Databases

Question 0

Name five field types.

Answer 0

You could have said: Text, numbers, date, graphics, calculation, link, Boolean or key field.

Question 1

What is the order of these, from smallest to biggest?

File, record, field.

Answer 1

The answer is…

Field, record, file.

Question 2

Describe what a text field is.

Answer 2

A text field stores a string of characters. Examples of a text field are surname, town, colour and so on.

Question 3

Describe the numbers field format.

Answer 3

A numerical field stores numbers. Examples of a numerical field are Age, height, population and so on.

Question 4

Describe the date format:

Answer 4

A data field stores a date. Examples of a date field are date of birth, return to school date, M.O.T. Date and so on.

Question 5

Describe the time field.

Answer 5

A time field stores a time of day. Examples of a time field are start time, appointment time, closing time and so on.

Question 6

Describe the graphics field.

Answer 6

A graphics field stores an image. Examples of a graphic field are student photo, company logo, country flag and so on.

Question 7

Describe the calculation field.

Answer 7

A calculation field ( sometimes called a computed field ) is calculated from a formula which uses other fields in the record. For example an average field could be calculated from three other fields called test one, test 2 and test 3 using the formula =
([test 1] + [test 2] + [test 3]) / 3

Question 8

What was the data protection act created to do?

Answer 8

The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a law designed to protect personal data stored on computers.

Question 9

How much energy does a typical PC use?

Answer 9

A typical house-hold PC uses around 65 - 250 watts.

Question 10

Describe two ways to save energy.

Answer 10

Two answers are:

• Shut it down at night.
• Don’t use a screensaver.

Question 11

State the regulations governing the disposal of electronic equipment including computers.

Answer 11

Answers include:

• The Hazardous Waste Directive 2005.
• The Waste Electronic & Electrical Equipment Directive (WEEE).

Question 12

Describe a security task that can be carried out by a recycling centre.

Answer 12

One of the problems concerning the disposal of computer systems is the need to remove personal and/or sensitive data stored on the hard drives. This is a key security problem. Recycling centres can help with this by deleting all data stored by:

• Carrying out multiple rewrites.
• Shredding disks.