DBMS 3330 Final Exam

Database administration is mainly ____ function.

"an operational, day-to-day monitoring and management "

"In an SQL SELECT command a SELECT clause with several attributes, a FROM clause with multiple tables and a WHERE clause with join fields set equal plus other predicates indicate a(n) ____."

"combination of relational Select, Project, and Join operations "

"All of the following are true about the use of AND and OR operators in an SQL SELECT command, except ____."

"either the AND or the OR operator may be used in a given SQL SELECT command, but not both "

"All of the following are advantages of data and database administration, except ____."

"modularized, efficient programming "

When an SQL SELECT command has a subquery within it ____.

the subquery is executed first

An access method is _____.

the way that data is retrieved based on the file organization in use

"Which of the following is true about indexes, in general?"

An index can be used to retrieve the records of a file in logical sequence based on the indexed field.

"All of the following are true about B+-tree indexes and their files, except _____."

A cylinder split must lead to an increase in the number of levels of the index tree.

"If the primary key of a table is clumsy because it has too many attributes and is replaced by a new, single attribute key, ____."

All of the above.

Application data requirements that enter into the physical database design process include ____.

All of the above.

Data in ____ has only a single attribute value in every attribute position.

All of the above.

The most common data indexing system in use today is the _____.

B+-tree index

"All of the following are SQL commands, except ____."

CREATE SELECT

"All of the following are responsibilities of data administration, except ____."

DBMS performance monitoring

Keeping track of the response times and throughput in the database environment falls under the database administration responsibility of _____.

DBMS performance monitoring

Handling a DBMS application failure during execution would be most directly characterized as ____.

DBMS troubleshooting

Keeping track of the number and duration of database queries by the various users falls under the database administration responsibility of _____.

DBMS usage monitoring

"All of the following are responsibilities of database administration, except ____."

Data planning

Which of the following is true of relational tables in every normal form?

Every field is functionally dependent on the primary key.

A relational query optimizer ____.

None of the above.

A relational table in first normal form ____.

None of the above.

Logical database design ____.

None of the above.

The SQL SELECT built-in function COUNT ____.

None of the above.

Which of the following is a potential problem caused by adding too many indexes to a relational database?

Updating the indexes when the data is updated can slow down queries executing at the same time.

"In the SQL SELECT command, the search arguments that limit the rows involved in the query are specified in the ____ clause."

WHERE

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is ____.

the standard diagramming notation for object-oriented systems development

Converting a one-to-one binary relationship into a relational database from an E-R diagram ____.

a & b above

Which of the following are logical database design techniques?

a & b above

"In the SQL SELECT command, a simple Project operation designed to retrieve one or more columns (for all rows) of a single table is characterized by _____."

a list of attributes in the SELECT clause and the absence of a WHERE clause

Data normalization is _____.

a logical database design technique

Taking application priorities into account in physical database design is important because ____.

a modification to a table that s designed to help the performance of one application may hinder the performance of another application

An access path is _____.

a plan for the steps to take to respond to an SQL query

An object/relational DBMS is essentially ____.

a relational DBMS with object-oriented features

A plan for the steps to take to respond to a relational query is called a(n) ____.

access path

"Generally speaking, a tool that automatically takes input about data from the active database environment and/or from which the database environment depends for certain responses is a(n) _____."

active data dictionary

The term for the relationship in which a class is shown to be composed of other classes is ____.

aggregation

An indexed sequential file is characterized by _____.

an index built over the field by which the file is sequenced

Hashed files _____.

can also have indexes built over them

Converting a many-to-many unary relationship into a relational database from an E-R diagram ____.

can be done by adding another copy of the unique identifier of the single entity s table into the same table with a different attribute name

Converting a one-to-many unary relationship into a relational database from an E-R diagram ____.

can be done by adding another copy of the unique identifier of the single entity s table into the same table with a different attribute name

Converting a one-to-many binary relationship into a relational database from an E-R diagram ____.

can be done by placing the unique identifier of one of the tables into the other

Abstract data types _____.

can have associated operations that act upon them

"In the object-oriented concept, abstract data types ____."

can have operations associated with them

A relational table in first normal form _____.

cannot have multivalued attributes

Metadata is best characterized as _____.

data about data

The most appropriate tool for accurately supporting the relational query optimizer is the ____.

data catalog

Maintaining a reasonable amount of control over centralized/decentralized data would be most directly characterized as ____.

data coordination

Encapsulation is designed to improve _____.

data integrity

A tool in which you might find such non-traditional data items as reusable code modules is a(n) _____.

data repository

Making sure that a particular attribute name is used consistently through all databases is most closely associated with the data administration responsibility referred to as _____.

data standards

The frequency with which stored data is updated is known as ____.

data volatility

The term that describes an attribute whose value establishes the value of another attribute is ____.

determinant

"In a hospital setting, the data that most likely would be represented by an abstract data type would be _____."

digitized x-rays

Informing potential users of what data already exists in the database would be most directly characterized as ____.

documentation and publicity

Having dedicated experts whose job it is to perform database design would be most directly characterized as ____.

efficiency in job specialization

"All of the following are inputs into the physical database design process, except ____."

functional dependencies OR unnormalized data

"Consider a relationship in which certain data is maintained about all of the employees of a hospital and additional data is maintained about the hospital s doctors, additional data is maintained about the hospital s nurses, and additional data is maintained about the hospital s orderlies. This can best be described as a(n) _____ relationship."

generalization/specialization

"The term for the relationship that recognizes that some kinds of entities can really be subdivided into smaller, more specific groups is ____."

generalization/specialization

The SQL SELECT GROUP BY clause is designed to ____.

group together the rows of a table that have a common attribute value

"In third normal form, the exception to the rule that a non-key attribute cannot define another non-key attribute is ____."

if the defining attribute is a candidate key

"All of the following are true if a relational database is in third normal form, except each of the tables of the database is _____."

in every normal form higher than third normal form

The SQL SELECT IN operator ____.

involves looking for character strings and can be used instead of a series of OR operators

The SQL SELECT LIKE operator ____.

involves the use of wildcards

Having a dedicated staff managing externally acquired databases _____.

is an advantage of data and database administration

The clustering files physical database design technique ____.

is designed to improve the performance of a join operation

Combining two tables that represent a one-to-one relationship ____.

is designed to reduce the number of joins in the database environment

A subquery can be used in place of a(n) ____.

join

Managing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) databases would be most directly characterized as ____.

managing externally acquired databases

The term that describes data about data is ____.

metadata

"In object-oriented modeling, the term object is used to describe an advanced data structure that includes an entity s attributes plus _____."

methods or operations which can operate on and modify the object s attribute values

"All of the following kinds of data are candidates for abstract data types, except ____."

numeric data

"A database management system that stores its data in tables, permits the integration of data between tables and supports generalization/specialization and aggregation relationships is best termed a(n) _____ database management system."

object/relational

"In terms of time, rotational delay in a disk device takes on average roughly _____."

one half of a revolution

"All of the following are realizations of the metadata concept, except ____."

operational database

The modification or refinement of operations as they are inherited downwards in a generalization/specialization relationship is called ____.

polymorphism

Typing SQL SELECT commands in at a keyboard and sending them directly to the relational DBMS for processing is referred to as ____.

query mode

The advantage of using the substituting foreign keys physical database design technique is that it is designed to ____.

reduce the number of joins

"In an SQL SELECT command, a SELECT clause with several attributes and the absence of a WHERE clause indicates a(n) ____."

relational Project operation

The creating a new primary key physical database design technique is designed to ____.

replace clumsy keys that have a large number of attributes

An E-R diagram shows a one-to-many relationship between entities A and B. For each A occurrence there are many B occurrences; for each B occurrence there is exactly one A occurrence. Converting this E-R diagram as part of logical database design _____.

requires placing a copy of the unique identifier of entity A in the table for entity B

The delay from the time that the Enter Key is pressed to execute a query until the result appears on the screen is called ____.

response time

The SQL SELECT command is used to ____ a relational database.

retrieve data from

Data in ____ cannot have partial functional dependencies but can have transitive dependencies.

second normal form

"In SQL, the use of a(n) _____ is capable of obtaining the same result as a Join operation."

subquery

Relational database management systems directly support ____.

tabular data such as accounting data

The standard diagramming notation for object-oriented systems development is called _____.

the Unified Modeling Language

"The conversion of a unary many-to-many relationship, a binary many-to-many relationship, and a ternary relationship, into relational tables have in common _____."

the addition of one additional table beyond those required for the entities themselves

"All of the following are taken into account by the relational query optimizer to do its job, except _____."

the number of COUNT operations in the query

"In the division remainder hashing algorithm, the divisor (the number divided into the other number) is _____."

the number of main record storage locations (not including overflow locations)

The starting point of the physical database design process is ____.

the output of the logical database design process

Consider Table A on the one side of a one-to-many relationship and Table B on the many side of the relationship. The repeating groups in Table B may be considered for merging into the related records of Table A if ____.

there is a small number of occurrences of the repeating groups of Table B for each record of Table A

"All of the following are characteristics of relational DBMS catalogs, except ____."

they include the full range of data dictionary entities

The measure of the number of queries from simultaneous users that must be satisfied in a given period of time by the application set and the database that supports it is called _____.

throughput

The goal of logical database design is ____.

to create well-structured tables that properly reflect the company s business environment

The SQL SELECT BETWEEN operator is used ____.

to find a numeric value between two numeric values

"In a magnetic disk device, the reason for storing data on a cylinder-wise basis is _____."

to minimize access arm movement in order to improve performance

"In encapsulation, the operations that can modify the attributes of the objects in an object class are stored _____."

together with the objects in the database

The term that describes one non-key field of a table being dependent on another non-key field of the table is ____.

transitive dependency

"In the SQL SELECT command, a Join operation designed to go on to retrieve specific attributes of specific entities is characterized by _____."

two or more tables in the FROM clause with a list of attributes in the SELECT clause and one or more predicates in the WHERE clause

Direct access can be achieved _____.

with either an index or a hashing method