QUE- 1 Define the terms:- Data, Information, Database, DBMS?

ANS - Data, Information And Knowledge

Data refers to the facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis

Information refers to the facts provided or learned about something or someone

Knowledge refers to awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation

Database is an organized collection of the related data. Database can be set of related data recorded
with pen and paper or in computer, for example the list of students with their marks in major five
subjects maintained in a file or excel sheet is known as database. This is the informal definition of the
database. A database is defined to have the following implicit properties:

A database is a logically coherent collection of data with some inherent meaning. A random
assortment of data cannot correctly be referred to as a database.

A database is designed, built, and populated with data for a specific purpose. It has an intended group
of users and some preconceived applications in which these users are interested.

A database represents some aspect of the real world, sometimes called the miniworld. Changes to the
miniworld are reflected in the database.

Hence, a database has logically related data extracted from source(s) for a specific objective,
reflecting real world aspect and users that are actively interested in the contents of the database. In
other words, database is a shared collection of logically related data and a description of this data,
designed to meet the information need of an organization.

Let us take the example of our smart phone; this device has its own maintained database for
maintaining information about contacts, messages and other mobile applications related data. Figure
2 represents the mobile database structure and sample data for it. The “contact” file stores data of
each contact. To define the database, the data elements stored in each record need to be specified.
Figure 2 shows that each “contact” record includes data to represent the contact name, mobile
number, ringtone, City, email ID and organization name.

Name Mobile Ringtone City Email ID Organization

Number Name
Rahul 94160321XX Default Mumbai rahul80@yahoo.co Accenture
m
Shelly 80590222XX Ringtone1 Chandigar shells@gmail.com Panjab
h University
Priya 93154232XX Ringtone5 Bangalore priya@gmail.com IBM
Vishal 95015012XX Default Pune vishalkr@gmail.co Infosys
m
Database management system (DBMS). DBMS is a software system that facilitates the user to
create, define and control access to the database. The core element of such a system is a
database that is not a redundant collection of disconnected files as in File management system,
but an integrated data items with minimum redundancy. DBMS is software designed for
maintenance and utilizing large collections of data, and the need for such systems, as well as
their use, is growing rapidly. For example, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM’s DB2, Oracle RDBMS,
MySQL etc.

DATABASE APPROACH VS FILE ORIENTED APPROACH. Traditionally, the file oriented approach
advocated collection of files and application programs supported by a conventional operating
system. It suffered from many limitations base system as a result the database evolved with
DBMS.

Characteristics of File Oriented Approach. Such system stores permanent records in different files, and
requires varied application programs for data retrieval and record updation in files. Prior to advent of
DBMS, organizations use to store data in systems ruled by file oriented approach. But as summarized
in figure 3, file oriented approach suffers from following disadvantages:

Duplicate and inconsistent data. Different users/programmers will keep a permanent copy of the
same file. Let us take an example of University system where multiple copies of same student appear
with the accounts department to record his fee details and academic department to store his marks
details. But both are storing his personal details in files too. This redundancy leads to higher storage
and access cost. Also, another problem is to ensure consistency. For example if the address of the
student changes then it needs to be ensured that the same is updated in all the concerned files.

Data Dependence. Application programs are strongly bounded to data representation and storage.
Any change in data will require the rewriting of the application programs leading to further overhead.

QUE-2 Explain various characteristics of Database approach.?

ANS- Characteristics of Data Base Approach. In light of the limitations of file oriented approach, the
need of new software aroused that may act as a package or a system for facilitating the creation and
maintenance of a computerized database. This software is known as DBMS and approach it is based
on has following characteristics as summarised in figure 4:

Self-describing nature: A DBMS main element is metadata or the data about the data in the form of
catalog storing the description of the database. This facilitates the DBMS software to work with varied
databases.

Insulation between programs and data: Also termed as program-data independence, allows changing
data storage structures and operations without the need of alterring the DBMS access programs.

Support of multiple views of the data: Each user may see a different view of the database, which
describes only the desired data to that user.

Sharing of data and multiuser transaction processing: This allows concurrent users to extract and
update the database. Concurrency control within the DBMS guarantees that each transaction is
correctly executed or completely aborted.
 Self Describing
Nature: Database Multiple views of Sharing of Data
Catalog and the data is and Multiuser
metadata supported Transaction
Processing
Insulation between
programs and data DATABASE APPROACH
and data abstraction

QUE-3- Explain various components of data model?

ANS- Components of Data model: The specifications provided in data model for designing huge
databases can be categorised in to three main components as shown in figure 2; structural
information, Functional component and set of integrity rules.

Components of Data Model

Structural Information Set of Integrity Constraints

Functional Component
It includes set of
rules according to It includes set of
which database is rules to ensure that
created the data is accurate
Also known as
manipulating
component
It defines types of
operations allowed
for data: updation,
retrieval, rules for
structure change

Figure 2: Components of Data Model

Classification of Data Models: Data models can be classified based on the types of concepts exploited
for describing the database structure in each. High-level or conceptual data models, representational
(or implementation) data models and low-level or physical data models.
 Types of Data Models

High-level or Conceptual Representational or Low-level or Physical

data model Implementation data data model
model (Record-Based)
 Provide concepts  Provide concepts that
close to user’s  Provide concepts that describes the physical
perspective may be understood by storage details of data
 It uses concepts such end users and are also  It describes how data
as entities, attributes, close to the physical is stored as files in the
and relationships storage of data computer by
 Eg. Entity  Eg. Relational, representing
relationship model network and information such as
hierarchical data record formats, record
models orderings, and access
paths

Low-level or Physical data model. Physical data model describes how the data is stored in computer,
in terms of files, indices and other storage structure like record structures, record ordering, access
paths etc. It describes the storage methods and access methods of data on disks.

Representational or Implementation (Record-Based) data model. Record-based data model describes

the database as collection of fixed format records possibly of different types. Each record is further
describes with number of fields and length of each field. Examples are Hierarchical, network and
relational models. Hierarchical and network data models were developed almost ten years before
relational model, so their connection to traditional file processing technique is obvious.

Network Data model. In this model the data is represented as collection of records. The relationships
are represented as the sets which become pointers in the implementation. The records in this model
are organized as graph structure with records as nodes and relationships as edges as shown in figure 4
for patient database.

QUE- 4 Compare and contrast the hierarchical, network and relational data model?

2.6 Ans-COMPARISON OF NETWORK, HIERARCHICAL AND RELATIONAL MODELS. There

are various parameters for comparing hierarchical, network and relational models
such as Complexity, Storage structure, Basic operations and suitability.

 Presentation of the data is represented as records and relationships as sets in

hierarchical model. The nodes represent records and edges denote relationships in
the framework of a tree structure in hierarchical model. In case of Relational Model,
each relation is implemented as a separate tabular form. Network model is usually
implemented by using pointers and circularly linked lists (ring files) in a graph
structure.

 With respect to complexity, relational model is the simplest and network data is the
most complex. Hierarchical Model is comparatively less complex than network model
 but more complex than relational model. Network Model is highly complex due to
the data structure and the associated operations possible on this data structure.

 With respect to Basic Operations and anomalies, the database nature depicts the
existence of various anomalies in context of the three basic operations (insert,
delete, update). For example the patient database example illustrated in figure 4-6
reflects that relational or network model is more appropriate as the patient- hospital
relationship may have many-to-many correspondence and not strictly one–to-many
correspondence always. For example, Departments and employees depict a genuine
hierarchical structure (because each employee belongs to exactly one department).
However, basic operations are easier to be done in relational model and there are
almost no anomalies. In case of Network Model, only few anomalies are there with
respect to basic operations.

 With respect to pitfalls, relational model has one disadvantage of the extra storage
space as it stores relations in different files. Hierarchical Model is asymmetric leading
to the unnecessary complexity. The network model is more symmetric than
hierarchical model but its undue complexity is its prime disadvantage.

Que-5 What is Database security why it is important for organization ?

Ans- Database security is a crucial issue in the database management system as it contain important
information which is very valuable and sensitive for a organizations database. Security in database
involves both policies and mechanism to protect the data from unauthorized access.
Given are some database security threats:
- Data tampering.
- Eavesdropping and data theft.
- Falsifying user’s identities.
- Password related threats.
To protect database against these types of threats four kind of countermeasures can be implemented
:
- Access con troll.
- Inference control
- Flow control.
- Encryption

A DBMS typically includes a database security and authorization subsystem that is responsible for
ensuring the security of portion of a database against unauthorized access. Discretionary security
mechanism: they are used to grant privileges to user. Mandatory security mechanism: these are used
to enforce multilevel security by classifying the data and user into various classes

Discretionary access control based on granting and revoking privileges:

There are two levels for assigning privileges to use the database system
Account level- DBA specifies the particular privilege that each account hold independently of
the relation in database.
Relation level- DBA can control the privilege to access each individual relation or view in the
database.

Revoking privileges
In some cases it is desirable to grant the privilege to the user temporarily. For e.g, the owner of a
relation may want to grant SELECT privilege to a user for a specific task and then revoke that privilege
once the task is completed. Hence mechanism of revoking the privilege is needed. In SQL a REVOKE
command is used to for canceling the privilege.

Mandatory access control and Role based access control

The discretionary access control techniques of granting an revoking privileges on relation has
traditionally been the main security mechanism for relational database system. A user either has or
does not have certain privileges. An additional security policy is needed that classify data and user
based on security classes. This approach is known as mandatory control.

Role – Based Access Control (RBAC)

RBAC emerged rapidity in 1990s as a proven technology for managing and enforcing security in large
scale enterprise wide system. Roles are created using CREATE ROLE and DESTROY ROLE Command.

RBAC appears to be a viable alternative to traditional discretionary and mandatory access control; it
ensures that only authorized user are given access to certain data or resources. RBAC models have
several desirable features such as flexibility, policy neutrality, better support for security management
and administration, and other aspect that make them better candidate for developing secure web
based application

Que-6 -What is the two-phase locking protocol ?

Ans- Two-Phase Locking

A transaction is said to follow the two-phase locking protocol if all locking operations (read-lock,
write-lock) precede the first unlock operation in the transaction. Such a transaction can be divided
into two phases: an expanding or growing (first phase), during which new locks on items can be
acquired but none can be released; and a shrinking (second phase), during which existing locks can be
released but no new locks can be acquired.

Given below, the two transactions T1 and T2 do not follow the two-phase locking protocol.

T1 T2
Read-lock (Y); Read-lock (X);
Read-item (Y); Read-item (X);
Unlock (X); Unlock (Y);
Write-lock (X); Write-lock (Y);
Read-item (X); R read-item (Y);
X: = X + Y; Y: Y + 1;
Write-item (X); Write-item (Y);
Unlock (X); Unlock (Y);
..

This is because the write-lock (X) operation follows the unlock (Y) operation in T 1, and similarly the

write-lock (Y) operation follows the unlock (X) operation in T 2. If we enforce two-phase locking, the

transactions can be rewritten as Tl, and T2, as shown below:

It can be proved that, if every transaction in a schedule follows the two-phase locking protocol, the
schedule is guaranteed to be serializable, obviating the need to test for serializability of schedules any
more. The locking mechanism by enforcing two-phase locking also enforces serializability.

Two phase locking may limit the amount of concurrency that can occur in a schedule. This is because a
transaction T may not be able to release an item X after it is through using it. If T must lock an
additional item Y later on; or conversely, T must have the additional item Y before it needs it so that it
can release X. Hence, X must remain locked by T until all items that the transaction needs to read or
write have been locked; only then can X be released by T. Meanwhile, another transaction seeking to
access X may be forced to wait, even though T is done with X; conversely, if Y is locked earlier than it
is needed, another transaction seeking to access Y is forced to wait even though T is not using Y yet.
This is the price for guaranteeing serializability of all schedules without having to check the schedules
themselves.

Que-7 Explain Data Types in PL/SQL?

Ans- Data Types in PL/SQL

Most data types are obviously similar, but each implementation has unique storage and internal-
processing requirements. When writing PL/SQL blocks, you will be declaring variables, which must be
valid data types. The following subsections briefly describe the data types available in PL/SQL.

In PL/SQL Oracle provides subtypes of data types. For example, the data type NUMBER has a subtype
called INTEGER. You can use subtypes in your PL/SQL program to make the data types compatible
with data types in other programs, such as a COBOL program, particularly if you are embedding
PL/SQL code in another program. Subtypes are simply alternative names for Oracle data types and
therefore must follow the rules of their associated data type.

Character String Data Types

Character string data types in PL/SQL, as you might expect, are data types generally defined as having
alpha-numeric values. Examples of character strings are names, codes, descriptions, and serial
numbers that include characters.

CHAR stores fixed-length character strings. The maximum length of CHAR is 32,767 bytes, although it
is hard to imagine a set of fixed-length values in a table being so long.

SYNTAX:

CHAR ( max_length )

Subtype: CHARACTER
 VARCHAR2 stores variable-length character strings. You would normally user VARCHAR2 instead of
CHAR to store variable-length data, such as an individual's name. The maximum length of VARCHAR2
is also 32,767 bytes.

SYNTAX:

VARCHAR2 ( max_length )

Subtypes: VARCHAR, STRING

LONG also stores variable-length character strings, having a maximum length of 32,760 bytes. LONG is
typically used to store lengthy text such as remarks, although VARCHAR2 may be used as well.

Numeric Data Types

NUMBER stores any type of number in an Oracle database.

SYNTAX:

NUMBER ( max_length )

You may specify a NUMBER's data precision with the following syntax:

NUMBER (precision, scale)

Subtypes: DEC, DECIMAL, DOUBLE PRECISION, INTEGER, INT, NUMERIC, REAL, SMALLINT, FLOAT
PLS_INTEGER defines columns that may contained integers with a sign, such as negative numbers.
Binary Data Types=

Binary data types store data that is in a binary format, such as graphics or photographs. These data
types include RAW and LONGRAW.

The DATE Data Type

DATE is the valid Oracle data type in which to store dates. When you define a column as a DATE, you
do not specify a length, as the length of a DATE field is implied. The format of an Oracle date is, for
example, 01-OCT-97.

Que-8 Define the terms with examples:- entity, relationship, degree of relationship, attributes.

2.5 Ans- ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODEL. It is a top down approach to database design that has
following two steps:

Step 1: To identify data as real world objects, i.e, entity and relationshout iip between such data
that need to be modeled in that system.
 Step 2: to identify information about entity (known as attributes) and any constraints on the
relationship and attributes.

2.5.1 Entities. A group of objects in the real world with the same properties but having
independent evidence. For example, entities in bank database are customer, staff
etc. The entity is the basic object that the E-R model represents in the real world
with an independent existence. An entity may be an object with a physical
existence like customer, car or with conceptual existence like course, treatment
etc.

2.5.1 Attributes. The properties of entity that are of significance to be recorded in the
database. These properties or attributes enables the entity to be distinguish from
other entity in the database. For example, attributes of entity customer in bank
database are customer’s account number, acccount type, account balance etc

2.5.2 Relationship. Set of meaningful associations among entity types is known as

relationships.

Branch_ Name
ID
HAS Gender
Location
Design-
IFSC ation
Code

Entity-Relationship (E-R) Diagrams. E-R diagram is the diagrammatic notation associated with
the E-R model, which is a popular high level conceptual data model. The E-R model describes data as
entities, relationships, and attributes. Figure 8 displays the COLLEGE E-R database schema as an E-R
diagram.

let us review the full E-R diagram notation. Entity types such as STUDENT and COURSE are shown in
rectangular boxes. Relationship types such as STUDIES and PARTICIPATES are shown in diamond-
shaped boxes attached to the participating entity types with straight lines. Attributes are shown in
ovals, and each attribute is attached by a straight line to its entity type or relationship type.

Component attributes of a composite attribute are attached to the oval representing the composite
attribute, as illustrated by the Name attribute of STUDENT. Key attributes have their names
underlined.

In Figure 8 the cardinality ratio of each binary relationship type is specified by attaching a 1,
M, or N on each participating edge. The cardinality ratio of STUDENT: COURSE in STUDIES is N:1 as
many students are enrolled in one course, whereas it is M:N for STUDENT: EVENTS in PARTICIPATES as
many students may participates in many co-curricular events.
Que-9 List advantages and disadvantages of DBMS.

1.4.1 Ans- ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF DBMS. It is clear from limitations of file
oriented approach and characteristics of Database approach that DBMS is the
specialised software offering a spectrum of benefits to majority of database related
applications. Still there exist some limitations of the usage of DBMS and the tradeoff
is summarised in figure 5. The main pitfalls or limitation is the huge initial investment
in terms of hardware and software cost. No doubt the features like security and
concurrency comes as a package with DBMS but at the cost of overhead that may
restrict some real time applications of data extraction or updation.

USAGE OF DBMS
TRADEOFF

Limitations of DBMS

1. High Cost involved

2. Need of additional hardware Advantages of DBMS
3. Overhead for ensuring
concurrency control, security 1. Controls redundancy
and integrity 2. Restricts unauthorised access
4. Overhead may act as obstacle 3. Provides multiple user interface
for achieving real time 4. Provides storage structures for efficient
requirements query processing
5. Complex operations require 5. Provides backup and recovery
skilled staff 6. Provides persistent storage for program
objects
7. Enforces integrity constraints
8. Permits inference and actions using rules
9. Represents complex relationships among
users
10. Provides concurrency control for multiuser
transaction processing
11. Enforces standard and flexibility
12. Reduces application development time
13. Availability of up –to-date information

Que-10 List the steps for designing the relational database for a given application.
Ans- CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF RELATIONAL DATABASE

E-R diagrams do the designing of database. For constructing an E-R diagram, the entity sets are
identified. Then their relationship sets are also identified. Finally, they are represented using the
diagrammatic notation of E-R diagrams. If we are given the need for a system requiring the use of a
relational database, then we must how should the database be designed? We must try to know what
the database logical schema should be i.e. what should the tables be and what attributes should they
have? There is a typical life cycle for solving this problem-

1. Requirements collection and analysis

Requirements are typically given in sentences, which give the descriptions of what the system
should do or represent.

2. Conceptual Design (leading to conceptual schema via E-R Model)

Database conceptual modeling attempts to represent requirements in a more rigorous, clear

and operational way. It is also known as semantic modeling. E-R Modeling is a well-
established and accepted form of semantic modeling.

3. Logical Design (leading to database logical schema)

The conceptual design created using E-R diagram is then converted to logical relational
schema. There are some rules for the conversion:

a) One-to-One relationships: Merge the two entities into a single RDBMS table keeping all the
attributes into it. Identify a primary key in the relation. If there is no primary key, add a new
dummy attribute to serve as primary key.

b) One-to-Many relationships: Create two RDBMS tables one for each entity. Add the primary
key from the entity on one side to the entity on many side and identify it as foreign key.

c) Many-to-Many relationships: Create a new (bridge) table and post the primary keys from
both entities as attributes in the new table. The posted attributes are foreign keys.

4. Physical Design

This refers to the final Structured Query Language (SQL) commands, which will be used to
create RDMS tables. It is system specific as different RDBMS might be used on different
systems.