DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

FILE STRUCTURES QUESTION BANK(15IS62)

MODULE-1

INTRODUCTION, FUNDAMENTAL FILE STRUCTURE CONCEPTS,

MANAGING FILES OF RECORDS
1. Explain briefly the evolution of file structure design. (June/July 2011), ( Dec 2010), (Dec
09/Jan 10)
2. Explain the different costs of disk access( Dec 2010)
3. Explain the functions OPEN,READ and WRITE with parameters(June 2012), ( Dec
2010)
4. Describe the relation between the physical file and the logical file. (May/June 2010),
(Dec 09/Jan 10)
5. Briefly explain the different basic ways to organize the data on a disk. (May/June 2010)
Calculate the space required on tape, if we want to store the 1 million 100 bytes records
on a 7250 bpi tape, that has an internal block gap of 0.2 inches and with a blocking factor
of 60. Hence calculate the space required (May/June 2010) ii) If the same file is to be
stored on the disk with the following (a record should not span 2 sectors) number of
bytes/sector=512; number of sectors/track=170; number of tracks/cylinder=16; number of
cylinders=526; How many cylinder does file require? What is the total capacity of disk?
(June 2012)
6. What are the two basic ways to address data on disks? (Dec 09/Jan 10)
7. What are the different buffering strategies? Explain briefly. (Dec 09/Jan 10)
8. What are file structures?(June/July 2011)
9. Explain seeking with C and C++ streams. (June/July 2011)
10. Explain sector based data organization in magnetic disk. (June/July 2011)
11. Differentiate between constant linear velocity (CLV) and constant angular velocity
(CAV) (June/July 2011)
12. Implement the Unix command ‘tail-n filename’ where n is the number of lines from the
end of the file to be copied to the stdout.(June 2012)
13. Write short notes on: i)organization of CDROM. (Dec 09/Jan 10)

14. What are the different methods of accessing records? Explain direct access. (Dec 09/Jan
10)
15. Explain the different UNIX tools for sequential processing of files ( Dec 2010)
16. What is the advantage of using inheritance for record buffer classes? Explain. (June
2012) , ( Dec 2010)
17. What are the different ways of adding structures to a file to maintain the identity of
records? Explain each with examples. (June 2012) (May/June 2010), (Dec 09/Jan 10)
18. Define the following terms: i) File access method ii) Meta-data iii) RRN iv) Template
class(May/June 2010)
19. Design an algorithm for sequential-search(May/June 2010)
20. Discuss the importance of header records for a record file, with an example. (June 2012)
21. What is a record? What are the ways in which records can be organized in a file?
(June/July 2011)
22. Write brief notes on:
i) Performance of sequential search(June/July 2011)
ii)Direct access(June/July 2011)
iii)Buffer class hierarchy(Dec 09/Jan 10)

MODULE-2

ORGANIZATION OF FILES FOR PERFORMANCE, INDEXING

1. What is data compression? (May/June 2010). Explain different techniques available for
data compression( Dec 2010)
2. Explain irreversible compression techniques. (May/June 2010)
3. Explain the limitations of binary searching and internal sorting. (Dec 09/Jan 10)
4. What do you understand by index? Explain simple index for sequential files( Dec 2010)
5. What is an index? (May/June 2010) Explain a simple index for entry-sequenced file.
(June/July 2011)
6. Explain how spaces can be reclaimed in files after record deletion. (June 2012),
(June/July 2011)
7. Explain the key-sorting techniques and their limitations. (May/June 2010)
8. Explain the operations required to maintain the index files. (May/June 2010), (Dec 09/Jan
10)

MODULE-3

COSEQUENTIAL PROCESSING AND THE SORTING OF LARGE

FILES, MULTI-LEVEL INDEXING AND B-TREES
1. How large files are ordered on disk, using merging? (Dec 09/Jan 10)
2. Describe how co-sequential processing is implemented in a general ledger program. (Dec
09/Jan 10)
3. Explain co-sequential processing. Illustrate the use of a selection tree to assist in the
selection of a key with minimum value. ( Dec 2010)
4. Explain a selection tree for merging large number of lists. (June/July 2011)
5. Write an algorithm for heap sorting method. Show the construction of heap tree for
following incoming sequence FDCGHIBEA. (June 2012)
6. In consequential processing model, what are the general assumptions and corresponding
practical complexities(comments)?List them. (June 2012), (June/July 2011)
7. Explain object-oriented model for implementing co-sequential processes( Dec 2010),
(May/June 2010), (Dec 09/Jan 10)
8. Explain K-Way merging algorithm. (June/July 2011) , ( Dec 2010)
9. Write a note on AVL Trees
10. Explain redistribution of elements in a B-Tree(May/June 2010)
11. With a neat diagram, explain paged binary trees. What are its disadvantages? (Dec
09/Jan 10)
12. Explain redistribution during insertion with respect to B-Tree. (June 2012), (June/July
2011)
13. What is multilevel indexing? (Dec 09/Jan 10), (June/July 2009)
14. Explain deletion and merging. (May/June 2010)
15. Explain B-Tree methods for search() and insert() with necessary C++ code. (June 2012)
16. What are B-Trees? Explain, with an example, the creation of B-Trees(June/July 2011), (
Dec 2010), (May/June 2010), (Dec 09/Jan 10)
17. What are the properties of B-Tree? Explain worst-case search. (June 2012), ( Dec 2010)

MODULE-4

INDEXED SEQUENTIAL FILE ACCESS AND PREFIX B+ TREES

1. Explain simple prefix B+ Tree. (June 2012), (June/July 2011), (May/June 2010)
2. Compare and contrast the organization of B-Tree, B+ Tree and simple prefix B+ Trees.
(June 2012)
3. Discuss the sequence of loading a simple prefix B+ Trees. (June 2012)
4. With a suitable diagram, explain the internal structure of index set blocks. (June/July
2011), (Dec 09/Jan 10)
5. Explain the issues involved in maintenance of simple prefix B+ trees. (June 2012),
(June/July 2011)
6. Explain with an example adding a simple index to the sequence set( Dec 2010)
7. Explain simple prefix B+ Tree maintenance( Dec 2010)

MODULE-5

HASHING, EXTENDIBLE HASHING

1. Discuss any three methods used to avoid collision in hashing techniques. (June 2012)
2. Suppose that 1000 addresses are allocated to hold 800 records in a randomly hashed file
and that each address can hold one record. Compute the following values:
i) The packing density
ii) The expected number of addresses with no records assigned to them.
iii) The expected number of addresses with exactly one record assigned.
iv) The expected number of addresses with one record or one or more synonyms
v) The expected number of overflow records assuming that only one record can be
assigned to each home addresses
vi) Percentage of overflow records(June 2012)
3. What is hashing? Write a hashing algorithm and explain with an example(June/July
2011), ( Dec 2010), (May/June 2010)
4. Explain the different collision resolution techniques(Dec 09/ Jan 10), (Dec 2010),
(May/June 2010)
5. Explain the double hashing and chained progressive overflow collision resolution
techniques. What is collision? Explain the process of collision resolution by progressive
overflow. (June/July 2011).
6. Explain how extendible hashing works (June 2012), (June/July 2011), (Dec 2010),
(May/June 2010)
7. Explain linear hashing and dynamic hashing with figures(June 2012), (June/July 2011),
(Dec 2010), (May/June 2010), (Dec 09/Jan 10)
8. Write short notes on Extendible hashing performance(June 2012),
9. Construct a procedure for finding buddy-buckets. (May/June 2010)