COP-5725

MIDTERM REVIEW

Chapters 1 – 5, 19

M. Amanda Crick
(Uses slides from Fernando Farfan and
Eduardo J. Ruiz
Chapter 1: Overview of
DBMSs
Concepts:
•DBMS

•Relational Model

•Levels of Abstraction

•Data Independence
Exercise 1.1
Problem
 Why would you choose a database

system instead of simply storing data in

operating system files? When would it
make sense not to use a database
system?
Exercise 1.1
Solution
 Data independence and efficient access.

 Physical, logical independence

 Efficient storage and data retrieval
 Reduced application development time.
 Data storage aspect of application already
written and debugged; only need to write
application code
 Data integrity and security.
 Database prevents changes that violate integrity
constraints. Views and authorization mechanism.
Exercise 1.1
Solution
 Data administration.

 Maintenance and data administration made

easier.
 Concurrent access and crash recovery
 Transactions prevent two conflicting
operations from being carried out
concurrently.
 Keeps a log of changes to data, so that the
system can recover from a crash.
Exercise 1.4
Problem
 Explain the difference between external,

internal, and conceptual schemas. How

are these different schema layers related
to the concepts of logical and physical
data independence?
Exercise 1.4
Solution
 External schemas:

 Allow data access to be customized at the level of

individual users or groups of users using different
VIEWS of the same conceptual schema.
 Views are not stored in DBMS but they generated
on-demand.
 Conceptual (logical) schemas:
 Describes all the data in terms of the data model.
In a relational DBMS, it describes all relations
stored.
 While there are several views for a given database,
there is exactly one conceptual schema to all
users.
Exercise 1.4
Solution
 Internal (physical) schemas:

 Describes how the relations described in the

conceptual schema are actually stored on
disk (or other physical media).
Exercise 1.4
Solution
Exercise 1.4
Solution
 The logical schema protects outside

programs and users from changes to the

database relational schema.
 The physical schema protects programs

and users from changes to the way

database files are stored.
Chapter 2: Database
Design
Concepts:
•Domain •Aggregation
•Attribute •Overlap Constraint

•Entity (Set) •Descriptive Attribute

•Relationship( •Roles

Set) •One-to-Many
•Primary Key •Many-to-May
•Participation •Weak Entity Set

Constraint •Identifying
Exercise 2.2
Problem
 A university database contains information

about professors (identified by social

security number, or SSN) and courses
(identified by courseid). Professors teach
courses; each of the following situations
concerns the Teaches relationship set. For
each situation, draw an ER diagram that
describes it (assuming no further
constraints hold). Draw an ER diagram that
captures this information.
Exercise 2.2
Problem
 A university database contains information

about professors (identified by social

security number, or SSN) and courses
(identified by courseid). Professors teach
courses; each of the following situations
concerns the Teaches relationship set. For
each situation, draw an ER diagram that
describes it (assuming no further
constraints hold). Draw an ER diagram that
captures this information.
Exercise 2.2
Problem
1. Professors can teach the same course in
several semesters, and each offering
must be recorded.
Solution
Semester semesterid

ssn
courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 2.2
Problem
2. Professors can teach the same course in
several semesters, and only the most
recent such offering needs to be
recorded. (Assume this condition applies
Solution
in all subsequent questions.)
semesterid
ssn
courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 2.2
Problem
3. Every professor must teach some course.

Solution

ssn semester courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 2.2
Problem
4. Every professor teaches exactly one
course (no more, no less).

Solution
ssn semester courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 2.2
Problem
5. Every professor teaches exactly one
course (no more, no less), and every
course must be taught by some
professor.
Solution
ssn semester courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 2.2
Problem
6. Now suppose that certain courses can be
taught by a team of professors jointly, but it
is possible that no one professor in a team
can teach the course. Model this situation,
introducing additional entity sets and
relationship sets if necessary.
Exercise 2.2
Solution
ssn gid

Professor memberof Group

semester teaches

courseid Course
Chapter 3: Relational
Model
Concepts:
•Table/Relation •Cardinality
•Relation •DDL

Schema •Primary Key

•Attributes/ •Superkey
Domain •Candidate Key
•Relation
•Foreign Key
Instance
•
Exercise 3.12
Problem
 Consider the scenario from Exercise 2.2,

where you designed an ER diagram for a

university database. Write SQL
statements to create the corresponding
relations and capture as many of the
constraints as possible. If you cannot
capture some constraints, explain why.
Exercise 3.12
Problem 1
Semester semesterid

ssn
courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 3.12
Solution
to (1)
CREATE TABLE Teaches
( ssn CHAR(10),
courseId INTEGER,
semester CHAR(10),
PRIMARY KEY (ssn, courseId,
semester),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES
Professor,
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES
Since
Course )all of the entity table can be created
similarly,
FOREIGN KEY the definition
(semester) for Course is given
REFERENCES
Semester
below. )
CREATE TABLE Course ( courseId INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY (courseId) )
Exercise 3.12
Problem 2

semesterid
ssn
courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 3.12
Solution
to (2)
CREATE TABLE Teaches
( ssn CHAR(10),
courseId INTEGER,
semester CHAR(10),
PRIMARY KEY (ssn, courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Professor,
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES Course )

Professor and Course can be created as they

were in the solution to (1).
Exercise 3.12
Problem 3

ssn semester courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 3.12
Solution
to (3)
The answer to (2) is the closest answer that
can be expressed for this section.

Without using assertions or check

constraints, the total participation constraint
between Professor and Teaches cannot be
expressed.
Exercise 3.12
Problem 4

ssn semester courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 3.12
Solution
to (4)
CREATE TABLE Professor_ teaches
( ssn CHAR(10),
courseId INTEGER,
semester CHAR(10),
PRIMARY KEY (ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (courseId)
REFERENCES Course )

CREATE TABLE Course ( courseId INTEGER,

PRIMARY KEY (courseId) )

Since Professor and Teacher have been

combined into one table, a separate table is
not needed for Professor.
Exercise 3.12
Problem 5

ssn semester courseid

Professor Teaches Course

Exercise 3.12
Solution
to (5)
CREATE TABLE Professor_teaches
( ssn CHAR(10),
courseId INTEGER,
semester CHAR(10),
PRIMARY KEY (ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (courseId)
REFERENCES Course )

Since the course table has only one attribute

and total participation, it is combined with
the Professor_teaches table.
Exercise 3.12
Solution
ssn gid

Professor memberof Group

semester teaches

courseid Course
Exercise 3.12
Solution
toCREATE
(6) TABLE Teaches
( gid INTEGER,
courseId INTEGER,
semester CHAR(10),
PRIMARY KEY (gid, courseId),
FOREIGN KEY (gid) REFERENCES Group,
FOREIGN KEY (courseId) REFERENCES
Course )
CREATE TABLE MemberOf
( ssn CHAR(10),
gid INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY (ssn, gid),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Professor,
FOREIGN KEY (gid) REFERENCES Group )
Exercise 3.12
Solution
to (6)

CREATE TABLE Group ( gid INTEGER,

PRIMARY KEY (gid) )

CREATE TABLE Professor ( ssn CHAR(10),

PRIMARY KEY (ssn) )
Chapter 4: Relational
Algebra and
Calculus
Concepts:
•Selection
•Projectio

n
•Join
Exercise 4.2
Problem
 Given two relations R1 and R2, where R1

contains N1 tuples, R2 contains N2

tuples, and N2 > N1 > 0, give the min
and max possible sizes for the resulting
relational algebra expressions:
Exercise 4.2
Solution
Exercise 4.4
Problem
 Consider the Supplier-Parts-Catalog

schema. State what the following queries

compute:
 Exercise 4.4

Problem
1. Find the Supplier names of the suppliers who

supply a red part that costs less than 100 dollars.

Solutio
n
Exercise 4.4

Problem
2. This Relational Algebra statement does not
return anything because of the sequence of
projection operators. Once the sid is projected,
it is the only field in the set. Therefore,
projecting on sname will not return anything.

Solutio
n
Exercise 4.4

Problem
3. Find the Supplier names of the suppliers
who supply a red part that costs less
than 100 dollars and a green part that
costs less than 100 dollars.
Solutio
n
Exercise 4.4

Problem
4. Find the Supplier ids of the suppliers who
supply a red part that costs less than 100
dollars and a green part that costs less
than 100 dollars.
Solutio
n
Exercise 4.4

Problem
5. Find the Supplier names of the suppliers
who supply a red part that costs less
than 100 dollars and a green part that
costs less than 100 dollars.
Solutio
n
Chapter 5: SQL, Null Values,
Views
Concepts:
•DML
•DDL

•Query

•Nested

Query
•Aggregation
Exercise 5.2
Problem
 Consider the following relational schema:

 Suppliers(sid: integer, sname: string,

address: string)
 Parts(pid: integer, pname: string, color:
string)
 Catalog(sid: integer, pid: integer, cost: real)
 The Catalog relation lists the prices
charged for parts by Suppliers. Write the
following queries in SQL:
 Exercise 5.2
Problem
Suppliers(sid: integer, sname: string, address: string)
Parts(pid: integer, pname: string, color: string)
Catalog(sid: integer, pid: integer, cost: real)

For every supplier that only supplies

10.
green parts, print the name of the
supplier and the total number of parts
that she supplies.
Exercise 5.2
Solution for (10)

SELECT S.sname, COUNT(*) as PartCount

FROM Suppliers S, Parts P, Catalog C
WHERE P.pid = C.pid AND C.sid = S.sid
GROUP BY S.sname, S.sid
HAVING EVERY (P.color=’Green’)
 Exercise 5.2
Problem
Suppliers(sid: integer, sname: string, address: string)
Parts(pid: integer, pname: string, color: string)
Catalog(sid: integer, pid: integer, cost: real)

For every supplier that supplies a green

11.
part and a red part, print the name and
price of the most expensive part that she
supplies.
Exercise 5.2
Solution for (11)

SELECT S.sname, MAX(C.cost) as MaxCost

FROM Suppliers S, Parts P, Catalog C
WHERE P.pid = C.pid AND C.sid = S.sid
GROUP BY S.sname, S.sid
HAVING ANY ( P.color=’green’ ) AND ANY ( P.color =
’red’ )
Exercise 5.4
Problem
 Consider the following relational schema. An

employee can work in more than one

department; the pct_time field of the Works
relation shows the percentage of time that a
given employee works in a given department.
 Emp(eid: integer, ename: string, age: integer,
salary: real)
 Works(eid: integer, did: integer, pct_time: integer)
 Dept(did: integer, dname: string, budget: real,
managerid: integer)
 Write the following queries in SQL:
 Exercise 5.4
Problem
Emp(eid: integer, ename: string, age: integer, salary:
real)
Works(eid: integer, did: integer, pct_time: integer)
Dept(did: integer, dname: string, budget: real,
managerid: integer)

6. If a manager manages more than one

department, he or she controls the sum of
all the budgets for those departments.
Find the managerids of managers who
control more than $5 million.
Exercise 5.4
Solution for (6)
 Exercise 5.4
Problem
Emp(eid: integer, ename: string, age: integer, salary:
real)
Works(eid: integer, did: integer, pct_time: integer)
Dept(did: integer, dname: string, budget: real,
managerid: integer)

7. Find the managerids of managers who

control the largest amounts.
Exercise 5.4
Solution for (7)

SELECT DISTINCT tempD.managerid

FROM (SELECT DISTINCT D.managerid,
SUM (D.budget) AS tempBudget
FROM Dept D
GROUP BY D.managerid ) AS tempD
WHERE tempD.tempBudget = (SELECT MAX
(tempD.tempBudget)
FROM tempD)
Chapter 19: Normal Forms
Concepts:
•Redundancy
•Functional

Dependency
•BCNF

•3NF
Exercise 19.2
Problem
 Consider a relation R with five attributes

ABCDE. You are given the following

dependencies:
A → B, BC → E, and ED →
A.
1. List all keys for R

Solution
 CDE, ACD, BCD
Exercise 19.2
A → B, BC → E, and ED →
A.
Problem
2. Is R in 3NF?

Solution
 R is in 3NF because B, E and A are all

parts of keys.
Exercise 19.2
A → B, BC → E, and ED →
A.
Problem
3. Is R in BCNF?

Solution
 R is not in BCNF because none of A, BC

and ED contain a key.

Exercise 19.8
Problem 1
 Consider the attribute set R = ABCDEGH

and the FD set F =

 {AB → C,
 AC → B,
 AD → E,
 B → D,
 BC → A,
 E → G}.
Exercise 19.8
Problem 1
 For each of the following attribute sets, do

the following:
 (i) Compute the set of dependencies that hold
over the set and write down a minimal cover.
 (ii) Name the strongest normal form that is not
violated by the relation containing these
attributes.
 (iii) Decompose it into a collection of BCNF
relations if it is not in BCNF.
Exercise 19.2
F = {AB →C, AC → B, AD → E, B → D, BC → A, E
→ G}.
Problem
a) ABC

Solution
i. R1 = ABC: The FD’s are AB → C, AC → B, BC →
A.
ii. This is already a minimal cover.
iii. This is in BCNF since AB, AC and BC are
candidate keys for R1. (In fact, these are all the
candidate keys for R1).
Exercise 19.2
F = {AB →C, AC → B, AD → E, B → D, BC → A, E
→ G}.
Problem
b) ABCD

Solution
i. R2 = ABCD: The FD’s are AB → C, AC → B, B
→ D, BC → A.
ii. This is already a minimal cover.

iii. The keys are: AB, AC, BC. R2 is not in BCNF

or even 2NF because of the FD, B → D (B is
a proper subset of a key!) However, it is in
1NF. Decompose as in: ABC, BD. This is a
This is the end of the lecture!
I hope you enjoyed it.