Database Systems

Question 1

Flat file database

Answer 1

Flat file database consists of a single table and contains files, records, fields and characters. Simple to create, easy to use, and inexpensive. Increased data redundancy and inconsistency

Question 2

Relational database

Answer 2

Relational database is comprised of multiple entities, contains attributes and relationships. Reduced data redundancy, consistency, shared data centralised security. Takes time to set up.

Question 3

Primary key

Answer 3

A primary key is a field that is unique to any given record.

Question 4

Foreign key

Answer 4

A foreign key is any field in table which is the primary key in another table

Question 5

Databases

Answer 5

Databases are a persistent and organised store of data.

Question 6

Database benefits

Answer 6

Makes processing more efficient. Reduces storage requirements by avoiding redundancy. Allows different users to only see relevant data.

Question 7

Database Management System

Answer 7

A manipulation language to change and access data. Integrity to ensure efficiency and structure is not compromised. An interface for other programs to access the data.

Question 8

Entity Relationship Modelling

Answer 8

Entity relationship modelling entails taking a real world situation and representing it using an entity relationship diagram. There are 3 types of relationships: 1 to 1, 1 to many or many to 1 and many to many.

Question 9

Indexing

Answer 9

An index is a data structure used to shorten the length of times it takes to search a database.

Question 10

Database Views

Answer 10

A database view allows a number of tables and records to be restricted so that only certain users can see certain sets of data.

Question 11

Data dictionary

Answer 11

Describes the structure and attributes of data to be used within a database.