PSNA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,DINDIGUL DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 2 MARKS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

UNIT I 1. Define DBMS. A database management system (DBMS) is a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access those data. The collection of data is referred to as the database. 2. What are the major disadvantages in a file processing systems? Data redundancy and inconsistency Difficulty in accessing data Data isolation Integrity problems Atomicity problems Concurrent-access anomalies Security problems 3. Discuss briefly any three major disadvantages of keeping organizational information in a file processing system. Data redundancy and inconsistency: The same information may be duplicated in several places (files). This redundancy leads to higher storage and access cost. Inconsistency occurs because an update is done to some of the files and not to all the files. Data isolation: Data are scattered in various files and files may be in different formats, writing new application programs to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult. Integrity Problems: The data values stored in the database must satisfy certain types of consistency constraints. 4. Compare database systems with file systems. Database Systems Data are non-redundant and consistent Easy to access the data It ensures integrity, security and atomicity
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File Systems Data are redundant and inconsistent Difficult to access the data It doesnt ensure integrity, security and
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Data can be accessed concurrently Appropriate data can be retrieved easily

atomicity It leads to concurrent access anomalies Since data is scattered in various files, new application programs have to be written to retrieve the appropriate data

5. Explain the three levels of data abstraction. Physical Level: The lowest level of abstraction describes how the data are actually stored Logical level: The next lower level of abstraction describes what data are stored in the database and what relationships exist among those data. View Level: The highest level of abstraction describes only part of the entire database 6. What is meant by instance? The collection of information stored in the database at a particular moment is called an instance of the database. 7. Define schema. Explain the types of schema. The overall design of the database is called as database schema. Physical Schema describes the database design at the physical level. Logical Schema describes the database design at the logical level. Sub Schema describes the database design at the view level 8. What is Data Independence? Data independence means, The application is independent of the storage structure and access strategy of data. In other words, the ability to modify the schema definition in one level should not affect the schema definition in the next higher level. Two types of data independence are i. Physical data independence ii. Logical data independence 9. Distinguish between physical and logical data independence Physical data independence The ability to modify the physical schema without causing application programs to be rewritten in the higher levels.
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Logical data independence The ability to modify the logical schema without causing application programs to be rewritten in the higher level (external
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level). Modifications in physical level occur Modifications in logical level occur occasionally whenever there is a need to frequently more than that in physical level, improve performance. whenever there is an alteration in the logical structure of the database. 10. What does data model mean? Underlying the structure of the database is the data model: a collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships, data semantics and consistency constraints. 11. List the categories of data model. Entity-Relationship(E-R) model Relational Model Object Oriented data model Object relational data model Semi structured data model Network data model Hierarchical data model 12.Define Data Manipulation Language. A data manipulation language (DML) is a language that enables users to access or manipulate data as organized by the appropriate data model. Types of DML: Procedural DMLs require a user to specify what data are needed and how to get those data Declarative DMLs (also referred to as non-procedural DMLs) require a user to specify what data are needed without specifying how to get those data 13.Define query language. A query is a statement requesting the retrieval of information. The portion of a DML that involves information retrieval is called a query language. 14.List out the functions of DBA. Schema definition
Year & Sec: II IT B Faculty In-charge: Mrs.R.PushpaLakshmi

Storage structure and access-method definition Schema and physical modification Granting of authorization for data access Routine maintenance

15. What is the need for DBA? The need of DBA is to have central control of both the data and the programs that access those data. The person who has such central control over the system is called the DataBase Administrator. 16.What are the components of the storage manger?
Authorization and integrity manager, which tests for the satisfaction of

integrity constraints and checks the authority of users to access data

Transaction manager, which ensures that the database remains in a consistent

state despite failures, and that concurrent transaction executions proceed without conflicting
File manager, which manages the allocation of space on disk storage and the

data structures used to represent the information stored on the disk.

Buffer manager, which fetches data from disk storage into main memory and

decides what data to cache in main memory 17.Define data dictionary. Data dictionary stores metadata about the structure of the database. 18.What are the components of query processor? DDL interpreter: Interprets DDL statements and records the definition in the data dictionary DML Compiler: Translates the DML statements into an evaluation plan and performs query optimization Query evaluation engine: Executes low-level instructions generated by the DML compiler. 19.Define entity.

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An entity is a thing or object in the real world that is distinguishable from all other objects. An entity has a set of properties, and the values for some set of properties may uniquely identify an entity. Eg: Each person in an enterprise in an entity. 20.Define entity set. An entity set is a set of entities of the same type that share the same properties, or attributes. Eg: Customer is an entity set, which denotes the set of all persons who are customers at a given bank. 21.What are the various types of attributes? Simple attribute cannot be divided into subparts.eg: Mark Composite attribute can be divided into subparts.eg: Name consists of first-name, middle-initial and last-name. Single-valued attribute: The attribute have a single value for a particular entity.eg: Loan-number Multi-valued attribute: The attribute have a set of values for a particular entity.eg: Phone-number Derived attribute: The value for this type of attribute can be derived from the values of other related attributes or entities.eg: age is a derived attribute when date-of-birth attribute is given. Null attribute: An entity doesnt have a value for it.eg: Apartment number. 22.Define Mapping Cardinalities. Mapping cardinalities, or cardinality ratios, express the number of entities to which another entity can be associated via a relationship set. One to one: An entity in A is associated with at most one entity in B, and an entity in B is associated with at most one entity in A. One to many: An entity in A is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in B, and an entity in B is associated with at most one entity in A.
Year & Sec: II IT B Faculty In-charge: Mrs.R.PushpaLakshmi

Many to one: An entity in A is associated with at most one entity in B and an entity in B is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in A. Many to many: An entity in A is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in B and an entity in B is associated with any number (zero or more) of entities in A. 23.Differentiate total and partial participation Total participation Partial Participation The participation of an entity set E in a The participation of an entity set E in a relationship set R is said to be total if relationship set R is said to be total if every entity in E participates in at least some one relationship in R. Eg: Participation of loan in entities in E participates in relationships in R. the Eg: Participation of customer in the relationship set borrower is partial.

relationship set borrower is total

24.Why is a key essential? What are the different types of keys? A key allows us to identify a set of attributes that suffice to distinguish entities from each other. Keys also help uniquely identify relationships, and thus distinguish relationships from each other. Different types of keys are primary key, foreign key, candidate key and super key. 25.Differentiate weak entity set and strong entity set. WEAK ENTITY SET STRONG ENTITY SET Weak entity set may not have sufficient Strong entity set is an entity set that has a attributes to form a primary key. primary key. Eg:An entity set payment with the Eg:An entity set customer with the following number,payment-date amount. 26.What are the major components of E-R diagram? Rectangles represent entity sets
Year & Sec: II IT B Faculty In-charge: Mrs.R.PushpaLakshmi

attributes:payment- following and

attributes:customer-

payment- name,customer-id and balance.

Ellipses represent attributes Diamonds represent relationship sets Lines link attributes to entity sets and entity sets to relationship sets Double ellipses represent multivalued attributes Dashed ellipses denote derived attributes Double lines indicate total participation of an entity in a relationship set Double rectangles represent weak entity set 27.What is meant by specialization? The process of designating subgrupings within an entity set is called specialization. Specialization may be depicted by a triangle component labeled ISA. The ISA relationship may also be referred to as super class-subclass relationship. 28.How will you express tuple relational calculus and domain relational calculus? Tuple relational calculus: { t | P (t) } set of all tuples t such that predicate P is true for t Domain relational calculus: {<x1, x2,. xn> | P (x1, x2,. xn ) } where, <x1, x2,. xn> represents domain variables P represents a formula composed of atoms. 29. Compare network model with hierarchical model. NETWORK MODEL HIERARCHICAL MODEL It is represented by an arbitrary graph It is represented by a tree Dummy nodes cannot be used Dummy nodes can be used eg: DBTG CODASYL eg: IMS

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Faculty In-charge: Mrs.R.PushpaLakshmi