What is database?

Ans :A database is a logically coherent collection of data with some inherent meaning,
representing some aspect of real world and which is designed, built and populated with data
for a specific purpose..

What is DBMS?
Ans :It is a collection of programs that enables user to create and maintain a database. In
other words it is general-purpose software that provides the users with the processes of
defining, constructing and manipulating the database for various applications. .

What is a Database system?

Ans :The database and DBMS software together is called as Database system. .

Advantages of DBMS?
Ans :1. Redundancy is controlled.
2. Unauthorised access is restricted.
3. Providing multiple user interfaces.
4. Enforcing integrity constraints.
5. Providing backup and recovery..

Disadvantage in File Processing System?

Ans :1. Data redundancy & inconsistency.
2. Difficult in accessing data.
3. Data isolation.
4. Data integrity.
5. Concurrent access is not possible.
6. Security Problems..

Describe the three levels of data abstraction?

Ans :1. Physical level: The lowest level of abstraction describes how data are stored.
2. Logical level: The next higher level of abstraction, describes what data are stored in
database and what relationship among those data.
3. View level: The highest level of abstraction describes only part of entire database. .

Define the "integrity rules"

Ans :1. Entity Integrity: States that “Primary key cannot have NULL value”.
2. Referential Integrity: States that “Foreign Key can be either a NULL value or should be
Primary Key value of other relation..

What is extension and intension?

Ans :Extension -It is the number of tuples present in a table at any instance. This is time
dependent.
Intension -It is a constant value that gives the name, structure of table and the constraints
laid on it..

What is Data Independence?

Ans :Data independence means that “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:
1. Physical Data Independence: Modification in physical level should not affect the logical level.
2. Logical Data Independence: Modification in logical level should affect the view level. .

What is a view? How it is related to data independence?

Ans :A view may be thought of as a virtual table, that is, a table that does not really exist in its
own right but is instead derived from one or more underlying base table. In other words, there
is no stored file that direct represents the view instead a definition of view is stored in data
dictionary.Growth and restructuring of base tables is not reflected in views. Thus the view can
insulate users from the effects of restructuring and growth in the database. Hence accounts for
logical data independence..
What is Data Model?
Ans :A collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships data semantics
and constraints..

What is E-R model?

Ans :This data model is based on real world that consists of basic objects called entities and of
relationship among these objects. Entities are described in a database by a set of attributes..

What is Object Oriented model?

Ans :This model is based on collection of objects. An object contains values stored in instance
variables with in the object. An object also contains bodies of code that operate on the object.
These bodies of code are called methods. Objects that contain same types of values and the
same methods are grouped together into classes. .

What is an Entity?
Ans :It is a 'thing' in the real world with an independent existence. .

What is an Entity type?

Ans :It is a collection (set) of entities that have same attributes. .

What is an Entity set?

Ans :It is a collection of all entities of particular entity type in the database. .

What is an Extension of entity type?

Ans :The collections of entities of a particular entity type are grouped together into an entity
set..

What is Weak Entity set?

Ans :An entity set may not have sufficient attributes to form a primary key, and its primary
key compromises of its partial key and primary key of its parent entity, then it is said to be
Weak Entity set..

What is an attribute?
Ans :It is a particular property, which describes the entity. .

What is a Relation Schema and a Relation?

Ans :A relation Schema denoted by R(A1, A2, …, An) is made up of the relation name R and
the list of attributes Ai that it contains. A relation is defined as a set of tuples. Let r be the
relation which contains set tuples (t1, t2, t3, ..., tn). Each tuple is an ordered list of n-values
t=(v1,v2, ..., vn)..
 What is degree of a Relation?
Ans :It is the number of attribute of its relation schema..

What is Relationship?
Ans :It is an association among two or more entities. .

What is Relationship set?

Ans :The collection (or set) of similar relationships. .

What is Relationship type?

Ans :Relationship type defines a set of associations or a relationship set among a given set of
entity types.

What is degree of Relationship type?

Ans :It is the number of entity type participating .

What is DDL (Data Definition Language)?

Ans :A data base schema is specifies by a set of definitions expressed by a special language
called DDL.

What is VDL (View Definition Language)?

Ans :It specifies user views and their mappings to the conceptual schema. .

What is SDL (Storage Definition Language)?

Ans :This language is to specify the internal schema. This language may specify the mapping
between two schemas.

What is Data Storage - Definition Language?

Ans :The storage structures and access methods used by database system are specified by a
set of definition in a special type of DDL called data storage-definition language. .

What is DML (Data Manipulation Language)?

Ans :This language that enable user to access or manipulate data as organised by appropriate
data model.
1. Procedural DML or Low level: DML requires a user to specify what data are needed and how
to get those data.
2. Non-Procedural DML or High level: DML requires a user to specify what data are needed
without specifying how to get those data. .
What is DML Compiler?
Ans :It translates DML statements in a query language into low-level instruction that the
query evaluation engine can understand.

What is Query evaluation engine?

Ans :It executes low-level instruction generated by compiler..

What is DDL Interpreter?

Ans :It interprets DDL statements and record them in tables containing metadata..

What is Record-at-a-time?
Ans :The Low level or Procedural DML can specify and retrieve each record from a set of
records. This retrieve of a record is said to be Record-at-a-time..

What is Set-at-a-time or Set-oriented?

Ans :The High level or Non-procedural DML can specify and retrieve many records in a single
DML statement. This retrieve of a record is said to be Set-at-a-time or Set-oriented. .

What is Relational Algebra?

Ans :It is procedural query language. It consists of a set of operations that take one or two
relations as input and produce a new relation..

What is Relational Calculus?

Ans :It is an applied predicate calculus specifically tailored for relational databases proposed by
E.F. Codd. E.g. of languages based on it are DSL ALPHA, QUEL..

How does Tuple-oriented relational calculus differ from domain-oriented relational calculus
Ans :The tuple-oriented calculus uses a tuple variables i.e., variable whose only permitted
values are tuples of that relation. E.g. QUEL,The domain-oriented calculus has domain
variables i.e., variables that range over the underlying domains instead of over relation. E.g.
ILL, DEDUCE..

What is normalization?
Ans :It is a process of analysing the given relation schemas based on their Functional
Dependencies (FDs) and primary key to achieve the properties : Minimizing redundancy,
Minimizing insertion, deletion and update anomalies. .

What is Functional Dependency?

Ans :A Functional dependency is denoted by X -->Y between two sets of attributes X and Y
that are subsets of R specifies a constraint on the possible tuple that can form a relation state
r of R. The constraint is for any two tuples t1 and t2 in r if t1[X] = t2[X] then they have t1[Y]
= t2[Y]. This means the value of X component of a tuple uniquely determines the value of
component Y..

When is a functional dependency F said to be minimal?

Ans :1.Every dependency in F has a single attribute for its right hand side.
2.We cannot replace any dependency X-->A in F with a dependency Y-->A where Y is a proper
subset of X and still have a set of dependency that is equivalent to F.
3.We cannot remove any dependency from F and still have set of dependency that is
equivalent to F..

What is Multivalued dependency?

Ans :Multivalued dependency denoted by X-->Y specified on relation schema R, where X and Y
are both subsets of R, specifies the following constraint on any relation r of R: if two tuples t1
and t2 exist in r such that t1[X] = t2[X] then t3 and t4 should also exist in r with the following
properties
1. t3[x] = t4[X] = t1[X] = t2[X]
2. t3[Y] = t1[Y] and t4[Y] = t2[Y]
3. t3[Z] = t2[Z] and t4[Z] = t1[Z]
where [Z = (R-(X U Y)) ].

What is Lossless join property?

Ans :It guarantees that the spurious tuple generation does not occur with respect to relation
schemas after decomposition..

What is 1 NF (Normal Form)?

Ans :The domain of attribute must include only atomic (simple, indivisible) values. .

What is Fully Functional dependency?

Ans :It is based on concept of full functional dependency. A functional dependency X -->Y is
full functional dependency if removal of any attribute A from X means that the dependency
does not hold any more..

What is 2NF?
Ans :A relation schema R is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-prime attribute A in R is fully
functionally dependent on primary key..

What is 3NF?
Ans :A relation schema R is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and for every FD X-->A either of the following
is true
1. X is a Super-key of R.
2. A is a prime attribute of R.
In other words, if every non prime attribute is non-transitively dependent on primary key. .

What is BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form)?

Ans :A relation schema R is in BCNF if it is in 3NF and satisfies an additional constraint that for
every FD X-->A, X must be a candidate key..

What is 4NF?
Ans :A relation schema R is said to be in 4NF if for every Multivalued dependency X -->Y that
holds over R, one of following is true :
1. X is subset or equal to (or) XY = R,
2. X is a super key..

What is 5NF?
Ans :A Relation schema R is said to be 5NF if for every join dependency {R1, R2, ..., Rn} that
holds R, one the following is true :
1. Ri = R for some i
2. The join dependency is implied by the set of FD, over R in which the left side is key of R. .
What is Domain-Key Normal Form?
Ans :A relation is said to be in DKNF if all constraints and dependencies that should hold on
the the constraint can be enforced by simply enforcing the domain constraint and key
constraint on the relation..

What are partial, alternate,, artificial, compound and natural key?

Ans :Partial Key: It is a set of attributes that can uniquely identify weak entities and that are
related to same owner entity. It is sometime called as Discriminator.
Alternate Key: All Candidate Keys excluding the Primary Key are known as Alternate Keys.
Artificial Key: If no obvious key, either stand alone or compound is available, then the last
resort is to simply create a key, by assigning a unique number to each record or occurrence.
 Then this is known as developing an artificial key.
Compound Key: If no single data element uniquely identifies occurrences within a construct,
then combining multiple elements to create a unique identifier for the construct is known as
creating a compound key.
Natural Key: When one of the data elements stored within a construct is utilized as the
primary key, then it is called the natural key..

What is indexing and what are the different kinds of indexing?

Ans :Indexing is a technique for determining how quickly specific data can be found.
Types:
1. Binary search style indexing
2. B-Tree indexing
3. Inverted list indexing
4. Memory resident table
5. Table indexing.

What is system catalog or catalog relation? How is better known as?

Ans :A RDBMS maintains a description of all the data that it contains, information about every
relation and index that it contains. This information is stored in a collection of relations
maintained by the system called metadata. It is also called data dictionary. .

What is meant by query optimization?

Ans :The phase that identifies an efficient execution plan for evaluating a query that has the
least estimated cost is referred to as query optimization. .

What is join dependency and inclusion dependency?

Ans :Join Dependency: A Join dependency is generalization of Multivalued dependency. A JD
{R1, R2, ..., Rn} is said to hold over a relation R if R1, R2, R3, ..., Rn is a lossless-join
decomposition of R . There is no set of sound and complete inference rules for JD.
Inclusion Dependency: An Inclusion Dependency is a statement of the form that some columns
of a relation are contained in other columns. A foreign key constraint is an example of
inclusion dependency..

What is durability in DBMS?

Ans :Once the DBMS informs the user that a transaction has successfully completed, its effects
should persist even if the system crashes before all its changes are reflected on disk. This
property is called durability..

What do you mean by atomicity and aggregation?

Ans :Atomicity: Either all actions are carried out or none are. Users should not have to worry
about the effect of incomplete transactions. DBMS ensures this by undoing the actions of
incomplete transactions.
Aggregation: A concept which is used to model a relationship between a collection of entities
and relationships. It is used when we need to express a relationship among relationships. .

What is a Phantom Deadlock?

Ans :In distributed deadlock detection, the delay in propagating local information might cause
the deadlock detection algorithms to identify deadlocks that do not really exist. Such situations
are called phantom deadlocks and they lead to unnecessary aborts. .

What is a checkpoint and When does it occur?

Ans :A Checkpoint is like a snapshot of the DBMS state. By taking checkpoints,
the DBMS can reduce the amount of work to be done during restart in the event
of subsequent crashes
What are the different phases of transaction?
Ans :1. Analysis phase
2. Redo Phase
3. Undo phase.

What do you mean by flat file database?

Ans :It is a database in which there are no programs or user access languages. It has no
cross-file capabilities but is user-friendly and provides user-interface management..

What is "transparent DBMS"?

Ans :It is one, which keeps its Physical Structure hidden from user. .

Brief theory of Network, Hierarchical schemas and their properties

Ans :Network schema uses a graph data structure to organize records example for such a
database management system is CTCG while a hierarchical schema uses a tree data
structure example for such a system is IMS..

What is a query?
Ans :A query with respect to DBMS relates to user commands that are used to interact with a
data base. The query language can be classified into data definition language and data
manipulation language..

What do you mean by Correlated subquery?

Ans :Subqueries, or nested queries, are used to bring back a set of rows to be used by the
parent query. Depending on how the subquery is written, it can be executed once for the
parent query or it can be executed once for each row returned by the parent query. If the
subquery is executed for each row of the parent, this is called a correlated subquery.A
correlated subquery can be easily identified if it contains any references to the parent
subquery columns in its WHERE clause. Columns from the subquery cannot be referenced
anywhere else in the parent query. The following example demonstrates a non-correlated
subquery.
Eg. Select * From CUST Where '10/03/1990' IN (Select ODATE From ORDER Where
CUST.CNUM = ORDER.CNUM).

What are the primitive operations common to all record management systems?
Ans :Addition, deletion and modification..

Name the buffer in which all the commands that are typed in are stored.
Ans :‘Edit’ Buffer.

What are the unary operations in Relational Algebra?

Ans :PROJECTION and SELECTION..

Are the resulting relations of PRODUCT and JOIN operation the same?
Ans :No.
PRODUCT: Concatenation of every row in one relation with every row in another.
JOIN: Concatenation of rows from one relation and related rows from another. .
What is RDBMS KERNEL?
Ans :Two important pieces of RDBMS architecture are the kernel, which is
the software, and the data dictionary, which consists of the system-level
data structures used by the kernel to manage the database. You might
think of an RDBMS as an operating system (or set of subsystems),
designed specifically for controlling data access; its primary functions are
storing, retrieving, and securing data. An RDBMS maintains its own list of
authorized users and their associated privileges; manages memory caches
and paging; controls locking for concurrent resource usage; dispatches and
schedules user requests; and manages space usage within its table-space
structures.

Name the sub-systems of a RDBMS

Ans :I/O, Security, Language Processing, Process Control, Storage Management, Logging and
Recovery, Distribution Control, Transaction Control, Memory Management, Lock
Management.

Which part of the RDBMS takes care of the data dictionary? How
Ans :Data dictionary is a set of tables and database objects that is stored in a special area of
the database and maintained exclusively by the kernel. .

What is the job of the information stored in data-dictionary?

Ans :The information in the data dictionary validates the existence of the objects, provides
access to them, and maps the actual physical storage location.

How do you communicate with an RDBMS?

Ans :You communicate with an RDBMS using Structured Query Language (SQL).

Define SQL and state the differences between SQL and other conventional programming
Languages
Ans :SQL is a nonprocedural language that is designed specifically for data access operations
on normalized relational database structures. The primary difference between SQL and other
conventional programming languages is that SQL statements specify what data operations
should be performed rather than how to perform them. .

Name the three major set of files on disk that compose a database in Oracle
Ans :There are three major sets of files on disk that compose a database. All the files are
binary. These are
1. Database files
2. Control files
3. Redo logs
The most important of these are the database files where the actual data resides. The
control files and the redo logs support the functioning of the architecture itself. All three sets
of files must be present, open, and available to Oracle for any data on the database to be
useable. Without these files, you cannot access the database, and the database
administrator might have to recover some or all of the database using a backup, if there is
one..

What is an Oracle Instance?

Ans :The Oracle system processes, also known as Oracle background processes, provide
functions for the user processes—functions that would otherwise be done by the user
processes themselves. Oracle database-wide system memory is known as the SGA, the
system global area or shared global area. The data and control structures in the SGA are
shareable, and all the Oracle background processes and user processes can use them. The
combination of the SGA and the Oracle background processes is known as an Oracle
 instance.

What are the four Oracle system processes that must always be up and running for the
database to be useable
Ans :The four Oracle system processes that must always be up and running for the database
to be useable include
1. DBWR (Database Writer)
2. LGWR (Log Writer)
3. SMON (System Monitor)
4. PMON (Process Monitor).

What is ROWID?
Ans :The ROWID is a unique database-wide physical address for every row on every table.
Once assigned (when the row is first inserted into the database), it never changes until the
row is deleted or the table is dropped. The ROWID consists of the following three
components, the combination of which uniquely identifies the physical storage location of the
row.
1. Oracle database file number, which contains the block with the rows
2. Oracle block address, which contains the row
3. The row within the block (because each block can hold many rows)
The ROWID is used internally in indexes as a quick means of retrieving rows with a particular
key value. Application developers also use it in SQL statements as a quick way to access a
row once they know the ROWID.
What is database Trigger?
Ans :A database trigger is a PL/SQL block that can defined to automatically
execute for insert, update, and delete statements against a table. The
trigger can e defined to execute once for the entire statement or once for
every row that is inserted, updated, or deleted. For any one table, there are
twelve events for which you can define database triggers. A database trigger
can call database procedures that are also written in PL/SQL. .

Name two utilities that Oracle provides, which are use for backup and recovery.
Ans :1. The Export utility dumps the definitions and data for the specified part of the database
to an operating system binary file.
2. The Import utility reads the file produced by an export, recreates the definitions of objects,
and inserts the data.

What are stored-procedures? And what are the advantages of using them.
Ans :Stored procedures are database objects that perform a user defined operation. A stored
procedure can have a set of compound SQL statements. A stored procedure executes the SQL
commands and returns the result to the client. Stored procedures are used to reduce network
traffic..

Why do Spurious tuples occur ?

Ans :Bad normalization & Updating tables from join because theta joins are joins made on keys
that are not primary keys..

What is Storage Manager?

Ans :It is a program module that provides the interface between the low-level data stored in
database, application programs and queries submitted to the system. .

What is Buffer Manager?

Ans :It is a program module, which is responsible for fetching data from disk storage into main
memory and deciding what data to be cache in memory. .

What is Transaction Manager?

Ans :It is a program module, which ensures that database, remains in a consistent state
despite system failures and concurrent transaction execution proceeds without conflicting. .

What is File Manager?

Ans :It is a program module, which manages the allocation of space on disk storage and data
structure used to represent information stored on a disk. .

What is Authorization and Integrity manager?

Ans :It is the program module, which tests for the satisfaction of integrity constraint and
checks the authority of user to access data. .

What are stand-alone procedures?

Ans :Procedures that are not part of a package are known as stand-alone because they
independently defined. A good example of a stand-alone procedure is one written in a
SQL*Forms application. These types of procedures are not available for reference from other
Oracle tools. Another limitation of stand-alone procedures is that they are compiled at run
time, which slows execution..

What are cursors give different types of cursors.

Ans :PL/SQL uses cursors for all database information accesses statements. The language
supports the use two types of cursors
1. Implicit
2. Explicit.

What do you understand by dependency preservation?

Ans :Given a relation R and a set of FDs F, dependency preservation states that the closure of
the union of the projection of F on each decomposed relation Ri is equal to the closure of F.
i.e., ((?R1(F)) U … U (?Rn(F)))+ = F+ if decomposition is not dependency preserving, then
some dependency is lost in the decomposition..

What is meant by Proactive, Retroactive and Simultaneous Update.

Ans :Proactive Update: The updates that are applied to database before it becomes effective in
real world .
Retroactive Update: The updates that are applied to database after it becomes effective in real
world .
Simulatneous Update: The updates that are applied to database at the same time when it
becomes effective in real world ..

What operator performs pattern matching?

Ans :LIKE operator.

What operator tests column for the absence of data?

Ans :IS NULL operator.

Which command executes the contents of a specified file?

Ans :START or @.
 What is the parameter substitution symbol used with INSERT INTO command?
Ans :&.

Which command displays the SQL command in the SQL buffer, and then executes it?
Ans :RUN.

What are the wildcards used for pattern matching?

Ans :_ for single character substitution and % for multi-character substitution .

State true or false. EXISTS, SOME, ANY are operators in SQL.

Ans :True.
State true or false. !=, <>, ^= all denote the same operation.
Ans :True.

What are the privileges that can be granted on a table by a user to others?
Ans :Insert, update, delete, select, references, index, execute, alter, all .

What command is used to get back the privileges offered by the GRANT command?
Ans :REVOKE.

Which system tables contain information on privileges granted and privileges obtained?
Ans :USER_TAB_PRIVS_MADE, USER_TAB_PRIVS_RECD .

Which system table contains information on constraints on all the tables created?
Ans :USER_CONSTRAINTS.

TRUNCATE TABLE EMP; DELETE FROM EMP; Will the outputs of the above two commands
differ?
Ans :Both will result in deleting all the rows in the table EMP.

What is the difference between TRUNCATE and DELETE commands?

Ans :TRUNCATE is a DDL command whereas DELETE is a DML command. Hence DELETE
operation can be rolled back, but TRUNCATE operation cannot be rolled back. WHERE clause
can be used with DELETE and not with TRUNCATE. .

What command is used to create a table by copying the structure of another table?
Ans :CREATE TABLE .. AS SELECT command
Explanation :To copy only the structure, the WHERE clause of the SELECT command should
contain a FALSE statement as in the following. CREATE TABLE NEWTABLE AS SELECT * FROM
EXISTINGTABLE WHERE 1=2; If the WHERE condition is true, then all the rows or rows
satisfying the condition will be copied to the new table..

What will be the output of the following query? SELECT

REPLACE(TRANSLATE(LTRIM(RTRIM('!! ATHEN !!','!'), '!'), 'AN', '**'),'*','TROUBLE') FROM
DUAL;
Ans :TROUBLETHETROUBLE.
 What will be the output of the following query? SELECT
DECODE(TRANSLATE('A','1234567890','1111111111'), '1','YES', 'NO' );
Ans :NO
Explanation : The query checks whether a given string is a numerical digit