CHAPTER – DATABASE CONCEPTS

Chapter-13 DATABASE CONCEPTS

One Mark Questions:

1. What is data?
ANS : Data is a collection of facts, numbers, letters or symbols that the computer process into
meaningful information.
2. What is Information?
ANS : Information is processed data, stored, or transmitted by a computer.
3. What is Database?
ANS : A Database is a collection of logically related data organized in a way that data can be easily
accessed, managed and updated.
4. What is a field?
ANS : Each column is identified by a distinct header called attribute or filed.
5. What is a record?
ANS : A single entry in a table is called record or row. A record in a table represents set of related
data. Records are also called as tuple.
6. What is an entity?
ANS : An Entity can be any object,place,person. In E-R Diagram entity is represented using rectangle.
7. What is an instance?
ANS : The collection of information stored in the database at a particular moment is called an
instance of the database.
8. What is an attribute?
ANS : It is defined as a named column of a relation. For ex – in a student table, rollno, name, age,
marks columns are attribute
9. What is domain?
ANS : It is defined as a set of allowed values for one or more attributes.
10. What is a relation?
ANS : A relation is defined as a table with columns and rows. Data can be stored in the form of a
two-dimensional table.
11. What is a table?
ANS : It is a collection of data elements organized in terms of rows and columns.
12. What is normalization?
ANS : Normalization is a step by step process of removing the different kinds of redundancy and
anomaly one step at a time from the database.
13. What is a key?
ANS: It is a column or columns which identifies the each row or tuple in a table uniquely.
14. Give the symbol notation for project and select?
ANS: 1) Select – sigma (∂)
2) Project – pi (∏)
15. What is data mining?
ANS: Data mining is concerned with the analysis and picking out relevant information.
16. Define primary key?
ANS: A column that defines each row of a table uniquely is called primary key.
17. Define foreign key?
ANS: Foreign key is an attribute that appears as a non-key attribute and as a primary key attribute
in another table. It is usually used to extract the data from the two tables.
18. Define alternate key?
ANS: The candidate key which is not considered as primary key currently is called alternate key.
19. Define composite key?
ANS: One or more than one column that uniquely identifies each row in a table as a unique is called
composite key.
for ex – In a student table (rollno, regno, name, combination, marks) are the columns
here rollno and regno are considered as composite key

TWO MARKS QUESTION

1. Briefly explain Serial file organization?

A- The collection of records are stored in the chronological order (time of creation) in the
physical medium, no particular sequence is followed to store the data. It can be used as
temporary transaction file.
2. Briefly explain Sequential file organization?
A- It is the most basic way to organize the records in a file. The records are stored in
sequential order either ascending or descending when file is created.
3. Briefly explain random file organization?
A- The records are stored in the storage devices such as CD or DVD. As these disks contain
tracks and sectors, data is stored in the random order at known physical address. This means
related records are physically separate from each other. Data access takes place randomly
with the help of record key.
4. Briefly explain Indexed Sequential file organization?(ISAM)
A- Each record of the table or file has a key field which uniquely identifies that record. In
indexed file data is stored randomly and data access takes place by both the ways
sequentially and randomly
5. What is relationship? Name different types of relationship?
A- A Relationship which connects different entities and represents meaningful dependencies
among them.
Types of Relationship – 1) one to one relationship (1:1)
2) One to many relationship (1: M)
3) Many to one relationship (M: 1)
4) Many to many relationship (M: M)

6. What is data mining? Why it is used?

A- The discovery of knowledge from the collected data is called data mining.
It is helpful for decision making in an organization, to increase or decrease the revenue and
cost of yje product.

THREE MARKS QUESTION

1. Explain data abstraction?

A- Representing essential features without knowing the background details.
There are two different types of data abstraction mechanism –
1) GENERALIZATION – It is a bottom –up approach in which lower level entities combine to
form a higher level entities.
2) SPECIALIZATION – It is a top-bottom approach, in which higher level entity can be
broken into lower level entities.
2. Explain different types of DBMS users?
A- The different DBMS users are –
1) DBA (Database Administrator) – A Super user who creates, uses and alters the database.
DBA provides the architectural layout of the database.
2) Database Designer – As per the layout by the DBA the designer designs the database
schema by applying the constraints and specification of data storage.
3) Application Programmer – The application software are designed by the application
Programmer and through this software user interacts with the database.
4) End User – A user who uses the database to fulfill his/her needs.
3. List the advantages and dis-advantages of sequential file organization?
A- Advantages – 1) Simple design and easy to understand.
2) It uses the storage space efficiently
3) Easy to reconstruct the files
Disadvantages – 1) Entire file must be processed if a single record is to be accessed.
2) Data Redundancy is high
3) Data has to be sorted before transaction.
4. List the advantages and dis-advantages of random file organization?
A- Advantages – 1) any record can be accessed directly with high speed.
2) It saves the memory space and time.
3) Concurrent processing of transactions.
4) Helpful for interactive online application.
Disadvantages – 1) File updation is difficult.
2) More complex and expensive devices required to store the database.
5. List the advantages and dis-advantages of indexed sequential file organization?
A- Advantages – 1) Flexible for the user to access the same file by both the ways
i.e sequentially and randomly.
2) Permits efficient and economic use of sequential processing technique.
Disadvantages – 1) Storage space is not use efficiently.
2) Extra time for indexing is required.
3) Hardware and Software used are relatively expensive
6. Write the symbol of entity, attribute and relations?
A-

ENTITY

ATTRIBUTE

RELATIONSHIP
7. Explain different types of relationship?
A- Types of Relationship –
1) one to one relationship (1:1) – One instance of one entity is related with one instance of
another entity.

COLLEGE

PRINCIPAL

2) One to many relationship (1: M) - One instance of one entity is related with one or more
than one instances of another entity.

LECTURER

STUDENTS

3) Many to one relationship (M: 1) - Many instances of one entity is related with one instance
of another entity.

STUDENTS
STUDENTS

COURSE

4) Many to many relationship (M: M) - Many instances of one entity is related with many
instances of another entity.

STUDENTS

PROJECTS
FIVE MARKS QUESTION

1. What are the different application of database

A- Different application of database are –
1) Academic application- The database is used to store the students’ information in the
schools, colleges and universities.
2) Medical application – The patients record / history is stored in database
3) Banking application- The transaction details such as deposit, withdrawal and transfer
of amount is stored in database.
4) Communication application- Incoming calls, outgoing calls, messages are recorded in
the database
5) Business application – In shops, malls and share market transactions are stored in
the database.
2. Give the difference between manual and electronics database?
A-

Manual data processing Electronics data processing

1) Entire process takes place 1) Entire process takes place by
manually machine.
2) speed and accuracy is limited 2) High speed and greater accuracy
3) limited volume of data can be 3) Large volume of data can be
processed processed.
4) Data transfer is difficult 4) Data can be transferred easily
through networks
5) It has time restrictions 5) 24 x 7 data processing can take
place
6) overall cost is high 6) overall cost is low

3. Explain the stages of data processing cycle?

A- I t has following stages –
1) Data collection – the Data may exist in different places and in different forms. All
required data items must be gathered together as first step.
2) Data input – The collected data should be given as input to the processing system.
3) Data process- The processing is a series of actions performed on input data to
generate outputs
4) Data output – The processed data is presented to user in a format called report.
5) Data storage – The result must be stored in the secondary storage medium for
future use.
6) Maintenance – Depending on significance of information it has to be maintained
with possible securities,
7) Sending the information – information generated is transferred to the proper
destination through the communication technology.
4. What are the advantages of DBMS/ explain the features of DBMS?
A- 1) Minimized data redundancy – since whole data resides in one central database avoids
unnecessary duplication of data and saves the amount of space required to store the
data.
2) Data Integrity – It refers to the correctness of the data in the database.
3) Data Sharing – Data stored in the database can be shared among multiple users.
 4) Data security – DBMS ensures that only authorized users can access the data. Data
security can be enforced by passwords.
5) Data Independence – It means accessing of certain data without interrupting the other
related data in a database.
6) Data Abstraction – The main objective is to retrieve desire data efficiently.

5. Explain Three Levels of DBMS Architecture?

A- The design of Database highly depends on its architecture
The different types of architecture are –
1) 1-tier architecture – In this a user directly interacts with the database without any
handy tools, the changes are directly seen in database.
2) 2-tier architecture – In this application software runs on client system and interacts
with the server, a server is not aware of the actual user who interacts.
3) 3-tier architecture – it is most widely used client – server architecture which allows
independent access of each layer.

6. Explain any two database model?

A- A database model defines the logical design of data in a database.
there are three database model –
1) Hierarchical Model –
 Data is represented in a tree- like structure.
 It consists of collection of records which are connected through links
 Each record is a collection of attributes.
 A link is created by using parent-child relationship.
 it represents one-one and one – to-many relationships.

COLLEGE

SCI COMMERCE

BIO COMP STAT COMP

S4 S1

S1 S2

2) Network Model –
 Data is represented by collection of records.
 Relationship among data is represented by links.
 Entities are organized in a graph structure.
 Entities can be accessed through several paths of the database model.
 It represents many-to-many relationships in data
 DEPARMENT STUDENTS

COURSES TEACHERS

3) Relational Model –
 It was developed by E.F.CODD in 1970
 In this model all data is maintained in the form of tables.
 Each table consists of rows and columns.
 Row is called as tuple and column is called attribute.
 Table consists of primary key.

Attribute 1 Attribute 2 Attribute 3 Attribute 4 Attribute 5

Reg.no Student Course Date of Total

name birth marks
101 Navya Pcmb 12/4/1997 425 tuple1
102 Kavin Pcme 2/2/1997 592 7. What is
tuple2
103 Satish Pcmc 21/11/1996 298
104 Rehman Pcmb 30/7/1997 516
105 Vedanth pcmc 18/3/1996 385

8. What is data warehouse? Explain briefly its components?

A- The data warehouse is a central repository of current and historical data for
creating the reports.
Its components are –
1) Meta Data – It is a data about data that describes the data warehouse. It is used for
building, maintaining, managing and using data warehouse
2) Data Marts – It is an alternative to data warehouse that takes less time and money
to build.
3) Access Tools – Data warehousing is used to provide information to users, These
users interacts with the data warehouse using front-end tools
 4) Data warehouse administration and management – It includes monitoring updates
from multiple sources, data quality check, updating ,backup and recovery of data
5) Information Delivery System – It distributes warehouse – stored data and other
information to other data warehouse.

8. Write the advantages of data warehouse?

A- Advantages of data warehouse are –
1) Centralized repository of data from multiple source system.
2) Maintain data history
3) Improve data quality by correcting the bad data.
4) Restructured the data so that it makes sense to the business users.
5) Making decision – support queries easier to write.
6) Minimize the problem of database isolation
9. Explain the stages of data mining?
A- The discovery of knowledge from the collected data is called data mining.
Stages of data mining are –
1) Data integration – Data are collected from all possible different sources.
2) Data selection- The process of selecting data which will be useful for data mining.
3) Data cleaning – The data collected may contain errors, missing value or inconsistent
data, so we need to apply different techniques to get rid of such errors.
4) Data transformation – The data even after cleaning are not ready for mining so we
need to transform them into appropriate forms for mining.
5) Data Mining – Data mining Techniques can be applied on the data to discover the
interesting patterns
6) Interpretation and Evaluation – this step helps user to make use of the knowledge
acquired to take better decisions.