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Assignment 1

This document contains a summary of key database concepts for an assignment. It includes definitions of data redundancy and why it should be avoided, the difference between data and information, how to model entities, attributes, and relationships, the importance of data independence, and the differences between conceptual and logical database design. Specifically, it defines data redundancy as duplicate data that can become inconsistent, and explains that data is raw facts while information is processed data that has meaning.

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Carlos Correa
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19 views

Assignment 1

This document contains a summary of key database concepts for an assignment. It includes definitions of data redundancy and why it should be avoided, the difference between data and information, how to model entities, attributes, and relationships, the importance of data independence, and the differences between conceptual and logical database design. Specifically, it defines data redundancy as duplicate data that can become inconsistent, and explains that data is raw facts while information is processed data that has meaning.

Uploaded by

Carlos Correa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Assignment 1: Database Concepts

Learning Objectives
 Explain the fundamental database concepts

Question 1: What is data redundancy? Why should we avoid it in database design?


Data redundancy refers to the situation where the same data is stored unnecessarily at
different places in a database. It is important to avoid data redundancy in database design
because it creates the duplication of the data leading to inconsistencies and errors (a field
needs to be updated in more than one table). Additionally, data redundancy increases
storage requirements, slower performance and makes it difficult to maintain data
consistency. By minimizing data redundancy, we can ensure that the data is consistent,
accurate, and efficient to manage.

Question 2: Explain the difference between data and information.


Data refers to raw, unorganized facts, figures or statistics that are collected and stored in a
database. It is the basic building blocks of information. Information, on the other hand, is
the result of processing and organizing data in a meaningful way. It is data that has been
analyzed, interpreted, and presented in a way that is useful and relevant to the user. In
other words, information is data that has been transformed into a form that can be used
for decision-making or other purposes (information is processed data to reveal the meaning
behind the facts).

Question 3: Based on the table to answer the following question

SID Advisor Phone Office Credit Hours


919144238 Holly B. Parker 5621325 Garrett Strong 1225 18
919234580 Jane D. Grant 5621979 Valk 133 21
919600543 John J. Pope 5621121 Valk 212 24
919345904 George F. Dorts 5621689 Well 105 9
919567342 Holly B. Parker 5621325 Garrett Strong 1225 12
919364762 John J. Pope 5621121 Garrett Strong 2105 15

(a) What problems would you encounter if wanted to produce a listing by office
building?
The Office field contains the building name which makes difficult to produce the
listing by office building (there is no direct way to sort or group the data by
office building). Considering that the table does not have a specific column for
office building, queries become much more difficult to write and take longer to
execute when internal string searches must be conducted.

(b) How would you solve this problem by altering the file structure?
To solve this problem, the file structure could be altered to store the building
name as a separate attribute. This would allow querying the office information
more easily.

Question 4: What is an entity, an attribute, a relationship in the entity relation model?


In the entity-relationship (ER) model, an entity is a real-world object or concept (like a
person, place or thing) that has a unique identity and can be distinguished from other
objects. An entity is represented by a rectangle in an ER diagram.

An attribute is a characteristic or property of an entity that describes it in more detail.


Attributes are represented by ovals in an ER diagram and are connected to the entity they
describe.

A relationship represents an association between two or more entities. Relationships are


represented by diamonds in an ER diagram and are connected to the entities they relate.
Relationships can also have attributes, which describe the relationship itself.

Question 5: What is data independence and why is it important?


Data independence is the ability to make changes to the database schema without affecting
the applications that use the database. There are two types of data independence: logical
data independence and physical data independence. Logical data independence refers to
the ability to change the logical schema of the database without affecting the external
schema or the applications that use the database. Physical data independence refers to the
ability to change the physical schema of the database without affecting the logical schema
or the applications that use the database.

Data independence is important because it allows for flexibility in database design and
maintenance (it substantially decreases programming effort and program maintenance
costs).

Question 6: How is a database conceptual design different from a logical design?


A database conceptual design is the high-level and abstract phase of database design,
where the aim is to describe the data contained in the database, the relationships between
data items, and the constraints on data. It is independent of both software and hardware
and does not depend on the specific DBMS software or hardware implementation.

On the other hand, a logical design is the step-in database design that defines the database
in a specific data model of a DBMS (considers the implementation details of the system). It
involves creating tables, constraints, keys, rules, etc.
The main difference is that the conceptual design focuses on describing the overall
structure and relationships of the data, while the logical design focuses on implementing
the database in a specific data model.

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