Define database and dbms

Database: an organized body of related information

A database is an integrated collection of logically related records or files consolidated into a
Common pool that provides data for one or more multiple uses.
A database is the collection of data stored in standardized format, designed to be shared by the
multiple users. A database management system is a software that defines a database, stores the
data , supports a query languages , produces the report and creates the data entry screens.
A database is a collection of relations (or tables)
Database Management System (DBMS) : a software system that facilitates the
Creation and maintenance and use of an electronic database
Explain the factors a person wishing to acquire a DBMS should take into account before
purchasing the DBMS he needs to run his business.
-Cost -Security features -Recovery features -User interface
-Memory requirements
Define an attributes and explain its types

Attributes
Entities are represented by means of their properties, called attributes. All attributes have
values. For example, a student entity may have name, class, and age as attributes.

There exists a domain or range of values that can be assigned to attributes. For example, a
student's name cannot be a numeric value. It has to be alphabetic. A student's age cannot be
negative, etc.

Types of Attributes
 Simple attribute − Simple attributes are atomic values, which cannot be divided further.
For example, a student's phone number is an atomic value of 10 digits.

 Composite attribute − Composite attributes are made of more than one simple attribute.
For example, a student's complete name may have first_name and last_name.

 Derived attribute − Derived attributes are the attributes that do not exist in the physical
database, but their values are derived from other attributes present in the database. For
example, average_salary in a department should not be saved directly in the database,
instead it can be derived. For another example, age can be derived from data_of_birth.

 Single-value attribute − Single-value attributes contain single value. For example −

Social_Security_Number.

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  Multi-value attribute − Multi-value attributes may contain more than one values. For
example, a person can have more than one phone number, email_address, etc.

These attribute types can come together in a way like −

 simple single-valued attributes

 simple multi-valued attributes
 composite single-valued attributes
 composite multi-valued attributes

Outline five factors to consider when developing a DBMS

 Purpose of the database
 Entities in the user environment
 Their attributes
 Relationship among entities
 End- users
List five examples of Database Management. Oracle, Fox pro, Dbase IV, Ms Access, paradox

Discuss ACID Properties

ACID Properties
A transaction is a very small unit of a program and it may contain several lowlevel tasks. A
transaction in a database system must maintain Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation,
and Durability − commonly known as ACID properties − in order to ensure accuracy,
completeness, and data integrity.

 Atomicity − This property states that a transaction must be treated as an atomic unit, that
is, either all of its operations are executed or none. There must be no state in a database
where a transaction is left partially completed. States should be defined either before the
execution of the transaction or after the execution/abortion/failure of the transaction.

 Consistency − The database must remain in a consistent state after any transaction. No
transaction should have any adverse effect on the data residing in the database. If the
database was in a consistent state before the execution of a transaction, it must remain
consistent after the execution of the transaction as well.

 Durability − The database should be durable enough to hold all its latest updates even if
the system fails or restarts. If a transaction updates a chunk of data in a database and
commits, then the database will hold the modified data. If a transaction commits but the

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 system fails before the data could be written on to the disk, then that data will be
updated once the system springs back into action.

 Isolation − In a database system where more than one transaction are being executed
simultaneously and in parallel, the property of isolation states that all the transactions
will be carried out and executed as if it is the only transaction in the system. No
transaction will affect the existence of any other transaction.
Differentiate between parameter query and aggregate query.
Parameter query works with other types of queries to get whatever results you are after. This is
because, when using this type of query, you are able to pass a parameter to a different query,
such as an action or a select query. It can either be a value or a condition and will essentially tell
the other query specifically what you want it to do.
It is often chosen because it allows for a dialog box where the end user can enter whatever
parameter value they wish each time the query is run. The parameter query is just a modified
select query.
Aggregate Query: A special type of query is known as an aggregate query. It can work on other
queries (such as selection, action or parameter) just like the parameter query does, but instead of
passing a parameter to another query it totals up the items by selected groups.

There are three ways to view forms in DBMS. Discuss them

Allows you to design a form that includes a header, a footer, and
Design View details in the form.  You can also add images and control which
fields appear on the form.
Form View This is a dynamic page which allows the user to enter and edit data
or navigate through data in a field. 
Layout View This view allows you to design the form and manipulate data.

Explain how Data is organized in a DBMS

A database organizes information into:
 Field: A character or string of characters that represent a data item.
 Record: A collection of related fields that represent a single entity.
 Table or file: A collection of related records. A table is made up of rows called records and
columns called fields.

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 Database: A collection of related tables or files

Discuss different database Users

A typical DBMS has users with different rights and permissions who use it for different
purposes. Some users retrieve data and some back it up. The users of a DBMS can be broadly
categorized as follows −

 Administrators − Administrators maintain the DBMS and are responsible for

administrating the database. They are responsible to look after its usage and by whom it
should be used. They create access profiles for users and apply limitations to maintain
isolation and force security. Administrators also look after DBMS resources like system
license, required tools, and other software and hardware related maintenance.

 Designers − Designers are the group of people who actually work on the designing part
of the database. They keep a close watch on what data should be kept and in what
format. They identify and design the whole set of entities, relations, constraints, and
views.

 End Users − End users are those who actually reap the benefits of having a DBMS. End
users can range from simple viewers who pay attention to the logs or market rates to
sophisticated users such as business analysts.

Discuss Normalization
If a database design is not perfect, it may contain anomalies, which are like a bad dream for any
database administrator. Managing a database with anomalies is next to impossible.

 Update anomalies − If data items are scattered and are not linked to each other properly,
then it could lead to strange situations. For example, when we try to update one data
item having its copies scattered over several places, a few instances get updated properly
while a few others are left with old values. Such instances leave the database in an
inconsistent state.

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  Deletion anomalies − We tried to delete a record, but parts of it was left undeleted
because of unawareness, the data is also saved somewhere else.

 Insert anomalies − We tried to insert data in a record that does not exist at all.

Normalization is a method to remove all these anomalies and bring the database to a consistent
state.

First Normal Form

First Normal Form is defined in the definition of relations (tables) itself. This rule defines that
all the attributes in a relation must have atomic domains. The values in an atomic domain are
indivisible units.

We re-arrange the relation (table) as below, to convert it to First Normal Form.

Each attribute must contain only a single value from its pre-defined domain.

Second Normal Form

Before we learn about the second normal form, we need to understand the following −

 Prime attribute − An attribute, which is a part of the candidate-key, is known as a prime

attribute.

 Non-prime attribute − An attribute, which is not a part of the prime-key, is said to be a

non-prime attribute.

If we follow second normal form, then every non-prime attribute should be fully functionally
dependent on prime key attribute. That is, if X → A holds, then there should not be any proper
subset Y of X, for which Y → A also holds true.

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We see here in Student_Project relation that the prime key attributes are Stu_ID and Proj_ID.
According to the rule, non-key attributes, i.e. Stu_Name and Proj_Name must be dependent
upon both and not on any of the prime key attribute individually. But we find that Stu_Name
can be identified by Stu_ID and Proj_Name can be identified by Proj_ID independently. This is
called partial dependency, which is not allowed in Second Normal Form.

We broke the relation in two as depicted in the above picture. So there exists no partial
dependency.

Third Normal Form

For a relation to be in Third Normal Form, it must be in Second Normal form and the following
must satisfy −

 No non-prime attribute is transitively dependent on prime key attribute.

 For any non-trivial functional dependency, X → A, then either −
o X is a superkey or,
o A is prime attribute.

We find that in the above Student_detail relation, Stu_ID is the key and only prime key
attribute. We find that City can be identified by Stu_ID as well as Zip itself. Neither Zip is a
superkey nor is City a prime attribute. Additionally, Stu_ID → Zip → City, so there
exists transitive dependency.

To bring this relation into third normal form, we break the relation into two relations as follows

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Boyce-Codd Normal Form
Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF) is an extension of Third Normal Form on strict terms.
BCNF states that −

 For any non-trivial functional dependency, X → A, X must be a super-key.

In the above image, Stu_ID is the super-key in the relation Student_Detail and Zip is the super-
key in the relation ZipCodes. So,

Stu_ID → Stu_Name, Zip

and

Zip → City

Which confirms that both the relations are in BCNF.

State and explain the features of a DBMS

 Data dictionary- Describes files and fields of data. It can be a procedure document or disk
files that stores the data definitions or a description of the structure of data used in the
database.
 Utilities- DBMS utilities are programs that allow you allow to manntain the database by
creating,editing and deleting data records and files.
 Query Language/Data manipulation language- Is an ease-to-use computer language for
making queries to a database and for retrieving selected records based on the particular
criteria and format indicated.
 Report Generator- Is a program users may employee to produce on-screen or printed
document from all or part of a database.
 Access security- A feature that allows the database administrator to specify different access
previleges for different users of DBMS.
 System Recovery- This feature enables a DBA to recover contents of a database in the event
of hardware or software failure.
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State and explain the four kinds of action queries.
1. Append Query – takes the set results of a query and "appends" (or adds) them to an
existing table.
2. Delete Query – deletes all records in an underlying table from the set results of a
query.
3. Make Table Query – as the name suggests, it creates a table based on the set results
of a query.
4. Update Query – allows for one or more field in your table to be updated.
Discuss various advantages of using queries in DBMS
 With queries you can:
 -Choose fields for inclusion and viewing.
 -Sort records
 -Ask and answer questions about your data, by specifying criteria
 -Perform calculations about the data
 -Use query as source of data for Forms, Reports and other queries
 -Make changes to data (modify).

Discuss DBMS storage

Databases are stored in file formats, which contain records. At physical level, the actual data is
stored in electromagnetic format on some device. These storage devices can be broadly
categorized into three types −

 Primary Storage − The memory storage that is directly accessible to the CPU comes
under this category. CPU's internal memory (registers), fast memory (cache), and main
memory (RAM) are directly accessible to the CPU, as they are all placed on the
motherboard or CPU chipset. This storage is typically very small, ultra-fast, and volatile.
Primary storage requires continuous power supply in order to maintain its state. In case
of a power failure, all its data is lost.

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  Secondary Storage − Secondary storage devices are used to store data for future use or
as backup. Secondary storage includes memory devices that are not a part of the CPU
chipset or motherboard, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks (DVD, CD, etc.),
hard disks, flash drives, and magnetic tapes.

 Tertiary Storage − Tertiary storage is used to store huge volumes of data. Since such
storage devices are external to the computer system, they are the slowest in speed. These
storage devices are mostly used to take the back up of an entire system. Optical disks
and magnetic tapes are widely used as tertiary storage.

Explain the Applications where we use Database Management Systems are:

 Telecom: There is a database to keeps track of the information regarding calls made,
network usage, customer details etc. Without the database systems it is hard to maintain that
huge amount of data that keeps updating every millisecond.
 Industry: Where it is a manufacturing unit, warehouse or distribution centre, each one needs
a database to keep the records of ins and outs. For example distribution centre should keep a
track of the product units that supplied into the centre as well as the products that got
delivered out from the distribution centre on each day; this is where DBMS comes into
picture.
 Banking System: For storing customer info, tracking day to day credit and debit
transactions, generating bank statements etc. All this work has been done with the help of
Database management systems.
 Education sector: Database systems are frequently used in schools and colleges to store and
retrieve the data regarding student details, staff details, course details, exam details, payroll
data, attendance details, fees details etc. There is a hell lot amount of inter-related data that
needs to be stored and retrieved in an efficient manner.
 Online shopping: You must be aware of the online shopping websites such as Amazon,
Flipkart etc. These sites store the product information, your addresses and preferences, credit
details and provide you the relevant list of products based on your query. All this involves a
Database management system.
 System development particularly for the large projects, it is useful to divide the application
development into the several steps. They can be used to track the progress of the
development team and highlight the steps remaining.

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State and explain the characteristics of a modern database

A modern DBMS has the following characteristics −

 Real-world entity − A modern DBMS is more realistic and uses real-world entities to
design its architecture. It uses the behavior and attributes too. For example, a school
database may use students as an entity and their age as an attribute.

 Relation-based tables − DBMS allows entities and relations among them to form tables.
A user can understand the architecture of a database just by looking at the table names.

 Isolation of data and application − A database system is entirely different than its data.
A database is an active entity, whereas data is said to be passive, on which the database
works and organizes. DBMS also stores metadata, which is data about data, to ease its
own process.

 Less redundancy − DBMS follows the rules of normalization, which splits a relation
when any of its attributes is having redundancy in values. Normalization is a
mathematically rich and scientific process that reduces data redundancy.

 Consistency − Consistency is a state where every relation in a database remains

consistent. There exist methods and techniques, which can detect attempt of leaving
database in inconsistent state. A DBMS can provide greater consistency as compared to
earlier forms of data storing applications like file-processing systems.

 Query Language − DBMS is equipped with query language, which makes it more
efficient to retrieve and manipulate data. A user can apply as many and as different
filtering options as required to retrieve a set of data. Traditionally it was not possible
where file-processing system was used.

 ACID Properties − DBMS follows the concepts of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation,

and Durability (normally shortened as ACID). These concepts are applied on
transactions, which manipulate data in a database. ACID properties help the database
stay healthy in multi-transactional environments and in case of failure.

 Multiuser and Concurrent Access − DBMS supports multi-user environment and

allows them to access and manipulate data in parallel. Though there are restrictions on
transactions when users attempt to handle the same data item, but users are always
unaware of them.

 Multiple views − DBMS offers multiple views for different users. A user who is in the
Sales department will have a different view of database than a person working in the

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 Production department. This feature enables the users to have a concentrate view of the
database according to their requirements.

 Security − Features like multiple views offer security to some extent where users are
unable to access data of other users and departments. DBMS offers methods to impose
constraints while entering data into the database and retrieving the same at a later stage.
DBMS offers many different levels of security features, which enables multiple users to
have different views with different features. For example, a user in the Sales department
cannot see the data that belongs to the Purchase department. Additionally, it can also be
managed how much data of the Sales department should be displayed to the user. Since
a DBMS is not saved on the disk as traditional file systems, it is very hard for miscreants
to break the code.

Give a brief explanation of the following E-R concepts:

(i) Entity- Something that exists by itself;
(ii) Attribute -A characteristic/ property about an object
(iii) Cardinality
(iv) Relationship - Denotes how records in relations/tables are associated
Discuss DBMS States of Transactions
A transaction in a database can be in one of the following states −

 Active − In this state, the transaction is being executed. This is the initial state of every
transaction.

 Partially Committed − When a transaction executes its final operation, it is said to be in

a partially committed state.

 Failed − A transaction is said to be in a failed state if any of the checks made by the
database recovery system fails. A failed transaction can no longer proceed further.

 Aborted − If any of the checks fails and the transaction has reached a failed state, then
the recovery manager rolls back all its write operations on the database to bring the
database back to its original state where it was prior to the execution of the transaction.

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 Transactions in this state are called aborted. The database recovery module can select
one of the two operations after a transaction aborts −

o Re-start the transaction

o Kill the transaction
 Committed − If a transaction executes all its operations successfully, it is said to be
committed. All its effects are now permanently established on the database system.

Discuss various tiers of DBMS architecture

3-tier Architecture
A 3-tier architecture separates its tiers from each other based on the complexity of the users and
how they use the data present in the database. It is the most widely used architecture to design a
DBMS.

 Database (Data) Tier − At this tier, the database resides along with its query processing
languages. We also have the relations that define the data and their constraints at this
level.

 Application (Middle) Tier − At this tier reside the application server and the programs
that access the database. For a user, this application tier presents an abstracted view of
the database. End-users are unaware of any existence of the database beyond the
application. At the other end, the database tier is not aware of any other user beyond the

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 application tier. Hence, the application layer sits in the middle and acts as a mediator
between the end-user and the database.

 User (Presentation) Tier − End-users operate on this tier and they know nothing about
any existence of the database beyond this layer. At this layer, multiple views of the
database can be provided by the application. All views are generated by applications that
reside in the application tier.

Multiple-tier database architecture is highly modifiable, as almost all its components are
independent and can be changed independently.

Define a query and discuss its main types.

A query allows you to select and filter data from multiple tables.  Queries can be saved and
utilized as often as you need them.
Types of queries
 Select query: Used for searching and analyzing data in one or more table.
 Action query: Used for modifying data in one or more tables.

Discuss DBMS entity relational model

Entity-Relationship Model
Entity-Relationship (ER) Model is based on the notion of real-world entities and relationships
among them. While formulating real-world scenario into the database model, the ER Model
creates entity set, relationship set, general attributes and constraints.

ER Model is best used for the conceptual design of a database.

ER Model is based on −

 Entities and their attributes.

 Relationships among entities.

These concepts are explained below.

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  Entity − An entity in an ER Model is a real-world entity having properties
called attributes. Every attribute is defined by its set of values called domain. For
example, in a school database, a student is considered as an entity. Student has various
attributes like name, age, class, etc.

 Relationship − The logical association among entities is called relationship.

Relationships are mapped with entities in various ways. Mapping cardinalities define the
number of association between two entities.

Mapping cardinalities −

o one to one
o one to many
o many to one
o many to many
Relational Model
The most popular data model in DBMS is the Relational Model. It is more scientific a model
than others. This model is based on first-order predicate logic and defines a table as an n-ary
relation.

The main highlights of this model are −

 Data is stored in tables called relations.

 Relations can be normalized.
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  In normalized relations, values saved are atomic values.
 Each row in a relation contains a unique value.
 Each column in a relation contains values from a same domain.
Consider the following two tables: Persons table and Orders table.
The "Persons" table:
P_I LastName FirstName Address City
d
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 2
4 24562 1

Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id" column in the
"Persons" table.

(i) Write DDL statements to create the two relations

INSERT INTO persons

VALUES (….. fields
)

(ii) Write DML statements to store the data in the two relations.
(iii) ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD PhoneNumber int
(iv) CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),

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 PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
)

iii) Write SQL statement to add another field/ column “phoneNumber” to the persons
table.

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id) REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)
Define the following terms
 Input mask- displays the layout of the field.
 Field size- sets the size and type of numbers to enter in the field.
 Field: A character or string of characters that represent a data item.
 Record: A collection of related fields that represent a single entity.
 Table or file: A collection of related records. A table is made up of rows called records and
columns called fields.
 Primary Key : is a field that uniquely identifies each individual records in the table.
 Database: A collection of related tables or files
 Foreign Key Is a field in one relation that is a primary key in another
 Candidate key Set of attributes could be used as the primary key
 Access security- A feature that allows the database administrator to specify different access
previleges for different users of DBMS.
Differentiate between Record and Field
Record-data that is organized in rows in a table
Field-an element of a table that contains a specific item of information .It is represented
by a column or cell in a datasheet.

Discuss Armstrong's Axioms

If F is a set of functional dependencies then the closure of F, denoted as F +, is the set of all
functional dependencies logically implied by F. Armstrong's Axioms are a set of rules, that
when applied repeatedly, generates a closure of functional dependencies.

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  Reflexive rule − If alpha is a set of attributes and beta is_subset_of alpha, then alpha
holds beta.

 Augmentation rule − If a → b holds and y is attribute set, then ay → by also holds. That
is adding attributes in dependencies, does not change the basic dependencies.

 Transitivity rule − Same as transitive rule in algebra, if a → b holds and b → c holds,

then a → c also holds. a → b is called as a functionally that determines b.

Discuss Trivial Functional Dependency

 Trivial − If a functional dependency (FD) X → Y holds, where Y is a subset of X, then
it is called a trivial FD. Trivial FDs always hold.

 Non-trivial − If an FD X → Y holds, where Y is not a subset of X, then it is called a

non-trivial FD.

 Completely non-trivial − If an FD X → Y holds, where x intersect Y = Φ, it is said to

be a completely non-trivial FD.
Differentiate between Forms and Reports
i. In forms, fields are organized together with their labels on the detail section while in
reports, labels are placed on the page header.
Forms do not provide the option of sorting and grouping while it is in reports.
ii. Forms can be viewed in four different views (data sheet, single form, continuous form
and print preview.), while in a report can only be viewed in one view (print preview)
iii. A form can be used as a switch board for other objects due to its various views.
Whereas in a report, you can’t execute any control apart from viewing them.
Discuss the DBMS Interfaces
User-friendly interfaces provided by a DBMS may include the following:
 Menu-Based Interfaces for Web Clients or Browsing. These interfaces pre-sent the user with
lists of options (called menus) that lead the user through the formulation of a request. Menus
do away with the need to memorize the specific commands and syntax of a query language;
rather, the query is composed step-by-step by picking options from a menu that is displayed
by the system.
 Forms-Based Interfaces. A forms-based interface displays a form to each user. Users can fill
out all of the form entries to insert new data, or they can fill out only certain entries, in which
case the DBMS will retrieve matching data for the remaining entries. Forms are usually
designed and programmed for naive users as inter-faces to canned transactions.

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 Graphical User Interfaces. A GUI typically displays a schema to the user in diagrammatic
form. The user then can specify a query by manipulating the diagram. In many cases, GUIs
utilize both menus and forms. Most GUIs use a pointing device, such as a mouse, to select
certain parts of the displayed schema diagram.
 Natural Language Interfaces. These interfaces accept requests written in English or some
other language and attempt to understand them. A natural language interface usually has its
own schema, which is similar to the database conceptual schema, as well as a dictionary of
important words. The natural language interface refers to the words in its schema, as well as
to the set of standard words in its dictionary, to interpret the request.
 Speech Input and Output. Limited use of speech as an input query and speech as an answer to
a question or result of a request is becoming commonplace. Applications with limited
vocabularies such as inquiries for telephone directory, flight arrival/departure, and credit card
account information are allowing speech for input and output to enable customers to access
this information. The speech input is detected using a library of predefined words and used to
set up the parameters that are supplied to the queries. For output, a similar conversion from
text or numbers into speech takes place.
 Interfaces for Parametric Users. Parametric users, such as bank tellers, often have a small set
of operations that they must perform repeatedly. For example, a teller is able to use single
function keys to invoke routine and repetitive transactions such as account deposits or
withdrawals, or balance inquiries. Systems analysts and programmers design and implement
a special interface for each known class of naive users. Usually a small set of abbreviated
commands is included, with the goal of minimizing the number of keystrokes required for
each request. For example, function keys in a terminal can be programmed to initiate various
commands. This allows the parametric user to proceed with a minimal number of keystrokes.
 Interfaces for the DBA. Most database systems contain privileged commands that can be
used only by the DBA staff. These include commands for creating accounts, setting system
parameters, granting account authorization, changing a schema, and reorganizing the storage
structures of a database.

Outline the four benefits for designing a table from scratch rather than using a table
wizard It gives one control of the field naming and data types selection
 It provides a means of defining the fields by entering fields’ description
 It enables one to specify the fields’ properties hence ease the data entry and
management
 It doesn’t require a lot of memory to run hence it is quick even in a slower computer.
State any three data description and three data manipulation commands as used in SQL
 DDL- Create; Delete; Update; Drop

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  DML- insert; select; group by; where; having;

Describe the components which constitute an SQL Environment

- Data Defintion Language
- Data manipulation Language
- Data control Langauage

Company X has an employee entity with the following attributes: name, PfNo, DoB,
deptNo. Where name refers to the name of the employee, PfNo refers to the personal file
number of that employee, DoB is the date of birth of the employee and deptNo is the
number of the department where the employee belongs.
(i) Identify metadata and a primary key for the employee entity.
Pk- PfNo
(ii) Issue SQL commands for creating a database for the company and a table containing
information on the company’s employees. Use your own field sizes.

What are the three general goals of computer security?

Confidentiality - preventing unauthorized people from gaining access to private data 

Integrity - data is only modifyable/producable by authorized people (or the data is well
formed) 
Availability - providing the data/services intended to authorised parties in a timely
fashion .

What is Normalization? Database normalization is the process of organizing the fields and
tables of a relational database to minimize redundancy and dependency

(ii) SELECT Orders.OrderID, Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderDate

FROM Orders
INNER JOIN Customers
ON Orders.CustomerID=Customers.CustomerID;

Give an example of why it is important to consider the skill and resources available to
likely intruders when designing computer security mechanisms and policies to defend
against those intruders?

It the intruder has few skills or resources (e.g. grandma), then a simple cheap security
mechanism might be sufficient (e.g. passwords). If the adversary is the Safaricom Company,
then passwords will be of little defence

19
A database system normally contains a lot of data in addition to users’ data. For example, it
stores data about data, known as metadata, to locate and retrieve data easily. It is rather difficult
to modify or update a set of metadata once it is stored in the database. But as a DBMS expands,
it needs to change over time to satisfy the requirements of the users. If the entire data is
dependent, it would become a tedious and highly complex job.

Metadata itself follows a layered architecture, so that when we change data at one layer, it does
not affect the data at another level. This data is independent but mapped to each other.

Logical Data Independence

Logical data is data about database, that is, it stores information about how data is managed
inside. For example, a table (relation) stored in the database and all its constraints, applied on
that relation.

Logical data independence is a kind of mechanism, which liberalizes itself from actual data
stored on the disk. If we do some changes on table format, it should not change the data residing
on the disk.

Physical Data Independence

All the schemas are logical, and the actual data is stored in bit format on the disk. Physical data
independence is the power to change the physical data without impacting the schema or logical
data.For example, in case we want to change or upgrade the storage system itself − suppose we
want to replace hard-disks with SSD − it should not have any impact on the logical data or
schemas.

State and explain various keys used in a database

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Primary Key The primary key is a unique identifier for a record.  The primary key cannot be the
same for two records.  This field can never be blank.
Composite Key A composite key is a primary key that is comprised of two or more fields.  It
can also be called a compound or concatenated key. 
Foreign Key A foreign key is a field or combination of fields that are related to the primary key
of another table.

Super Key − A set of attributes (one or more) that collectively identifies an entity in an entity
set.
Candidate key Set of attributes could be used as the primary key
Discuss database Relationship
Relationships are represented by diamond-shaped box. Name of the relationship is written
inside the diamond-box. All the entities (rectangles) participating in a relationship, are
connected to it by a line.

Binary Relationship and Cardinality

A relationship where two entities are participating is called a binary relationship. Cardinality
is the number of instance of an entity from a relation that can be associated with the relation.

 One-to-one − When only one instance of an entity is associated with the relationship, it
is marked as '1:1'. The following image reflects that only one instance of each entity
should be associated with the relationship. It depicts one-to-one relationship.

 One-to-many − When more than one instance of an entity is associated with a

relationship, it is marked as '1:N'. The following image reflects that only one instance of
entity on the left and more than one instance of an entity on the right can be associated
with the relationship. It depicts one-to-many relationship.

21
  Many-to-one − When more than one instance of entity is associated with the
relationship, it is marked as 'N:1'. The following image reflects that more than one
instance of an entity on the left and only one instance of an entity on the right can be
associated with the relationship. It depicts many-to-one relationship.

 Many-to-many − The following image reflects that more than one instance of an entity
on the left and more than one instance of an entity on the right can be associated with the
relationship. It depicts many-to-many relationship.

Given relations Customers, and PhoneNumbers below:

i) Write SQL statement that will retrieve fields contactid and lastname from
customers and phonetype and number from PhoneNumbers where contactid
is common between the two relations
Select c. contacted, c. lastname, p.phonetype, p.number
From customers c, PhoneNumbers p
Where c.contactid=p.contactid
ii) Write SQL statement to create table PhoneNumbers. Remember to use
appropriate data types for the fields
Create table PhoneNumbers
(contacid int Pimary key,
Phonetype varchar(20),
Number int
)
iii) What is the difference between composite and key field

22
Customers

contactid firstname lastname street zipcode

1639 George Barnes 1254 Bellflower 90840
5629 Susan Noble 1515 Palo Verde 90840
3388 Erwin Star 17022 Brookhurst 92708
5772 Alice Buck 3884 Atherton 90836
1911 Frank Borders 10200 Slater 92708
4848 Hanna Diedrich 1699 Studebaker 90840
PhoneNumbers

contactid phonetype number

1639 Home 562-874-1234
1639 Cell 310-999-3628
5629 Home 562-975-3388
5629 Work 714-847-3366
3388 Fax 714-997-5885
3388 Pager 714-997-2428
5772 Work 562-577-1200

A certain company coming in town contracted to develop its database describe the steps
you will follow when designing this database
(i) Determine the purpose of your database
(ii) Determine the tables you need in the database
(iii) Determine the fields you need in the tables
(iv)Identify fields with unique values
(v) Determine the relationships between tables
(vi)Refine your design
(vii) Add data and create other database objects
(viii) Use Microsoft Access analysis tools.
With an aid of examples differentiate between specialization, generalization and
inheritance in a database.

Generalization
As mentioned above, the process of generalizing entities, where the generalized entities contain
the properties of all the generalized entities, is called generalization. In generalization, a number
of entities are brought together into one generalized entity based on their similar characteristics.
For example, pigeon, house sparrow, crow and dove can all be generalized as Birds.

23
Specialization
Specialization is the opposite of generalization. In specialization, a group of entities is divided
into sub-groups based on their characteristics. Take a group ‘Person’ for example. A person has
name, date of birth, gender, etc. These properties are common in all persons, human beings. But
in a company, persons can be identified as employee, employer, customer, or vendor, based on
what role they play in the company.

Similarly, in a school database, persons can be specialized as teacher, student, or a staff, based
on what role they play in school as entities.

Inheritance
We use all the above features of ER-Model in order to create classes of objects in object-
oriented programming. The details of entities are generally hidden from the user; this process
known as abstraction.

Inheritance is an important feature of Generalization and Specialization. It allows lower-level

entities to inherit the attributes of higher-level entities.

For example, the attributes of a Person class such as name, age, and gender can be inherited by
lower-level entities such as Student or Teacher.

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 Outline five factors to consider when developing a DBMS
 Purpose of the database
 Entities in the user environment
 Their attributes
 Relationship among entities
 End- users

What are access control lists and capabilties, and how do they relate to the protection
matrix model of representing authority in a system.

 Access control lists define what users / processes are able to perform certain
actions on a resource. For example, UNIX permissions: read, write, execute.
Capabilities define, for each user / process, what actions they can perform on
different resources. They are both ways to represent the protection matrix model
of authority in a system.

ACLs represent the protection matrix stored by column, capabilities represent the
protection matrix stored by row (asusming, like in the notes that each rows is
labelled by process and each column is labelled by an object/resource).

Explain various ways on how a One-time password are implemented in DBMS

 Random numbers − Users are provided cards having numbers printed along with
corresponding alphabets. System asks for numbers corresponding to few alphabets
randomly chosen.

 Secret key − User are provided a hardware device which can create a secret id mapped
with user id. System asks for such secret id which is to be generated every time prior to
login.

 Network password − Some commercial applications send one-time passwords to user

on registered mobile/ email which is required to be entered prior to login.

Differentiate between the following terms as used in DBMS.

i. Attribute and tuple
A tuple refers to a row in a relation
An attribute refers to a column in a relation
ii. Cardinality and relationship type

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 Cardinality refers to the minimum and maximum number of entity occurrences associated
with the occurrence of a related entity.
Relationship type: In a relationship between two entities A and B it refers to the number of
occurrences of entity B associated with an occurrence of entity A, and the number of
occurrences of entity A associated with an occurrence of entity B.
iii. Partial dependency and transitive dependency
A partial dependency exists when a part of the primary key acts as a determinant attribute
example: If (A, B) → (C,D), B → C, and (A, B) is the PK, then the functional dependence B
→ C is a partial dependency because only part of the primary key (B) is needed to determine
the value of C.
A transitive dependency exists when an attribute depends on another attribute via another
attribute example: X → Y, Y → Z, and X is the primary key. In that case, the dependency X
→ Z is a transitive dependency because X determines the value of Z via Y.
Discuss the following OODBS concepts
(i) Persistence
(ii) support of transactions
(iii) concurrency control
(iv) resilience and recovery
(v) security
Discuss the TWO statements used by SQL to manage transactions.
COMMIT – permanently saves changes to the DB.
ROLLBACK – it is used to restore the DB to a previously consistent state.
Discuss the THREE data integrity and consistency problems that can be caused by poorly
managed concurrent transactions.
The lost update problem occurs when two concurrent transactions, T1 and T2, are updating the
same data element and one of the updates is lost (overwritten by the other transaction).
The phenomenon of uncommitted data occurs when two transactions, T1 and T2, are executed
concurrently and the first transaction (T1) is rolled back after the second transaction (T2) has
already accessed the uncommitted data—thus violating the isolation property of transactions.
Inconsistent retrievals occur when a transaction accesses data before and after another
transaction(s) finish working with such data. For example, an inconsistent retrieval would occur
if transaction T1 calculated some summary (aggregate) function over a set of data while another
transaction (T2) was updating the same data. The problem is that the transaction might read some
26
data before they are changed and other data after they are changed, thereby yielding inconsistent
results.
Discuss the FOUR properties of a transaction.
Atomicity (all or none) requires that all operations of a transaction be completed; if not, the
transaction is aborted. If a transaction T1 has four SQL requests, all four requests must be
successfully completed; otherwise, the entire transaction is aborted. In other words, a transaction
is treated as a single, indivisible, logical unit of work.
Consistency indicates the permanence of the database’s consistent state. A transaction takes a
database from one consistent state to another consistent state. When a transaction is completed,
the database must be in a consistent state; if any of the transaction parts violates an integrity
constraint, the entire transaction is aborted.
Isolation (independence) means that the data used during the execution of a transaction cannot
be used by a second transaction until the first one is completed (each transaction executes
independently). In other words, if a transaction T1 is being executed and is using the data item X,
that data item cannot be accessed by any other transaction (T2 ... Tn) until T1 ends. This
property is particularly useful in multiuser database environments because several users can
access and update the database at the same time.
Durability ensures that once transaction changes are done (committed), they cannot be undone
or lost, even in the event of a system failure.
Discuss ERD components
a) Entities:
 Represented by a rectangle on the ERD
 Represent data which could be people, places, objects, event, concepts, or whatever else
an organization wishes to maintain data about.
 It can be distinguished from all of the other entities in the business environment by some
set of identifying characteristics or attributes.
 It represents a class of things that can occur more than once within the business
environment.
 Entity type
A collection of entities that all share one or more common properties or attributes.
 Entity instance
Represents a single, unique occurrence of a member of an entity type.

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b) Attributes
 Represented by an oval or ellipse on the ERD
 A characteristic of an entity or a relationship
 Example: The entity STUDENT could be described by attributes such as NAME,
ADDRESS, ID NUMBER, MAJOR, etc.
c) Key Attributes
 An unique identifier of an entity
 Can be a single attribute, or group of attributes
 Example: The entity PRODUCT might be uniquely identified by a key PRODUCT ID
d) Concatenated/Composite/Compound Key
a. A group of attributes that uniquely identifies an instance of an entity
e) Candidate Key
a. A candidate to become the primary identifier
b. Example: The entity STUDENT could be uniquely identified by SSN, STUDENT ID,
or E-MAIL ADDRESS
f) Multivalued Attributes:
Multiple values for a single entity instance
Example: the attribute TRAINING of the entity EMPLOYEE can have more than one value at
any given time
Define a constraints and discuss its types
Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid relation instances. There are three main
types of constraints:
1. Key constraints
2. Entity integrity constraints
3. Referential integrity constraints
1. Key constraints:- Examples include primary, candidate and superkeys (explained
elsewhere in this document).
2. Entity integrity constraints
The entity integrity constraint states that no primary key value can be null. This is
because the primary key value is used to identify individual tuples in a relation. Having
null value for the primary key implies that we cannot identify some tuples.This also
specifies that there may not be any duplicate entries in primary key column key row.

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 3. Referential integrity
Referential integrity is a database concept that ensures that relationships between tables remain
consistent. When one table has a foreign key to another table, the concept of referential integrity
states that you may not add a record to the table that contains the foreign key unless there is a
corresponding record in the linked table. It also includes the techniques known as cascading
update and cascading delete, which ensure that changes made to the linked table are reflected in
the primary table.
Consider the situation where we have two tables: Employees and Managers. The Employees
table has a foreign key attribute entitled Managed by which points to the record for that
employee’s manager in the Managers table

Using relevant examples discuss any THREE data anomalies associated with redundant
data in a DBMS.
 The student should use an example to explain:
 Update anomaly
 Delete anomaly
 Insert anomaly

Discuss the role played by Entity Relationship modeling in database design.

An Entity Model (also called Entity-relationship Model) is a representation of the data used by a
system. It shows how data is logically grouped together and the relationships between these
logical data groupings as defined by the business requirements of the system.
Discuss mapping as used in DBMS

Mapping Entity
An entity is a real-world object with some attributes.

Mapping Process (Algorithm)

 Create table for each entity.

29
  Entity's attributes should become fields of tables with their respective data types.
 Declare primary key.
Mapping Relationship
A relationship is an association among entities.

Mapping Process

 Create table for a relationship.

 Add the primary keys of all participating Entities as fields of table with their respective
data types.
 If relationship has any attribute, add each attribute as field of table.
 Declare a primary key composing all the primary keys of participating entities.
 Declare all foreign key constraints.
Mapping Weak Entity Sets
A weak entity set is one which does not have any primary key associated with it.

Mapping Process

 Create table for weak entity set.

 Add all its attributes to table as field.
 Add the primary key of identifying entity set.
 Declare all foreign key constraints.
Mapping Hierarchical Entities
ER specialization or generalization comes in the form of hierarchical entity sets.

30
Mapping Process
 Create tables for all higher-level entities.

 Create tables for lower-level entities.

 Add primary keys of higher-level entities in the table of lower-level entities.

 In lower-level tables, add all other attributes of lower-level entities.

 Declare primary key of higher-level table and the primary key for lower-level table.

 Declare foreign key constraints.

Discuss Functional Dependency

Functional dependency (FD) is a set of constraints between two attributes in a relation.
Functional dependency says that if two tuples have same values for attributes A1, A2,..., An,
then those two tuples must have to have same values for attributes B1, B2, ..., Bn. Functional
dependency is represented by an arrow sign (→) that is, X→Y, where X functionally determines
Y. The left-hand side attributes determine the values of attributes on the right-hand side.

A relation can be said to be in 1NF, 2NF or 3NF Discuss in detail using examples for each
case.
1NF describes a tabular format in which:
• All of the key attributes are defined.
• There are no repeating groups in the table. In other words, each row/column intersection
contains one and only one value, not a set of values.
• All attributes are dependent on the primary key.
2NF: A table is in second normal form (2NF) when:
• It is in 1NF and

31
 • It includes no partial dependencies; that is, no attribute is dependent on only a portion of
the primary key.
3NF: A table is in third normal form (3NF) when:
 It is in 2NF and
 It contains no transitive dependencies.
 Hierarchical database model
Discuss cods 12 rules

Rule 1: Information Rule

The data stored in a database, may it be user data or metadata, must be a value of some table
cell. Everything in a database must be stored in a table format.

Rule 2: Guaranteed Access Rule

Every single data element (value) is guaranteed to be accessible logically with a combination of
table-name, primary-key (row value), and attribute-name (column value). No other means, such
as pointers, can be used to access data.

Rule 3: Systematic Treatment of NULL Values

The NULL values in a database must be given a systematic and uniform treatment. This is a
very important rule because a NULL can be interpreted as one the following − data is missing,
data is not known, or data is not applicable.

Rule 4: Active Online Catalog

The structure description of the entire database must be stored in an online catalog, known
as data dictionary, which can be accessed by authorized users. Users can use the same query
language to access the catalog which they use to access the database itself.

Rule 5: Comprehensive Data Sub-Language Rule

A database can only be accessed using a language having linear syntax that supports data
definition, data manipulation, and transaction management operations. This language can be
used directly or by means of some application. If the database allows access to data without any
help of this language, then it is considered as a violation.

Rule 6: View Updating Rule

All the views of a database, which can theoretically be updated, must also be updatable by the
system.

Rule 7: High-Level Insert, Update, and Delete Rule

32
A database must support high-level insertion, updation, and deletion. This must not be limited
to a single row, that is, it must also support union, intersection and minus operations to yield
sets of data records.

Rule 8: Physical Data Independence

The data stored in a database must be independent of the applications that access the database.
Any change in the physical structure of a database must not have any impact on how the data is
being accessed by external applications.

Rule 9: Logical Data Independence

The logical data in a database must be independent of its user’s view (application). Any change
in logical data must not affect the applications using it. For example, if two tables are merged or
one is split into two different tables, there should be no impact or change on the user
application. This is one of the most difficult rule to apply.

Rule 10: Integrity Independence

A database must be independent of the application that uses it. All its integrity constraints can
be independently modified without the need of any change in the application. This rule makes a
database independent of the front-end application and its interface.

Rule 11: Distribution Independence

The end-user must not be able to see that the data is distributed over various locations. Users
should always get the impression that the data is located at one site only. This rule has been
regarded as the foundation of distributed database systems.

Rule 12: Non-Subversion Rule

If a system has an interface that provides access to low-level records, then the interface must not
be able to subvert the system and bypass security and integrity constraints.

State and explain various database objects

 Tables- Allows the user to organize data into rows and columns.
 Queries- Used to analyse or request for specific records from a database.
 Forms- A form is a visual display that resembles an ordinary form used to enter or view
records from a table.
 Reports- Used to generate reports or summaries from an underlying table or query.
 Macros- Used to automate some operations such as displaying a startup form when you start
Access.

33
 Modules- This is a Visual Basic Programming environment that consists of a collection of
declarations and procedures used to automate other database objects.
Pages – Data access pages are used to create web-based databases
Referential integrity enforces three rules, discuss the three rules.
1. We may not add a record to the Employees table unless the Managed by attribute points
to a valid record in the Managers table.
2. If the primary key for a record in the Managers table changes, all corresponding records
in the Employees table must be modified using a cascading update.
3. If a record in the Managers table is deleted, all corresponding records in the Employees
table must be deleted using a cascading delete.
4. Domain Integrity
The domain integrity states that every element from a relation should respect the type and
restrictions of its corresponding attribute. A type can have a variable length which needs to be
respected. Restrictions could be the range of values that the element can have, the default value if
none is provided, and if the element can be NULL.

State and explain various data types used in DBMS

Data type Description
Text Text, number, or a combination up to 255 characters
Memo Similar to the text field, can contain text, numbers, or a
combination up to 2 GB of data.
Number Numbers up to 16 bytes of data
Date/Time Date and Time information
Currency Currency up to 8 bytes and precise to 4 decimal places
AutoNumber Access creates a unique number for each new record.  This is
often the primary key for the table
Yes/No Yes and No, stored as -1 for yes and 0 for no
OLE Object Images, documents, graphs up to 2 GB
Hyperlink Web addresses
Attachment Attachments such as images, spreadsheets, documents, and
charts.

34
State the advantages and disadvantages of a database Model Structures:
MODEL ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
 Ease with which data can be
Hierarchical Data  Hierarchical one-to-many
Structure stored and retrieved in structured, relationships must be
routine types of transactions. specified in advance, and
 Ease with which data can be are not flexible.
extracted for reporting purposes.  Cannot easily handle ad
 Structured and routine types of hoc requests for
transaction processing are fast information.
and efficient.  Modifying a hierarchical
database structure is
complex.

 Great deal of redundancy.

 Requires knowledge of a
programming language.

Network Structure  More flexible that the  Network many-to-many

hierarchical model. relationships must be
specified in advance.
 Ability to provide sophisticated
logical relationships among the  User is limited to
records. retrieving data that can be
accessed using the
established links between
records. Cannot easily
handle ad hoc requests for
information.

 Requires knowledge of a
programming language.
 Compact and easy to understand  Not currently developed
Multidimensional
Structure way to visualize and manipulate for broad business
data elements that has many application use.
interrelationships.

 Supports OLAP applications in

which fast answers to complex
business queries are required.
 Flexible in that it can handle ad  Cannot process large
Relational
Structure amounts of business

35
 hoc information requests. transactions as quickly
and efficiently as the
 Easy for programmers to work hierarchical and network
with. End users can use this models.
model with little effort or
training.

 Easier to maintain than the

hierarchical and network models.
 Handles complex types of data Not currently developed for
Object-Oriented
(graphics, pictures, voice, and broad business use.
Structure
text) better than other structures.

 Relatively easy to use.

 Key technology being used in

multimedia web-based
applications for the Internet and
corporate intranets and extranets.

 Supports inheritance - new

objects can be automatically
created by replicating some or all
of the characteristics of one or
more parent objects.

Discuss the role of joins in SQL and differentiate between the TWO main SQL joins.
 SQL joins are used to retrieve data from more than one related tables using an equality
comparison between the FK and the PK.
 INNER JOIN - Returns the matched records from the tables that are being joined.
 OUTER JOIN - Returns the matched pairs and any unmatched values in the other table
would be left null.
 (Two marks for the role and two marks for each join type)

Consider the following table structures:

Table 1: Project
P_ID P_Name Client Client_Location
Table 2: Employee
Emp_ID EmpFName EmpLName Gender P_ID Department

36
P_ID and Emp_ID are the primary keys to the Project and Employee tables respectively,
on the employee table, P_ID is a foreign key to the project table.
Write SQl statements that will:
i. Create the employee table.
CREATE TABLE employee(
Emp_ID int NOT NULL
Emp_FName char(30) NOT NULL
EMmp_LName char(30) NOT NULL
Gender char(8) NOT NULL
P_ID int NOT NULL
Department char(10) NOT NULL
PRIMARY KEY(Emp_ID)
FOREIGN KEY(P_ID) REFERENCES project);
ii. Insert one row of data into the project table.
INSERT INTO project VALUES( 001, “Maseno lecture rooms ”, “Maseno University”,
“Maseno”);
iii. Retrieve the details of all employees working on project ID number 20
SELECT * FROM employee WHERE P_ID = 20;
iv. Update the first name of an employee whose employee ID is 0045 to Mark.
UPDATE employee SET EmpLName = “Mark” WHERE Emp_ID = 0045;
v. Count the number of female employees in the IT department.
SELECT COUNT(Emp_ID) WHERE department = “IT” AND gender = “Female”;
vi. Output the names of all employees and the names of the projects they are working
on.
SELECT employee.EmpFName, employee.EmpLName, project.P_Name
FROM employee, project
ON employee.Emp_ID = project.P_ID
vii. Outputs all the unique department names the organization.
SELECT DISTINCT(Department) FROM Employee;
Define the following terms

Tables − In relational data model, relations are saved in the format of Tables. This format stores
the relation among entities. A table has rows and columns, where rows represents records and
columns represent the attributes.

37
Tuple − A single row of a table, which contains a single record for that relation is called a tuple.

Relation instance − A finite set of tuples in the relational database system represents relation
instance. Relation instances do not have duplicate tuples.

Relation schema − A relation schema describes the relation name (table name), attributes, and
their names.

Relation key − Each row has one or more attributes, known as relation key, which can identify
the row in the relation (table) uniquely.

Attribute domain − Every attribute has some pre-defined value scope, known as attribute
domain.
Discuss different types of locks in concurrency control

Simplistic Lock Protocol

Simplistic lock-based protocols allow transactions to obtain a lock on every object before a
'write' operation is performed. Transactions may unlock the data item after completing the
‘write’ operation.

Pre-claiming Lock Protocol

Pre-claiming protocols evaluate their operations and create a list of data items on which they
need locks. Before initiating an execution, the transaction requests the system for all the locks it
needs beforehand. If all the locks are granted, the transaction executes and releases all the locks
when all its operations are over. If all the locks are not granted, the transaction rolls back and
waits until all the locks are granted.

Two-Phase Locking 2PL

This locking protocol divides the execution phase of a transaction into three parts. In the first
part, when the transaction starts executing, it seeks permission for the locks it requires. The
second part is where the transaction acquires all the locks. As soon as the transaction releases its
first lock, the third phase starts. In this phase, the transaction cannot demand any new locks; it
only releases the acquired locks.

38
Two-phase locking has two phases, one is growing, where all the locks are being acquired by
the transaction; and the second phase is shrinking, where the locks held by the transaction are
being released. To claim an exclusive (write) lock, a transaction must first acquire a shared
(read) lock and then upgrade it to an exclusive lock.

Strict Two-Phase Locking

The first phase of Strict-2PL is same as 2PL. After acquiring all the locks in the first phase, the
transaction continues to execute normally. But in contrast to 2PL, Strict-2PL does not release a
lock after using it. Strict-2PL holds all the locks until the commit point and releases all the locks
at a time.

Strict-2PL does not have cascading abort as 2PL does.

Timestamp-based Protocols
The most commonly used concurrency protocol is the timestamp based protocol. This protocol
uses either system time or logical counter as a timestamp.

Lock-based protocols manage the order between the conflicting pairs among transactions at the
time of execution, whereas timestamp-based protocols start working as soon as a transaction is
created.

Explain the factors a person wishing to acquire a DBMS should take into account before
purchasing the DBMS he needs to run his business-Cost
-Security features
-Recovery features
-User interface
-Memory requirements

39
Briefly explain the components of a DBMS environment;
- Hardware:
- Software:
- People :
- Procedures:
- Data:

Discuss Relational Algebra and relational calculus in Dbms

Relational database systems are expected to be equipped with a query language that can assist
its users to query the database instances. There are two kinds of query languages − relational
algebra and relational calculus.

Relational Algebra
Relational algebra is a procedural query language, which takes instances of relations as input
and yields instances of relations as output. It uses operators to perform queries. An operator can
be either unary or binary. They accept relations as their input and yield relations as their
output. Relational algebra is performed recursively on a relation and intermediate results are
also considered relations.

The fundamental operations of relational algebra are as follows −

 Select
 Project
 Union
 Set different
 Cartesian product
 Rename
We will discuss all these operations in the following sections.

Select Operation (σ)

It selects tuples that satisfy the given predicate from a relation.

Notation − σp(r)

Where σ stands for selection predicate and r stands for relation. p is prepositional logic formula
which may use connectors like and, or, and not. These terms may use relational operators like
− =, ≠, ≥, < ,  >,  ≤.

For example −

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σsubject="database"(Books)

Output − Selects tuples from books where subject is 'database'.

σsubject="database" and price="450"(Books)

Output − Selects tuples from books where subject is 'database' and 'price' is 450.

σsubject="database" and price < "450" or year > "2010"(Books)

Output − Selects tuples from books where subject is 'database' and 'price' is 450 or those books
published after 2010.

Project Operation (∏)

It projects column(s) that satisfy a given predicate.

Notation − ∏A1, A2, An (r)

Where A1, A2 , An are attribute names of relation r.

Duplicate rows are automatically eliminated, as relation is a set.

For example −

∏subject, author (Books)

Selects and projects columns named as subject and author from the relation Books.

Union Operation (∪)

It performs binary union between two given relations and is defined as −

r ∪ s = { t | t ∈ r or t ∈ s}

Notation − r U s

Where r and s are either database relations or relation result set (temporary relation).

For a union operation to be valid, the following conditions must hold −

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  r, and s must have the same number of attributes.
 Attribute domains must be compatible.
 Duplicate tuples are automatically eliminated.

∏ author (Books) ∪ ∏ author (Articles)

Output − Projects the names of the authors who have either written a book or an article or both.

Set Difference (−)

The result of set difference operation is tuples, which are present in one relation but are not in
the second relation.

Notation − r − s

Finds all the tuples that are present in r but not in s.

∏ author (Books) − ∏ author (Articles)

Output − Provides the name of authors who have written books but not articles.

Cartesian Product (Χ)

Combines information of two different relations into one.

Notation − r Χ s

Where r and s are relations and their output will be defined as −

r Χ s = { q t | q ∈ r and t ∈ s}

∏ author = 'tutorialspoint'(Books Χ Articles)

Output − Yields a relation, which shows all the books and articles written by tutorialspoint.

Rename Operation (ρ)

The results of relational algebra are also relations but without any name. The rename operation
allows us to rename the output relation. 'rename' operation is denoted with small Greek
letter rho ρ.

Notation − ρ x (E)

Where the result of expression E is saved with name of x.

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Additional operations are −

 Set intersection
 Assignment
 Natural join
Relational Calculus
In contrast to Relational Algebra, Relational Calculus is a non-procedural query language, that
is, it tells what to do but never explains how to do it.

Relational calculus exists in two forms −

Tuple Relational Calculus (TRC)

Filtering variable ranges over tuples

Notation − {T | Condition}

Returns all tuples T that satisfies a condition.

For example −

{ T.name | Author(T) AND T.article = 'database' }

Output − Returns tuples with 'name' from Author who has written article on 'database'.

TRC can be quantified. We can use Existential (∃) and Universal Quantifiers (∀).

For example −

{ R| ∃T   ∈ Authors(T.article='database' AND R.name=T.name)}

Output − The above query will yield the same result as the previous one.

Domain Relational Calculus (DRC)

In DRC, the filtering variable uses the domain of attributes instead of entire tuple values (as
done in TRC, mentioned above).

Notation −

{ a1, a2, a3, ..., an | P (a1, a2, a3, ... ,an)}

Where a1, a2 are attributes and P stands for formulae built by inner attributes.

For example −

{< article, page, subject > | ∈ TutorialsPoint ∧ subject = 'database'}

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Output − Yields Article, Page, and Subject from the relation TutorialsPoint, where subject is
database.

Just like TRC, DRC can also be written using existential and universal quantifiers. DRC also
involves relational operators.

The expression power of Tuple Relation Calculus and Domain Relation Calculus is equivalent
to Relational Algebra.

Differentiate between deferred database modification and immediate database

modifications

 Deferred database modification − All logs are written on to the stable storage and the
database is updated when a transaction commits.

 Immediate database modification − Each log follows an actual database modification.

That is, the database is modified immediately after every operation.

Discuss different types of index

Indexing is defined based on its indexing attributes. Indexing can be of the following types −

 Primary Index − Primary index is defined on an ordered data file. The data file is
ordered on a key field. The key field is generally the primary key of the relation.

 Secondary Index − Secondary index may be generated from a field which is a candidate
key and has a unique value in every record, or a non-key with duplicate values.

 Clustering Index − Clustering index is defined on an ordered data file. The data file is
ordered on a non-key field.

Define Transaction and explain the reasons of transaction failures

A transaction has to abort when it fails to execute or when it reaches a point from where it can’t
go any further. This is called transaction failure where only a few transactions or processes are
hurt.

Reasons for a transaction failure could be −

 Logical errors − Where a transaction cannot complete because it has some code error or
any internal error condition.

 System errors − Where the database system itself terminates an active transaction
because the DBMS is not able to execute it, or it has to stop because of some system

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 condition. For example, in case of deadlock or resource unavailability, the system aborts
an active transaction.

System Crash
There are problems − external to the system − that may cause the system to stop abruptly and
cause the system to crash. For example, interruptions in power supply may cause the failure of
underlying hardware or software failure.

Examples may include operating system errors.

Disk Failure
In early days of technology evolution, it was a common problem where hard-disk drives or
storage drives used to fail frequently.

REVISION QUESTIONS
 Define RDBMS, and with the help of a well-labeled diagram describe RDBMS
Architecture State any three data description and two data manipulation commands as used
in SQL.
 List four examples of Database Management System
 Explain the four basic building blocks of all data models
 With the help of a well-labeled diagram describe a client/server architecture.
 Why does system database needs life circle, and use a diagram to explain the
characteristics of basic information system
 Discuss various database designs processes.
 Explain the following broad categories of SQL functions.
i) Data Definition Language (DDL) ii) Data Manipulation Language
iii. Data Control Language (DCL)
 Describe the process of data integration as applied to DBMS
 Write an SQL statement that will produce the output shown below.

OrderID CustomerName OrderDate

10308 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados 9/18/1996
10365 Antonio Moreno Taquería 11/27/1996
10383 Around the Horn 12/16/1996
10355 Around the Horn 11/15/1996
10278 Berglunds snabbköp 8/12/1996
 Construct JKUAT Student Association ERD diagram that indicates all major activities with
their related attributes
 Explain briefly the five major components of the database management system
environment
 State and explain any three integrity constraints in DBMS
 Distinguish between the following language syntax using examples. i.ERD ii)Context
Diagram iii) data flow diagram
 Given relations Customers, and PhoneNumbers below:

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 iv) Write SQL statement that will retrieve fields contactid and lastname from
customers and phonetype and number from PhoneNumbers where contactid is
common between the two relations
v) Write SQL statement to create table PhoneNumbers. Remember to use
appropriate data types for the fields
vi) What is the difference between composite and key field

 Database follows under two different types, explain the two types.
 Give five advantages and disadvantages of client/server architecture
 Define Query functions and state two types of Integrity Constraints.
 Explain the SQL syntax of ;
o i) CREATE TABLE ii) UPDATE record

 Give a brief explanation of the following E-R concepts:

o (i) Entity (ii) Attribute (iii) Cardinality (iv) Relationship
 How does Data warehouse differ from both Data security and Data Integrity.
 Define Control system as applied to DBMS and with the aid of the diagram. Explain the
measurement control system
 Consider the following two tables: Persons table and Orders table.
 The "Persons" table:

P_I LastName FirstName Address City

d
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 2
4 24562 1

 Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id" column in the
"Persons" table.
 Write DDL statements to create the two relations
 Write DML statements to store the data in the two relations
 Write SQL statement to add another field/ column “phoneNumber” to the persons table
 Discuss various types of relationships used in DBMS.
 Define normalizations and Identify two common situations in which database designers
use normalization
 Describe database normal forms
 Explain the concept of concurrency control in database transactions.
 Define Schema, and describe Semiology term as applied to database.
 Formal Language define schema as data model. State three major principles of
data model

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