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Class 1 - 02 - Data - Anomalies

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Abinash Patnaik
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31 views3 pages

Class 1 - 02 - Data - Anomalies

Uploaded by

Abinash Patnaik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Anomalies:

A database anomaly is an inconsistency in the data resulting from an operation like


an update, insertion, or deletion. There can be inconsistencies when a record is held in
multiple places and not all of the copies are updated.

Anomalies occur when the data present in the database has too much redundancy and if the
tables making up the database are poorly constructed

How are Anomalies Caused in DBMS?

Poorly constructed tables in a database are often the reason behind anomalies. How do you
define "poor construction"? A poorly designed table becomes apparent if, when a designer
is creating the database, he fails to identify the entities which are interdependent, such as
rooms of a hostel and the hostel, and then minimizes the chances of an entity being
independent of another.

A database anomaly is a fault within a database, which can occur because of poor planning
or when everything is stored in a flat database. A normalization procedure, which combines
and splits tables, is usually sufficient to remove this. By normalizing the database, we reduce
the likelihood of creating tables that generate anomalies.

Type of Anomalies in DBMS

There are different types of anomalies that can occur in a


database. Redundancy anomalies`, for instance, can cause problems during tests if you are a
student, and during job interviews, if you are looking for work. However, they are easily
spotted and fixed. These are the ones we need to pay attention to:

1. Update
2. Insert
3. Delete
The term anomaly is used to describe a discrepancy between two parts of a database. In a
retail database, for example, you may have a customer and an invoice table. If you are no
longer selling to customers, you may want to purge them from your database periodically. If
you delete a customer but keep their invoices for the purchases they have made, you have
an anomaly. There is an invoice for a customer that doesn't exist anymore. By deleting all of
a customer's invoices when you delete a customer, this anomaly can be avoided.

1. Update anomaly:

Consider a college database that keeps student information in a table called student, which

contains four columns: stu_id for the student's id, stu_name for the student's

name, stu_address for the student's address, and stu_club for the student's club. Eventually,

the table will appear as follows:

stu_id stu_name stu_address stu_club

330 Muthu Rajasthan Literature

330 Muthu Rajasthan Finance

331 Mukesh Mumbai Crypto

332 Nanda Karnataka Public Speaking

332 Nanda Karnataka Arts

For student Muthu, we have two columns in the above table as he belongs to two clubs at

the college. If we want to change Muthu's address, we must update it twice otherwise the

data will be inconsistent.

When the correct address gets updated in one club but not in another, Muthu would

possess two different addresses, which is not acceptable and could result in inconsistent

data.
2. Insert anomaly:

Example: We use the same table in the previous example with modified data

stu_id stu_name stu_address stu_club


220 Annamalai Kerala yoga
220 Muthu Kerala Music
231 Mukesh Mumbai Crypto
232 Muni Karnataka Public Speaking
232 Muni Karnataka Arts

For example, in the above table if a new student named Nanda has joined the college and
he has no department affiliation as the club allows intake of students only from second year.
Then we can't insert the data of Nanda into the table since the st_club field cannot accept
null values.

3. Delete anomaly:

Example In this example, we use modified data from the previous example

stu_id stu_name stu_address stu_club


120 Nanthu Maharasthra yoga
122 Nanthu Maharashthra Music
131 Mukesh Mumbai Crypto
132 Muni Karnataka Public Speaking
132 Muni Karnataka Arts

Suppose, for instance, the college at some point closes the club crypto, then deleting the
rows that contain s_club as crypto would also delete the information of student Mukesh
since he belongs only to this department.

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