer)))
(iv) The Rename Operation :
The Rename Operation solves the problems that occurs with naming
when performing the Cartesian Product of a relation with itself.
Suppose we want to find the names of all the customers who live on
the same street and in the same city as Smith.
We can get the street and city of Smith by writing

∏street , ecity (ename = “Smith”(customer))

To find other customers with the same information, we need to

reference the customer relation again :

p(customer x (∏street , ecity (ename = “Smith”(customer))))

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Database Management System 39

where P is a selection predicate requiring street and ecity values to be

equal.
Problem: how do we distinguish between the two street values
appearing in the Cartesian product, as both come from a customer
relation?
Solution: use the rename operator, denoted by the Greek letter rho (ρ).

We write ρz(r)
to get the relation r under the name of z.
If we use this to rename one of the two customer relations we are
using, the ambiguities will disappear.

∏customer . ename (cust2 . street = customer . street cust2 . ecity = customer . ecity

(customer x (∏street , ecity (ename = “Smith”( ρcust2(customer)))))

(v) The Union Operation :
The Union Operation is denoted by as in set theory. It returns the
union (set union) of two compatible relations.
For a union operation r U s to be legal, we require that
o r and s must have the same number of attributes.
o The domains of the corresponding attributes must be the same.
To find all customers of the SFU branch, we must find everyone who
has a loan or an account or both at the branch.
We need both borrow and deposit relations for this:
∏ename(balance = “SFU”(borrow)) U ∏ename(bname = “SFU”(deposit))
As in all set operations, duplicates are eliminated, giving the relation
of Figure.
(a) ename (b) ename
Hayes Adams
Adams
Figure : The union and set-difference operations
(i) The Set Difference Operation
Set difference is denoted by the minus sign (―). It finds tuples that are
in one relation, but not in another.

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40

Thus r ― s results in a relation containing tuples that are in r but not in

s
To find customers of the SFU branch who have an account there but no
loan, we write
∏ename(balance = “SFU”(deposit)) ― ∏ename(bname = “SFU”(borrow))

We can do more with this operation. Suppose we want to find the

largest account balance in the bank.
Strategy :
o Find a relation r containing the balances not the largest.
o Compute the set difference of r and the deposit relation.
To find r, we write
∏deposit . balance ( deposit . balance < d. balance (deposit x ρd(deposit)))

This resulting relation contains all balances except the largest one.
Now we can finish our query by taking the set difference:
∏balance(deposit) ― ∏deposit . balance ( deposit . balance < d. balance (deposit x
ρd(deposit)))
Figure shows the result.
(a) balance (b) balance
400 1300
500 900
700
Figure 1 : Find the largest account balance in the bank
Formal Definition of Relational Algebra :
(i) A basic expression consists of either
o A relation in the database.
o A constant relation.
(ii) General expressions are formed out of smaller subexpressions using
o P(E1) select (p a predicate)

o ∏S(E1) project (s a list of attributes)

o ρZ(E1) rename (x a relation name)

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Database Management System 41

o E1 U E2 union

o E1 ― E2 set difference

o E1 x E2 Cartesian product
Additional Operations :
(i) Additional operations are defined in terms of the fundamental
operations. They do not add power to the algebra, but are useful to
simplify common queries.
(ii) The Set Intersection Operation
Set intersection is denoted by , and returns a relation that contains
tuples that are in both of its argument relations.
It does not add any power as
r ∩ s = r ― (r ― s)
To find all customers having both a loan and an account at the SFU
branch, we write
∏ename(bname = “SFU”(borrow)) ∩ ∏ename(bname = “SFU”(deposit))
(iii) The Natural Join Operation :
Often we want to simplify queries on a Cartesian product.
For example, to find all customers having a loan at the bank and the
cities in which they live, we need borrow and customer relations :
∏borrow . ename , ecity (borrow . ename = customer . ename (borrow x customer))

Our selection predicate obtains only those tuples pertaining to only

one cname.
This type of operation is very common, so we have the natural join,
denoted by a x sign. Natural join combines a cartesian product and a
selection into one operation. It performs a selection forcing equality on
those attributes that appear in both relation schemas. Duplicates are
removed as in all relation operations.
To illustrate, we can rewrite the previous query as
∏ ename , ecity (borrow x customer))
The resulting relation is shown in Figure.

ename ecity
Smith Burnaby

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42

Hayes Burnaby
Jones Vancouver
Figure : Joining borrow and customer relations
We can now make a more formal definition of natural join.
o Consider R and S to be sets of attributes.
o We denote attributes appearing in both relations by R ∩ S.
o We denote attributes in either or both relations by R U S.
o Consider two relations r(R) and s(S).
o The natural join of r and s, denoted by r x s is a relation on
scheme R U S.
o It is a projection onto R U S of a selection on r x s where the
predicate requires r . A = s . A for each attribute A in R ∩ S.
Formally,
r x s = ∏R U S(r.A1 = s.A1 r.A2 = s.A2..................................r.An = s.An (r x s))
where R ∩ S = { A1 , A2 ,_____, An }
To find the assets and names of all branches which have depositors
living in Stamford, we need customer, deposit and branch relations :
∏bname , assets(ecity = “Stamford” (customer x deposit x branch))
Note that x is associative.
To find all customers who have both an account and a loan at the SFU
branch:
∏ename (bname = “SFU” (borrow x deposit))

This is equivalent to the set intersection version we wrote earlier. We

see now that there can be several ways to write a query in the
relational algebra.
If two relations r(R) and s(S) have no attributes in common, then R ∩ S
= 0, and r x s = s x r.
(iv) The Division Operation :
Division, denoted by ÷, is suited to queries that include the phrase ``for
all‖.
Suppose we want to find all the customers who have an account at all
branches located in Brooklyn.

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Database Management System 43

Strategy: think of it as three steps.

We can obtain the names of all branches located in Brooklyn by
r1 = ∏bname (bcity = “Brooklyn” (branch))
We can also find all cname, bname pairs for which the customer has an
account by
r2 = ∏ename , bname(deposit)
Now we need to find all customers who appear in r2 with every branch
name in r1.
The divide operation provides exactly those customers:
∏ename , bname(deposit) ÷ ∏bname (bcity = “Brooklyn” (branch))
which is simply r2 ÷ r1.
Formally,
o Let r(R) and s(S) be relations.
o Let S R.
o The relation r ÷ s is a relation on scheme R - S.
o A tuple is in r ÷ s if for every tuple ts in s there is a tuple tr in r
satisfying both of the following:
tr[S] = ts[S]

tr[R - S] = ts[R - S]

o These conditions say that the R - S portion of a tuple is in r ÷ s

if and only if there are tuples with the r - s portion and the S
portion in r for every value of the S portion in relation S.
The division operation can be defined in terms of the fundamental
operations.

r ÷ s = ∏R -S(r) - ∏R -S(∏R -S(r) x s) – r)

(v) The Assignment Operation
Sometimes it is useful to be able to write a relational algebra
expression in parts using a temporary relation variable (as we did with
r1 and r2 in the division example).

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44

The assignment operation, denoted , works like assignment in a

programming language.
We could rewrite our division definition as
temp ← ∏R -S(r)
temp ← ∏R -S((temp x s) – r)
No extra relation is added to the database, but the relation variable
created can be used in subsequent expressions. Assignment to a
permanent relation would constitute a modification to the database.

Q.4 Explain the term Relational Calculus in DBMS.

Ans.: The Tuple Relational Calculus :
(i) The tuple relational calculus is a nonprocedural language. (The
relational algebra was procedural.)
We must provide a formal description of the information desired.
(ii) A query in the tuple relational calculus is expressed as
{ t │ P(t) }
i.e. the set of tuples t for which predicate P is true.
(iii) We also use the notation
o t[a] to indicate the value of tuple t on attribute a.
o t Є r to show that tuple t is in relation r.
Example Queries
For example, to find the branch-name, loan number, customer name and
amount for loans over $1200:
{ t │ t Є borrow t[amount] > 1200 }

This gives us all attributes, but suppose we only want the customer names.
(We would use project in the algebra.)
We need to write an expression for a relation on scheme (cname).
{ t │  t Є borrow ( t[ename] = s[ename] s[amount] > 1200 )}
In English, we may read this equation as ``the set of all tuples t such that
there exists a tuple in the relation borrow for which the values of t and s for
the cname attribute are equal, and the value of s for the amount attribute is
greater than 1200.''

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Database Management System 45

The notation t Є r(Q(t)) means ``there exists a tuple t in relation r such that
predicate Q(t) is true''.
How did we get the above expression? We needed tuples on scheme cname
such that there were tuples in borrow pertaining to that customer name with
amount attribute > 1200.
The tuples get the scheme cname implicitly as that is the only attribute is
mentioned with.
Let's look at a more complex example.
Find all customers having a loan from the SFU branch, and the the cities in
which they live:
{ t │  t Є borrow ( t[ename] = s[ename] s[amount] = “SFU” )}
{ u Є customer ( u[ename] = s[ename] t[ecity] = u[ecity] )}
In English, we might read this as ``the set of all (cname,ccity) tuples for which
cname is a borrower at the SFU branch, and ccity is the city of cname''.
Tuple variable s ensures that the customer is a borrower at the SFU branch.
Tuple variable u is restricted to pertain to the same customer as s, and also
ensures that ccity is the city of the customer.
The logical connectives (AND) and (OR) are allowed, as well as
(negation).
We also use the existential quantifier and the universal quantifier .
Some more examples :
(i) Find all customers having a loan, an account, or both at the SFU branch
:

{ t │  t Є borrow ( t[ename] = s[ename] s[bname] = “SFU” )}

{ u Є deposit ( t[ename] = u[ename] u[bname] = “SFU” )}
Note the use of the connective.
As usual, set operations remove all duplicates.
(ii) Find all customers who have both a loan and an account at the SFU
branch.
Solution: simply change the connective in 1 to a .
(iii) Find customers who have an account, but not a loan at the SFU branch.

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46

{ t │ u t Є deposit ( t[ename] = u[ename] u[bname] = “SFU” )}

{ A ― s Є borrow ( t[ename] = s[ename] s[bname] = “SFU” )}
(iv) Find all customers who have an account at all branches located in
Brooklyn. (We used division in relational algebra.)
For this example we will use implication, denoted by a pointing finger
in the text, but by here.
The formula P Q means P implies Q, or, if P is true, then Q must be
true.

{t│ u Є brach (u[city] = “Brooklyn”

( s Є deposit ( t[ename] = s[ename] u[bname] = s[bname] ))}

In English: the set of all cname tuples t such that for all tuples u in the
branch relation, if the value of u on attribute bcity is Brooklyn, then the
customer has an account at the branch whose name appears in the
bname attribute of u.
Formal Definitions :
(i) A tuple relational calculus expression is of the form
{ t │ P(t) }
where P is a formula.
Several tuple variables may appear in a formula.
(ii) A tuple variable is said to be a free variable unless it is quantified by a
or . Then it is said to be a bound variable.
(iii) A formula is built of atoms. An atom is one of the following forms:
o s Є r, where is a tuple variable, and r is a relation ( is not
allowed).

o s[x] u[y], where and are tuple variables, and x and y are
attributes, and is a comparison operator (<, , =, , >, ).

o s[x] c, where is a constant in the domain of attribute x.

(iv) Formulae are built up from atoms using the following rules :
o An atom is a formula.

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Database Management System 47

o If P is a formula, then so are P and (P).

o If P1 and P2 and are formulae, then so are P1 P2, P1 V P2 and P1
P2.
o If P(s) is a formula containing a free tuple variable s, then

s Є r(P(s)) and s Є r(P(s)) are formulae also.

(v) Note some equivalences : -

o P1 P2 = ( P1 V P2)

o t Є r(P(t)) = t Є r( P(t))
o P1 => P2 = P1 V P2
The Domain Relational Calculus :
Domain variables take on values from an attribute's domain, rather than
values for an entire tuple. Formal Definitions
(i) An expression is of the form
{ < x1, x2 , . . . , xn > │ P (x1, x2 , . . . , xn )}
where the xi1 1 i n1 represent domain variables, and P is a
formula.
(ii) An atom in the domain relational calculus is of the following forms
o < x1, x2 , . . . , xn > Є r where r is a relation on n attributes, and xi1
1 i n1, are domain variables or constants.

o x y, where x and y are domain variables, and is a

comparison operator.

o x c, where c is a constant.

(iii) Formulae are built up from atoms using the following rules :
o An atom is a formula.
o If is a formula, then so are P and (P).
o If P1 and P2 are formulae, then so are P1 P2, P1 V P2 and P1
P2.

o If P(x) is a formula where x is a domain variable, then so are x

(P(x)) and x P(x)) .

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48

Example Queries :
(i) Find branch name, loan number, customer name and amount for loans
of over $1200.
{ < b1 I1 c1 a > │ b1 I1 c1 a Є borrow a > 1200 }
(ii) Find all customers who have a loan for an amount > than $1200.
{ < c > │ b1 I1 a (< b1 I1 c1 a > Є borrow a > 1200 )}
(iv) Find all customers having a loan from the SFU branch, and the city in
which they live.
{ < c1 x > │ b1 I1 a (< b1 I1 c1 a > Є borrow
b = “SFU” > y ( c1 y1 x > Є customer ))}
(v) Find all customers having a loan, an account or both at the SFU branch.
{ < c > │ b1 I1 a (< b1 I1 c1 a > Є borrow b = “SFU”)
V b1 a1 n (< b1 a1 c1 a > Є deposit b = “SFU”)}
(vi) Find all customers who have an account at all branches located in
Brooklyn.
{<c>│ x1 y1 z ( ( < x1 y1 z > Є branch)
z ”Brooklyn” b1 a1 n ( a1 n (< x1 a1 c1 n > Є deposit )))}
If you find this example difficult to understand, try rewriting this
expression using implication, as in the tuple relational calculus
example. Here's my attempt:
{ < cn > │ bn1 as1 bc ( ( < bn1 as1 bc > Є branch)
bc ”Brooklyn”) => an1 ba (< cn1 an1 ba1 bn > Є deposit )))}
I've used two letter variable names to get away from the problem of
having to remember what x stands for.

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Database Management System 49

Chapter-5

Concept of Network

Q.1 Explain the concept of Network Model with its

implementation. Ans.: The Network Model :
The network data model was formalized in the late 1960s by the Database
Task Group of the Conference on Data System Language (DBTG/
CODASYL). Their first report, which has been, revised a number of times,
contained detailed specifications for the network data model (a model
conforming to these specifications is also known as the DBTG data model).
The specifications contained in the report and its subsequent revisions have
been subjected to much debate and criticism. Many of the current database
applications have been built on commercial DBMS systems using the DBTG
model.
Implementation of the Network Data Model :
The record is a basic unit to represent data in the DBTG network database
model. The implementation of the one-to-many relationships of a set is
represented by linking the members of a given occurrence of a set to the
owner record occurrence. The actual method of linking the member record
occurrence to the owner is immaterial to the user of the database; however,
here, we can assume that the set is implemented using a linked list. The list
starts at the owner record occurrence and links all the member record
occurrences with the pointer in the last member record occurrence leading
back to the owner record. Note that for simplicity we have shown only one of
the record fields of each record. This method of implementation assigns one
pointer (link) in each record for each set type in which the record participates
and, therefore, allows a record occurrence to participate in only one
occurrence of a given set type. Any other method of implementing the set
construct in a database management system based on the DBTG proposal is,
in effect, equivalent to the linked list method.

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50

A second form of network implementation, especially useful for M:N

relationships, is a bit map. A bit map is a matrix created for each relationship.
Each row corresponds to the relative record number of a target record of a
relationship. A 1 bit in a cell for row X and column Y means that the records
corresponding to row X and column Y are associated in this relationship; a
zero means no association. For example, the PRODUCT with relative record
number X is related to VENDOR with relative record numbers 1 and Y (and
possibly others not shown). Bit maps are powerful data structures for the
following reasons -

Any record type(s) can be included in rows or

columns. 1:1, 1:M, and M:1 relationships can all be

represented.

Rows and columns can be logically manipulated by Boolean operators

("and," "or," "not") to determine records that satisfy complex associations
(e.g., any record that has both parent S and parent T).

A bit map can be manipulated equally as well in either a row or column

access (all the row records for a common column or all the column
records for a common row) and can be easily extended for n-ary
relationships).

Q.2 Define DBTG Network Model.

Ans.: DBTG Model :
The DBTG model uses two different data structures to represent the database
entities and relationships between the entities, namely record type and set
type. A record type is used to represent an entity type. It is made up of a
number of data items that represent the attributes of the entity.
A set is used to represent a directed relationship between two record types,
the so-called owner record type, and the member record type. The set type,
like the record type, is named and specifies that there is a one-to-many
relationship (I:M) between the owner and member record types. The set type
can have more than one record type as its member, but only one record type
is allowed to be the owner in a given set type. A database could have one or
more occurrences of each of its record and set types. An occurrence of a set
type consists of an occurrence of the owner record type and any number of
occurrences of each of its member record types. A record type cannot be a
member of two distinct occurrences of the same owner set type.

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Database Management System 51

Bachman introduced a graphical means called a data structure diagram to

denote the logical relationship implied by the set. Here a labeled rectangle
represents the corresponding entity or record type. An arrow that connects
two labeled rectangles represents a set type. The arrow direction is from the
owner record type to the member record type. Figure shows two record types
(DEPARTMENT and EMPLOYEE) and the set type DEPT-EMP, with
DEPARTMENT as the owner record type and EMPLOYEE as the member
record type.

Fig. : Key Constraint on Manages

The data structure diagrams have been extended to include field names in the
record type rectangle, and the arrow is used to clearly identify the data fields
involved in the set association. A one-to-many (1:M) relationship is shown by
a set arrow that starts from the owner field in the owner record type. The
arrow points to the member field within the member record type. The fields
that support the relationship can be clearly identified.

Q. 3. How can we convert an E-R diagram into a network database.

Ans. Each entity type in an E-R diagram is represented by a logical record type
with the same name. The attributes of the entity are represented by data fields
of the record. We use the term logical record to indicate that the actual
implementation may be quite different.
The conversion of the E-R diagram into a network database consists of
converting each 1:M binary relationship into a set (a 1:1 binary relationship
being a special case of a 1:M relationship). If there is a 1:M binary relationship
R1 from entity type E1 to entity type E2,
then the binary relationship is represented by a set An instance of this would
be S1 with an instance of the record type corresponding to entity E1 as the

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52

owner and one or more instances of the record type corresponding to entity
E2 as the member. If a relationship has attributes, unless the attributes can be
assigned to the member record type, they have to be maintained in a separate
logical record type created for this purpose. The introduction of this
additional record type requires that the original set be converted into two
symmetrical sets, with the record corresponding to the attributes of the
relationship as the member in both the sets and the records corresponding to
the entities as the owners.
Each many-to-many relationship is handled by introducing a new record type
to represent the relationship wherein the attributes, if any, of the relationship
are stored. We then create two symmetrical 1:M sets with the member in each
of the sets being the newly introduced record type.
In the network model, the relationships as well as the navigation through the
database are predefined at database creation time.
Q.4 What do you mean by Database Administrator and explain its duties? Also
define DBA Schema.
Ans.: Database Administrator :
The Database Administrator is a person having central control over data and
programs accessing that data. Duties of the database administrator include :

Schema Definition : the creation of the original database scheme. This

involves writing a set of definitions in a DDL (data storage and
definition language), compiled by the DDL compiler into a set of tables
stored in the data dictionary.

Storage Structure and Access Method Definition : writing a set of

definitions translated by the data storage and definition language
compiler

Scheme and Physical Organization Modification : writing a set of

definitions used by the DDL compiler to generate modifications to
appropriate internal system tables (e.g. data dictionary). This is done
rarely, but sometimes the database scheme or physical organization
must be modified.

Granting of Authorization for Data Access : granting different types

of authorization for data access to various users

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Database Management System 53

Integrity Constraint Specification : generating integrity constraints.

These are consulted by the database manager module whenever
updates occur.

Q.5 What are the Responsibilities or Functions of Database Administrator?

Ans.: A Database Administrator (DBA) is a person who is responsible for the
environmental aspects of database. In general, these include :
Recoverability : Creating and testing Backups.
Integrity : Verifying or helping to verify data integrity.
Security : Defining and/or implementing access controls to the data.
Availability : Ensuring maximum uptime.
Performance - Ensuring maximum performance.
Development and Testing Support : Helping programmers and engineers to
efficiently utilize the database.
The role of a database administrator has changed according to the technology
of database management systems (DBMSs) as well as the needs of the owners
of the databases. For example, although logical and physical database design
are traditionally the duties of a Database Analyst or Database Designer, a
DBA may be tasked to perform those duties.

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Chapter-6

Types of Databases

Q.1 Define ORDBMS and OODBMS.

Ans.: An Object-Relational Database (ORD) or Object-Relational Database
Management System (ORDBMS) is a database management system similar
to a relational database, but with an object-oriented database model: objects,
classes and inheritance are directly supported in database schemas and in the
query language. In addition, it supports extension of the data model with
custom data-types and methods.
One aim for this type of system is to bridge the gap between conceptual
datamodeling techniques such as ERD and ORM, which often use classes and
inheritance, and relational databases, which do not directly support them.
Another, related, aim is to bridge the gap between relational databases and
the object-oriented modeling techniques used in programming languages
such as Java, C++ or C#. However, a more popular alternative for achieving
such a bridge is to use a standard relational database systems with some form
of object-relational mapping software.
Whereas traditional RDBMS or SQL-DBMS products focused on the efficient
management of data drawn from a limited set of data-types (defined by the
relevant language standards), an object-relational DBMS allows software-
developers to integrate their own types and the methods that apply to them
into the DBMS. ORDBMS technology aims to allow developers to raise the
level of abstraction at which they view the problem domain. This goal is not
universally shared; proponents of relational databases often argue that object-
oriented specification lowers the abstraction level.
An object-relational database can be said to provide a middle ground
between relational databases and object-oriented databases (OODBMS). In
object-relational databases, the approach is essentially that of relational
databases: the data resides in the database and is manipulated collectively
with queries in a query language; at the other extreme are OODBMSes in
which the database is essentially a persistent object store for software written

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Database Management System 55

in an object-oriented programming language, with a programming API for

storing and retrieving objects, and little or no specific support for querying.
Many SQL ORDBMSs on the market today are extensible with user-defined
types (UDT) and custom-written functions (e.g. stored procedures. Some (e.g.
SQL Server) allow such functions to be written in object-oriented
programming languages, but this by itself doesn't make them object-oriented
databases; in an object-oriented database, object orientation is a feature of the
data model.

Q.2 What are the fundamental characteristics of Distributed

Databases? Ans.: DDBMS have following characteristics :
A collection of logically related shared data.
The data is split into number of fragments.

Fragments may be replicated.

Fragments/replicas are allocated to sites.
The sites are linked with computer network.
The data at each site is under the control of a DBMS.
The DBMS at each site can handle local applications autonomously.
Each DBMS participates in at least one global application.
It is not necessary for every site in the system to have its own local
database as shown.

The system is expected to make the distribution transparent to the

user.

Distributed database is split into fragments that can be stored on

different computers and perhaps replicated.

The objective of the transparency is to make the distributed system to

appear like a centralized system.

The system consists of data that is physically distributed across the

network. If the data is centralized, even though the users may be
accessing the data over the network, it is not considered as distributed
DBMS, simply distributed processing.

Q.3 Write the different advantages and disadvantages of DDBMS.

Ans.: Advantages :

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56

Reflects organizational structure

Improved sharability and local autonomy

Improved availability

Improved reliability

Improved performance

Modular growth

Less danger on single-point failure

Disadvantages:

Complexity

Cost

Security

Integrity control more difficult

Lack of standards

Lack of experience

Database design more complex

Possible slow response

Q.4 Explain the different types of DDBMS.

Ans: There are two types of DDBMS : Homogeneous and Heterogeneous
DDBMSs.
Homogeneous DDBMS :

In homogeneous DDBMS, all sites use the same DBMS product.

Much easier to design and manage.

This design provides incremental growth by making additional new

sites to DDBMS easy.

Allows increased performance by exploiting the parallel processing

capability of multiple sites.
Heterogeneous DDBMS :

In heterogeneous DDBMS, all sites may run different DBMS products,

which need not to be based on the same underlying data model and so

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Database Management System 57

the system may be composed of RDBMS, ORDBMS and OODBMS

products.

In heterogeneous system, communication between different DBMS is

required for translations.

In order to provide DBMS transparency, users must be able to make

requests in the language of the DBMS at their local site.

Data from the other sites may have different hardware, different
DBMS products and combination of different hardware and DBMS
products.

The task for locating those data and performing any necessary
translation are the abilities of heterogeneous DDBMS.

Q.5 What is not a DDBMS?

or
What do you mean by centralized database.
Ans.: The following are not a DDBMS :

A time sharing computer system.

A loosely or tightly coupled multiprocessor system.

A database which resides at one of the nodes of a network of

computers – this is a centralized database on a network node.

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58

Q.4 What do you mean by Centralized Databases?

Ans.: A "centralized DBMS"is a DBMS where all the data within the database is
stored on a single computer, usually the secondary storage device of the
computer. In a centralized DBMS, as the number of transactions executing on
the DBMS increases, performance of the DBMS significantly decreases and
becomes a drain on the overall performance of the computer

Q.5 How the Distributed Databases is different from Centralized Databases?

Ans.: A database which resides all of its data centralized and on one machine or
some machines which are connected together but looks one for the users
looking from outside. And whoever wants to use data, he picks data from
there and uses and saves again there.
While Distributed databases can be defined as a collection of multiple,
logically interrelated databases distributed over a computer network.
And distributed database management system (DDBMS) manages the
distributed databases and makes this distribution transparent to the user.
All the database must be logically related that are managed by DDBMS
(distributed database management system). The distributed databases are not
just the ‗collection of files‘ stored individually at different network nodes.
Rather to form DDBS (distributed databases) all the files should be logically
related and there should be structures among those files.

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Database Management System 59

In the case of distributed databases, data must be physically distributed

across the network nodes otherwise they will simply be separate databases
not ‗distributed databases‘.
Sometimes the multiprocessor system is also considered as distributed data
processing systems but in fact it is not true.
As multiprocessor system may use either ‗shared-nothing architecture‘ or
‗shared-everything architecture‘. Shared-nothing architecture system may
work like distributed computing environment but it is not. because in
distributed environment there may be heterogeneity of hardware as well as
operating system at different sites in network which is not the case in
multiprocessor systems. Thus for distributed databases data must be
distributed over network nodes.
While centralized databases are managed by DBMS, and no data distribution
is done in this case.
Distributed data is defined as collection of logically distributed database
which are connected with each other through a network. A distributed
database management system is used for managing distributed database.
Each side has its own database and operating system.
A centralized database has all its data on one place. As it is totally different
from distributed database which has data on different places. In centralized
database as all the data reside on one place so problem of bottle-neck can
occur, and data availability is not efficient as in distributed database. While in
distributed databases users can issue commands from any location to access
data and it does not affect the working of database. Distributed database
allows us to store one copy of data at different locations. Its advantage is that
if a user wants to access data then the nearest site (location) will provide data
so it takes less time.
There are multiple sites (computers) in a distributed database so if one site
fails then system will not be useless, because other sites can do their job
because the same copy of data is installed on every location. You will not find
this thing in centralized database.
Any time new nodes (computers) can be added to the network without any
difficulty.
Users do not know about the physical storage of data and it is known as
distribution transparency, as we know that ideally, a DBMS must not show
the details of where each file is stored or we can say that a DBMS should be
distribution transparent.

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60

Q.4 Define Client/Server Architecture.

Ans.: The Client-Server software architecture model, distinguishes client systems
from server systems, which communicate over a computer network. A client-
server application is a distributed system that constitutes of both client and
server software. A client software or process may initiate a communication
session, while the server waits for a requests from a client. [1]
Client/Server describes the relationship between two computer programs in
which one program, the client, makes a service request from another
program, the server, which fulfills the request. Although the client/server
idea can be used by programs within a single computer, it is a more
important idea in a network. In a network, the client/server model provides a
convenient way to efficiently interconnect programs that are distributed
across different locations. Computer transactions using the client/server
model are very common. Most Internet applications, such as email, web
access and database access, are based on the client/server model. For
example, a web browser is a client program at the user computer that may
access information at any web server in the world. To check your bank
account from your computer, a web browser client program in your
computer forwards your request to a web server program at the bank. That
program may in turn forward the request to its own database client program
that sends a request to a database server at another bank computer to retrieve
your account balance. The balance is returned back to the bank database
client, which in turn serves it back to the web browser client in your personal
computer, which displays the information for you.
The Client/Server model has become one of the central ideas of network
computing. Most business applications being written today use the
client/server model. So does the Internet's main application protocols, such
as HTTP, SMTP, Telnet, DNS, etc. In marketing, the term has been used to
distinguish distributed computing by smaller dispersed computers from the
"monolithic" centralized computing of mainframe characteristics computers.
But this distinction has largely disappeared as mainframes and their
applications have also turned to the client/server model and become part of
network computing.
Each instance of the client software can send data requests to one or more
connected servers. In turn, the servers can accept these requests, process them,
and return the requested information to the client. Although this concept can

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Database Management System 61

be applied for a variety of reasons to many different kinds of applications, the

architecture remains fundamentally the same.
The most basic type of client-server architecture employs only two types of
hosts: clients and servers. This type of architecture is sometimes referred to as
two-tier. It allows devices to share files and resources.
These days, clients are most often web browsers, although that has not
always been the case. Servers typically include web servers, database servers
and mail servers. Online gaming is usually client-server too. In the specific
case of MMORPG, the servers are typically operated by the company selling
the game; for other games one of the players will act as the host by setting his
game in server mode.
The interaction between client and server is often described using sequence
diagrams. Sequence diagrams are standardized in the Unified Modeling
Language.
When both the client- and server-software are running on the same computer,
this is called a single seat setup.
Characteristics of a client
Request sender is known as Client :
Initiates requests.
Waits for and receives replies.
Usually connects to a small number of servers at one time.
Typically interacts directly with end-users using a graphical user interface.
Characteristics of a Server :
Receiver of request which is sent by client is known as server.
Passive (slave).
Waits for requests from clients.
Upon receipt of requests, processes them and then serves replies.
Usually accepts connections from a large number of clients.
Typically does not interact directly with end-users.
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Chapter-7

Data and Query Processing

Q.1 Discuss the factors which determines the role of Data Processing?
Ans.: It is important to understand information system in the context of their use in
information processing. Which is also called data processing. We can define
data or information processing as the processing of data to make it more
usable and meaningful, Thus transforming it into information. The factors
which determines the role of data processing are as follows -
Data versus Information :
Data Information
Meaning: Plain facts When data are
processed,
organized,
structured or
presented in a given
context so as to make
them useful, they are
called Information.

Data are plain facts. The word "data" is plural for "datum." When data are
processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to
make them useful, they are called Information.
It is not enough to have data (such as statistics on the economy). Data
themselves are fairly useless. But when these data are interpreted and
processed to determine its true meaning, they becomes useful and can be
called Information.
The MIS versus The Data Processing System :
Data Processing Systems, or DP Systems, are concerned with transaction
handling and record-keeping, usually for a particular functional area.
Here are a few differences between an MIS and a DPS :

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Database Management System 63

(i) The integrated database of an MIS enables greater flexibility in

meeting the information needs of management.
(ii) An MIS integrates the information flow between functional areas
(accounting, marketing, inventory management, etc.), whereas DP
systems tend to support a single functional area.
(iii) An MIS caters to the information needs of all levels of management,
whereas DP systems focus on the clerical and operational levels.
(iv) Management's information needs are supported on a timelier basis
with an MIS than they are with a DP system. An MIS, for example, has
online inquiry capability for the immediate generation of reports,
whereas a DP system usually produces only scheduled reports.

Q.2 How will you define Database Query Language?

Ans.: Query Languages are computer languages used to make queries into
databases and information systems.
Broadly, query languages can be classified according to whether they are
database query languages or information retrieval query languages.
Examples include:
QL is a proprietary object-oriented query language for querying relational
databases.
Common Query Language (CQL) a formal language for representing queries
to information retrieval systems such as web indexes or bibliographic
catalogues.
CODASYL D is a query language for truly relational database management
systems (TRDBMS);
DMX is a query language for Data Mining models;
Datalog is a query language for deductive databases;
ERROL is a query language over the Entity-Relationship Model (ERM),
especially tailored for relational databases;
Gellish English is a language that can be used for queries in Gellish English
Databases [1], for dialogues (requests and responses) as well as for
information modeling and knowledge modeling;
ISBL is a query language for PRTV, one of the earliest relational database
management systems;

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64

LDAP is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory

services running over TCP/IP.
MQL is a cheminformatics query language for a substructure search allowing
beside nominal properties also numerical properties;
MDX is a query language for OLAP databases;
OQL is Object Query Language;
OCL (Object Constraint Language). Despite it's name, OCL is also an object
query language and a OMG standard.
OPath, intended for use in querying WinFS Stores;
Poliqarp Query Language is a special query language designed to analyze
annotated text. Used in the Poliqarp search engine;
QUEL is a relational database access language, similar in most ways to SQL;
SMARTS is the cheminformatics standard for a substructure search;
SPARQL is a query language for RDF graphs;
SQL is a well known query language for relational databases;
SuprTool is a proprietary query language for SuprTool, a database access
program used for accessing data in Image/SQL (TurboIMAGE) and Oracle
databases;
TMQL Topic Map Query Language is a query language for Topic Maps;
XQuery is a query language for XML data sources;

Q.3 What is Query Processing?

Ans.: Query Processing is the procedure of selecting the best plan or strategies to be
used in responding to a database request. Query is actually a stepwise
process ,in which first step is to transform thequery into standard form. For
example, Query is QBE is translated into SQL, and subsequently into a
relation algebric expression during the tranformation parser perform portion
of the query processor checks the syntax and varifies.
In the next step a number of strategies called access plans are generated for
evaluating the tranformed query.the cost of each access plan is estimeted and
the optimal one is chosen and executed.
STUDENT (std# ,std-name)
REGISTRATION(std#,course#)
GRADE(std#,course#,grade)

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Database Management System 65

COURSE (course#,course-name,instructor)
Genral strategies for Query processing:
Query Representation :
Query posed by users are not in a form which is convenient for internal
system use .So query procesdsors tranform it into thre form of relational
calculus ,relational algebra, Object graph,operator graph or tables.
Operator Graph :
An operator graph despicts how a sequence of operation can be performed. In
operator graph s, operations are represented by nodes and the flow of data is
shown by directed edges.
Example Query : ―List names students registered in database course‖
Πstd-name(σcourse-name=‖database‘(STUDENT |X| REGISTRATION|X|
COURSE)
Steps in Query Processing :
(i) Convert to a Standard Strate Point : We can use relational algebric
form and operator graph as the starting point.
We can assume that the query expression is in conjunctive normal
form.
(ii) Transform the Query : The query is transformed by replasing
expression in the query with those that are likely to enhance
performance.
(iii) Simplify the Query : The query is simplified by removing redundant
and useless operations.
(iv) Prepare Alternative Access Plans : The alternative access plan
indicates the order in which the various operations will be performed
and the cost of such plan.The cost is depends upon whether or the not
the relations. Are sorted and the presence or absence of indexes. The
optional aceess plan is chosen.
Genral Processing Straitegies :
(i) Perform selection as early as possible.
(ii) Combine a number of unary operations.
(iii) Convert the cartesian product with a certain subsequent selection into
join.

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66

(iv) Compute common expression once.

(v) Preprocess the relations.
Query Evaluation Plans :
We can classify the query evaluation approaches according to the number of
relations involved in query expression.
These are as follows :
(i) One Variable Expression
(ii) Sequential Access
(iii) Two Variable Expression
(iv) Nested Loop Method
(v) Sort and Merge Method
(vi) Hash Join.

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Database Management System 67

Chapter-8

Structured Query Language

Q.1 Describe basic SQL with its Procedural Extensions.

Ans.: Structured Query Language (SQL) is a database computer language
designed for the retrieval and management of data in relational database
management systems (RDBMS), database schema creation and modification,
and database object access control management.
SQL is a standard interactive and programming language for querying and
modifying data and managing databases. Although SQL is both an ANSI and
an ISO standard, many database products support SQL with proprietary
extensions to the standard language. The core of SQL is formed by a
command language that allows the retrieval, insertion, updating, and
deletion of data, and performing management and administrative functions.
SQL also includes a Call Level Interface (SQL/CLI) for accessing and
managing data and databases remotely.
The first version of SQL was developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and
Raymond F. Boyce in the early 1970s. This version, initially called SEQUEL,
was designed to manipulate and retrieve data stored in IBM's original
relational database product, System R. The SQL language was later formally
standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986.
Subsequent versions of the SQL standard have been released as International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards.
Originally designed as a declarative query and data manipulation language,
variations of SQL have been created by SQL database management system
(DBMS) vendors that add procedural constructs, control-of-flow statements,
user-defined data types, and various other language extensions. With the
release of the SQL:1999 standard, many such extensions were formally
adopted as part of the SQL language via the SQL Persistent Stored Modules
(SQL/PSM) portion of the standard.Common criticisms of SQL include a
perceived lack of cross-platform portability between vendors, inappropriate
handling of missing data, and unnecessarily complex and occasionally
ambiguous language grammar and semantics.

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68

History :
During the 1970s, a group at IBM's San Jose research center developed the
System R relational database management system, based on the model
introduced by Edgar F. Codd in his influential paper, A Relational Model of
Data for Large Shared Data Banks.[3] Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F.
Boyce of IBM subsequently created the Structured English Query Language
(SEQUEL) to manipulate and manage data stored in System R. [4] The
acronym SEQUEL was later changed to SQL because "SEQUEL" was a
trademark of the UK-based Hawker Siddeley aircraft company.
The first non-commercial non-SQL RDBMS, Ingres, was developed in 1974 at
the U.C. Berkeley. Ingres implemented a query language known as QUEL,
which was later supplanted in the marketplace by SQL.
In the late 1970s, Relational Software, Inc. (now Oracle Corporation) saw the
potential of the concepts described by Codd, Chamberlin, and Boyce and
developed their own SQL-based RDBMS with aspirations of selling it to the
U.S. Navy, CIA, and other government agencies. In the summer of 1979,
Relational Software, Inc. introduced the first commercially available
implementation of SQL, Oracle V2 (Version2) for VAX computers. Oracle V2
beat IBM's release of the System/38 RDBMS to market by a few weeks.
After testing SQL at customer test sites to determine the usefulness and
practicality of the system, IBM began developing commercial products based
on their System R prototype including System/38, SQL/DS, and DB2, which
were commercially available in 1979, 1981, and 1983, respectively.
between vendors, inappropriate handling of missing data, and unnecessarily
complex and occasionally ambiguous language grammar and semantics.

SQL

Paradigm Multi-paradigm

Appeared in 1974

Designed by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F.

Boyce

Developer IBM

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Database Management System 69

SQL:2006/ 2006

Typing discipline static ,

SQL-86, SQL-89, , SQL:1999, SQL:2003, SQL:2006

Influenced by

Influenced ,,

Standardization :
SQL was adopted as a standard by ANSI in 1986 and ISO in 1987. In the
original SQL standard, ANSI declared that the official pronunciation for SQL
is "es queue el". However, many English-speaking database professionals still
use the nonstandard pronunciation /sikwel/ (like the word "sequel"). Until
1996, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) data
management standards program was tasked with certifying SQL DBMS
compliance with the SQL standard. In 1996, however, the NIST data
management standards program was dissolved, and vendors are now relied
upon to self-certify their products for compliance.
The SQL standard has gone through a number of revisions, as shown below :

Year Name Alias Comments

1986 SQL-86 SQL-87 First published by ANSI.

Ratified by ISO in 1987.

1989 SQL-89 FIPS 127-1 Minor revision, adopted as FIPS

127-1.

1992 SQL-92 SQL2, FIPS 127-2 Major revision (ISO 9075), Entry
Level SQL-92 adopted as FIPS
127-2.

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70

1999 SQL:1999 SQL3 Added regular expression

matching, recursive queries,
triggers, support for procedural
and control-of-flow statements,
non-scalar types, and some
object-oriented features.

2003 SQL:2003 Introduced XML-related

features, window functions,
standardized sequences, and
columns with auto-generated
values (including identity-
columns).

Year Name Alias Comments

2006 SQL:2006 ISO/IEC 9075-14:2006 defines

ways in which SQL can be used
in conjunction with XML. It
defines ways of importing and
storing XML data in an SQL
database, manipulating it within
the database and publishing
both XML and conventional
SQL-data in XML form. In
addition, it provides facilities
that permit applications to
integrate into their SQL code the
use of XQuery, the XML Query
Language published by the
World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C), to concurrently access
ordinary SQL-data and XML
documents.

The SQL standard is not freely available. SQL:2003 and SQL:2006 may be
purchased from ISO or ANSI. A late draft of SQL:2003 is freely available as a

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Database Management System 71

zip archive, however, from Whitemarsh Information Systems Corporation.

The zip archive contains a number of PDF files that define the parts of the
SQL:2003 specification. Scope and extensions.
Procedural Extensions :
SQL is designed for a specific purpose: to query data contained in a relational
database. SQL is a set-based, declarative query language, not an imperative
language such as C or BASIC. However, there are extensions to Standard SQL
which add procedural programming language functionality, such as control-
of-flow constructs. These are:

Common
Source Full Name
Name

ANSI/ISO
SQL/PSM SQL/Persistent Stored Modules
Standard

SQL Procedural Language (implements

IBM SQL PL
SQL/PSM)

Microsoft/
T-SQL Transact-SQL
Sybase

SQL/Persistent Stored Module (as in ISO

MySQL SQL/PSM
SQL:2003)

Oracle PL/SQL Procedural Language/SQL (based on Ada)

Procedural Language/PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL PL/pgSQL Structured Query Language (based on
Oracle PL/SQL)

Procedural Language/Persistent Stored

PostgreSQL PL/PSM
Modules (implements SQL/PSM)

In addition to the standard SQL/PSM extensions and proprietary SQL

extensions, procedural and object-oriented programmability is available on
many SQL platforms via DBMS integration with other languages. The SQL
standard defines SQL/JRT extensions (SQL Routines and Types for the Java
Programming Language) to support Java code in SQL databases. SQL Server
2005 uses the SQLCLR (SQL Server Common Language Runtime) to host
managed .NET assemblies in the database, while prior versions of SQL Server

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72

were restricted to using unmanaged extended stored procedures which were

primarily written in C. Other database platforms, like MySQL and Postgres,
allow functions to be written in a wide variety of languages including Perl,
Python, Tcl, and C.

Q.2 Define Keys.

Ans.: i) Primary Key : Most DBMSs require a table to be defined as having a
single key, rather than a number of possible keys. A primary key is a
key which the database designer has designated for this purpose any
record can be identified by the use of primary key. Primary key should
not be null. There are basically two constraints for being a primary key
:
(a) It should not be null.
(b) Itshould not be repeated.
ii) Super Key : A superkey is an attribute or set of attributes that uniquely
identifies rows within a table; in other words, two distinct rows are
always guaranteed to have distinct superkeys. {Employee ID,
Employee Address, Skill} would be a superkey for the "Employees'
Skills" table; {Employee ID, Skill} would also be a superkey.
iii) Candidate Key : A candidate key is a minimal superkey, that is, a
superkey for which we can say that no proper subset of it is also a
superkey. {Employee Id, Skill} would be a candidate key for the
"Employees' Skills" table. In otherwords, It is a key which is not a
primary key itself but having all the properties for being a primary
key.
iv) Foreign Key : In the context of relational databases, a Foreign Key is a
referential constraint between two tables.[1] The foreign key identifies a
column or a set of columns in one (referencing) table that refers to a
column or set of columns in another (referenced) table. The columns in
the referencing table must be the primary key or other candidate key in
the referenced table. The values in one row of the referencing columns
must occur in a single row in the referenced table. Thus, a row in the
referencing table cannot contain values that don't exist in the
referenced table (except potentially NULL). This way references can be
made to link information together and it is an essential part of
database normalization. Multiple rows in the referencing table may
refer to the same row in the referenced table. Most of the time, it
reflects the one (master table, or referenced table) to many (child table,
or referencing table) relationship.

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Database Management System 73

(v) Unique Key : A unique key is the key by which a user can identify a
domain uniquely. It is different from the primary key in context that a
unique key can be null.

Q.3 Describe the Language Elements of SQL.

Ans.: Language Elements :
The SQL language is sub-divided into several language elements, including :
Statements which may have a persistent effect on schemas and data, or which
may control transactions, program flow, connections, sessions, or diagnostics.
Queries which retrieve data based on specific criteria.
Expressions which can produce either scalar values or tables consisting of
columns and rows of data.
Predicates which specify conditions that can be evaluated to SQL three-valued
logic (3VL) Boolean truth values and which are used to limit the effects of
statements and queries, or to change program flow.
Clauses which are (in some cases optional) constituent components of
statements and queries.
Whitespace is generally ignored in SQL statements and queries, making it
easier to format SQL code for readability.
SQL statements also include the semicolon (";") statement terminator. Though
not required on every platform, it is defined as a standard part of the SQL
grammar.

Queries :
The most common operation in SQL databases is the query, which is
performed with the declarative SELECT keyword. SELECT retrieves data
from a specified table, or multiple related tables, in a database. While often
grouped with Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements, the standard

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74

SELECT query is considered separate from SQL DML, as it has no persistent

effects on the data stored in a database. Note that there are some platform-
specific variations of SELECT that can persist their effects in a database, such
as the SELECT INTO syntax that exists in some databases.
SQL queries allow the user to specify a description of the desired result set,
but it is left to the devices of the database management system (DBMS) to
plan, optimize, and perform the physical operations necessary to produce
that result set in as efficient a manner as possible. An SQL query includes a
list of columns to be included in the final result immediately following the
SELECT keyword. An asterisk ("*") can also be used as a "wildcard" indicator
to specify that all available columns of a table (or multiple tables) are to be
returned. SELECT is the most complex statement in SQL, with several
optional keywords and clauses.
The following is an example of a SELECT query that returns a list of
expensive books. The query retrieves all rows from the books table in which
the price column contains a value greater than 100.00. The result is sorted in
ascending order by title. The asterisk (*) in the select list indicates that all
columns of the books table should be included in the result set.
SELECT *
FROM books
WHERE price > 100.00
ORDER BY title;
The example below demonstrates the use of multiple tables in a join,
grouping, and aggregation in an SQL query, by returning a list of books and
the number of authors associated with each book.
SELECT books.title, count(*) AS Authors
FROM books
JOIN book_authors
ON books.isbn = book_authors.isbn
GROUP BY books.title;
Example output might resemble the following :
Title Authors

SQL Examples and Guide 3

The Joy of SQL 1
How to use Wikipedia 2

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Database Management System 75

Pitfalls of SQL 1
How SQL Saved my Dog 1
(The underscore character "_" is often used as part of table and column names
to separate descriptive words because other punctuation tends to conflict
with SQL syntax. For example, a dash "-" would be interpreted as a minus
sign.)
Under the precondition that isbn is the only common column name of the two
tables and that a column named title only exists in the books table, the above
query could be rewritten in the following form:
SELECT title, count(*) AS Authors
FROM books
NATURAL JOIN book_authors
GROUP BY title;
However, many vendors either don't support this approach, or it requires
certain column naming conventions. Thus, it is less common in practice.
Data retrieval is very often combined with data projection when the user is
looking for calculated values and not just the verbatim data stored in
primitive data types, or when the data needs to be expressed in a form that is
different from how it's stored. SQL allows the use of expressions in the select
list to project data, as in the following example which returns a list of books
that cost more than 100.00 with an additional sales_tax column containing a
sales tax figure calculated at 6% of the price.
SELECT isbn, title, price, price * 0.06 AS sales_tax
FROM books
WHERE price > 100.00
ORDER BY title;
Data manipulation :
First, there are the standard Data Manipulation Language (DML) elements.
DML is the subset of the language used to add, update and delete data:
INSERT is used to add rows (formally tuples) to an existing table, for example
:
INSERT INTO my_table (field1, field2, field3) VALUES ('test', 'N', NULL);
UPDATE is used to modify the values of a set of existing table rows, eg:
UPDATE my_table SET field1 = 'updated value' WHERE field2 = 'N';
DELETE removes zero or more existing rows from a table, eg:
DELETE FROM my_table WHERE field2 = 'N';

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76

MERGE is used to combine the data of multiple tables. It is something of a

combination of the INSERT and UPDATE elements. It is defined in the
SQL:2003 standard; prior to that, some databases provided similar
functionality via different syntax, sometimes called an "upsert".
Transaction controls :
Transactions, if available, can be used to wrap around the DML operations:
START TRANSACTION (or BEGIN WORK, or BEGIN TRANSACTION,
depending on SQL dialect) can be used to mark the start of a database
transaction, which either completes completely or not at all.
COMMIT causes all data changes in a transaction to be made permanent.
ROLLBACK causes all data changes since the last COMMIT or ROLLBACK
to be discarded, so that the state of the data is "rolled back" to the way it was
prior to those changes being requested.
Once the COMMIT statement has been executed, the changes cannot be rolled
back. In other words, its meaningless to have ROLLBACK executed after
COMMIT statement and vice versa.
COMMIT and ROLLBACK interact with areas such as transaction control and
locking. Strictly, both terminate any open transaction and release any locks
held on data. In the absence of a START TRANSACTION or similar
statement, the semantics of SQL are implementation-dependent. Example: A
classic bank transfer of funds transaction.
START TRANSACTION;
UPDATE ACCOUNTS SET AMOUNT=AMOUNT-200 WHERE
ACCOUNT_NUMBER=1234;
UPDATE ACCOUNTS SET AMOUNT=AMOUNT+200 WHERE
ACCOUNT_NUMBER=2345;
IF ERRORS=0 COMMIT;
IF ERRORS<>0 ROLLBACK;
Data Definition :
The second group of keywords is the Data Definition Language (DDL). DDL
allows the user to define new tables and associated elements. Most
commercial SQL databases have proprietary extensions in their DDL, which
allow control over nonstandard features of the database system. The most
basic items of DDL are the CREATE, ALTER, RENAME, TRUNCATE and
DROP statements:

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Database Management System 77

CREATE causes an object (a table, for example) to be created within the

database.
DROP causes an existing object within the database to be deleted, usually
irretrievably.
TRUNCATE deletes all data from a table (non-standard, but common SQL
statement).
ALTER statement permits the user to modify an existing object in various
ways -- for example, adding a column to an existing table.
Example :
CREATE TABLE my_table (
my_field1 INT,
my_field2 VARCHAR (50),
my_field3 DATE NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (my_field1, my_field2)
);
Data Control :
The third group of SQL keywords is the Data Control Language (DCL). DCL
handles the authorization aspects of data and permits the user to control who
has access to see or manipulate data within the database. Its two main
keywords are:
GRANT authorizes one or more users to perform an operation or a set of
operations on an object.
REVOKE removes or restricts the capability of a user to perform an operation
or a set of operations.
Example :
GRANT SELECT, UPDATE ON my_table TO some_user, another_user
Other :
ANSI-standard SQL supports double dash, --, as a single line comment
identifier (some extensions also support curly brackets or C style /*
comments */ for multi-line comments).
Example :
SELECT * FROM inventory -- Retrieve everything from inventory table
Some SQL servers allow user-defined functions Criticisms of SQL

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78

Technically, SQL is a declarative computer language for use with "SQL

databases". Theorists and some practitioners note that many of the original
SQL features were inspired by, but in violation of, the relational model for
database management and its tuple calculus realization. Recent extensions to
SQL achieved relational completeness, but have worsened the violations, as
documented in The Third Manifesto.
In addition, there are also some criticisms about the practical use of SQL:
Implementations are inconsistent and, usually, incompatible between
vendors. In particular date and time syntax, string concatenation, nulls, and
comparison case sensitivity often vary from vendor to vendor.
The language makes it too easy to do a Cartesian join (joining all possible
combinations), which results in "run-away" result sets when WHERE clauses
are mistyped. Cartesian joins are so rarely used in practice that requiring an
explicit CARTESIAN keyword may be warranted.
SQL 1992 introduced the CROSS JOIN keyword that allows the user to make
clear that a cartesian join is intended, but the shorthand "comma-join" with no
predicate is still acceptable syntax.
It is also possible to misconstruct a WHERE on an update or delete, thereby
affecting more rows in a table than desired.
The grammar of SQL is perhaps unnecessarily complex, borrowing a COBOL-
like keyword approach, when a function-influenced syntax could result in
more re-use of fewer grammar and syntax rules. This is perhaps due to IBM's
early goal of making the language more English-like so that it is more
approachable to those without a mathematical or programming background.
(Predecessors to SQL were more mathematical.)
Reasons for Lack of Portability :
Popular implementations of SQL commonly omit support for basic features
of Standard SQL, such as the DATE or TIME data types, preferring variations
of their own. As a result, SQL code can rarely be ported between database
systems without modifications.
There are several reasons for this lack of portability between database
systems:
The complexity and size of the SQL standard means that most databases do
not implement the entire standard.
The standard does not specify database behavior in several important areas
(e.g. indexes, file storage...), leaving it up to implementations of the database
to decide how to behave.

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Database Management System 79

The SQL standard precisely specifies the syntax that a conforming database
system must implement. However, the standard's specification of the
semantics of language constructs is less well-defined, leading to areas of
ambiguity.
Many database vendors have large existing customer bases; where the SQL
standard conflicts with the prior behavior of the vendor's database, the
vendor may be unwilling to break backward compatibility.

Q.4 What are the alternatives of SQL?

Ans.: Alternatives to SQL :
A distinction should be made between alternatives to relational query
languages and alternatives to SQL. The list below are proposed alternatives to
SQL, but are still (nominally) relational. See navigational database for
alternatives to relational:
IBM Business System 12 (IBM BS12)
Hibernate Query Language (HQL) - A Java-based tool that uses modified
SQL
Quel introduced in 1974 by the U.C. Berkeley Ingres project.
Object Query Language
QL - object-oriented Datalog and QBE (Query By Example) create by Moshe
Zloof
LINQ
4D Query Language (4D QL) and so many other languages which can be
used as the alternatives of SQL.

Q.5 Define QBEL including Aggregate Operations.

Ans.: QBE is both a query language and the name of a DB system including it. The
system is no longer in use, but the language is part of IBM's Query
Management Facility (QMF).
Basic Structure :
(i) QBE has ``two-dimensional'' syntax.
(ii) Queries are expressed by example.
(iii) Close correspondence with domain relational calculus.
(iv) Non-procedural.

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80

(v) Queries are expressed using skeleton tables.

(vi) User selects the skeletons needed.
(vii) User fills in skeletons with example rows.
(viii) An example row consists of constants and example elements which are
really domain variables.
(ix) Domain variables are preceded by an underscore character.
(x) Constants appear without any qualification.
Simple Queries :
(i) For example, to find all customers having an account at the SFU
branch :

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU P._x

o A P. before the variable causes printing.

o A P.ALL. prefix suppresses duplicate elimination.
o A P. in front of the row prints all attributes.
o The domain variable may be omitted if it is not used elsewhere.
o Arithmetic expressions are allowed.
o Comparison operators are allowed, space on left hand side is
left blank.
(ii) To find the names of all branches not located in Burnaby :

branch bname assets bcity

P. Burnaby

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Database Management System 81

(iii) To find all customers having an account at both the SFU and the
MetroTown branch :

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU P._x
MetroTown _x

(iv) To find all customers having an account at either branch or both :

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU P._x
MetroTown P._y

(v) Find all customers having an account at the same branch as John :

deposit bname account# cname balance

_x John
_x P._y

Queries on Several Relations :

(i) Queries on several relations require several skeleton tables.
(ii) To find the name and city of all customers having a loan at the SFU
branch :

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82

borrow bname loan# cname amount

SFU _x

customer cname street ccity

P._x P._y

(iii) Find the name of all customers having an account at the SFU branch,
but no loan from that branch.
Queries involving negation can be expressed by putting a sign under
the relation name beside an example row :

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU P._x

deposit bname loan# cname amount

SFU _x

(iv) To find all customers who have accounts at two different branches : -

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Database Management System 83

deposit bname account# cname balance

_y P._x
_y _x

The Condition Box :

(i) When it is difficult or impossible to express all constraints on the
domain variables within the skeleton tables, the condition box may be
used.
(ii) To add the constraint that we are only interested in customers other
than John to the above query, we include the condition box:

conditions
_x =John

(iii) To find all account numbers with balances between $1,300 and $1,500 :

deposit bname account# cname balance

P. _x

conditions
_x 1300
_x 1500

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84

(iv) Logical expressions and and or may appear in the condition box.
(v) To find all account numbers where the balance is between $1,300 and
$2,000, but is not $1,500 :

deposit bname account# cname balance

P. _x

conditions
_x =( 1300 and 2000 and 1500

(vi) An unconventional use of the or construct allows comparison with

several constant values :

conditions
_x = (Burnaby or Richmond)

The Result Relation :

(i) If the result of a query includes attributes from several relation
schemes, we need a way of displaying the result in a single table.
(ii) We can declare a temporary result relation including the attributes to
be displayed. We put the print command only in that table.
(iii) To find the customer names and cities and account numbers for all
customers having an account at the SFU branch :

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Database Management System 85

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU _z _x

customer cname street ccity

_x _y

result cname ccity account #

P. _x _y _z

Ordering the Display of Tuples :

(i) The order in which tuples are displayed can be controlled by adding
the command AO. (ascending order) or DO. (descending order) to the
print command :

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU P.A.O.

(ii) To sort first by name, and then by balance for those with multiple
accounts :

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86

deposit bname account# cname balance

SFU P.AO (1) P.DO (2)

Aggregate Operations :
(i) QBE includes the aggregate operators AVG, MAX, MIN, SUM and
CNT. As QBE eliminates duplicates by default, they must have ALL.
appended to them.
(ii) To find the total balance of all accounts belonging to John :

deposit bname account# cname balance

John P.SUM.ALL.

(iii) All aggregate operators must have ALL. appended, so to override the
ALL.\ we must add UNQ. (unique). (NOTE: a number of examples in
the text incorrectly show UNQ. replacing ALL.)

deposit bname account# cname balance

Main P.CNT.UNQ.ALL.

(iv) To compute functions on groups, we use the G. operator. To find the

average balance at each branch :

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Database Management System 87

deposit bname account# cname balance

P.G. P.AVG.ALL.x

(v) To find the average balances at only branches where the average is
more than $1,200, we add the condition box :

conditions
AVG.ALL._x > 1200

(vi) To find all customers who have an account at all branches located in
Burnaby, we can do :

deposit bname account# cname balance

_y P.G._x

branch bname assets bcity

_y Burnaby
_z Burnaby

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88

conditions
CNT.UNQ.ALL._Y=
CNT.UNQ.ALL._Z

Modifying the Database :

(i) QBE has facilities for modifying the database.
(ii) We simply use D. instead of the P. operator. Whole tuples may be
deleted, or only some columns.
(iii) Delete all of Smith's account records :

deposit bname account# cname balance

D. Smith

(iv) Delete the branch-city value for the SFU branch :

branch bname assets bcity

SFU D.

(v) Delete all loans with loan numbers between 1300 and 1500 :

borrow bname loan# cname amount

D. _x

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Database Management System 89

conditions
_x =( 1300 and 1500)

(vi) Delete all accounts at branches located in Burnaby :

deposit bname account# cname balance

D. _x

branch bname assets bcity

_x Burnaby

Insertion :
(i) Insertion uses the I. operator.
(ii) To insert an account tuple for Smith :

deposit bname account# cname balance

1. SFU 9372 Smith 1200

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90

(iii) If values are missing, nulls are inserted.

(iv) To provide all loan customers in the SFU branch with a $200 savings
account :

deposit bname account# cname balance

1. SFU _x _y 200

borrow bname loan# cname amount

SFU _x _y

Updates :
(i) We can update individual attributes with the U. operator. Fields left
blank are not changed.
(ii) To update the assets of the SFU branch to $10,000,000 :

branch bname assets bcity

SFU U.10000000

(iii) To make interest payments of 5% on all balances :

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Database Management System 91

Deposit bname account# cname balance

U. _x*1.05
_x

Q.6 Define Quel with its

capabilities. Ans.: Quel :
We will not cover this section, aside from making a few remarks about this
language.
o Quel was the original query language for the Ingres dbms. Ingres is
now available with SQL.
o Quel closely resembles the tuple relational calculus.
o Queries use the range of, retrieve and where clauses.
o A typical query :
range of t is
borrow range of s is
deposit
retrieve unique (s.cname)
where t.bname=``SFU'' and
s.bname=``SFU'' and
t.cname=s.cname
o This finds the names of all customers who have both a loan and an
account at the SFU branch.
o There is no representation for or in Quel.
o Quel has the power of the relational algebra by means of the any
aggregate function and the use of insertion and deletion into
temporary relations.
Q.7 How can you convert any query easily into any other
language? Ans.: Converting Queries Easily into Any Language :
(i) Decide on the relations required to answer the query.

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92

 You'll need relations containing attributes explicitly mentioned,

plus relations needed to ``traverse'' between needed relations.
 In some cases you will need more than one copy of a relation.
 Don't include unneeded relations.
(ii) Draw them on a piece of paper.
 It helps to draw them in a sensible order.
 Draw them in the order you would ``traverse'' them. This will
simplify the drawing of links.
(iii) Draw in links and constant values.
 Put links between attributes in different relations wherever the
attributes are required to satisfy some comparison operator
(equals, less than, etc.).
 Ordinary lines are used for equals, and write any other
comparison operator on the line at some convenient spot.
 Write in constant values, where some attribute must have a
specific value.
For simpler queries, the following advice works. Where you need set
operations or division, a little more thought is needed.
(i) Relational Algebra : we'll do a correct but not necessarily optimal
query.
 Do an appropriate combination of Cartesian products and
natural joins of the relations required.
 Do a select where the predicate demands that all the links and
constants in your diagram be true.
 Don't forget that natural joins will take care of some of your
diagram's links.
 Finally, do a project of the attributes to be printed out.
(ii) Tuple Relational Calculus :
 Create a tuple variable for each of the relations in your diagram.
 Make sure the parentheses give you the required scope.

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Database Management System 93

 Ensure each link and constant in your diagram corresponds to

some part of your predicate.
 Make sure t gets the attributes that should be printed out.
(iii) Domain Relational Calculus :
 Create domain variables. Name them sensibly.
 Remember that equality is forced by using the same domain
variable in several places.
 Other comparison operators may be explicitly stated, e.g.
 Remember to use the existential qualifier for domain variables,
and to make sure your scoping is correct.
(iv) SQL : Similar to relational algebra.
 Put all the relations needed in the from clause.
 Remember to use tuple variables when you have more than one
copy of a relation, or for general convenience.
 Express each of the links and constants in your diagram as part
of the predicate in the where clause.
 State the attributes to be printed out in the select clause.
(v) QBE : Your diagram is almost QBE to start with.
 Select the skeleton tables needed.
 Remember that you only need one skeleton table per relation.
You can put more than one line in a skeleton table.
 Force equality on links by using the same domain variables in
different places (see the connection to domain relational
calculus?).
 Use the condition box where necessary.
 Use P. to print out the attributes. Remember to use a result
relation if attributes are printed out from more than one
skeleton table.

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94

Chapter-9

Advanced Features of SQL

Q.1 What is Embedded SQL? Explain in detail.

Ans.: Embedded SQL is a method of combining the computing power of a
programming language and the database manipulation capabilities of SQL. It
allows programmers to embed SQL statements in programs written in C/C+
+, Fortran, COBOL, Pascal, etc.
Embedded SQL statements are SQL statements written within application
programming languages and preprocessed by a SQL preprocessor before the
application program is compiled. There are two types of embedded SQL:
static and dynamic.
The SQL standard defines embedding of SQL as embedded SQL and the
language in which SQL queries are embedded is referred to as the host
language. A popular host language is C. The mixed C and embedded SQL is
called Pro*C in Oracle and Sybase database management systems. Other
embedded SQL precompilers are Pro*COBOL, Pro*FORTRAN, Pro*PL/I,
Pro*Pascal, and SQL*Module (for Ada).
Embedded SQL is a superset of Sybase's T-SQL or Oracle's PL/SQL that lets
you place SQL statements in application programs written in languages such
as C and COBOL. Pro*C allows the C programmer to write database access
code fast and with less of a learning curve. For people who are familiar with
both C and SQL, this is a cakewalk. Its worth noting that there are differences
between implementations of Pro*C across different database vendors due to
the differences between database architectures, datatypes, etc. Each new
release of a database may announce certain enhancements or changes to its
Embedded SQL pre-compiler. It is best to track changes on this front by
referring to the vendor database websites.
A Pro*C program is compiled in two steps. First, the Pro*C precompiler
recognizes the SQL statements embedded in the program, and replaces them
with appropriate calls to the functions in the SQL runtime library. The output

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Database Management System 95

is pure C/C++ code with all the pure C/C++ portions intact. Then, a regular
C/C++ compiler is used to compile the code and produces the executable.
Pro*C Syntax
SQL
All SQL statements need to start with EXEC SQL and end with a semicolon
";". You can place the SQL statements anywhere within a C/C++ block, with
the restriction that the declarative statements do not come after the executable
statements. As an example :
{
int a;
/* ... */
EXEC SQL SELECT salary INTO :a
FROM Employee
WHERE SSN=876543210;
/* ... */
printf("The salary is %d\n", a);
/* ... */
}
Q.2 What is Dynamic SQL? Explain it with suitable example.
Ans.: Dynamic SQL is an enhanced form of Structured Query Language (SQL) that,
unlike standard (or static) SQL, facilitates the automatic generation and
execution of program statements. This can be helpful when it is necessary to
write code that can adjust to varying databases, conditions, or servers. It also
makes it easier to automate tasks that are repeated many times.
Dynamic SQL statements are stored as strings of characters that are entered
when the program runs. They can be entered by the programmer or
generated by the program itself, but unlike static SQL statements, they are not
embedded in the source program. Also in contrast to static SQL statements,
dynamic SQL statements can change from one execution to the next.
Dynamic SQL statements can be written by people with comparatively little
programming experience, because the program does most of the actual

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96

generation of the code. A potential problem is reduced performance

(increased processing time) if there is too much dynamic SQL running at any
given time.
Q.3 What are the basic requirements for Dynamic SQL Statements?
Ans.: To represent a dynamic SQL statement, a character string must contain the
text of a valid SQL statement, but not contain the EXEC SQL clause, or the
statement terminator, or any of the following embedded SQL commands :
CLOSE
DECLARE
DESCRIBE
EXECUTE
FETCH
INCLUDE

OPEN
PREPARE
Example :
If we need to find all records from the customers table where City =
'London'. This can be done easily such as the following example shows in
SQL.
DECLARE @city varchar(75) SET @city = 'London'
SELECT * FROM customers WHERE City = @city

In Dynamic SQL we can write it as

DECLARE @sqlCommand varchar(1000)
DECLARE @columnList varchar(75)
DECLARE @city varchar(75)
SET @columnList = 'CustomerID, ContactName, City'
SET @city = '''London'''

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Database Management System 97

SET @sqlCommand = 'SELECT ' + @columnList + ' FROM customers WHERE

City = ' + @city
EXEC (@sqlCommand)
Q.4 When to use Dynamic SQL?
Ans.: In practice, static SQL will meet nearly all your programming needs. Use
dynamic SQL only if you need its open-ended flexibility. Its use is suggested
when one of the following items is unknown at pre-compile time :

Text of the SQL statement (commands, clauses, and so

on) The number of host variables

The data types of host variables

References to database objects such as columns, indexes, sequences,

tables, usernames, and views

Q.5 What is Cursor? Define the working of SQL with Cursors.

Ans.: In database packages, the term cursor refers to a control structure for the
successive traversal (and potential processing) of records in a result set.
A cursor is used for processing individual rows returned by the database
system for a query. It is necessary because many programming languages
suffer from impedance mismatch. Programming languages are often
procedural and do not offer any mechanism for manipulating whole result
sets at once. Therefore, the rows in a result set must be processed sequentially
by the application. In this way, a cursor can be thought of as an iterator over
the collection of rows in the result set.

Working with Cursors :

A cursor is made known to the DBMS with the DECLARE CURSOR
statement. A name has to be assigned for the cursor.
DECLARE cursor_name CURSOR FOR SELECT ... FROM ...
Before being used, a cursor must be opened with the OPEN statement. As a
result of the opening, the cursor is positioned before the first row in the result
set.

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98

OPEN cursor_name
A cursor is positioned on a specific row in the result set with the FETCH
statement. A fetch operation transfers the data of the row into the application.
Once all rows are processed or the fetch operation is to be positioned on a
non-existing row (cf. scrollable cursors below), a SQLSTATE '02000' (usually
accompanied by an SQLCODE +100) is returned by the DBMS to indicate the
end of the result set.
FETCH cursor_name INTO ...
The last step is to close the cursor using the CLOSE statement.
CLOSE cursor_name
Once a cursor is closed it can be opened again, which implies that the query is
evaluated again and a new result set is built.

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Database Management System 99

Chapter-10

Query Optimization Techniques

Q.1 What do you mean by Query Optimization? What are the Query
Evaluation Plans in RDBMS? How will you define Relational Query
Ans.: Query optimization is a function of many relational database management
systems in which multiple query plans for satisfying a query are examined
and a good query plan is identified. This may or not be the absolute best
strategy because there are many ways of doing plans. There is a trade off
between the amount of time spent figuring out the best plan and the amount
running the plan. Different qualities of database management systems have
different ways of balancing these two. Cost based query optimizers evaluate
the resource footprint of various query plans and use this as the basis for plan
selection. Typically the resources which are costed as CPU path length,
amount of disk buffer space, disk storage service time, and interconnect usage
between units of parallelism. The set of query plans examined is formed by
examining possible access paths (e.g., primary index access, secondary index
access, full file scan) and various relational table join techniques (e.g, merge
join, hash join, product join). The search space can become quite large
depending on the complexity of the SQL query. There are two types of
optimization. These consist of logical optimization which generates a
sequence of relational algebra to solve the query. In addition there is physical
optimization which is used to determine the means of carrying out each
operation.
Translating SQL Queries into Relational Algebra : Different optimizer
sequences such as the different Greek alphabet characters which are assigned
to them. This is explained in the article relational algebra.
The Goal of Query Optimization : The goal is to eliminate as many
unneeded tuples, or rows as possible. The following is a look at relational
algebra as it eliminates unneeded tuples. The project operator is
straightforward to implement if <attribute list> contains a key to relation R. If

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it does not include a key of R, it must be eliminated. This must be done by

sorting (see sort methods below) and eliminating duplicates. This method can
also use hashing to eliminate duplicates Hash table.
Relational Query Optimizer : The query optimizer is the heart of RDBMS
performance and must also be extended with knowledge about how to
execute User Defined Functions efficiently, take advantage of new index
structures, transform queries in new ways, and navigate among data using
references. Successfully opening up such a critical and highly tuned DBMS
component and educating third parties about optimization techniques is a
major challenge for DBMS vendors.

Q.2 Define Iterator Interface in terms of Relational Operators.

Ans.: Relational Operators and the Iterator Interface : One of the most powerful
features of relational databases is their support for declarative query
languages such as SQL. With these languages, users describe the output of
their queries without needing to specify how that query is supposed to be
executed by the DBMS. It is the responsibility of the Query Optimizer to built
a query evaluation plan, a tree of relational operators, so that the user's query
can be answered with the least incurred cost. Resulttuples flow from the
nodes at the lower levels of the tree to their parent nodes, where they get
further processed and outputted to their parents respectively, until they reach
the top-most node, the root of the operator tree, at which point they are
returned to the user.
To simplify the interaction between the different operators in a query plan
tree, every operator is required to implement a uniform iterator interface, so
that parent nodes in a query plan do not need to explicitly know the type of
the operator(s) they accept as input, and thus what entry point functions they
need to call to interact with them. The abstract iterator class which all
operators of Minibase extend is relop.Iterator. The functions that it provides
are the following:
Constructor(Iterator[] inputs, params): Sets up its member attributes (e.g. its
iterator inputs { one if it is a unary operator such as selection or projection,
two if it is a binary operator like join) and initializes (\opens") the iterator.
isOpen(): Checks whether the iterator is open.

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Database Management System 101

close(): Closes the iterator, and releases any temporary resources (such as
temporary ¯les) held within its lifetime.
restart(): Restarts the iterator, i.e. as if it were just constructed.
explain(): A recursive function that gives a one- line explanation of the
iterator, and recurses on its inputs
(its children-iterators).
hasNext(): Returns true if the iterator has not visited all the tuples that are to
be returned by the operator implementing the interface.

Q.3 How can you explain Pipelined Evaluation in terms of Database

Management System.
Ans.: Pipelined Evaluation : As we know, operators in a query plan can be
pipelined; as soon as a tuple is generated by an operator which acts as input
to another one .In a pipelined plan , Each tuple stream from one operator to
another Pipelining allows for parallel execution of operators, avoids
unnecessary materialization may be necessary.
(e.g. a selection which might be a left input of a Nested Loops Join (NLJ)),
the higher level operator can immediately include this tuple to its
computation. In our example, the NLJ operator can tell whether it has
received all the available tuples of its left input by a call to the selection's has
Next() method, prior to its next attempt to retrieve the next available tuple. If
the selection operator generates for some reason tuples slower than NLJ can
consume them, the semantics of hasNext() require the method to block, until
a de¯nite answer can be returned (that is whether the selection has exhausted
all its input (false), or is still in the process of generating tuples (true)).
It is a good practice to \pre-compute the next available tuple, so that it can be
immediately returned by a call to:
getNext(): Retrieves the next available tuple.

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102

Chapter-11

Database Management Issues

Q.1 How will you explain Backup & Recovery for the Database Management
System?
Ans.: Backup/Recovery involves the process of making a copy of a database in case
of an equipment failure or disaster, then recovering or retrieving the copied
database if needed.
One of the innumerable tasks of the DBA is to ensure that all of the databases
of the enterprise are always "available." Availability in this context means that
the users must be able to access the data stored in the databases, and that the
contents of the databases must be up-to-date, consistent, and correct. It must
never appear to a user that the system has lost the data or that the data has
become inconsistent. This would totally ruin the user's confidence in the
database and the entire system.
Many factors threaten the availability of the databases. These include natural
disasters (such as floods and earthquakes), hardware failures (for example, a
power failure or disk crash), software failures (such as DBMS malfunctions --
read "bugs" -- and application program errors), and people failures (for
example, operator errors, user misunderstandings, and keyboard trouble). To
this list we can also add the threats such as malicious attempts to destroy or
corrupt the contents of the database.
In a large enterprise, the DBA must ensure the availability of several
databases, such as the development databases, the databases used for unit
and acceptance testing, the operational online production databases (some of
which may be replicated or distributed all over the world), the data
warehouse databases, the data marts, and all of the other departmental
databases. All of these databases usually have different requirements for
availability. The online production databases typically must be available, up-
to-date, and consistent for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with minimal

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Database Management System 103

downtime. The warehouse databases must be available and up-to-date

during business hours and even for a while after hours.
On the other hand, the test databases need to be available only for testing
cycles, but during these periods the testing staff may have extensive
requirements for the availability of their test databases. For example, the DBA
may have to restore the test databases to a consistent state after each test. The
developers often have even more ad hoc requirements for the availability of
the development databases, specifically toward the end of a crucial deadline.
The business hours of a multinational organization may also have an impact
on availability. For example, a working day from 8 a.m. in central Europe to 6
p.m. in California implies that the database must be available for 20 hours a
day. The DBA is left with little time to provide for availability, let alone
perform other maintenance tasks.

Q.2 Define the basic steps of Recovery Process.

Ans.: Recovery is the corrective process to restore the database to a usable state
from an erroneous state. The basic recovery process consists of the following
steps -
(1) Identify that the Database is in an Erroneous, Damaged, or Crashed
State :
(i) Suspend normal processing.
(ii) Determine the source and extent of the damage.
(iii) Take corrective action, that is :
(a) Restore the system resources to a usable state.
(b) Rectify the damage done, or remove invalid data.
(iv) Restart or continue the interrupted processes, including the re-
execution of interrupted transactions.
(2) Resume Normal Processing :
To cope with failures, additional components and algorithms are
usually added to the system. Most techniques use recovery data (that
is, redundant data), which makes recovery possible. When taking
corrective action, the effects of some transactions must be removed,
while other transactions must be re-executed; some transactions must
even be undone and redone. The recovery data must make it possible
to perform these steps.

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104

Q.3 Describe the different techniques which can be used for Recovery from an
Erroneous State.
Ans.: The following techniques can be used for recovery from an erroneous state :
Dump and Restart : The entire database must be backed up regularly to
archival storage. In the event of a failure, a copy of the database in a previous
correct state (such as from a checkpoint) is loaded back into the database. The
system is then restarted so that new transactions can proceed. Old
transactions can be re-executed if they are available. The following types of
restart can be identified :
A warm restart is the process of starting the system after a controlled
system shutdown, in which all active transactions were terminated
normally and successfully.
An emergency restart is invoked by a restart command issued by the
operator. It may include reloading the database contents from archive
storage.
A cold start is when the system is started from scratch, usually when a
warm restart is not possible. This may also include reloading the
database contents from archive storage. Usually used to recover from
physical damage, a cold restart is also used when recovery data was
lost.
Undo-Redo Processing (also called Roll-Back and Re-Execute) : By using an
audit trail of transactions, all of the effects of recent, partially completed
transactions can be undone up to a known correct state. Undoing is achieved
by reversing the updating process. By working backwards through the log, all
of the records of the transaction in question can be traced, until the begin
transaction operations of all of the relevant transactions have been reached.
The undo operation must be "idempotent," meaning that failures during undo
operations must still result in the correct single intended undo operation
taking place. From the known correct state, all of the journaled transactions
can then be re-executed to obtain the desired correct resultant database
contents. The operations of the transactions that were already executed at a
previous stage are obtained from the audit trail. The redo operation must also
be idempotent, meaning that failures during redo operations must still result
in the correct single intended redo operation taking place. This technique can
be used when partially completed processes are aborted.

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Database Management System 105

Roll-Forward Processing (also called Reload and Re-Execute) : All or part of

a previous correct state (for example, from a checkpoint) is reloaded; the DBA
can then instruct the DBMS to re-execute the recently recorded transactions
from the transaction audit trail to obtain a correct state. It is typically used
when (part of) the physical media has been damaged.
Restore and Repeat : This is a variation of the previous method, where a
previous correct state is restored. The difference is that the transactions are
merely reposted from before and/or after images kept in the audit trail. The
actual transactions are not re-executed: They are merely reapplied from the
audit trail to the actual data table. In other words, the images of the updated
rows (the effects of the transactions) are replaced in the data table from the
audit trail, but the original transactions are not re-executed as in the previous
case.

Q.4 Describe the Maintenance & Performance of DBMS in terms of DBA.

Ans.: The DBA has an extensive set of requirements for the tools and facilities
offered by the DBMS. These include facilities to back up an entire database
offline, facilities to back up parts of the database selectively, features to take a
snapshot of the database at a particular moment, and obviously journaling
facilities to roll back or roll forward the transactions applied to the database
to a particular identified time. Some of these facilities must be used online --
that is, while the users are busy accessing the database. For each backup
mechanism, there must be a corresponding restore mechanism -- these
mechanisms should be efficient, because we usually have to restore a lost,
corrupt, or damaged database at some critical moment, while the users are
waiting anxiously (sometimes highly irritated) and the managers are jumping
up and down (often ineffectually)! The backup and restore facilities should be
configurable -- we may want to stream the backup data to and from multiple
devices in parallel, we may want to add compression and decompression
(including using third-party compression tools), we may want to delete old
backups automatically off the disk, or we may want to label the tapes
according to our own standards. We should also be able to take the backup of
a database from one platform and restore it on another -- this step is
necessary to cater for non-database-related problems, such as machine and
operating system failures. For each facility, we should be able to monitor its
progress and receive an acknowledgment that each task has been completed
successfully.

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106

Some organizations use so-called "hot standby" techniques to increase the

availability of their databases. In a typical hot standby scenario, the
operations performed on the operational database are replicated to a standby
database. If any problems are encountered on the operational database, the
users are switched over and continue working on the standby database until
the operational database is restored.

Oracle :
Oracle7 Release 7.3 uses full and partial database backups and a redo log for
its database backup and recovery operations. The database backup is an
operating system backup of the physical files that constitute the Oracle
database. The redo log consists of two or more pre-allocated files, which are
used to record all changes made to the database. We can also use the export
and import utilities to create a backup of a database. Oracle offers a standby
database scheme, with which it maintains a copy of a primary database on
duplicate hardware, in a constant recoverable state, by applying the redo logs
archived off the primary database.
A full backup is an operating system backup of all of the data files, parameter
files, and the control file that constitute the database. A full database backup
can be taken by using the operating system's commands or by using the host
command of the Server Manager. A full database backup can be taken online
when the database is open, but only an offline database backup (taken when
the database server is shut down) will necessarily be consistent. An
inconsistent database backup must be recovered with the online and archived
redo log files before the database will become available. The best approach is
to take a full database backup after the database has been shut down with
normal or immediate priority.
A partial backup is any operating system backup of a part of the full backup,
such as selected data files, the control file only, or the data files in a specified
tablespace only. A partial backup is useful if the database is operated in
ARCHIVELOG mode. A database operating in NOARCHIVE mode rarely
has sufficient information to use a partial backup to restore the database to a
consistent state. The archiving mode is usually set during database creation,
but it can be reset at a later stage.
We can recover a database damaged by a media failure in one of three ways
after you have restored backups of the damaged data files. These steps can be

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Database Management System 107

performed using the Server Manager's Apply Recovery Archives dialog box,
using the Server Manager's RECOVER command, or using the SQL ALTER
DATABASE command :
We can recover an entire database using the RECOVER DATABASE
command. This command performs media recovery on all of the data
files that require redo processing.
We can recover specified tablespaces using the RECOVER
TABLESPACE command. This command performs media recovery on
all of the data files in the listed tablespaces. Oracle requires the
database to be open and mounted in order to determine the file names
of the tables contained in the tablespace.
We can list the individual files to be recovered using the RECOVER
DATAFILE command. The database can be open or closed, provided
that Oracle can take the required media recovery locks.
In certain situations, we can also recover a specific damaged data file, even if
a backup file isn't available. This can only be done if all of the required log
files are available and the control file contains the name of the damaged file.
In addition, Oracle provides a variety of recovery options for different crash
scenarios, including incomplete recovery, change-based, cancel-based, and
time-based recovery, and recovery from user errors.

Prevention is Better than Cure :

Although each DBMS we reviewed has a range of backup and recovery
facilities, it is always important to ensure that the facilities are used properly
and adequately. By "adequately," I mean that backups must be taken
regularly. All of the DBMSs we reviewed provided the facilities to repost or
re-execute completed transactions from a log or journal file. However,
reposting or re-executing a few weeks' worth of transactions may take an
unbearably long time. In many situations, users require quick access to their
databases, even in the presence of media failures. Remember that the end
users are not concerned with physical technicalities, such as restoring a
database after a system crash
Even better than quick recovery is no recovery, which can be achieved in two
ways. First, by performing adequate system monitoring and using proper
procedures and good equipment, most system crashes can be avoided. It is
better to provide users with a system that is up and available 90 percent of
the time than to have to do sporadic fixes when problems occur. Second, by

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108

using redundant databases such as hot standby or replicated databases, users

can be relieved of the recovery delays: Users can be switched to the hot
backup database while the master database is being recovered.
A last but extremely important aspect of backup and recovery is testing. Test
your backup and recovery procedures in a test environment before deploying
them in the production environment. In addition, the backup and recovery
procedures and facilities used in the production environment must also be
tested regularly. A recovery scheme that worked perfectly well in a test
environment is useless if it cannot be repeated in the production environment
-- particularly in that crucial moment when the root disk fails during the
month-end run!

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Database Management System 109

Chapter-12

Database Design

Q.1 Define Functional Dependencies.

Ans.: Functional Dependency : Attribute B has a functional dependency on
attribute A i.e. A → B if, for each value of attribute A, there is exactly one
value of attribute B. In our example, Employee Address has a functional
dependency on Employee ID, because a particular Employee ID value
corresponds to one and only one Employee Address value. (Note that the
reverse need not be true: several employees could live at the same address
and therefore one Employee Address value could correspond to more than
one Employee ID. Employee ID is therefore not functionally dependent on
Employee Address.) An attribute may be functionally dependent either on a
single attribute or on a combination of attributes. It is not possible to
determine the extent to which a design is normalized without understanding
what functional dependencies apply to the attributes within its tables;
understanding this, in turn, requires knowledge of the problem domain. For
example, an Employer may require certain employees to split their time
between two locations, such as New York City and London, and therefore
want to allow Employees to have more than one Employee Address. In this
case, Employee Address would no longer be functionally dependent on
Employee ID.
Trivial Functional Dependency : A trivial functional dependency is a
functional dependency of an attribute on a superset of itself. {Employee ID,
Employee Address} → {Employee Address} is trivial, as is {Employee
Address} → {Employee Address}.
Full Functional Dependency : An attribute is fully functionally dependent on
a set of attributes X if it is functionally dependent on X, and not functionally
dependent on any proper subset of X. {Employee Address} has a functional
dependency on {Employee ID, Skill}, but not a full functional dependency,
because is also dependent on {Employee ID}.

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110

Transitive Dependency : A transitive dependency is an indirect functional

dependency, one in which X→Z only by virtue of X→Y and Y→Z.
Multivalued Dependency : A multivalued dependency is a constraint
according to which the presence of certain rows in a table implies the
presence of certain other rows: see the Multivalued Dependency article for a
rigorous definition.
Join Dependency : A table T is subject to a join dependency if T can always
be recreated by joining multiple tables each having a subset of the attributes
of T.
Non-PrimeAttribute : A non-prime attribute is an attribute that does not
occur in any candidate key. Employee Address would be a non-prime
attribute in the "Employees' Skills" table.

Q.2 What is Normalization? Explain it with the problems addressed by

Normalization.
Ans.: Database Normalization, sometimes referred to as canonical synthesis, is a
technique for designing relational database tables to minimize duplication of
information and, in so doing, to safeguard the database against certain types
of logical or structural problems, namely data anomalies. For example, when
multiple instances of a given piece of information occur in a table, the
possibility exists that these instances will not be kept consistent when the
data within the table is updated, leading to a loss of data integrity. A table
that is sufficiently normalized is less vulnerable to problems of this kind,
because its structure reflects the basic assumptions for when multiple
instances of the same information should be represented by a single instance
only.
Higher degrees of normalization typically involve more tables and create the
need for a larger number of joins, which can reduce performance.
Accordingly, more highly normalized tables are typically used in database
applications involving many isolated transactions (e.g. an Automated teller
machine), while less normalized tables tend to be used in database
applications that need to map complex relationships between data entities
and data attributes (e.g. a reporting application, or a full-text search
application).

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Database Management System 111

Database theory describes a table's degree of normalization in terms of

normal forms of successively higher degrees of strictness. A table in third
normal form (3NF), for example, is consequently in second normal form
(2NF) as well; but the reverse is not necessarily the case.
Although the normal forms are often defined informally in terms of the
characteristics of tables, rigorous definitions of the normal forms are
concerned with the characteristics of mathematical constructs known as
relations. Whenever information is represented relationally, it is meaningful
to consider the extent to which the representation is normalized.
So, we can say, Normalization is an essential process of database design. A
good understanding of the semantics of data helps the designer to build
efficient design in using the concept of normalization. In other words,
"Normalization is a process in which we can reduce redundancy and in
consistency in our relation."

Q. 3. Write in brief purpose of normalization.

Ans. Purpose of normalization :
(i) Minimize redundancies in data.
(ii) Remove insert, delete and update anomalies during database activity.
(iii) Reduce the need to reorganize data when it is modified or enhanced.

Q. 4. What are the Problems oranomalies Addressed by Normalization?

Ans.: A table that is not sufficiently normalized can suffer from logical
inconsistencies of various types, and form anomalies involving data
operations. In such a table:
The same information can be expressed on multiple records; therefore
updates to the table may result in logical inconsistencies. For example, each
record in an "Employees' Skills" table might contain an Employee ID,
Employee Address, and Skill; thus a change of address for a particular
employee will potentially need to be applied to multiple records (one for each
of his skills). If the update is not carried through successfully—if, that is, the
employee's address is updated on some records but not others—then the
table is left in an inconsistent state. Specifically, the table provides conflicting

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answers to the question of what this particular employee's address is. This
phenomenon is known as an update anomaly.
There are circumstances in which certain facts cannot be recorded at all. For
example, each record in a "Faculty and Their Courses" table might contain a
Faculty ID, Faculty Name, Faculty Hire Date, and Course Code—thus we can
record the details of any faculty member who teaches at least one course, but
we cannot record the details of a newly-hired faculty member who has not
yet been assigned to teach any courses. This phenomenon is known as an
insertion anomaly.

There are circumstances in which the deletion of data representing certain

facts necessitates the deletion of data representing completely different facts.
The "Faculty and Their Courses" table described in the previous example
suffers from this type of anomaly, for if a faculty member temporarily ceases
to be assigned to any courses, we must delete the last of the records on which
that faculty member appears. This phenomenon is known as a deletion
anomaly.

Q.5 Explain 1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF, 4NF and PJNF.

Ans.: Ideally, a relational database table should be designed in such a way as to
exclude the possibility of update, insertion, and deletion anomalies. The
normal forms of relational database theory provide guidelines for deciding
whether a particular design will be vulnerable to such anomalies. It is
possible to correct an unnormalized design so as to make it adhere to the
demands of the normal forms: this is called normalization. Removal of
redundancies of the tables will lead to several tables, with referential integrity
restrictions between them.
Normalization typically involves decomposing an unnormalized table into
two or more tables that, were they to be combined (joined), would convey
exactly the same information as the original table.

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Database Management System 113

History :
Edgar F. Codd first proposed the process of normalization and what came to
be known as the 1st Normal Form.
There is, in fact, a very simple elimination procedure which we shall call
normalization. Through decomposition non-simple domains are replaced by
"domains whose elements are atomic (non-decomposable) values."
—Edgar F. Codd, A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks.
In his paper, Edgar F. Codd used the term "non-simple" domains to describe a
heterogeneous data structure, but later researchers would refer to such a
structure as an abstract data type.
Normal Forms :
The Normal Forms (abbrev. NF) of relational database theory provide criteria
for determining a table's degree of vulnerability to logical inconsistencies and
anomalies. The higher the normal form applicable to a table, the less
vulnerable it is to inconsistencies and anomalies. Each table has a "highest
normal form" (HNF): by definition, a table always meets the requirements of
its HNF and of all normal forms lower than its HNF; also by definition, a
table fails to meet the requirements of any normal form higher than its HNF.
The normal forms are applicable to individual tables; to say that an entire
database is in normal form n is to say that all of its tables are in normal form
n.
Newcomers to database design sometimes suppose that normalization
proceeds in an iterative fashion, i.e. a 1NF design is first normalized to 2NF,
then to 3NF, and so on. This is not an accurate description of how
normalization typically works. A sensibly designed table is likely to be in 3NF
on the first attempt; furthermore, if it is 3NF, it is overwhelmingly likely to
have an HNF of 5NF. Achieving the "higher" normal forms (above 3NF) does
not usually require an extra expenditure of effort on the part of the designer,
because 3NF tables usually need no modification to meet the requirements of
these higher normal forms.
Edgar F. Codd originally defined the first three normal forms (1NF, 2NF, and
3NF). These normal forms have been summarized as requiring that all non-
key attributes be dependent on "the key, the whole key and nothing but the
key". The fourth and fifth normal forms (4NF and 5NF) deal specifically with

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the representation of many-to-many and one-to-many relationships among

attributes. Sixth normal form (6NF) incorporates considerations relevant to
temporal databases.
First Normal Form :
A table is in First Normal Form (1NF) if and only if it faithfully represents a
relation. Given that database tables embody a relation-like form, the defining
characteristic of one in first normal form is that it does not allow duplicate
rows or nulls. Simply put, a table with a unique key (which, by definition,
prevents duplicate rows) and without any nullable columns is in 1NF.
Note that the restriction on nullable columns as a 1NF requirement, as
espoused by Chris Date, et. al., is controversial. This particular requirement
for 1NF is a direct contradiction to Dr. Codd's vision of the relational
database, in which he stated that "null values" must be supported in a fully
relational DBMS in order to represent "missing information and inapplicable
information in a systematic way, independent of data type." By redefining
1NF to exclude nullable columns in 1NF, no level of normalization can ever
be achieved unless all nullable columns are completely eliminated from the
entire database. This is in line with Date's and Darwen's vision of the perfect
relational database, but can introduce additional complexities in SQL
databases to the point of impracticality.
In 1NF, requirement of a relation is that every table contain exactly one
value for each attribute. This is sometimes expressed as "no repeating
groups". While that statement itself is axiomatic, experts disagree about what
qualifies as a "repeating group", in particular whether a value may be a
relation value; thus the precise definition of 1NF is the subject of some
controversy. Notwithstanding, this theoretical uncertainty applies to
relations, not tables. Table manifestations are intrinsically free of variable
repeating groups because they are structurally constrained to the same
number of columns in all rows. Therefore "a relation is in 1NF if its each
attribute is having atomic value."
Second Normal Form :
The criteria for Second Normal Form (2NF) are :
―The table must be in 1NF.

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Database Management System 115

None of the non-prime attributes of the table are functionally dependent on a

part (proper subset) of a candidate key;‖ in other words, all functional
dependencies of non-prime attributes on candidate keys are full functional
dependencies. For example, consider an "Employees' Skills" table whose
attributes are Employee ID, Employee Address, and Skill; and suppose that
the combination of Employee ID and Skill uniquely identifies records within
the table. Given that Employee Address depends on only one of those
attributes – namely, Employee ID – the table is not in 2NF.
In simple, "a table is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and all non-prime
attributes/columns are fully dependent on Primary Key(s), or a relation is
in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-key attribute is fully dependent on
each candidate key of the relation."
Note that if none of a 1NF table's candidate keys are composite – i.e. every
candidate key consists of just one attribute – then we can say immediately
that the table is in 2NF.
Third Normal Form :
The criteria for third normal form (3NF) are :
“The table must be in 2NF.
Every non-prime attribute of the table must be non-transitively dependent
on each candidate key.” A violation of 3NF would mean that at least one non-
prime attribute is only indirectly dependent (transitively dependent) on a
candidate key. For example, consider a "Departments" table whose attributes
are Department ID, Department Name, Manager ID, and Manager Hire Date;
and suppose that each manager can manage one or more departments.
{Department ID} is a candidate key. Although Manager Hire Date is
functionally dependent on the candidate key {Department ID}, this is only
because Manager Hire Date depends on Manager ID, which in turn depends
on Department ID. This transitive dependency means the table is not in 3NF.
Boyce-Codd Normal Form :
A table is in Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF) if and only if, for every one
of its non-trivial functional dependencies X → Y, X is a superkey—that is, X is
either a candidate key or a superset thereof.

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EMP Table
Á Â Ã
EMP ENAME JOB MGR HIREDATE SAL COMM DEPTNO
NO
7839 KING PRESIDENT Å 17-NOV-81 5000 10
7698 BLAKE MANAGER 7839 01-MAY-81 2850 30
7782 CLARK MANAGER 7839 09-JUNE-81 2450 10
7566 JONES MANAGER 7839 02-APR-81 2975 20
7654 MARTIN SALESMAN 7698 28-SEP-81 1250 1400 30
7499 ALLEN SALESMAN 7698 20-FEB-81 1600 300 30
7844 TURNER SALESMAN 7698 08-SEP-81 1500 Ä0 30
7900 JAMES CLERK 7698 03-DEC-81 950 30
7521 WARD SALESMAN 7698 22-FEB-81 1250 500 30
7902 FORD ANALYST 7566 03-DEC-81 3000 20
7369 SMITH CLERK 7902 17-DEC-80 800 20
7788 SCOTT ANALYST 7566 09-DEC-82 3000 20
7876 ADAMS CLERK 7788 12-JAN-83 1100 20
7934À MILLER CLERK 7782 23-JAN-82 1300 10

Fourth Normal Form :

A table is in Fourth Normal Form (4NF) if and only if, for every one of its
non-trivial multivalued dependencies X Y, X is a superkey—that is, X is
either a candidate key or a superset thereof.
Fifth Normal Form :
The criteria for Fifth Normal Form (5NF and also PJ/NF) are -
―The table must be in 4NF.
There must be no non-trivial join dependencies that do not follow from the
key constraints. A 4NF table is said to be in the 5NF if and only if every join
dependency in it is implied by the candidate keys.”
Domain/Key Normal Form :

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Database Management System 117

“Domain/Key Normal Form (or DKNF) requires that a table not be subject to
any constraints other than domain constraints and key constraints.‖
Sixth Normal Form :
A table is in Sixth Normal Form (6NF) if and only if it satisfies no non-
trivial join dependencies at all, meaning that the fifth normal form is also
satisfied. The sixth normal form was only defined when extending the
relational model to take into account the temporal dimension. Most SQL
technologies, as of 2005, do not take into account this work, and most
temporal extensions to SQL are not relational. See work by Date, Darwen and
Lorentzos worked for a relational temporal extension, Zimyani for further
discussion on Temporal Aggregation in SQL, or TSQL2 for a non-relational
approach.

Domain Key Normal Form (DKNF)

A relation schema R is said to be in DKNF if all constraints and

dependencies required are enforced simply by enforcing the domain
constraints and key constraints on the relation.

The idea behind domain-key normal form is to specify the 'Ultimate normal
form' that takes into account all possible types of dependencies and
constraints. Before defining DKNF formally let us define few types of
constraints.
Domain Constraint: It specifies that each attribute, Ai of relation R (A1, A2 ....
An), must have a value from a set SAi. Domain Constraint on attribute Ai is
specified as IN (Ai, SAi) we have used domain constraints as a part of
integrity constraints.
Key Constraint: For the relation schema R (A1, A2 An), the Key Constraint,
KEY (K], where K is a subset of R, is the restriction that no two tuples of
relation r defined on 'the relation schema R have the same value for the
attributes in K.
General Constraint: A general constraint is expressed as a simple statement
or predicate and specifies some special requirement that each tuple of a
relation must satisfy to be a valid tuple. For an example or general constraint
consider the relation catalog (pid, sid, cost) shown in figure 6.23 where pid is
the id of product~ sid is the id of supplier and cost is the cost of product
supplied by a supplier suppose we have constraint that if cost of a product is
more than Rs. 5000 supplier will be only A or C otherwise it may be one of A,
B, C, D or E. This constraint can not be expressed as domain constraint or a
key constraint and hence has to be categorized as general constraint.

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A relation schema R is said to be in DKNF if all constraints and

dependencies that should hold on a valid relation state can be enforced
simply by enforcing the domain constraints and key constraints on the
relation. However because it is difficult to specify complex constraints in
form of domain or key constraints so its practical utility is limited.

P Si Co
1 D 200
1 B 300
1 C 550
1 E 400
1 A 580
0 0
Figure 6.23 : Instance of Catalog relation

The relation catalog can be convel1ed in DKNF by decomposing it two

relations Low cost catalog and High cost catalog. Low cost catalog relation
will contain products for which cost is less than Rs. 5000 and domain of Sid
will be {A, B, C, D, E}. The other relation high cost catalog will contain
products for which cost is more than Rs. 5000 and domain of Sid will be {A,
C}. Now the general constraint is converted into domain constraints.

Q.6 Define Denomalization in Databases.

Ans.: Denormalization : In some exceptional cases, database designers use the
redundancy to improve performance for specific applications.They select a
schema which is having duplicate values that means it is not normalized. for
ex., suppose that the name of an account holder, has to be displayed along
with the acc. no. and balance, every time the account accessed. In our
normalized schema, this requires join of account with depositor. One
alternative is to join account with depositor, which creates all the attributes of
both the relation.This makes displaying the info. faster. However the balance
is repeated for every person who owns the account, and all copies must be
updated by the application,whenever the account balance is updated. This
process of taking normalized schema and making it non-normalize is called
denormalization.
Databases intended for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) are typically
more normalized than databases intended for Online Analytical Processing

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Database Management System 119

(OLAP). OLTP Applications are characterized by a high volume of small

transactions such as updating a sales record at a super market checkout
counter. The expectation is that each transaction will leave the database in a
consistent state. By contrast, databases intended for OLAP operations are
primarily "read mostly" databases. OLAP applications tend to extract
historical data that has accumulated over a long period of time. For such
databases, redundant or "denormalized" data may facilitate Business
Intelligence applications. Specifically, dimensional tables in a star schema
often contain denormalized data. The denormalized or redundant data must
be carefully controlled during ETL processing, and users should not be
permitted to see the data until it is in a consistent state. The normalized
alternative to the star schema is the snowflake schema. It has never been
proven that this denormalization itself provides any increase in performance,
or if the concurrent removal of data constraints is what increases the
performance. In many cases, the need for denormalization has waned as
computers and RDBMS software have become more powerful, but since data
volumes have generally increased along with hardware and software
performance, OLAP databases often still use denormalized schemas.
Denormalization is also used to improve performance on smaller computers
as in computerized cash-registers and mobile devices, since these may use the
data for look-up only (e.g. price lookups). Denormalization may also be used
when no RDBMS exists for a platform (such as Palm), or no changes are to be
made to the data and a swift response is crucial.
Non-First Normal Form (NF² or N1NF) :
In recognition that denormalization can be deliberate and useful, the non-first
normal form is a definition of database designs which do not conform to the
first normal form, by allowing "sets and sets of sets to be attribute domains"
(Schek 1982). This extension is a (non-optimal) way of implementing
hierarchies in relations. Some academics have dubbed this practitioner
developed method, "First Ab-normal Form", Codd defined a relational
database as using relations, so any table not in 1NF could not be considered
to be relational.
Consider the following table :

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Non-First Normal Form

Person Favorite Colors

Bob blue, red

Jane green, yellow, red

Assume a person has several favorite colors. Obviously, favorite colors

consist of a set of colors modeled by the given table.
To transform this NF² table into a 1NF an "unnest" operator is required which
extends the relational algebra of the higher normal forms. The reverse
operator is called "nest" which is not always the mathematical inverse of
"unnest", although "unnest" is the mathematical inverse to "nest". Another
constraint required is for the operators to be bijective, which is covered by the
Partitioned Normal Form (PNF).

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Database Management System 121

Chapter-13

Database Tuning

Q.1 What are views in DBMS?

Ans.: Views :
(i) We have assumed up to now that the relations we are given are the
actual relations stored in the database.
(ii) For security and convenience reasons, we may wish to create a
personalized collection of relations for a user.
(iii) We use the term view to refer to any relation, not part of the
conceptual model, that is made visible to the user as a ``virtual
relation''.
(iv) As relations may be modified by deletions, insertions and updates, it is
generally not possible to store views. (Why?) Views must then be
recomputed for each query referring to them.
View Definition :
(i) A view is defined using the create view command :
create view v as < query expression >
where <query expression> is any legal query expression.
The view created is given the name .
(ii) To create a view all-customer of all branches and their customers:
create view all-customer as
∏bname , ename (deposit) U ∏bname , ename (borrow)
(iii) Having defined a view, we can now use it to refer to the virtual
relation it creates. View names can appear anywhere a relation name
can.
(iv) We can now find all customers of the SFU branch by writing
∏ ename (bname = “SFU”(all – customer))

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Updates Through Views and Null Values :

(i) Updates, insertions and deletions using views can cause problems. The
modifications on a view must be transformed to modifications of the
actual relations in the conceptual model of the database.
(ii) An example will illustrate: consider a clerk who needs to see all
information in the borrow relation except amount.
Let the view loan-info be given to the clerk:
create view loan-info as
∏bname , loan#, ename (borrow)
(iii) Since SQL allows a view name to appear anywhere a relation name
may appear, the clerk can write:
loan-info ← loan-info U {(“SFU”,3,”Ruth”)}
This insertion is represented by an insertion into the actual relation
borrow, from which the view is constructed.
However, we have no value for amount. A suitable response would be
o Reject the insertion and inform the user.
o Insert (``SFU'',3,``Ruth'',null) into the relation.
The symbol null represents a null or place-holder value. It says the
value is unknown or does not exist.
(iv) Another problem with modification through views: consider the view
create view branch-city as
∏bname , ecity (borrow x customer)
This view lists the cities in which the borrowers of each branch live.
Now consider the insertion
branch-city ← branch-city U {(“Brighton”,”Woodside”)}
Using nulls is the only possible way to do this (see Figure 3.22 in the
textbook).
If we do this insertion with nulls, now consider the expression the
view actually corresponds to:
∏bname , ecity (borrow x customer)
As comparisons involving nulls are always false, this query misses the
inserted tuple.

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Database Management System 123

To understand why, think about the tuples that got inserted into
borrow and customer. So we can think about how the view is
recomputed for the above query.

Q.2 What do you mean by Tuning? Also define Tuning Indexes in brief.
Ans.: Database Tuning describes a group of activities used to optimize and
homogenize the performance of a database. It usually overlaps with query
tuning, but refers to configuration of the database files, the database
management system (DBMS), and the operating system and hardware the
DBMS runs on.
The goal is to maximize use of system resources to perform work as
efficiently and rapidly as possible. Most systems are designed to manage
work efficiently, but it is possible to greatly improve performance by
customizing settings and the configuration for the database and the DBMS
being tuned.
Index tuning as part of database tuning is the task of selecting and creating
indexes with the goal of reducing query processing times. However, in
dynamic environments with various ad-hoc queries it is difficult to identify
potentially useful indexes in advance. So that need for new indexing schemes
suitable for self-tuning. Based on problems with previous approaches we
describe the key concepts, which are sparse and partial indexing, usage-
balanced instead of data-balanced structures, and dynamic resource
assignment. We illustrate the approach by a simple index structure, which
provides adaptability as well as improved access characteristics for indexing
in this manner.

Q.3 Explain DBMS Benchmarking.

Ans.: In computing, a Benchmark is the act of running a computer program, a set
of programs, or other operations, in order to assess the relative performance
of an object, normally by running a number of standard tests and trials
against it. The term, benchmark, is also commonly used for specially-
designed benchmarking programs themselves. Benchmarking is usually
associated with assessing performance characteristics of computer hardware,
for example, the floating point operation performance of a CPU, but there are
circumstances when the technique is also applicable to software. Software

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benchmarks are, for example, run against compilers or database management

systems.

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Chapter-14

Database Security &

its implementation

Q.1 Explain Security in DBMS and Its Implimentation.

Ans. : Data Security actually is an important function of a database management
system whether it is centralized or distributed. Data security controls protects
the data from unauthorized access and unwanted changes.
Data security controls have two major aspects :
(i) Data Protection
(ii) Authorization Control
Data protections make sure that no any unauthorized person can understand
the physical contents of data.
File systems in centralized and distributed operating systems are used to
provide this type of security. Mostly used approach for providing this
protection is data encryption.
Data encryption encodes the data such that nobody can understand the actual
data contents. His encryption not only useful to secure the data stored on
disks but also for exchanging the information over a network.
This encoded data can be decoded (decrypted) only by than authorized users
that know what the code is. Authorization security control ensures that only
privileged user can manipulate the data in the way they are allowed to do.
The database management system must determine that which users are
allowed to perform which functions and which data portion is accessible by
them.
Authorization controls are different in a centralized database to the
distributed database environment. Authorization control definition in a
distributed database system is derived from that in centralized system but in

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the context of distributed system some additional complexity is also

considered.

Q.2 Define various Access Controls in terms of Database Security.

Ans.: Access Control is the ability to permit or deny the use of a particular resource
by a particular entity. Access control mechanisms can be used in managing
physical resources (such as a movie theater, to which only ticketholders
should be admitted), logical resources (a bank account, with a limited number
of people authorized to make a withdrawal), or digital resources (for
example, a private text document on a computer, which only certain users
should be able to read).
Access control techniques are sometimes categorized as either discretionary
or non-discretionary. The three most widely recognized models are
Discretionary Access Control (DAC), Mandatory Access Control (MAC), and
Role Based Access Control (RBAC). MAC and RBAC are both non-
discretionary.
Discretionary Access Control :
Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is an access policy determined by the
owner of an object. The owner decides who is allowed to access the object and
what privileges they have.
Two important concepts in DAC are :
File and Data Ownership : Every object in the system has an owner. In
most DAC systems, each object's initial owner is the subject that
caused it to be created. The access policy for an object is determined by
its owner.
Access Rights and Permissions : These are the controls that an owner
can assign to other subjects for specific resources.
Access controls may be discretionary in ACL-based or capability-based access
control systems. (In capability-based systems, there is usually no explicit
concept of 'owner', but the creator of an object has a similar degree of control
over its access policy.)
Mandatory Access Control :

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Database Management System 127

Mandatory Access Control (MAC) is an access policy determined by the

system, not the owner. MAC is used in multilevel systems that process highly
sensitive data, such as classified government and military information. A
multilevel system is a single computer system that handles multiple
classification levels between subjects and objects.
Sensitivity labels : In a MAC-based system, all subjects and objects
must have labels assigned to them. A subject's sensitivity label
specifies its level of trust. An object's sensitivity label specifies the level
of trust required for access. In order to access a given object, the subject
must have a sensitivity level equal to or higher than the requested
object.
Data Import and Export : Controlling the import of information from
other systems and export to other systems (including printers) is a
critical function of MAC-based systems, which must ensure that
sensitivity labels are properly maintained and implemented so that
sensitive information is appropriately protected at all times.
Two methods are commonly used for applying mandatory access control :
Rule-Based Access Controls : This type of control further defines
specific conditions for access to a requested object. All MAC-based
systems implement a simple form of rule-based access control to
determine whether access should be granted or denied by matching:
o An object's Sensitivity Label
o A subject's Sensitivity Label
Q.3 What do you mean by Encryption?
Ans.: In Cryptography, Encryption is the process of transforming information
(referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called cipher) to make it
unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually
referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information (in
cryptography, referred to as ciphertext). In many contexts, the word
encryption also implicitly refers to the reverse process, decryption (e.g.
―software for encryption‖ can typically also perform decryption), to make the
encrypted information readable again (i.e. to make it unencrypted).
Encryption has long been used by militaries and governments to facilitate
secret communication. Encryption is now used in protecting information
within many kinds of civilian systems, such as computers, networks (e.g. the

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Internet e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones, wireless

intercom systems, Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines.
Encryption is also used in digital rights management to prevent unauthorized
use or reproduction of copyrighted material and in software also to protect
against reverse engineering (see also copy protection).
Encryption, by itself, can protect the confidentiality of messages, but other
techniques are still needed to protect the integrity and authenticity of a
message; for example, verification of a message authentication code (MAC) or
a digital signature. Standards and cryptographic software and hardware to
perform encryption are widely available, but successfully using encryption to
ensure security may be a challenging problem. A single slip-up in system
design or execution can allow successful attacks. Sometimes an adversary can
obtain unencrypted information without directly undoing the encryption.
See, e.g., traffic analysis, TEMPEST, or Trojan horse.

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Database Management System 129

Chapter-15

Advanced Database Technologies

Q.1 Define ODBC with its implementation.

Ans.: ODBC (pronounced as separate letters) short for Open Database
Connectivity, a standard database access method developed by the SQL
Access group in 1992. The goal of ODBC is to make it possible to access any
data from any application, regardless of which database management system
(DBMS) is handling the data. ODBC manages this by inserting a middle layer,
called a database driver, between an application and the DBMS. The purpose
of this layer is to translate the application's data queries into commands that
the DBMS understands. For this to work, both the application and the DBMS
must be ODBC-compliant -- that is, the application must be capable of issuing
ODBC commands and the DBMS must be capable of responding to them.
Since version 2.0, the standard supports SAG SQL.
In other words, The ODBC specification offers a procedural API for using
SQL queries to access data. An implementation of ODBC will contain one or
more applications, a core ODBC "Driver Manager" library, and one or more
"database drivers". The Driver Manager, independent of the applications and
DBMS, acts as an "interpreter" between the applications and the database
drivers, whereas the database drivers contain the DBMS-specific details. Thus
a programmer can write applications that use standard types and features
without concern for the specifics of each DBMS that the applications may
encounter. Likewise, database driver implementors need only know how to
attach to the core library. This makes ODBC modular.
ODBC provides the standard of ubiquitous data access because hundreds of
ODBC drivers exist for a large variety of data sources. ODBC operates with a
variety of operating systems and drivers exist for non-relational data such as
spreadsheets, text and XML files. Because ODBC dates back to 1992, it offers
connectivity to a wider variety of data sources than other data-access APIs.
More drivers exist for ODBC than drivers or providers exist for newer APIs
such as OLE DB, JDBC, and ADO.NET.

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Implementations : ODBC implementations run on many operating systems,

including Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, OS/2, OS/400, IBM i5/OS, and
Mac OS X. Hundreds of ODBC drivers exist, including drivers for Oracle,
DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Pervasive SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and
desktop database products such as FileMaker, and Microsoft Access.
Microsoft ODBC : Microsoft released the first ODBC product as a set of DLLs
for Microsoft Windows. As of 2006, Microsoft ships its own ODBC with every
supported version of Windows: compare Microsoft Data Access Components.

Q. 2.What is Enterprise wide data Management:-

Ans. EDM refers to the ability of an organization to precisely define, easily
integrate and effectively retrieve data for both internal applications (such as
business intelligence, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship
management systems) and external communication (for compliance and
regulatory reasons). EDM is focused on the creation of accurate, consistent
and transparent data content. It emphasizes data precision, granularity and
meaning, and is concerned with how the content is integrated into business
applications as well as how it is passed along from one business process to
another. The goal of enterprise data management is trust and confidence in
data assets.
By this definition, there are at least six intrinsic data components that, in my
opinion, should contribute toward a good EDM strategy. These are:
Data architecture
Data quality management (DQM)
Metadata management
Master data management (MDM)
Data security
Data governance

Q. 3. Describe all the main features of EDM in context of data wear housing and
Business intelligence.
Ans. Data Architecture
In a BI environment, it is extremely important to map, visualize and,
ultimately, model the structure and flow of data as it flows from the source
systems to the various reporting systems. The business requirements, along
with the intrinsic relationships that exist among various entities and

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Database Management System 131

attributes, assist in defining the conceptual, logical and physical models

typically found in a data warehousing and business intelligence environment.
Data architecture describes how data is processed via ETL (extract, transform
and load), stored in its staged journey and, finally, used for decision making.
Thus, key activities involved in data architecture – such as data modeling,
data administration, data visualization and data flow analysis – enhance the
ability of an organization to precisely define and easily integrate enterprise data.
Data Quality Management
A big part of successful BI implementations is the fact that the end users
(including management) have a high degree of trust and confidence in the
reported data. That degree of trust and confidence is directly proportional to
the high level of emphasis placed on data quality as data flows within and
outside the organization.
Eventually, users care about two main things in their reports, namely:
1. Can it be generated in decent time and get the desired results?
2. Is the data consistently accurate for the different slicing and dicing
scenarios that the report offers?
Hence, without good data quality management, one cannot have trust and
confidence in the data, which is a prerequisite to glean actionable business
intelligence.
Metadata Management
As Bill Inmon mentions in his article about success factors for data
warehousing, metadata is the glue that holds the data warehouse together. In
a typical data warehouse environment, information about the meaning
(semantics) and structure (syntax, constraints and relationships) of data is
captured in the metadata for various stages of a data flow, including source
systems, ETL/ELT tools, data warehouse (operational data store,
multidimensional database) data models, reporting systems and business
subject areas. Managing this metadata (irrespective of its central, distributed
or federated topology) becomes imperative to allow easy integration of various
data warehouse components, as well as to provide the necessary data lineage
for regulatory and compliance purposes (external communication).
Master Data Management
Master data is defined as the data that has been cleansed, rationalized and
integrated into an enterprise-wide ―system of record‖ for core business
entities, such as Customers, Products, Suppliers, Employees, Accounts,
Locations, Branches, Factories and Stores. By the very nature of multiple

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source systems in a data warehouse environment, data coming from various

sources could differ in semantics and usage. Without a consistent definition
of these important business entities, an organization can face downstream
problems in areas such as:
Customer Satisfaction – the sales department is unaware of the
marketing view of customer needs
Decision Support – incorrect decisions resulting from bad quality data
Operational Efficiency – people, processes and disparate systems have
to be in place for mapping one definition or view to another
Regulatory and Legal Compliance – inconsistent and inaccurate data
leading to fines, delays in reporting and brand tarnishing
There have been many customer implementations where I have seen
operational data stores (e.g., financial, supply chain, CRM, vendor
management) being populated from source streams, but with slight variation
in their semantics (e.g., customer definitions) and suffering from classical
database update issues. The resulting bottom-line impact from a direct
marketing campaign where multiple mailers have to be sent to the same
person living at the same address can result in huge cost increases. The need
for master data management (MDM) is acutely felt when organizations
embark on an enterprise data warehouse strategy as they mature from silos of
departmental data marts.
Thus, MDM contributes toward creating accurate, consistent and transparent
enterprise-wide data content and becomes a source for clean and consistent data
for the data warehouse.
Data Security
Providing the right access to appropriate objects and systems for the right
people at the right time lies at the core of data security.
The Société Générale fraud case in early 2008 is a good example of why
protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data is of
paramount importance to organizations, especially in the Internet age.
The data warehouse environment acts as a central repository for all of the key
business data, which is then fed into various downstream systems. The role of
data security is to prevent unauthorized access and facilitate effective retrieval
of this data by both internal applications as well as external-facing communications.
Data Governance
Data governance implies assigning (people) responsibilities and ownership
around data and processes to ensure effective data management, with the use

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Database Management System 133

of appropriate technology. It is the ―glue‖ that holds the entire EDM strategy
together.
In the context of the enterprise, many organizations resort to establishing a
formal business intelligence competency center (BICC), creating roles such as
the chief data officer (CDO) to provide the seriousness and espouse the
culture that treats enterprise data as a ―strategic asset.‖ This organizational
body is also responsible for making project priority decisions, providing skill-
set training and cross-functional grooming, and providing opportunities
within the enterprise as a whole for selecting tools and technology, as well as
for evangelizing the ROI benefits of various BI initiatives across business and
IT.
Successful BI implementations have realized the importance of data
governance and have made the right investments in being able to precisely
define who the producers, administrators and, possibly, consumers are for its
enterprise data.
One grassroots movement worth mentioning in the EDM space is
EDMCouncil.org, which is a nonprofit trade association focused on managing
and leveraging enterprise data as a strategic asset to enable institutions to
increase efficiency, minimize risk and create competitive advantage.
As you can see, investing in a sound EDM strategy built on the six
components outlined at the beginning of this article can pay rich dividends
toward successful data warehousing and business intelligence investments.
As a matter of fact, I would even go beyond that and say that not only data
warehousing and business intelligence, but other data initiatives (as outlined
in the oval in Figure 1) can benefit from a good EDM strategy (as shown
along the edges of the hexagon in Figure 1). Some of the sub-components of
the EDM strategy are listed inside the hexagon.

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Figure : Six-Component EDM Strategy and its Beneficiaries

Q. 4. How do you access a remote data source?

Ans: Access to a Remote Data Source:-
Often in business, information is held in a different location to the place
where processing will occur. A useful capability is one which allows remote
partners to access the data.

Accessing a remote data source

This common capability is a very important one for many Grid based
applications. It is key for fully utilizing the power of distributed processing to
further many business goals. The key is to make the communication between
the central and remote systems as secure as is appropriate and also to make
the communication flexible enough to cope with a variety of systems at either

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Database Management System 135

end. Ideally you can use a standard way of communicating over the internet
to provide flexibility.
The way this common capability would work would be to pass a message or
series of messages between the central and remote systems. The remote
system would be able to accept a query about its local database, access the
database to retrieve that query and then pass the results back to the central
system.
So, we can say that the remote system acts as a translator between the
messages that go between it and the central system, and those that goes to
and from the database. The database does not need to know about the
internet, it is hidden from that by the rest of the system.
Q.5 Define Transactions and Concurrency in respect of ACID rules.
Ans. In addition to data model, most practical databases (―transactional database‖)
attempt to enforce a data transaction. Ideally, the database software should
enforce the ACID rules, summarized here :

Atomicity : Either all the tasks in a transaction must be done, or none

of them. The transaction must be completed, or else it must be undone
(rolled back).

Consistency : Every transaction must preserve the integrity constraints

– the declared consistency rules – of the database. It cannot place the
data in a contradictory state.

Isolation : Two simultaneous transactions cannot interfere with one

another. Intermediate results within a transaction are not visible to
other transactions.

Durability : Completed transactions cannot be aborted later or their

results discarded. They must persist through (for instance) restarts of
the DBMS after crashes.

A cascading rollback occurs in database systems when a transaction

(T1) causes a failure and a rollback must be performed. Other
transactions dependent on T1‘s actions must also be rolled back due to
T1‘s failure, thus causing a cascading effect.
In practice, many DBMS‘s allow most of these rules to be selectively relaxed
for better performance.
Concurrency control is a method used to ensure that transactions are
executed in a safe manner and follow the ACID rules. The DBMS must be

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able to ensure that only serializable, recoverable schedules are allowed, and
that no actions of committed transactions are lost while undoing aborted
transactions.

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Database Management System 137

BACHELOR OF COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

(Part II) EXAMINATION
(Faculty of Science)
(Three – Year Scheme of 10+2+3 Pattern)
PAPER 214
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Year - 2011

Time allowed : One Hour Maximum Marks :

20
The question paper contains 40 multiple choice questions with four choices and student
will have to pick the correct one (each carrying ½ mark).

1. The levels of database architecture include:

(a) External
(b) Internal
(c) Conceptual
(d) All of the above ()

2. In relational model, a row is called:

(a) Tuple (b) Relation
(c) Both (a) and (b) (d) None of the above ( )

3. Rename operator is:

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) ( )

4. A data dictionary is a special file that contains:

(a) Names of all field in all files
(b) Data types of all fields in all files
(c) Width of all field in all files
(d) All of the above ( )

5. Which of the following ensures database security?

(a) Data encryptions (b) Passwords

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(c) Granting privileges (d) All of the above ()

6. A relation schema is said to be in 4 NF if it follows:

(a) Atomicity
(b) Functional dependency
(c) Multivalued dependency
(d) All of the above ( )

7. A null value indicates:

(a) Absence of information about an attributes
(b) Zero value of an attributes
(c) Both (a) and (b)
(d) None of the above ( )

8. Authorization can be:

(a) Read authorization
(b) Insert authorization
(c) Update authorization
(d) All of the above ( )

9. If will hold according to:

(a) Reflexivity rule

(b) Augmentation rule
(c) Transitivity rule
(d) Union rule ( )

10. Set operational includes:

(a) Union
(b) Interest
(c) Except
(d) All of the above ( )

11. Database failure may occur due to:

(a) Transaction failure
(b) System crash
(c) Disk failure
(d) All of the above ( )

12. Server system are those that:

(a) Satisfy the request of clients
(b) Send request to the sent
(c) Transmit request of the client
(d) None of the above ( )

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Database Management System 139

13. Which of the following is not used in relational algebra?

(a) Select (b) Set Difference
(c) Rename (d) Grouping ( )

14. Performance benchmarks:

(a) Suit of tasks that are used to quantify the performance
(b) Suit to tasks that are used to qualify the performance
(c) Are standard of performance
(d) None of the above ( )

15. Advantage of distributed database includes:

(a) Sharing data
(b) Autonomy
(c) Availability
(d) All of the above ( )

16. Database is a :
(a) Collection of any information
(b) Collection of related data
(c) Collection of entities
(d) None of the above ( )

17. The number of levels in data abstraction is:

(a) 1 (b) 2
(c) 3 (d) 4 ( )

18. Data redundancy is :

(a) Same information given several times
(b) Mismatching of data
(c) Data in reduced form
(d) Data in expended form ( )

19. Which model uses tree data structure?

(a) Relational model
(b) Hierarchical model
(c) Network model
(d) Object-oriented model ( )

20. In which type of database management system, information is distributed at different

sites>
(a) OODBMS
(b) RDBMS
(c) DDBMS
(d) None of the above ( )

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21. To express all the constraints on the domain variables, condition box features is use
in:
(a) QBE
(b) QUEL
(c) SQL
(d) None of the above ( )

22. All action of a transaction be executed completely or in the case of some failure,
partial effects of a transaction be undone. This property of transaction is called:
(a) Durability
(b) Atomicity
(c) Consistency
(d) Isolation ( )

23. Full form of DBTG is:

(a) Database tool group
(b) Database task group
(c) Database transaction group
(d) Database transmission group ()

24. The network model used the concept of:

(a) Set construct
(b) Relationship
(c) Entity Sets
(d) Keys ()

25. A relation schema R is 1NF, if the domains of all attributes of R, are:

(a) Primary keys (b) Super keys
(c) Atomic (d) None of the above ( )

26. Functional dependency is the constraint on the set of:

(a) Attributes
(b) Relations
(c) Keys
(d) Domain sets ()

27. Which of the following helps user to hide data?

a) Primary key
b) Foreign key
c) View
d) Table ()

28. The command used in SQL, to make any privilege from any user is:
(a) Grant
(b) Revoke

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Database Management System 141

(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

29. The type of constraint that can be used to protect data is:
(a) Domain
(b) Referential Integrity
(c) Integrity
(d) None of the above ( )

30. A user interact with the system without writing program is called:
(a) Naïve user
(b) Application programme
(c) Sophisticated user
(d) Specialized users ()

31.is responsible for fetching data from disk into main memory.
(a) File manager
(b) Buffer manager
(c) Transaction manager
(d) Integrity manager ( )

32. Which of the an example of composite attribute?

(a) Address
(b) Age
(c) City
(d) State ()

33. Which is suitable example of derived attribute:

(a) Age (b) Year of service
(c) Both a and b (d) None of the above ( )

34. Double rectangle in E-R diagram represents:

(i) Strong entity set
(ii) Weak entity set
(iii) Entity set
(iv) All of the above ()

35. SQL is:

(a) Procedural language
(b) Non procedural language
(c) Computer language
(d) Compiler ( )

36. Data about data is termed as:

(a) Meta data

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142

(b) Directory
(c) Unidata
(d) Database ( )

37. Which of the following group function ignores null values?

(a) Max
(b) Count
(c) Sum
(d) All of the above ( )

38. From which key word in SQL we elimination duplicate records:

(a) Distinct
(b) Distinct all
(c) Like
(d) order key ( )

39. Oracle is:

(a) RDBMS
(b) OODBMS
(c) ORDBMS
(d) All of the above ( )

40. Invalid state of a transaction is:

(a) Active
(b) Read
(c) Fail
(d) Commit ( )

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Database Management System 143

DESCRIPTIVE PART - II

Year 2011
Time allowed : 2 Hours Maximum Marks : 30

Attempt any four questions out of the six. All questions carry 7½ marks each.

1. (a) How can you say that the database management system is better than the file
processing system? Explain.
(b) What do you understand by Data Abstraction and Data
Independence? Explain

2. (a) What is Domain integrity, Referential Integrity and entity integrity? Explain
each by giving suitable examples.
(b) What do you understand by Functional Dependencies? Explain by giving
suitable example.

3. Consider the following schema to write queries given ahead:

(1) emp (emp_no, emp_name, address, city, pin, dept_no.)
(2) dept (dept_no., dept_name, dept_location)
(3) Works (emp_no, dept_no.)

(i) Create emp tabl with emp_no primary key and dept_no. as foreigh key.
(ii) List names of all the departments and number of employees working under it.
(iii) List all the employee who live in the cities starting from either „A‟ or „B‟
(iv) Update address and city for employee having emp_no = 1011.
(v) Delete records from emp table where wmp_name start with „A‟ or „B‟

4. How does normalization play a major role in designing of RDBMS? Discuss “Every
schema in their normal form (3NF) must be in BCNF” with suitable example.

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144

5. Discuss the naming convention and notation used for represent E-R diagram. Explain
E-R model with suitable example.

6. Write notes on any three:

(a) Aggregate Function
(b) Security Vs. Integrity
(c) Recovery in a centralized DBMS.

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Database Management System 145

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Year - 2010

Time allowed : One Hour Maximum Marks : 20

The question paper contains 40 multiple choice questions with four choices and student
will have to pick the correct one (each carrying ½ mark).

1. What is the RDBMS terminology for a row?

(a) Tuple
(b) Attribute
(c) Relation
(d) All of the above ( )

2. Which of the following is a database object?

(a) Table
(b) View
(c) Trigger
(d) All of the above ()

3. DBTG stands for:

(a) DataBase table group
(b) Database task group
(c) Database table grid
(d) None of the above ( )

4. The data definition Language includes:

(a) Create table
(b) Modify task group
(c) Create view
(d) All of the above ( )

5. Which of the following Language includes:

(a) Specialization (b) Generalization
(c) Categorization (d) None of the above ( )

6. Who developed the Normalization process?

(a) C.J. Dale
(b) E.F. Codd
(c) Donald Chamberlain
(d) None of the above ( )

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146

7. Margin of safety is:

(a) Projected sales–BEP sales
(b) Actual sales – BEP sales
(c) BEP–Projected sales
(d) Actual sales – Cost of goods sold (
)

8. BCNF stands for:

(a) Boyee Code Normal Form
(b) Byte Key Normal Form
(c) Domain Key Nature Form
(d) Data Key Natural Form (
)

9. In Network model which type of relationship exist?

(a) Parent Child relationship
(b) Owner-member type relationship
(c) Member member type relationship
(d) None of the above ( )

10. Which of the following is not a se operation?

(a) Union (b) Interest
(c) Like (d) Mines ()

11. Which of the following is not a DML command?

(a) Commit (b) Update
(c) Delete (d) Insert ( )

12. Which of the following is a legal expression?

(a) Select Null from employee
(b) Select name from employee
(c) Select name from employee where salary = NULL
(d) None of the above ( )

13. Which of the following clauses is usually together with aggregate function?
(a) Order by ASC (b) Order by DESC
(c) Group by (d) None of the above ()

14. Which of the following eliminates duplicate rows from a query results?
(a) No Duplicate (b) Unique
(c) Distnct (d) All of the above ()

15. Which of the following is used with select statement?

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Database Management System 147

(a) IN
(b) BETWEEN
(c) LIKE
(d) All of the above ()

16. Which of the following is a cursor operation?

(a) Declare (b) Open and fetch
(c) Close (d) All of the above ()

17. How many primary keys are there in a table?

(a) One (b) Two
(c) 20% (d) None of the above ( )

18. Which of the following is a column constraint?

(a) Not Null (b) Primary key
(c) Check (d) All of the above ()

19. For select operation in relational algebra we use:

(a) (b)
(c) X (d) None of the above ( )

20. A view is a :
(a) Master table (b) Child table
(c) Virtual table (d) Table ( )

21. SQL stands for:

(a) Sequential query language
(b) Select query language
(c) Structured query language
(d) None of the above ( )

22. In E-R diagram a rectangle represents:

(a) Relationship among entity set
(b) Attribute
(c) Entity set
(d) Link between attribute and Entity set ()

23. A key, which shows referential integrity is :

(a) Primary key (b) Candidate key
(c) Tertiary (d) Foreign key ( )

24. Revoke is a command from SQL type:

(a) DDL
(b) DML
(c) DCL

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(d) DMM ()

25. A updatable view is based on:

(a) more than two tables (b) more than one tables
(c) on a single table (d) none of the above ( )

26. The level of data abstraction which describes what relationship exists among data is:
(a) Physical level (b) View level
(c) Conceptual level (d) Storage level ()

27. To project the database we use the following level of security:

(a) Physical level
(b) View level
(c) Conceptual level
(d) Storage level ()

28. Which of the following is a procedural language?

(a) SQL (b) TRC
(c) DRC (d) PL/SQL ()

29. QBE stands for:

(a) Query By Extension
(b) Query But example
(c) Query Between Examples
(d) Query by example ( )

30. Which normal form shows non-transitive dependency?

(a) 1NF
(b) 2 NF
(c) 3NF
(d) BCNF

31. ACID properties include:

(a) Atomicity
(b) Durability
(c) Consistency and Isolation
(d) All of the above ( )

32. Degree of a relation is a :

(a) Number of attribute in a relation
(b) Number of row in a relation
(c) Number of unique row in a relation
(d) None of the above ( )

33. The locking in a concurrent transaction are following type:

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Database Management System 149

(a) Shared
(b) Exclusive
(c) Two phase locking
(d) All of the above ( )

34. A Database user are the following are :

(a) Naive user
(b) DBA
(c) Application programmer
(d) All of the above ( )

35. A weak entity set can be represented by:

(a) Directly persuading customers to buy a product
(b) Indirectly persuading customers to buy a product
(c) Adding no value to a product
(d) All of the above ( )

36. Which of the following are aggregate function:

(a) avg (b) min
(c) max (d) All of the above ( )

37. Which of the following is not a transaction state?

(a) Active
(b) Failed
(c) Partial Failed
(d) Committed ( )

38. The first action the system must in query processing is:
(a) Estimate the cost of query
(b) Translate a query into its internal form
(c) Verify the execution plan
(d) None of the above ( )

39. Failure can be classified as:

(a) Transaction failure (b) System Crash
(c) Disk failure (d) All of the above ( )

40. Which of normal form take care multivalve dependency?

(a) 1 NF
(b) 2 NF
(c) 3 NF
(d) 4 NF ( )

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Answer Key
1. (a) 2. (d) 3. (b) 4. (d) 5. (b) 6. (b) 7. (b) 8. (c) 9. (a) 10. (c)
11. (a) 12. (b) 13. (c) 14. (b) 15. (c) 16. (d) 17. (a) 18. (d) 19. (a) 20. (c)
21. (c) 22. (c) 23. (c) 24. (c) 25. (c) 26. (c) 27. (d) 28. (d) 29. (a) 30. (d)
31. (d) 32. (a) 33. (d) 34. (d) 35. (a) 36. (d) 37. (c) 38. (b) 39. (d) 40. (d)

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Database Management System 151

DESCRIPTIVE PART - II

Year 2010
Time allowed : 2 Hours Maximum Marks : 30
Attempt any four questions out of the six. All questions carry 7½ marks each.

Q.1 (a) What is DBMS? Why DBMS is better than file processing system?
(b) Explain the overall system structure with diagram.

Q.2 (a) What is the difference between centralized and distributed database models?
(b) Solve the following query in Relational Algebra using the following
scheme: Emp (Ecode, Ename, Address, City, Salary)
Debt (Dno, Dname, Ecode)
(i) Find all employees name, city who get salary > 10,000.
(ii) Display Ecode, Dno, Dname, for all employee where department name is
"Computer Science".
(iii) Find the employee who get maximum salary.
(iv) Find the employee's who live in city Jaipur and salary greater than 25,000.

Q.3 (a) What is Normalization? Explain different normal forms with suitable
example.
(b) Suppose that we decompose the schema R (A, B, C, D, E) into (A, B, C) and
(A, D, E). Show that this decomposition is a losses decomposition if the
following set F of functional dependencies holds.

Q.4 (a) Explain the DBTG Network Data Model. How we represent many to many
relationship in network model.
(b) What is object-oriented model? How does the concept of an object in object-
oriented model differ from the concept of an entity in entity relationship
model?

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152

Q.5 (a) What is encryption? Explain in different encryption techniques.

(b) Explain log based recovery techniques.

Q.6 Write short notes on the following:

(a) Joint in SQL
(b) DBA (Database Administrator)
(c) QBEL

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Database Management System 153

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Year - 2009

Time allowed : One Hour Maximum Marks : 20

The question paper contains 40 multiple choice questions with four choices and student
will have to pick the correct one (each carrying ½ mark).

1. Which normal form is considered adequate for relational database design:

(a) 2 NF
(b) 3 NF
(c) 4 NF
(d) BCNF ()

2. The concept of locking can be used to solve the problem of:

(a) Lost update
(b) Uncommitted dependency
(c) Inconsistent data
(d) All of the above ()

3. If every non key attribute is functionally dependent on the primary key, then the
relation relation will be in:
(a) First N. Form
(b) Second N. Form
(c) Third N.Form
(d) Fourth N. Form ( )

4. The column of a table is referred to as:

(a) tuple (b) Attribute
(c) entity (d) degree ( )

5. Given the functional dependencies:

X W; X Y; Y Z and Z PQ
Which of the following does not hold good?
(a) X Z (b) W Z
(c) X WY (d) None of the above ()

6. Which of the following desired features are beyond the capability of Relational
Algebra:
(a) Aggregate Computation
(b) Multiplication

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 154

(c) Finding Transitive

(d) All of the above ()

7. In airline, destination system the, system have flight no., place of departure,
destination, type of place and seats available The primary key is:
(a) Flight No.
(b) Flight No. and place of departure
(c) Flight No. and date
(d) Flight No. and destination ()

8. In an E-R diagram, ellipses represent:

(a) entity sets
(b) relationship among entity sets
(c) Attributes
(d) Link between attributes and entity sets ( )

9. The set of permitted values for each attribute is called:

(a) Attributes set
(b) Attributes range
(c) domain
(d) groups ( )

10. Students and courses enrolled, is an example of:

(a) One to one relationship
(b) bottom up approach
(c) left right approach
(d) None of the above ( )

11. E-R modeling technique is:

(a) top down approach
(b) bottom up approach
(c) left right approach
(d) none of the above ( )

12. An attribute of one table matching the primary key of another table, is called:
(a) foreign key (b) secondary key
(c) candidate key (d) composite key ( )

13.13. The employee salary should not be more than Rs. 2,000 this is :
(a) Referential constraint (b) Integrity constraint
(c) Over defined constraint (d) Feasible constraint ( )

14. A trigger is:

(a) a statement that enables for start any DBMS

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Database Management System 155

(b) a statement that is executed by the user when debugging an application

program
(c) a condition of the system for validity testing
(d) a statement that is executed automatically by the system as a side effect of a
modification to the database ()

15. The owner of the DUAL table is:

(a) SYS (b) SUPERUSER
(c) SCOTT (d) MANAGER ( )

16. Which of the following group function ignores null values:

(a) Max
(b) Count
(c) Sum
(d) All of the above ()

17. Which of the following must be enclosed in double gouts:

(a) Dates (b) Column alias
(c) Sum (d) All of the above ()

18. In SQL, 10/NULL will evaluate to:

(a) False (b) 1
(c) Nul (d) 10 ()

19. Which of the following is considered to be a fourth generation language?

(a) COBOL (b) VB
(c) JAVA (d) SQL ()

20. PL/SQL does not support arrays however equivalent construct which is:
(a) Records (b) Packages
(c) Types (d) Collection ()

21. Trigger code is written in:

(a) SQL (b) PL/SQL
(c) JAVA (d) Machine language ()

22. Which of the following is not a valid relational database?

(a) SYBASE (b) IMS
(c) ORACLE (d) UNIFY ()

23. Data about data is termed as:

(a) Meta data (b) Directory
(c) Uni data (d) Data Bank ()

24. The data model, which describes how the data is actually stored, is:

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156

(a) Internal model (b) Logical model

(c) External model (d) None of the above ( )

25. A view of the database that appears to an application program is known is:
(a) Schema (b) Subschema
(c) Virtual table (d) None of the above ( )

26. Which of the following design is both software and hardware independent:
(a) Logical
(b) Conceptual
(c) Physical
(d) None of the above ( )

27. Collection of information stored in a database at a particular moment is:

(a) View
(b) Instance
(c) Scheme
(d) All of the above ( )

28. A collection of data items organized and manageable is:

(a) Attribute
(b) Tuple
(c) Database
(d) None of the above ( )

29. File is collection of all related:

(a) Database (b) Files
(c) Field (d) Records ( )

30. The level of data abstraction which describes how the data is actually stored is:
(a) Physical level (b) Storage level
(c) conceptual level (d) View level ( )

31. Which one of following is an aggregate function in SQL:

(a) AVG (b) Order key
(c) Select (d) None of the above ( )

32. Which of the following is not SQL, command:

(a) Create
(b) Alter
(c) Drop
(d) All are SQL comments ( )

33. Which of the following command is used to get all the columns in a table?
(a) # (b) %

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Database Management System 157

(c) * (d) @ ( )

34. Which of the following aggregate functions does not ignore nulls in its results:
(a) Count (b) MAX
(c) Count (*) (d) MIN ( )

35. GRANT is a command from SQL type:

(a) DDL
(b) DCL
(c) DML
(d) None of the above ( )

36. Which of the following is not used for data security:

(a) Data encryption
(b) Finger print
(c) A view
(d) All of the above ()

37. The principle means of identifying entities within an entity set, in a relational
database is:
(a) Tuple (b) Pointer
(c) Record (d) Primary key ( )

38.is a hierarchical database system:

(a) DBMS (b) IMS
(c) MNS (d) None of the above ()

39. In an E-R model, oval represents:

(a) entity sets (b) relationship
(c) attributes (d) links ( )

40. Key to represent relationship between tables is called:

(a) Primary key
(b) foreign key
(c) Secondary key
(d) Tertiary key ( )

Answer Key
1. (b) 2. (d) 3. (b) 4. (b) 5. (b) 6. (c 7. (a) 8. (c) 9. (c) 10. (d)
11. (a) 12. a) 13. (b) 14. (d) 15. (a) 16. (b) 17. (c) 18. (c) 19. (d) 20. (d)
21. (b) 22. (b) 23. (a) 24. (a) 25. (b) 26. (d) 27. (b) 28. (c) 29. (d) 30. (a)
31. (a) 32. (d) 33. (c) 34. (d) 35. (b) 36. (c) 37. (b) 38. (b) 39. (c) 40. (b)

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158

DESCRIPTIVE PART - II

Year 2009
Time allowed : 2 Hours Maximum Marks : 30
Attempt any four questions out of the six. All questions carry 7½ marks each.

Q.1 (a) What are different levels of data base architecture? Describe conceptual level
in detail.
(b) What is IMS hierarchy? Write a note on Data and Information.

Q.2 (a) What are the functions performed by D.B.A.?

(b) What are object-oriented database? Write a note on entity-relationship
diagrams.

Q.3 (a) What are different normalization forms? Mention the application of IT.
(b) Define scheme and subschema. Discuss the concepts of Relational Algebra.

Q.4 (a) What is database query languages? Mention few query language commands?
(b) What are nested queries? Write a note on aggregate functions.

Q.5 (a) Define are..................decryption. How are security of database maintained?

(b) What are functional dependencies? Write a note on access control.

Q.6 Write short notes on the following:

(a) Client/Server Technology
(b) Generalization
(c) SQL function.

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Database Management System 159

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Year - 2008

Time allowed : One Hour Maximum Marks : 20

The question paper contains 40 multiple choice questions with four choices and student
will have to pick the correct one (each carrying ½ mark).

1. Same information may be duplicated in several places (files) called:

(a) Data inconsistency (b) Data redundancy
(c) Atomicity (d) Data isolation ()

2. Abstract view of the data means:

(a) hides certain detail from user
(b) it is database view
(c) it is physical view
(d) All of the above ()

3. The lowest level of abstraction is;

(a) logical level (b) physical level
(c) view level (d) none ( )

4. The overall design of database is called:

(a) instance
(b) schema
(c) subschema
(d) data independence ( )

5. Association among several entities is:

(a) attribute (b) relation
(c) relationship (d) Entity set ()

6. A DML that specify what data are needed without specifying how to get those data,
called:
(a) Procedural (b) Query
(c) DDL (d) Non procedural DML ( )

7. A user interact with the system without writing program is called:

(a) naive user
(b) application programmer
(c) Sophisticated user
(d) specialized users ()

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160

8. OLAP stands for:

(a) Online analysis processing
(b) Online analytical processing
(c) Open Line application program
(d) Online application program ( )

9. ..................is responsible for fetching data from into main memory

(a) File manager
(b) buffer manager
(c) transaction manager
(d) Integrity manager ( )

10. Which of the example of composite attribute?

(a) Name
(b) Age
(c) City
(d) State ( )

11. Set of permitted value for an entity is called:

(a) tuple
(b) relation
(c) domain
(d) attribute ( )

12. Double ellipser in E-R diagram represents:

(a) Attribute
(b) derived attribute
(c) multivalve attribute
(d) relation ( )

13. Which one is the example of derived attribute:

(a) Age
(b) Data of birth
(c) Middle name
(d) Last name ( )

14. Double rectangle in E-R diagram represents:

(a) Strong entity set
(b) Weak entity set
(c) entity set
(d) All of the above ( )

15. Generalization is work as:

(a) Bottom up manner (b) Top down

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Database Management System 161

(c) both the above (d) None ( )

16. UML stands for:

(a) Unified modeling language
(b) Universal modeling language
(c) Universal markup language
(d) All ()

17. The result of relational Algebra operation is of a type

(a) Operation
(b) Relation
(c) Schema
(d) Attribute ( )

18. Which of not unary operation of relational algebra?

(a) Select
(b) Project
(c) Rename
(d) Set different ( )

19. Which is not comparison operator of relational algebra?

(a) =
(b)
(c) <
(d) <> ( )

20. Which give particular attribute in relational algebra :

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) X ( )

21. r is equivalent is:

(a) R – (s–r) (b) s – (r–s)
(c) r – (r–s) (d) None ( )

22. When r X s=r x s :

(a) R S=0 (b) RS=0
(c) R-S=0 (d) All ( )

23. SQL is:

(a) Procedural Language
(b) Non procedural language
(c) Computer language
(d) Compiler ( )

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162

24. A tuple relational calculus formula is built up out of:

(a) Formula (b) Variables
(c) Atoms (d) Expression ( )

25. In SQL % represents:

(a) Character matches any substring
( b) any single character
(c) None of above
(d) All of above ( )

26. From which key word in SQL, we eliminate duplicate records:

(a) distinct (b) distinct all
(c) like (d) order by ( )

27. Which is not aggregate function of SQL:

(a) avg (b) sum
(c) count (d) null ( )

28. Which is not set membership in SQL:

(a) in (b) not in
(c) any (d) all ( )

29. Which is not data type of SQL:

(a) char (b) numeric (p,d)
(c) float (d) string ( )

30. Which is not a join type is SQL:

(a) inner join
(b) left outer join
(c) bottom join
(d) full outer join ( )

31. QBE stands for:

(a) Query -by - example
(b) Query - by - extended
(c) Query - by - explorer
(d) full outer join ( )

32. Which one is event-condition-action model:

(a) scheme
(b) triggers
(c) snapshot
(d) view ( )

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Database Management System 163

33. ACID stands for:

(a) atomicity-consistency-durability-isolation
(b) atomic-concurrency-dymanic-isolation
(c) atomicity-condition-dynamic-isolation
(d) None ( )

34. RAID stands for:

(a) Redundant array of independent disk
(b) redundant array of independent database
(c) relational array of independent database
(d) None ( )

35. Which is not recovery technique:

(a) log based
(c) shadow paging
(a) check points
(c) hashing ( )

36. DBTG stands for:

(a) Database task group
(b) Database tool group
(c) Database transaction group
(d) None ( )

37. Every non key attribute is fully dependent upon the primary key is called:
(a) 1 NF (b) 2 NG
(c) 3 NF (d) 4 NF ()

38. Which normal form contains the concepts of multivalve dependency:

(a) 1 NF (b) 2 NG
(c) 3 NF (d) 4 NF ()

39. IMS stands for:

(a) Information management system
(b) Ideal management system
(c) Information marking systems
(d) None ( )

40. The SQL command, to take any privilege from are:

(a) Grant
(b) Revoke
(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

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164

Answer Key
1. (b) 2. (d) 3. (b) 4. (b) 5. (c) 6. (b) 7. (c) 8. (b) 9. (b) 10. (a)
11. (c) 12. (c) 13. (a) 14. (b) 15. (c) 16. (a) 17. (b) 18. (d) 19. (d) 20. (a)
21. (c) 22. (b) 23. (b) 24. (c) 25. (a) 26. (a) 27. (d) 28. (c) 29. (d) 30. (c)
31. (a) 32. (b) 33. (d) 34. (a) 35. (d) 36. (a) 37. (b) 38. (d) 39. (a) 40. (a)

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Database Management System 165

DESCRIPTIVE PART - II

Year 2008
Time allowed : 2 Hours Maximum Marks : 30
Attempt any four questions out of the six. All questions carry 7½ marks each.

Q.1 (a) What do you mean by Data Abstraction and Data Independence?
(b) What are data base model? Discuss the basic concepts and structure of a
relational database model.

Q.2 Explain do you term normalization and various normal from 1NF, 2 NF, 3 NF and
BCNF with the help of example.

Q.3 (a) What do you understand by performance tuning of a database system? Explain
(b) What is database security? Discuss different ways to achieve
database security.

Q.4 Differentiate between the following:

(i) DML and DDL
(ii) Specialization and generalization

Q.5 Consider the following database:

EMP (Empno#, Emname, Manager, DNo, Salary, Age)
DEPT (DNo, Dname, Floor)
Write the following queries in SQL
(i) Find the names of employee that begins with g or e.
(ii) Print or list the name and average salary of each department.
(iii) Write a command to create EMP table, where EmpNo.#is primary.

Q.6 Write short notes on the following:

(i) Client/Server Database System
(ii) ORDBMS

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166

(iii) Centralized Database System

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Database Management System 167

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Year - 2007

Time allowed : One Hour Maximum Marks : 20

The question paper contains 40 multiple choice questions with four choices and student
will have to pick the correct one (each carrying ½ mark).

1. The collection of information stored in the database at a particular movement is

called:
(a) Instance
(b) Schema
(c) Data
(d) DBMS ()

2. The collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationship data
semantics and consistency constraints is called :
(a) Database
(b) Metabase
(c) Data model
(d) All of the above ( )

3. In E-R data model, attributes of entity sets are represented by:

(a) rectangles
(b) diamonds
(c) Ellipses
(d) Lines ( )

4. The model, that uses the collection of tables to represent both data and the
relationship among those data is called:
(a) Relational model
(b) Hierarchical model
(c) Network model
(d) None of the above ( )

5. The operation, used in relational algebra as unary operations is:

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) ( )

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168

6. The result of a relational algebra operation is of a type:

(a) Operation
(b) Attribute
(c) Row
(d) Relation ( )

7. Let R1, and R2 are two relations, then R1–R2 contains the tuples:
(a) That are in R1 but not in R2
(b) That are in R2 but not in R1
(c) Any of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

8. The operational used in relational algebra, suitabled to queries that include the phase
"for all" is:
(a)
(b) n
(c) –
(d) U ()

9. A tuple relational – calculus expression that generate an infinite is called:

(a) Unbounded expression
(b) Infinite expression
(c) Unsafe expression
(d) Any of the above ()

10. In tuple-relational calculus formula is build up of:

(a) Formulae
(b) Variables
(c) Atoms
(d) Expressions ()

11. In SQL, the clause used to specify the list of relation is:
(a) Select
(b) Where
(c) From
(d) Having ()

12. To select the tuples explicitly so that duplicates are not removed in SQL the keyword
used is:
(a) With
(b) All
(c) Distinct
(d) NOT ()

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Database Management System 169

13. In SQL, the keyword used to compare two strings is:

(a) As (b) Like
(c) Same (d) Equal ()

14. In SQL, if we want to change a value in a tuple without changing all values in the
tuple with a condition and this condition is specified with the clause:
(a) Where
(b) With
(c) Having
(d) None of the above ( )

15. To express all the constraints on the domain variables, condition box feature is used
in:
(a) QBEL (b) QUEL
(c) SQL (d) None of the above ()

16. "All actions of a transaction be executed completely or in the case of some failure,
partial effects of a transaction be undone". This property of transaction is called:
(a) Durability (b) Atomicity
(c) Consistency (d) Isolation ( )

17. The advantage of DBMS Over centralized DBMS is:

(a) Inconsistency problem is solved
(b) Increased reliability
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

18. Which of the following will not cause any type of transaction failure?
(a) Some interval condition such as bad input
(b) System crash
(c) Inconsistency of data
(d) None of the above ( )

19. The OODBMS, an object has associated, with it:

(a) Set of variables (b) Set of message
(c) Set of methods (d) All of the above ()

20. Which of the following is the problem in the early file system?
(a) Inconsistency of data
(b) Redundancy of data
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

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170

21. ORDBMS is:

(a) Extension of OODBMS (b) Extension of RDBMS
(c) Any of the above (d) None of the above ()

22. Full form of DBTG is:

(a) Database tool group
(b) Database task group
(c) Database transaction group
(d) Data transmission group ()

23. The network model used the concept of:

(a) Set construct
(b) Relationship
(c) Entity sets
(d) Keys
( )
24. For client/server system which of the following statement is false ?
(a) Set construct
(b) Relationship
(c) Entity sets
(d) Keys ()

25. Which of the following is not a features of client system?

(a) Needs Powerful n/w
(b) Needs of OS capable of multitasking
(c) Needs multiprocessor system
(d) Has communication capabilities ()

26. The highest normal form in normalization is:

(a) 3 NF
(b) BCNF
(c) 2 NF
(d) 1 NF ( )

27. A relation schema R is NF if the domains of all attributes of R, are:

(a) Primary keys
(b) Superkey
(c) Atomic
(d) 0 of fixed size ()

28. Functional dependency is the constraint on the set of:

(a) Attributes
(b) Relations
(c) Keys

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Database Management System 171

(d) Domain sets

( )
29. Which of the following no called armstrong's axioms?
(a) Reflexivity rule
(b) Augmentation rule
(c) Transitivity rule
(d) Union rule ( )

30. Which of the statement is not true?

(a) Every primary key is a super key
(b) Every super key is a candidate key
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

31. Which of the following is not the property of canonical cover FC?
(a) No functional dependency in FC contains an extraneous attribute
(b) Each left side of a functional dependency in FC contains single attribute
(c) Each left side of a functional dependency in FC contains single attribute
(d) None of the above ( )

32. To protect the database, we must take security measure at several levels, which of the
following levels is not one of them:
(a) Database system
(b) Operating system
(c) Physical
(d) None of the above ( )

33. Which of the following helps user to hide data?

(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) View
(d) Table ( )

34. The command used in SQL, to make any privilege from any user is:
(a) Grant
(b) Revoke
(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

35. An encryption technique is not a good technique if:

(a) It is relationship simple
(b) It depends on the secrecy of the algorithm
(c) Any of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

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172

36. The type of constraint that can be used to protect data is:
(a) Domain
(b) Referential integrity
(c) Integrity
(d) Primary key ( )

37. If records of a relation are sorted by a field (Primary key) on which, you have created
an indexed. The type of index in this case will be:
(a) Primary index
(b) Secondary index
(c) Clustering index
(d) Any of the above ( )

38. QBE is based on:

(a) SQL
(b) Relational algebra
(c) Domain calculus
(d) Tupel calculus ( )

39. Which of the following has a two dimensional syntax?

(a) QUEL
(b) QBE
(c) SQL
(d) None of the above ( )

40. In QBE, to retrieve any field of a relation the command is indicated by:
(a) R (b) S
(c) P (d) I ()

Answer Key
1. (a) 2. (c) 3. (c) 4. (a) 5. (d) 6. (d) 7. (a) 8. (a) 9. (d) 10. (c)
11. (c) 12. (c) 13. (b) 14. (a) 15. (a) 16. (b) 17. (c) 18. (d) 19. (d) 20. (c)
21. (b) 22. (b) 23. (b) 24. (d) 25. (c) 26. (b) 27. (c) 28. (a) 29. (d) 30. (c)
31. (a) 32. (c) 33. (c) 34. (a) 35. (b) 36. (c) 37. (c) 38. (c) 39. (b) 40. (c)

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Database Management System 173

DESCRIPTIVE PART - II

Year 2007
Time allowed : 2 Hours Maximum Marks : 30
Attempt any four questions out of the six. All questions carry 7½ marks each.

Q.1 Consider the following database:

PRODUCT (Prod#, Prod_Name, Prod_Details)
DEVELOPED_BY (Prod#_Emp#)
EMPLOYEE (Emp#, Ename, Address, Salary) here all the primary keys of different
relations are underlined. Write the following queries in relational algebra.
(a) Find out the employee names who have developed the produce with
prod#='CS001'.
(b) Find the employee names who have developed the product with Prod_Name =
'BIN'.
(c) Find the prod# of all the products which are not developed by 'John'.

Q.2 Discuss different guidelines which must be satisfied by a good database design.
Discuss 1 NF with an example.

Q.3 How will you compare the early file system approach with database system
approach. Discuss in detail with suitable example.

Q.4 Define each of the following with example:

(a) Super Key and Candidate Key
(b) X+ and F+; where X is the set of attributes of relation and F is set of functional
dependencies of a relation scheme.

Q.5 Write the commands in SQL for the following:

(a) View

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174

(b) Exists
(c) NULL

Q.6 Write short notes on the following:

(a) DBTG
(b) OODBMS
(c) Data Abstraction

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Database Management System 175

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Year - 2006

Time allowed : One Hour Maximum Marks : 20

The question paper contains 40 multiple choice questions with four choices and student
will have to pick the correct one (each carrying ½ mark).

1. The highest level seen by the application programming is called:

(a) External level
(b) User view
(c) Logical level
(d) (a) and (b) both ( )

2. DBA is:
(a) Database administration
(b) Database abstraction
(c) Database administration
(d) None of the above ( )

3. Database is:
(a) Collection of any information
(b) Collection of related data
(c) Collection of entities
(d) None of the above ( )

4. The number of levels in data abstraction is:

(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4 ( )

5. Data redundancy is:

(a) Same information given several times
(b) Mismatching of data
(c) Data in reduced form
(d) Data in expanded form ()

6. The capacity to change the conceptual schema without having to change external
schema is:
(a) Physical data independence
(b) Logical data independence

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176

(c) Data abstraction

(d) None of the above ( )

7. Which model uses tree data structure?

(a) Relational model
(b) Hierarchical model
(c) Network model
(d) Objective-oriented model ()

8. In which type of database management systems, information is distribution at

different sites?
(a) OODBMS
(b) RDBMS
(c) DDBMS
(d) None of the above ( )

9. OODBMS uses the concepts of:

(a) Class
(b) Entity
(c) Key
(d) None of the above ( )

10. Which one is the advantage of DDBMS over centralized DBMS?

(a) Reliability increased (b) Increased redundancy
(c) No inconsistency (d) None of the above ()

11. In relational algebra, which operation is used to specify

predicate? (a)
(b)
(c)
(d) ( )

12. Which symbol is used for existential quantifier in reational calculus?

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) ( )

13. The symbol not available in relational calculus is:

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) II ( )

14. In RDMBMS, the key used to join two relations is:

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Database Management System 177

(a) Primary key

(b) Foreign key
(c) Super key
(d) None of the above ( )

15. The symbol used as universal quantifier in relational calculus is:

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) None of the above ( )

16. QBE is :
(a) Query by example
(b) Query by exercise
(c) Query by extension
(d) None of the above ( )

17. Does QBE differ from SQL ? This statement is:

(a) True
(b) False
(c) Sometimes false
(d) None of the above ( )

18 Condition box is used in:

(a) SQL
(b) Relational algebra
(c) Relational calculus
(d) QBE ( )

19. In QBE, an invalid operator is:

(a) I
(b) U
(c) D
(d) M ( )

20. The first user friendly relational database language is:

(a) QBE
(b) SQL
(c) QUEL
(d) None of the above ( )

21. An invalid aggregate function in QBE is:

(a) Count
(b) MIN
(c) MAX

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178

(d) SUM ()

22. SWL is:

(a) Structured Query Language
(b) Structural Query Language
(c) Sophisticated Query Language
(d) Schema Query Language ( )

23. Invalid data type in SQL is:

(a) String
(b) Varchar
(c) Varchar2
(d) Data ( )

24. A correct command in SQL is:

(a) Alter table emp add primary key (SSM)
(b) Alter emp add primary key (SSM)
(c) Alter table emp add primary key (Number(3))
(d) Alter table emp primary key ( )

25. Key in SQL, that requires parent and child tables is:
(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) Composite
(d) Candidate key ( )

26. The advantage of view in SQL is:

(a) Provide Security (b) Reduce storage space
(c) Reduce redundancy (d) Handshaking ( )

27. Oracle is:

(a) RDMBS
(b) OODBMS
(c) DDMBS
(d) None of the above ( )

28. You can not update a view in SQL, if the view is created using:
(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) Group key
(d) None of the above ( )

29. The keyword not available is SQL is:

(a) Exists
(b) NULL

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Database Management System 179

(c) Distinct
(d) None of the above ( )

30. The highest normal form is:

(a) 3 NF
(b) BCNF
(c) 2 NF
(d) 1 NF ()

31. Designing a database, we avoid taking NULL values in the relation because:
(a) NULL requires more space
(b) NULL can create inconsistency
(c) NULL is not defined
(d) None of the above ( )

32. The type of data storage that does no service system crashes:
(a) Volatile storage
(b) Non volatile storage
(c) Stable storage
(d) None of the above ( )

33. Invalid state of a transaction is:

(a) Active
(b) Read
(c) Fail
(d) Commit ( )

34. A value that appears in one relation for a given set of attribute also appears for certain
set of attributes in another relation. This condition is called:
(a) Domain constraint
(b) Referential integrity
(c) Integrity
(d) None of the above ( )

35. The protection from malicious access is called:

(a) Database (b) Database integrity
(c) Database authorization (d) None of the above ()

36. Invalid type of authorization is:

(a) Read
(b) Insert
(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

37. Invalid privilege in SQL use in authorization is:

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180

(a) Grant (b) Revoke

(c) Select (d) None of the above ()

38. Correct statement in SQL is:

(a) Grant select on account for teller
(b) Grant select on account for teller
(c) Grant select with account to teller
(d) Grant select on account with teller ()

39. In SQL, DDL does not contain

(a) Create (b) Alter
(c) Drop (d) Select ()

40. SQL is an example is:

(a) DDL
(b) DML
(c) Both a and b
(d) None of the above ( )

Answer Key
1. (d) 2. (a) 3. (b) 4. (c) 5. (a) 6. (b) 7. (b) 8. (c) 9. ( a) 10. (a)
11. (c) 12. (a) 13. (a) 14. (b) 15. (b) 16. (a) 17. (a) 18. (d) 19. (d) 20.(b)
21. (a) 22. (a) 23. (a) 24. (c) 25. (b) 26. (a) 27. (a) 28. (b) 29. (a) 30. (b)
31. (d) 32. (a) 33. (b) 34. (b) 35. (c) 36. (d) 37. (c) 38. (c) 39. (d) 40. (c)

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Database Management System 181

DESCRIPTIVE PART - II

Year 2006
Time allowed : 2 Hours Maximum Marks : 30
Attempt any four questions out of the six. All questions carry 7½ marks each.

Q.1 (a) Discuss the three level architecture of DBMS.

(b) What are the advantages of a DBMS approach?

Q.2 Discuss the following operations of relational algebra with examples:

(a) Select (b) Project (c) Join

Q.3 Write the use of the following in SQL:

(a) AVE (b) Primary Key (c) Alter

Q.4 What do you mean by functional dependency? Write and prove and following rules
of functional dependency:
(a) Transitivity Dependency (b) Union Rule

Q.5 What do you mean by normalization? Discuss BCNF and 3 NF with examples.

Q.6 Write short notes on the following:

(i) Recovery (ii) DBA (iii) Network model

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182

Key Term
Application
From a data management system perspective: A computer program that utilizes database data in its
processing.

Attribute
A characteristic of an entity/object, F.ex. the name of a person.

Browse
In data management: to scan and/or read quickly through lists and/or documents resulting from a
database query.
Dictionary: to read or look over something in a casual way. (Webster, 1996)

Collection, synonym: database

In the context of data management: a logically coherent assembly of data,
Dictionary: That which is collected; as: (a) A gathering or assemblage of objects or of persons. ``A
collection of letters.'' (Webster, 1996, def.2)

Constraint, alt. Integrity Constraints

A rule or specification that defines valid data values or relationships
Synonym: (in information system design) business rule.

Controlled vocabulary
A term found in library science and practice for a hierarchical taxonomy of terms describing a certain
area of knowledge. Also the term used for specification of Dublin Core element values.

Database System, DBS

An information processing system containing: a DB and DBMS, a number of DB applications, and
well as ad hoc user interactions.

Digital Library, DL
A large collection of digital documents representing possibly complex multimedia documents, stored
in multiple databases, with a data management system providing functions for: document capture,
cataloging, indexing, search, retrieval, and presentation.
Note: There is still (2001) debate on the definition of a digital library.

Document
In data management, an electronic document may contain any combination of formated, semi-, and
unformated data such as: formatted fields - title, date, author(s), - running text, charts, images, maps,
film, audio, and/or video. A document can be stored as a binary or character large object (BLOB or
CLOB) and may be in hypertext or hypermedia format.

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Database Management System 183

Domain
The set of valid values for an attribute.

Domain ontology
A hierarchical taxonomy of terms describing a specific area of knowledge, such as medical,
engineering, computer science, ... .
Synonym concept: controlled vocabulary.

End user
The intended user of an information system, commonly not an IT person.

Entity synonym: object.

In the universe of discourse, UoD for information system design, an entity is something of interest
about which data is collected.

Geographic Information System, GIS

An information system dedicated to the management of spatial data, particularly for spatial data
analysis and presentation of maps and topographical images. A GIS is frequently used to analyze and
display social statistical data.

Identifier
synonyms: primary key, object identifier
A set of attribute value(s) that uniquely identifies one occurrence of an entity-type.
F.ex. a social security number uniquely identifies one person.
In the Object-oriented paradigm: the object identifier, OID, is system generated, i.e. has no external
(to the computer) meaning.

Index
In data management, a file structure used to facilitate access to stored data.

Information and Communication Technology, ICT

From Computer Science. The technologies, including the hardware and software, used for computer
storage, processing, and dissemination of data (representing some form of information).

Information Retrieval, IR
From Library and Information Science, the process of selecting text documents (articles, journals,
and/or books) deemed relevant to an information request statement. The process can be performed by
the information seeker, a librarian, with or without the help of an electronic Information Retrieval
System.

Information storage and retrieval

"The systematic process of collecting and cataloging data so that they can be located and displayed
upon request." (The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 1994)

Information System
A system consisting of human users, application programs, a database, and a DMS. An information
system always serves some purpose.

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184

Interface
In data management, that part of a DMS through which a user communicates with the system. The
interface consists of a set of forms and/or a set of query languages.

Internet
The transport system (telephone lines, cables, satellites, and computer nodes) that support electronic
communication.

Legacy systems
Operative systems using old data management technology.

Media object
An artifact representing facts, ideas, and or events. Examples of media objects include; tables, text
documents, images, maps, 3D objects, film, music and speech. These can be represented in computers
as media data.

Metadata
Data describing the structure and content of a data collection.
Typically metadata for structured/relational database systems includes: entity/object names, their
attribute names, the data and domain types used and value ranges as applicable. In addition,
structural metadata includes the inter-relationships between data elements and their cardinality,
storage locations, and data usage.

Metadata associated with media objects would typically include context metadata such as the
author/creater, a title, the date of creation, source, type, as well as a semantic or content
metadata descriptions including a feature and/or keyword list and summary or abstract.

Multi-database system, MDBS

A system consisting of a logically related set of autonomous database systems that are accessible
through a common query language.

Multimedia Data
Data representing integrated multiple media objects. Multimedia objects include; tables of numeric
and alphanumeric data with embedded media data, text documents with embedded images, maps, film
or video with synchronized image and audio streams. These data require special processes for
presentation, often on multiple visual and audio media.

Multimedia Database
A database containing a collection of logically related multimedia data.

Multimedia Information Retrieval System, MIRS

A system for management (storage, retrieval and manipulation) of multimedia data, such as some
combination of tabular/administrative data, text documents, image, spatial, historical, audio, and/or
video data.

Normalization
In DB design, a set of rules guiding the definition of structurally well-formed relations for relational
database implementation.

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Database Management System 185

Object-oriented DBMS, OO-DBMS

A DBMS constructed according to and supporting the object oriented paradigm.

Object-Relational DBMS, OR-DBMS

A DBMS combining aspects of Object-Oriented-DBMSs, such as hierarchic object classes,
inheritance, user defined data types and functions, complex objects, with a DBMS supporting the
relational data model and functions, particularly SQL. A variant of SQL3 is commonly used as the
query language.

Open Database Connection, ODBC

A standard for communication between database management systems that is based on SQL.

Persistent storage synonym: database

A term used in Object-oriented programming for permanent data storage, outside of the program
space within a computer. F.ex. on a hard disk, CD-ROM, or diskette.

Query
An information request, formulated in the query language of a DMS.

Query Language, QL
Part of DMS interface that is used for expressing information requests to the system.

Query Processing
The part of a DMS that interprets and executes a query against a database. Query processing also
includes compilation and presentation of the query results, i.e. the retrieved data.

Relationship
In data management, an associative or hierarchic link between two or more entity types.

Hierarchic relationships define classification hierarchies in which sub-classes represent a role or

specific category of the parent entity/object type. Within the hierarchy, sub-classes may be
overlapping or disjoint, and members of the parent class can be required to participate in some sub-
class or remain outside of the classification. F.ex If the persons associated with a university are
classified by role into the sub-classes "student" and "teacher", some university personnel will be
neither.

Relational data model, RM

The relational model was introduced by E.F.Codd in 1970 as a mathematical model for data. The
model describes the structure of stored data in tables.

Relational Database, RDB

A DB constructed using RM concepts and principles. Structured data: All data in an RDB is well-
structured, meaning that each attribute value is well-defined by data type and length.

Relational DBMS, R-DBMS

A data management systems, DMS, constructed according to and supporting the relational model.

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186

Schema
Synonym: data catalog
The name of the collection of metadata describing the structure and constraints of a database.
The terms schema and data catalog are used synonymously in different literature on database
management systems to specify the location of the data describing the content and structure of a
database. Most common components include: entity and attribute names, the set of attribute
types
describing each entity type, the data type and domain for each attribute, inter-entity type relationships,
cardinality constraints, data locations, associated indexes, and usage restrictions.
The contents of the schema are defined using the data definition language, DDL, of the data
management system.

Semantic gap
In image retrieval: The difference between the semantic intent of a user query and the DB image
representation.

Semantic heterogeneity
In multi-database management: The differences between the models, metadata, and structures used
for the design and implementation of different databases that represent the 'same' real-world
information.

Structured Query Language, SQL

The standard language for relational database management systems.

SQL3 Object-relational extension to SQL2. Work on a standard began in 1993, immediately

following acceptance of the SQL-92 standard. To date, full acceptance of a standard for SQL3 has not
been achieved, though there are many variants implemented in Object-relational DBMSs.

Tabular data
well-structured, atomic data values used to record data in a RDB.

Thesaurus
In information/data retrieval, a tool/index for resolving synonyms.

User The intended primary user of a computer based system, often qualified as the "end user" to
indicate a non-IT person or group.

Web
short name for World Wide Web
The connection of sites providing information/data in HTML, XML (or other specific Web language)
pages.

Web DB
Most commonly, a database accessible from the Web, i.e. a database system with a Web interface.

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Database Management System 187

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The highest level seen by the application programming is called:

(a) External level
(b) User view
(c) Logical level
(d) (a) and (b) both ( )

2. DBA is:
(a) Database administration
(b) Database abstraction
(c) Database administration
(d) None of the above ( )

3. Database is:
(a) Collection of any information
(b) Collection of related data
(c) Collection of entities
(d) None of the above ( )

4. The number of levels in data abstraction is:

(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4 ( )

5. Data redundancy is:

(a) Same information given several times
(b) Mismatching of data
(c) Data in reduced form
(d) Data in expanded form ()

6. The capacity to change the conceptual schema without having to change external
schema is:
(a) Physical data independence
(b) Logical data independence
(c) Data abstraction
(d) None of the above ( )

7. Which model uses tree data structure?

(a) Relational model
(b) Hierarchical model
(c) Network model
(d) Objective-oriented model ( )

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188

8. In which type of database management systems, information is distribution at

different sites?
(a) OODBMS
(b) RDBMS
(c) DDBMS
(d) None of the above ( )

9. OODBMS uses the concepts of:

(a) Class
(b) Entity
(c) Key
(d) None of the above ( )

10. Which one is the advantage of DDBMS over centralized DBMS?

(a) Reliability increased (b) Increased redundancy
(c) No inconsistency (d) None of the above ()

11. In relational algebra, which operation is used to specify

predicate? (a)
(b)
(c)
(d) ( )

12. Which symbol is used for existential quantifier in reational

calculus? (a)
(b)
(c)
(d) ( )

13. The symbol not available in relational calculus is:

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) II ( )

14. In RDMBMS, the key used to join two relations is:

(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) Super key
(d) None of the above ( )

15. The symbol used as universal quantifier in relational calculus is:

(a)
(b)

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Database Management System 189

(c)
(d) None of the above ( )

16. QBE is :
(a) Query by example
(b) Query by exercise
(c) Query by extension
(d) None of the above ( )

17. Does QBE differ from SQL ? This statement is:

(a) True
(b) False
(c) Sometimes false
(d) None of the above ( )

18 Condition box is used in:

(a) SQL
(b) Relational algebra
(c) Relational calculus
(d) QBE ( )

19. In QBE, an invalid operator is:

(a) I
(b) U
(c) D
(d) M ( )

20. The first user friendly relational database language is:

(a) QBE
(b) SQL
(c) QUEL
(d) None of the above ( )

21. An invalid aggregate function in QBE is:

(a) Count
(b) MIN
(c) MAX
(d) SUM ()

22. SWL is:

(a) Structured Query Language
(b) Structural Query Language
(c) Sophisticated Query Language
(d) Schema Query Language ()

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190

23. Invalid data type in SQL is:

(a) String
(b) Varchar
(c) Varchar2
(d) Data ()

24. A correct command in SQL is:

(a) Alter table emp add primary key (SSM)
(b) Alter emp add primary key (SSM)
(c) Alter table emp add primary key (Number(3))
(d) Alter table emp primary key ( )

25. Key in SQL, that requires parent and child tables is:
(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) Composite
(d) Candidate key ( )

26. The advantage of view in SQL is:

(a) Provide Security (b) Reduce storage space
(c) Reduce redundancy (d) Handshaking ()

27. Oracle is:

(a) RDMBS
(b) OODBMS
(c) DDMBS
(d) None of the above ( )

28. You can not update a view in SQL, if the view is created using:
(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) Group key
(d) None of the above ( )

29. The keyword not available is SQL is:

(a) Exists
(b) NULL
(c) Distinct
(d) None of the above ( )

30. The highest normal form is:

(a) 3 NF
(b) BCNF
(c) 2 NF
(d) 1 NF ()

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Database Management System 191

31. Designing a database, we avoid taking NULL values in the relation because:
(a) NULL requires more space
(b) NULL can create inconsistency
(c) NULL is not defined
(d) None of the above ( )

32. The type of data storage that does no service system crashes:
(a) Volatile storage
(b) Non volatile storage
(c) Stable storage
(d) None of the above ( )

33. Invalid state of a transaction is:

(a) Active
(b) Read
(c) Fail
(d) Commit ( )

34. A value that appears in one relation for a given set of attribute also appears for certain
set of attributes in another relation. This condition is called:
(a) Domain constraint
(b) Referential integrity
(c) Integrity
(d) None of the above ( )

35. The protection from malicious access is called:

(a) Database (b) Database integrity
(c) Database authorization (d) None of the above ()

36. Invalid type of authorization is:

(a) Read
(b) Insert
(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

37. Invalid privilege in SQL use in authorization is:

(a) Grant (b) Revoke
(c) Select (d) None of the above ( )

38. Correct statement in SQL is:

(a) Grant select on account for teller
(b) Grant select on account for teller
(c) Grant select with account to teller
(d) Grant select on account with teller ()

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192

39. In SQL, DDL does not contain

(a) Create (b) Alter
(c) Drop (d) Select ()

40. SQL is an example is:

(a) DDL
(b) DML
(c) Both a and b
(d) None of the above ( )

41. The collection of information stored in the database at a particular movement is

called:
(a) Instance
(b) Schema
(c) Data
(d) DBMS ()

42. The collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationship data
semantics and consistency constraints is called :
(a) Database
(b) Metabase
(c) Data model
(d) All of the above ( )

43. In E-R data model, attributes of entity sets are represented by:
(a) rectangles
(b) diamonds
(c) Ellipses
(d) Lines ( )

44. The model, that uses the collection of tables to represent both data and the
relationship among those data is called:
(a) Relational model
(b) Hierarchical model
(c) Network model
(d) None of the above ( )

45. The operation, used in relational algebra as unary operations is:

(a)
(b)
(c)

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Database Management System 193

(d) ( )

46. The result of a relational algebra operation is of a type:

(a) Operation
(b) Attribute
(c) Row
(d) Relation ( )

47. Let R1, and R2 are two relations, then R1–R2 contains the tuples:
(a) That are in R1 but not in R2
(b) That are in R2 but not in R1
(c) Any of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

48. The operational used in relational algebra, suitabled to queries that include the phase
"for all" is:
(a)
(b) n
(c) –
(d) U ()

49. A tuple relational – calculus expression that generate an infinite is called:

(a) Unbounded expression
(b) Infinite expression
(c) Unsafe expression
(d) Any of the above ()

50. In tuple-relational calculus formula is build up of:

(a) Formulae
(b) Variables
(c) Atoms
(d) Expressions ()

51. In SQL, the clause used to specify the list of relation is:
(a) Select
(b) Where
(c) From
(d) Having ()

52. To select the tuples explicitly so that duplicates are not removed in SQL the keyword
used is:
(a) With
(b) All
(c) Distinct
(d) NOT ()

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194

53. In SQL, the keyword used to compare two strings is:

(a) As (b) Like
(c) Same (d) Equal ()

54. In SQL, if we want to change a value in a tuple without changing all values in the
tuple with a condition and this condition is specified with the clause:
(a) Where
(b) With
(c) Having
(d) None of the above ( )

55. To express all the constraints on the domain variables, condition box feature is used
in:
(a) QBEL (b) QUEL
(c) SQL (d) None of the above ()

56. "All actions of a transaction be executed completely or in the case of some failure,
partial effects of a transaction be undone". This property of transaction is called:
(a) Durability (b) Atomicity
(c) Consistency (d) Isolation ( )

57. The advantage of DBMS Over centralized DBMS is:

(a) Inconsistency problem is solved
(b) Increased reliability
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

58. Which of the following will not cause any type of transaction failure?
(a) Some interval condition such as bad input
(b) System crash
(c) Inconsistency of data
(d) None of the above ( )

59. The OODBMS, an object has associated, with it:

(a) Set of variables (b) Set of message
(c) Set of methods (d) All of the above ( )

60. Which of the following is the problem in the early file system?
(a) Inconsistency of data
(b) Redundancy of data
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

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Database Management System 195

61. ORDBMS is:

(a) Extension of OODBMS (b) Extension of RDBMS
(c) Any of the above (d) None of the above ()

62. Full form of DBTG is:

(a) Database tool group
(b) Database task group
(c) Database transaction group
(d) Data transmission group ()

63. The network model used the concept of:

(a) Set construct
(b) Relationship
(c) Entity sets
(d) Keys
( )
64. For client/server system which of the following statement is false ?
(a) Set construct
(b) Relationship
(c) Entity sets
(d) Keys ()

65. Which of the following is not a features of client system?

(a) Needs Powerful n/w
(b) Needs of OS capable of multitasking
(c) Needs multiprocessor system
(d) Has communication capabilities ()

66. The highest normal form in normalization is:

(a) 3 NF
(b) BCNF
(c) 2 NF
(d) 1 NF ( )

67. A relation schema R is NF if the domains of all attributes of R, are:

(a) Primary keys
(b) Superkey
(c) Atomic
(d) 0 of fixed size ()

68. Functional dependency is the constraint on the set of:

(a) Attributes
(b) Relations
(c) Keys

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196

(d) Domain sets

( )
69. Which of the following no called armstrong's axioms?
(a) Reflexivity rule
(b) Augmentation rule
(c) Transitivity rule
(d) Union rule ( )

70. Which of the statement is not true?

(a) Every primary key is a super key
(b) Every super key is a candidate key
(c) Both of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

71. Which of the following is not the property of canonical cover FC?
(a) No functional dependency in FC contains an extraneous attribute
(b) Each left side of a functional dependency in FC contains single attribute
(c) Each left side of a functional dependency in FC contains single attribute
(d) None of the above ( )

72. To protect the database, we must take security measure at several levels, which of the
following levels is not one of them:
(a) Database system
(b) Operating system
(c) Physical
(d) None of the above ( )

73. Which of the following helps user to hide data?

(a) Primary key
(b) Foreign key
(c) View
(d) Table ( )

74. The command used in SQL, to make any privilege from any user is:
(a) Grant
(b) Revoke
(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

75. An encryption technique is not a good technique if:

(a) It is relationship simple
(b) It depends on the secrecy of the algorithm
(c) Any of the above
(d) None of the above ( )

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Database Management System 197

76. The type of constraint that can be used to protect data is:
(a) Domain
(b) Referential integrity
(c) Integrity
(d) Primary key ( )

77. If records of a relation are sorted by a field (Primary key) on which, you have created
an indexed. The type of index in this case will be:
(a) Primary index
(b) Secondary index
(c) Clustering index
(d) Any of the above ( )

78. QBE is based on:

(a) SQL
(b) Relational algebra
(c) Domain calculus
(d) Tupel calculus ( )

79. Which of the following has a two dimensional syntax?

(a) QUEL
(b) QBE
(c) SQL
(d) None of the above ( )

80. In QBE, to retrieve any field of a relation the command is indicated by:
(a) R (b) S
(c) P (d) I ()

81. Same information may be duplicated in several places (files) called:

(a) Data inconsistency (b) Data redundancy
(c) Atomicity (d) Data isolation ()

82. Abstract view of the data means:

(a) hides certain detail from user
(b) it is database view
(c) it is physical view
(d) All of the above ()

83. The lowest level of abstraction is;

(a) logical level (b) physical level
(c) view level (d) none ( )

84. The overall design of database is called:

(a) instance

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198

(b) schema
(c) subschema
(d) data independence ( )

85. Association among several entities is:

(a) attribute (b) relation
(c) relationship (d) Entity set ()

86. A DML that specify what data are needed without specifying how to get those data,
called:
(a) Procedural (b) Query
(c) DDL (d) Non procedural DML ( )

87. A user interact with the system without writing program is called:
(a) naive user
(b) application programmer
(c) Sophisticated user
(d) specialized users ()

88. OLAP stands for:

(a) Online analysis processing
(b) Online analytical processing
(c) Open Line application program
(d) Online application program ( )

89.is responsible for fetching data from into main memory

(a) File manager
(b) buffer manager
(c) transaction manager
(d) Integrity manager ( )

90. Which of the example of composite attribute?

(a) Name
(b) Age
(c) City
(d) State ()

91. Set of permitted value for an entity is called:

(a) tuple
(b) relation
(c) domain
(d) attribute ( )

92. Double ellipser in E-R diagram represents:

(a) Attribute

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Database Management System 199

(b) derived attribute

(c) multivalve attribute
(d) relation ( )

93. Which one is the example of derived attribute:

(a) Age
(b) Data of birth
(c) Middle name
(d) Last name ()

94. Double rectangle in E-R diagram represents:

(a) Strong entity set
(b) Weak entity set
(c) entity set
(d) All of the above ()

95. Generalization is work as:

(a) Bottom up manner (b) Top down
(c) both the above (d) None ( )

96. UML stands for:

(a) Unified modeling language
(b) Universal modeling language
(c) Universal markup language
(d) All ()

97. The result of relational Algebra operation is of a type

(a) Operation
(b) Relation
(c) Schema
(d) Attribute ( )

98. Which of not unary operation of relational algebra?

(a) Select
(b) Project
(c) Rename
(d) Set different ( )

99. Which is not comparison operator of relational algebra?

(a) =
(b)
(c) <
(d) <> ( )

100. Which give particular attribute in relational algebra :

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200

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) X ( )

101. r is equivalent is:

(a) R – (s–r) (b) s – (r–s)
(c) r – (r–s) (d) None ( )

102. When r X s=r x s :

(a) R S=0 (b) RS=0
(c) R-S=0 (d) All ( )

103. SQL is:

(a) Procedural Language
(b) Non procedural language
(c) Computer language
(d) Compiler ( )

104. A tuple relational calculus formula is built up out of:

(a) Formula (b) Variables
(c) Atoms (d) Expression ( )

105. In SQL % represents:

(a) Character matches any substring
( b) any single character
(c) None of above
(d) All of above ( )

106. From which key word in SQL, we eliminate duplicate records:

(a) distinct (b) distinct all
(c) like (d) order by ( )

107. Which is not aggregate function of SQL:

(a) avg (b) sum
(c) count (d) null ( )

108. Which is not set membership in SQL:

(a) in (b) not in
(c) any (d) all ( )

109. Which is not data type of SQL:

(a) char (b) numeric (p,d)
(c) float (d) string ( )

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Database Management System 201

110. Which is not a join type is SQL:

(a) inner join
(b) left outer join
(c) bottom join
(d) full outer join ( )

111. QBE stands for:

(a) Query -by - example
(b) Query - by - extended
(c) Query - by - explorer
(d) full outer join ( )

112. Which one is event-condition-action model:

(a) scheme
(b) triggers
(c) snapshot
(d) view ( )

113. ACID stands for:

(a) atomicity-consistency-durability-isolation
(b) atomic-concurrency-dymanic-isolation
(c) atomicity-condition-dynamic-isolation
(d) None ( )

114. RAID stands for:

(a) Redundant array of independent disk
(b) redundant array of independent database
(c) relational array of independent database
(d) None ( )

115. Which is not recovery technique:

(a) log based
(c) shadow paging
(a) check points
(c) hashing ( )

116. DBTG stands for:

(a) Database task group
(b) Database tool group
(c) Database transaction group
(d) None ( )

117. Every non key attribute is fully dependent upon the primary key is called:
(a) 1 NF (b) 2 NG
(c) 3 NF (d) 4 NF ()

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118. Which normal form contains the concepts of multivalve dependency:

(a) 1 NF (b) 2 NG
(c) 3 NF (d) 4 NF ()

119. IMS stands for:

(a) Information management system
(b) Ideal management system
(c) Information marking systems
(d) None ( )

120. The SQL command, to take any privilege from are:

(a) Grant
(b) Revoke
(c) Delete
(d) Modify ( )

Answer Key
1. (d) 2. (a) 3. (b) 4. (c) 5. (a) 6. (b) 7. (b) 8. (c) 9. ( a) 10. (a)
11. (c) 12. (a) 13. (a) 14. (b) 15. (b) 16. (a) 17. (a) 18. (d) 19. (d) 20.(b)
21. (a) 22. (a) 23. (a) 24. (c) 25. (b) 26. (a) 27. (a) 28. (b) 29. (a) 30. (b)
31. (d) 32. (a) 33. (b) 34. (b) 35. (c) 36. (d) 37. (c) 38. (c) 39. (d) 40. (c)
41. (a) 42. (c) 43. (c) 44. (a) 45. (d) 46. (d) 47. (a) 48. (a) 49. (d) 50. (c)
51. (c) 52. (c) 53. (b) 54. (a) 55. (a) 56. (b) 57. (c) 58. (d) 59. (d) 60. (c)
61. (b) 62.(b) 63. (b) 64. (d) 65. (c) 66. (b) 67. (c) 68. (a) 69. (d) 70. (c)
71. (a) 72. (c) 73. (c) 74. (a) 75. (b) 76. (c) 77. (c) 78. (c) 79. (b) 80. (c)
81. (b) 82.(d) 83. (b) 84. (b) 85. (c) 86. (b) 87. (c) 88. (b) 89. (b) 90. (a)
91. (c) 92. (c) 93. (a) 94. (b) 95. (c) 96. (a) 97. (b) 98. (d) 99. (d) 100. (a)
101. (c) 102.(b) 103.(b) 104.(c) 105.(a) 106.(a) 107.(d) 108.(c) 109.(d) 110. (c)
111. (a) 112.(b) 113.(d) 114.(a) 115.(d) 116.(a) 117.(b) 118.(d) 119.(a) 120. (a)

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 Database Management System 203

CASE-STUDY
Case Study
Of Computerized cab service management system

Cab service company employees are categorized into sections. Each section has asection manager.
Section No and a fixed basic salary rate is assigned to a section. They keep data onEmp-no, NIC No,
name, address, sex, DOB, contact no. of employees. If the employee is a driverhis driving licen no
and capable vehicle classes should be added . Each employee is assigned onlyto one section. For a
travel, driver is assigned to a vehicle. They keep following data about vehicles;Reg No, Insurance no,
Model, vehicle category, current mileage. In this case customer is the personwho is making a
reservation. They keep name, NIC_no, address, contact no. regarding the customer.Once a customer
reserved a cab, he cannot make any other reservations until the end of the reservedduration. Customer
can reserve one or more vehicles from a reservation. They are keeping index no,payment method,
amount, No. of vehicles, distance, start date and time, end date and time regardinga reservation. They
are supplying various kinds of supplies to maintain vehicles. A supplier cansupply more than one
supplying category. Company always keeps data on additional suppliers.Every supplier has a Reg No,
Name, address, contact no. A employee is responsible for one or moresupplying categories. They
keep data like cat_no, cat_description, cost per 1, quantity, net costregarding every supplying
category.

Employees

Vehicles

Customers
Cab Service MGTS system

Suppliers

Reservation

Employee(NIC No, Name, Address, Salary, Date of Birth, Sex, Employee ID, Contact No, licenseno,
capable vehicle category )Section(section No, Basic salary rate)vehicle(reg. No, Insurance No,
Model, vehicle category, current mileage)Customer(NIC No, Name, Address, Contact
No)Reservation(index No, no of vehicles, start date, start time, end date, end time, distance,
amount,payment method)Supply category(category no, category name, cost per 1, quantity, quantity,
net cost)supplier(Reg No, Name, Address, Contact No)

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204

Bibliography

1. Database Management System - Date ,C.J., Galgotia Publications

2. Fundamentals of Database System - Elmasri, R.A.,Navathe, Shyam B. Narosa
Publishing House.
3. Database Management System - Post, Gerald V ,Tata McGraw-Hill, 2004
4. An introduction to Database Systems - Bipin C Desai Galgotia Publications ( P)
Ltd., 2005
5. Database system concepts - Abraham Silberschatz, Henry F Korth and Sudharshan
S Mc Graw Hill Publishin Company Limited, 2004
6. Database Management Systems - Raghu Ramakrishnan Mc Graw Hill Publishing
Company Limited, 2004
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_management_system
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system
9. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/database_management_system_DBMS.html
10. http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/fcdb/slides/slides1.pdf

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