MIDTERM Flashcards
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
One of two industry-accepted committees that sets standards for SQL
Attribute
A data field, or column
Bridging table
A table created to eliminate a many-to-many relationship between two tables.
Character
The basic unit of data. It can be a letter, number, or special symbol
Candidate key
Any column that could be used as the primary key
Common column
A column that exists in two or more tables and contains equivalent data
Common field
A column that exists in two tables and is used to “join” two tables
Composite key
A unique key that you create by combining two or more columns
Data redundancy
Refers to having the same data in different places within a database, which wastes spaces and complicates database updates and changes
Database
Stores all organizational data in a central location
Database administrator (DBA)
The person who is responsible for installing, administering, and maintaining the database
Database applications
Provide the interface that allows users to interact with the database.
Database management system (DBMS)
An application that performs all routine data-handling operations.
Entity
An object about which you want to store data.
Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model
A diagram that identifies the entities and data relationships in a database. The model is a logical representation of the physical system to be built.
Field
One attribute or characteristic of a database entity
File
A group of records about the same type of entity
First normal form (1NF
Data has primary key and no repeating groups
Foreign key
A column in a table that is a primary key in another table; creates a relationship between the two tables.
Instance
A row, or record
Key fields
Establish relationships among records in different tables
Many-to-many (N:M) relationship
A relationship in which an instance can occur multiple times in each entity
Normalization
Takes the raw data of an entity and evolves the data into a form that will reduce a database’s data redundancy.
One-to-many (1:M) relationship
A relationship in which an instance can only appear once in one entity, but one or more times in the other entity
One-to-one (1:1) relationship
A relationship in which each occurrence of a specific entity is found only once in each set of data
Primary key
A column in a relational database table whose value must be unique for each row.
Record
A collection of fields describing the attributes of one database element. In PL/SQL, a record is a composite datatype that can assume the same structure as the row being retrieved.
Relational database
A database that stores data in a tabular format.
Relationships
Links that show how different records are related
Row
A group of column values for a specific occurrence of an entity. In a database, records are commonly represented as rows.
Second normal form (2NF)
Data that is in 1NF and contains no partial dependencies.
Surrogate key
A column that you create to be the record’s primary key identifier.
SQL*Plus
A tool enabling users to interact with the database. Through SQL*Plus, users can enter SQL commands, set or alter environmental variables, display the structure of tables, and execute interactive scripts
Structured query language (SQL)
The industry standard for interacting with a relational database. It is a data sublanguage, and unlike a programming language, it processes sets of data as groups and can navigate data stored within various tables.
Third normal form (3NF)
Data that is in 2NF and contains no transitive dependencies
Unnormalized data
Data that does not have a primary key identified and/or contains repeating groups.
Character field
A field composed of nonnumeric data. This field will not display a heading longer than the width of the data stored in the field
Clause
Each section of a statement that begins with a keyword (SELECT clause, FROM clause, WHERE clause, etc.).
Column alias
Another name substituted for a column name. A column alias is created in a query and displayed in the results.
Concatenation
The combining the contents of two or more columns or character strings. Two vertical bars, or pipes (||), instruct Oracle 11g to concatenate the output of a query
Keywords
Words used in a SQL query that have a predefined meaning to Oracle9i. Common keywords include SELECT, FROM, and WHERE.
Numeric column
A column composed of only numeric data. In output, the column will display the entire column heading, regardless of the width of the field. (Also known as a numeric field.)
Projection
Choosing specific column(s) in a SELECT statement.
Query
A question posed to the database.