1. What is DBMS?

A Database Management System (DBMS) is a program

that controls creation, maintenance and use of a
database. DBMS can be termed as File Manager that
manages data in a database rather than saving it in file
systems.

2. What is RDBMS?

RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management

System. RDBMS store the data into the collection of
tables, which is related by common fields between the
columns of the table. It also provides relational operators
to manipulate the data stored into the tables.

3. What is SQL?

SQL stands for Structured Query Language, and it is used

to communicate with the Database. This is a standard
language used to perform tasks such as retrieval,
updation, insertion and deletion of data from a database.
Standard SQL Commands are Select.

4. What is a Database?

Database is nothing but an organized form of data for easy

access, storing, retrieval and managing of data. This is
also known as structured form of data which can be
accessed in many ways.

Example: School Management Database, Bank

Management Database.
5. What are tables and Fields?

A table is a set of data that are organized in a model with

Columns and Rows. Columns can be categorized as
vertical, and Rows are horizontal. A table has specified
number of column called fields but can have any number
of rows which is called record.

6. What is a primary key?

A primary key is a combination of fields which uniquely

specify a row. This is a special kind of unique key, and it
has implicit NOT NULL constraint. It means, Primary key
values cannot be NULL.

7. What is a unique key?

A Unique key constraint uniquely identified each record in

the database. This provides uniqueness for the column or
set of columns. A Primary key constraint has automatic
unique constraint defined on it. But not, in the case of
Unique Key. There can be many unique constraint defined
per table, but only one Primary key constraint defined per
table.

8. What is a foreign key?

A foreign key is one table which can be related to the

primary key of another table. Relationship needs to be
created between two tables by referencing foreign key with
the primary key of another table.
9. What is a join?

This is a keyword used to query data from more tables

based on the relationship between the fields of the tables.
Keys play a major role when JOINs are used.

10. What are the types of join and explain each?

There are various types of join which can be used to

retrieve data and it depends on the relationship between
tables.

Inner Join. Inner join return rows when there is at

least one match of rows between the tables.

Right Join. Right join return rows which are common

between the tables and all rows of Right hand side
table. Simply, it returns all the rows from the right
hand side table even though there are no matches in
the left hand side table.

Left Join.Left join return rows which are common

between the tables and all rows of Left hand side
table. Simply, it returns all the rows from Left hand
side table even though there are no matches in the
Right hand side table.

Full Join.Full join return rows when there are

matching rows in any one of the tables. This means,
it returns all the rows from the left hand side table
and all the rows from the right hand side table.
11. What is normalization?

Normalization is the process of minimizing redundancy

and dependency by organizing fields and table of a
database. The main aim of Normalization is to add, delete
or modify field that can be made in a single table.

12. What is DE normalization?

DE Normalization is a technique used to access the data

from higher to lower normal forms of database. It is also
process of introducing redundancy into a table by
incorporating data from the related tables.

13. What are all the different normalizations?

The normal forms can be divided into 5 forms, and they

are explained below

First Normal Form (1NF):

This should remove all the duplicate columns from the

table. Creation of tables for the related data and
identification of unique columns.

Second Normal Form (2NF):

Meeting all requirements of the first normal form. Placing

the subsets of data in separate tables and Creation of
relationships between the tables using primary keys.

Third Normal Form (3NF):

This should meet all requirements of 2NF. Removing the

columns which are not dependent on primary key
constraints.
Fourth Normal Form (3NF):

Meeting all the requirements of third normal form and it

should not have multi-valued dependencies.

14. What is a View?

A view is a virtual table which consists of a subset of data

contained in a table. Views are not virtually present, and
it takes less space to store. View can have data of one or
more tables combined, and it is depending on the
relationship.

15. What is an Index?

An index is performance tuning method of allowing faster

retrieval of records from the table. An index creates an
entry for each value and it will be faster to retrieve data.

16. What are all the different types of indexes?

There are three types of indexes -.

Unique Index.

This indexing does not allow the field to have duplicate

values if the column is unique indexed. Unique index can
be applied automatically when primary key is defined.

Clustered Index.

This type of index reorders the physical order of the table

and search based on the key values. Each table can have
only one clustered index.
Non Clustered Index.

Non Clustered Index does not alter the physical order of

the table and maintains logical order of data. Each table
can have 999 non clustered indexes.

17. What is a Cursor?

A database Cursor is a control which enables traversal

over the rows or records in the table. This can be viewed
as a pointer to one row in a set of rows. Cursor is very
much useful for traversing such as retrieval, addition and
removal of database records.

18. What is a relationship and what are they?

Database Relationship is defined as the connection

between the tables in a database. There are various data
basing relationships, and they are as follows:

 One to One Relationship.

 One to Many Relationship.
 Many to One Relationship.
 Self-Referencing Relationship.

19. What is a query?

A DB query is a code written in order to get the information

back from the database. Query can be designed in such a
way that it matched with our expectation of the result set.
Simply, a question to the Database.
20. What is sub query?

A sub query is a query within another query. The outer

query is called as main query, and inner query is called
sub query. Sub Query is always executed first, and the
result of sub query is passed on to the main query.

21. What are the types of sub query?

There are two types of sub query – Correlated and Non-

Correlated.

A correlated sub query cannot be considered as

independent query, but it can refer the column in a table
listed in the FROM the list of the main query.

A Non-Correlated sub query can be considered as

independent query and the output of sub query are
substituted in the main query.

22. What is a stored procedure?

Stored Procedure is a function consists of many SQL

statement to access the database system. Several SQL
statements are consolidated into a stored procedure and
execute them whenever and wherever required.

23. What is a trigger?

A DB trigger is a code or programs that automatically

execute with response to some event on a table or view in
a database. Mainly, trigger helps to maintain the integrity
of the database.
Example: When a new student is added to the student
database, new records should be created in the related
tables like Exam, Score and Attendance tables.

24. What is the difference between DELETE and

TRUNCATE commands?

DELETE command is used to remove rows from the table,

and WHERE clause can be used for conditional set of
parameters. Commit and Rollback can be performed after
delete statement.

TRUNCATE removes all rows from the table. Truncate

operation cannot be rolled back.

25. What are local and global variables and their

differences?

Local variables are the variables which can be used or

exist inside the function. They are not known to the other
functions and those variables cannot be referred or used.
Variables can be created whenever that function is called.

Global variables are the variables which can be used or

exist throughout the program. Same variable declared in
global cannot be used in functions. Global variables
cannot be created whenever that function is called.
26. What is a constraint?

Constraint can be used to specify the limit on the data type

of table. Constraint can be specified while creating or
altering the table statement. Sample of constraint are.

 NOT NULL.
 CHECK.
 DEFAULT.
 UNIQUE.
 PRIMARY KEY.
 FOREIGN KEY.

27. What is data Integrity?

Data Integrity defines the accuracy and consistency of

data stored in a database. It can also define integrity
constraints to enforce business rules on the data when it
is entered into the application or database.

28. What is Auto Increment?

Auto increment keyword allows the user to create a unique

number to be generated when a new record is inserted into
the table. AUTO INCREMENT keyword can be used in
Oracle and IDENTITY keyword can be used in SQL
SERVER.Mostly this keyword can be used whenever
PRIMARY KEY is used.
29. What is the difference between Cluster and Non-
Cluster Index?

Clustered index is used for easy retrieval of data from the

database by altering the way that the records are stored.
Database sorts out rows by the column which is set to be
clustered index.

A non-clustered index does not alter the way it was stored

but creates a complete separate object within the table. It
point back to the original table rows after searching.

30. What is Data warehouse?

Data warehouse is a central repository of data from

multiple sources of information. Those data are
consolidated, transformed and made available for the
mining and online processing. Warehouse data have a
subset of data called Data Marts.

31. What is Self-Join?

Self-join is set to be query used to compare to itself. This

is used to compare values in a column with other values
in the same column in the same table. ALIAS ES can be
used for the same table comparison.

32. What is Cross-Join?

Cross join defines as Cartesian product where number of

rows in the first table multiplied by number of rows in the
second table. If suppose, WHERE clause is used in cross
join then the query will work like an INNER JOIN.
33. What is user defined functions?

User defined functions are the functions written to use

that logic whenever required. It is not necessary to write
the same logic several times. Instead, function can be
called or executed whenever needed.

34. What are all types of user defined functions?

Three types of user defined functions are.

 Scalar Functions.
 Inline Table valued functions.
 Multi statement valued functions.

Scalar returns unit, variant defined the return clause.

Other two types return table as a return.

35. What is collation?

Collation is defined as set of rules that determine how

character data can be sorted and compared. This can be
used to compare A and, other language characters and
also depends on the width of the characters.

ASCII value can be used to compare these character data.

36. What are all different types of collation
sensitivity?

Following are different types of collation sensitivity -.

 Case Sensitivity – A and a and B and b.

 Accent Sensitivity.
 Kana Sensitivity – Japanese Kana characters.
 Width Sensitivity – Single byte character and double
byte character.

37. Advantages and Disadvantages of Stored

Procedure?

Stored procedure can be used as a modular programming

– means create once, store and call for several times
whenever required. This supports faster execution instead
of executing multiple queries. This reduces network traffic
and provides better security to the data.

Disadvantage is that it can be executed only in the

Database and utilizes more memory in the database
server.

38. What is Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)?

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) manages

transaction based applications which can be used for data
entry, data retrieval and data processing. OLTP makes
data management simple and efficient. Unlike OLAP
systems goal of OLTP systems is serving real-time
transactions.

Example – Bank Transactions on a daily basis.

39. What is CLAUSE?

SQL clause is defined to limit the result set by providing

condition to the query. This usually filters some rows from
the whole set of records.

Example – Query that has WHERE condition

Query that has HAVING condition.

40. What is recursive stored procedure?

A stored procedure which calls by itself until it reaches

some boundary condition. This recursive function or
procedure helps programmers to use the same set of code
any number of times.

41. What is Union, minus and Interact commands?

UNION operator is used to combine the results of two

tables, and it eliminates duplicate rows from the tables.

MINUS operator is used to return rows from the first query

but not from the second query. Matching records of first
and second query and other rows from the first query will
be displayed as a result set.

INTERSECT operator is used to return rows returned by

both the queries.
42. What is an ALIAS command?

ALIAS name can be given to a table or column. This alias

name can be referred in WHERE clause to identify the
table or column.

Example-.

Select st.StudentID, Ex.Result from student st, Exam as

Ex where st.studentID = Ex. StudentID

Here, st refers to alias name for student table and Ex refers

to alias name for exam table.

43. What is the difference between TRUNCATE and

DROP statements?

TRUNCATE removes all the rows from the table, and it

cannot be rolled back. DROP command removes a table
from the database and operation cannot be rolled back.

44. What are aggregate and scalar functions?

Aggregate functions are used to evaluate mathematical

calculation and return single values. This can be
calculated from the columns in a table. Scalar functions
return a single value based on the input value.

Example -.

Aggregate – max(), count - Calculated with respect to

numeric.

Scalar – UCASE(), NOW() – Calculated with respect to

strings.
45. How can you create an empty table from an
existing table?

Example will be -.

Select * into studentcopy from student where 1=2

Here, we are copying student table to another table with

the same structure with no rows copied.

46. How to fetch common records from two tables?

Common records result set can be achieved by -.

Select studentID from student. <strong>INTERSECT </st

rong> Select StudentID from Exam

47. How to fetch alternate records from a table?

Records can be fetched for both Odd and Even row

numbers -.

To display even numbers-.

Select studentId from (Select rowno, studentId from stude

nt) where mod(rowno,2)=0

To display odd numbers-.

Select studentId from (Select rowno, studentId from stude

nt) where mod(rowno,2)=1

from (Select rowno, studentId from student) where

mod(rowno,2)=1.[/sql]
48. How to select unique records from a table?

Select unique records from a table by using DISTINCT

keyword.

Select DISTINCT StudentID, StudentName from Student.

49. What is the command used to fetch first 5

characters of the string?

There are many ways to fetch first 5 characters of the

string -.

Select SUBSTRING(StudentName,1,5) as studentname fro

m student
Select RIGHT(Studentname,5) as studentname from stud
ent

50. Which operator is used in query for pattern

matching?

LIKE operator is used for pattern matching, and it can be

used as -.

1. % - Matches zero or more characters.

2. _(Underscore) – Matching exactly one character.

Example -.

Select * from Student where studentname like 'a%'

Select * from Student where studentname like 'ami_'