Deck 3: The Database Management System Concept

Question 1

An entity set is _____.

A) a file
B) a collection of records of the same type
C) all of the attributes in a record
D) a collection of characteristics of an entity
E) a collection of entities of the same type

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Which of the following is a description of a particular entity?

A) field
B) key
C) record type
D) record occurrence
E) file

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following does not change the contents of a file?

A) retrieve
B) insert
C) delete
D) update
E) all of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

$\begin{array}{|l|l|l|l|}\hline\text { Course } & \text { Course } & \text { Number of } & \text { Professor } \\\text { Number } & \text { Name } & \text { Credits } & \text { in Charge }\\\hline \text { BIOL1001 } & \text { Biology I } & 4 & \text { Smith } \\\hline \text { BIOL3020 } & \text { Anatomy } & 3 & \text { Jones } \\\hline \text { ENGL2540 } & \text { Shakespeare } & 3 & \text { Duncan } \\\hline \text { MATH2000 } & \text { Calculus I } & 4 & \text { Stevens } \\\hline \text { MATH3500 } & \text { Statistics } \Pi & 3 & \text { Jones }\\\hline\end{array}$ Course file

-How many entities are described in the Course file?

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4
E) 5

Question 5

Retrieving the records of a file in order based on a set of field values is referred to as _____.

A) immediate sequential retrieval
B) logical sequential retrieval
C) physical sequential retrieval
D) direct retrieval
E) indirect retrieval

Question 6

In an automobile manufacturing company, an object about which we might want to maintain data could be any of the following, except _____.

A) an employee
B) a finished car
C) a length
D) a supplier
E) a sales meeting

Question 7

Which of the following is a collection of descriptions of the entities in an entity set?

A) field
B) key
C) record type
D) record occurrence
E) file

Question 8

An entity is _____ in the business environment.

A) a fact about an object
B) a record in a file
C) an object or event
D) an attribute
E) a file

Question 9

All of the following are basic principles of the database concept, except _____.

A) maintaining redundant data that does not cause data integrity problems
B) the ability to store data in a non-redundant fashion
C) the ability to store data representing entities involved in multiple relationships
D) striving to achieve a high degree of data independence
E) data integration

Question 10

Retrieving a single record of a file based on a field value is an example of _____.

A) immediate sequential retrieval
B) logical sequential retrieval
C) physical sequential retrieval
D) direct retrieval
E) indirect retrieval

Question 11

Retrieving the records of a file in order based on the order in which they are stored on a disk is referred to as _____.

A) immediate sequential retrieval
B) logical sequential retrieval
C) physical sequential retrieval
D) direct retrieval
E) indirect retrieval

Question 12

Prior to the development of the database concept ____.

A) data was regularly shared among applications
B) data redundancy was not a problem
C) changes in the way that data was stored did not affect programs that used the data
D) data security was not an issue
E) data was not regularly shared among applications

Question 13

Each of the following is one of the fundamental operations that can be performed on stored data, except _____.

A) converge
B) retrieve
C) insert
D) delete
E) update

Question 14

In the Course file, the string "ENGL2540 Shakespeare 3 Duncan" can best be described as a _____.

A) field
B) record type
C) record occurrence
D) entity
E) entity set

Question 15

Retrieving a subset of the records of a file based on a field value is an example of _____.

A) immediate sequential retrieval
B) logical sequential retrieval
C) physical sequential retrieval
D) direct retrieval
E) indirect retrieval

Question 16

An attribute is _____.

A) a collection of objects of the same type
B) a characteristic of an entity
C) a record of a file
D) a collection of records of the same type
E) an event

Question 17

In the Course file, the string "Anatomy" can best be described as a _____.

A) field type
B) field occurrence
C) record type
D) record occurrence
E) entity

Question 18

Which of the following is the unique identifier of an entity?

A) field
B) key
C) record type
D) record occurrence
E) file

Question 19

A single piece of data is _____ the business environment.

A) a fact about
B) a record describing an object in
C) the same thing as an object in
D) a file describing an object in
E) an event in

Question 20

Prior to the development of the database concept, redundant data ____.

A) could be found within individual files
B) could be found across multiple files
C) could be found across multiple files but not within individual files
D) a & b
E) did not exist

Question 21

Protecting against hackers is primarily a matter of _____.

A) computer security
B) backup and recovery
C) concurrency control
D) integration control
E) access control

Question 22

Data integration _____.

A) refers to the compatibility between data and the hardware on which it is stored
B) is the ability to tie together pieces of related data in an information system
C) is the ease with which data can be accessed by an application program that requires it
D) refers to the linkage between data and its related information
E) is undesirable in any information system

Question 23

Regarding the three data control issues of security, backup and recovery, and concurrency, a database management system _____.

A) should expect each application programmer to handle them
B) should expect the operating system to handle them
C) should expect each systems analyst to handle them
D) should be responsible for handling all of them
E) should not be responsible for handling any of them

Question 24

All of the following are problems caused by redundant data, except _____.

A) wasted disk space
B) additional processing time for data updates
C) wasted network transmission time
D) potential data integrity problems
E) the possibility of having what should be the same data value in two different files having different values.

Question 25

By definition, a database management system _____.

A) permits data to be stored non-redundantly but does not provide for data integration
B) provides for data integration but does not permit the data to be stored non-redundantly
C) permits data to be stored non-redundantly and provides for data integration
D) does not permit data to be stored non-redundantly and also does not provide for data integration
E) provides for data integration only when the data is stored redundantly

Question 26

Which of the following is true?

A) Data integration is desirable but data redundancy is not.
B) Data redundancy is desirable but data integration is not.
C) Both data integration and data redundancy are desirable.
D) Neither data integration nor data redundancy is desirable.
E) None of the above.

Question 27

When different kinds of data (data about different entities) are merged in one file, a deletion anomaly _____.

A) cannot occur
B) causes a loss of data that may not be stored anywhere else
C) is helpful in reducing the amount of redundant data present
D) causes additional redundant data to appear
E) occurs as the result of an insertion anomaly

Question 28

All of the following are major DBMS approaches, except _____.

A) network
B) index
C) object-oriented
D) relational
E) hierarchical

Question 29

Rebuilding a database after it is destroyed by a natural disaster is an aspect of _____.

A) computer security
B) backup and recovery
C) concurrency control
D) integration control
E) access control

Question 30

Data redundancy _____.

A) can occur across multiple files but not within a single file
B) can occur within a single file but not across multiple files
C) is a positive feature in the simple linear file environment but is a negative feature in the database environment
D) is a negative feature in the simple linear file environment but is a positive feature in the database environment
E) None of the above.

Question 31

When data structures can be modified without affecting the programs that use the data, we say that the environment is highly _____.

A) secure
B) recoverable
C) data structured
D) data independent
E) data dependent

Question 32

Which of the following is a basic principle of the database concept?

A) The ability to achieve data integration with redundant data.
B) The ability to achieve data integration without introducing redundant data.
C) The establishment of an environment that permits a high degree of data dependence.
D) The establishment of an environment that permits data redundancy in return for data security controls.
E) The establishment of an environment that permits data redundancy in return for backup and recovery controls.

Question 33

A database management system is designed to handle _____ relationships without introducing data redundancy or causing other problems.

A) unary, binary, and ternary
B) binary but not unary or ternary
C) unary but not binary or ternary
D) unary and binary but not ternary
E) binary and ternary but not unary

Question 34

All of the following are true about data redundancy across multiple files, except _____.

A) it speeds updates when the redundant data must be updated
B) it is a managerial problem when the company does not encourage data sharing
C) it is a technical problem when the company's software systems do not support data sharing
D) it wastes disk space
E) it can potentially cause data integrity problems

Question 35

Which of the following is true about data redundancy within one file?

A) The appearance of a particular data value multiple times in one field always indicates data redundancy.
B) Data redundancy cannot occur within a single file.
C) The problems caused by data redundancy within one file are substantially different from the problems caused by data redundancy across multiple files.
D) Data redundancy within one file occurs when different kinds of data (data about different entities) are merged in one file.
E) Data redundancy within one file only occurs when a single kind of data (data about a single entity) is present in the file.

Question 36

All of the following are corporate resources, except _____.

A) money
B) inventory
C) data
D) plant and equipment
E) competitors

Question 37

When different kinds of data (data about different entities) are merged in one file, which of the following anomalies can occur?

A) deletion but not insertion or update
B) insertion but not deletion or update
C) insertion and deletion but not update
D) insertion and update but not deletion
E) deletion, insertion, and update

Question 38

A single piece of data is a fact about something of interest to us in our business environment.

Question 39

The navigational approaches to database management are _____.

A) relational and object-oriented
B) hierarchical and object-oriented
C) hierarchical and network
D) relational and network
E) network and object-oriented

Question 40

Problems caused by two or more users trying to update the same data simultaneously fall primarily under the heading of _____.

A) computer security
B) backup and recovery
C) concurrency control
D) integration control
E) access control

Question 41

The term record occurrence refers to one particular record in a file.

Question 42

An attribute is an entity.

Question 43

There are three basic ways of retrieving data: sequential access, interrupted access, and direct access.

Question 44

In the database concept, each application has its own, private database.

Question 45

Prior to the development of the database concept, programs usually had to be modified if the file structures that they accessed were modified.

Question 46

Data redundancy is a positive feature of an information system.

Question 47

A simple linear file is structured in a tree-like manner.

Question 48

Prior to the development of the database concept, data was often held redundantly in multiple files.

Question 49

Data integration refers to the ability to store data in a non-redundant fashion.

Question 50

An entity is the set of facts in a record.

Question 51

A file is a collection of records of the same structure.

Question 52

Today, data is considered to be a manageable resource along with money, personnel, and plant and equipment.

Question 53

An attribute of the records of a file that has unique values can be referred to as the key field.

Question 54

The amount of data redundancy has no bearing on the amount of time it takes to update the data.

Question 55

Prior to the development of the database concept, there was no data redundancy within individual files.

Question 56

A read or retrieve operation is the only one of the four fundamental operations that can be performed on a file that does change the data.

Question 57

Sequential access means the retrieval of a single record of a file based on one or more values of a field or a combination of fields in the file.

Question 58

An example of an entity set would be all of the cars for sale at an automobile dealership.

Question 59

Data redundancy refers to the same fact about the business environment being stored more than once within an information system.

Question 60

In physical sequential access, the records of a file are retrieved in order based on the values of one or a combination of the fields.

Question 61

Integrating data in a set of non-redundant files requires a multi-file access.

Question 62

A database management system can store data non-redundantly while also providing a data integration capability.

Question 63

In a data independent environment, changes to data structures necessitate little or no changes to the programs that use the data.

Question 64

Redundant data can occur across multiple files but not within individual files.

Question 65

Database management systems are expected to handle binary relationships but not unary or ternary relationships.

Question 66

The deletion anomaly can cause a loss of data.

Question 67

Consider the following Animal and Enclosure files from the Central Zoo. The left-hand column of relative record numbers is there to facilitate answering some of the questions.
Enclosure file
Animal file
a. 0912 appears as an enclosure number in record 3 of the Enclosure file and in records 2, 4, 5, and 10 of the Animal file. Does this constitute redundant data? Explain.
b. Why does the Enclosure Number field appear in both files?
c. What would you have to do to find the type of enclosure in which animal number 33837 is kept?
d. Merge the two files into one based on which records of one file are related to which records of the other file.
e. How does merging the two files into one affect data integration?
f. How does merging the two files into one affect data redundancy?

Question 68

Because of how critical the database concept is, several hundred approaches to the problem of providing both non-redundant data storage and a data integration capability have been devised.

Question 69

A particular data value appearing multiple times in a column of a file always indicates redundant data.

Question 70

Problems
The following Animal File from the Central Zoo will be used in several of the following questions. The left-hand column of relative record numbers is there to facilitate answering the questions.
Animal file
Records and fields in the Animal file.
a. Describe the file's record type.
b. Show a record occurrence.
c. Describe the set or range of values that the Animal Number field can take.
d. Describe the set or range of values that the Gender field can take.

Question 71

Database management systems leave data control issues such as security, backup and recovery, and concurrency control to the application programmer to deal with.

Question 72

The primary approach to database management today is the network approach.

Question 73

Combining files to achieve data integration can introduce data redundancy.

Question 74

Anomalies occur when two different kinds of data (data describing two entities) are merged into one file.

Question 75

A database management system is a software utility that stresses the storage of non-redundant data without the expectation of providing a data integration capability.

Question 76

Data integrity problems result from the incorrect updating of redundant data.

Question 77

Database management systems must be able to handle unary, binary, and ternary relationships without introducing data redundancy or other problems.

Question 78

The problems caused by redundant data within individual files are the same problems caused by redundant data across multiple files.

Question 79

Problems
The following Animal File from the Central Zoo will be used in several of the following questions. The left-hand column of relative record numbers is there to facilitate answering the questions.
Animal file
Assume that the records of the Animal file are physically stored in the order shown.
a. Retrieve all of the records of the file physically sequentially.
b. Retrieve all of the records of the file logically sequentially based on the Animal Name field.
c. Retrieve all of the records of the file logically sequentially based on the Animal Number field.
d. Retrieve all of the records of the file logically sequentially based on the Weight field.
e. Perform a direct retrieval of the records with an Animal Number field value of 34871.
f. Perform a direct retrieval of the records with a Country of Birth field value of USA.

Question 80

Security, backup and recovery, and concurrency are issues that are common to all databases and so should be handled by the DBMS.