Systems Analysis and Design, 9e (Kendall/Kendall)

Chapter 13 Designing Databases

13.1 Multiple Choice

1) Which is not related to conventional files?

A) Files will remain a practical way to store data for some applications.
B) A file can be designed and built quite rapidly.
C) Files are a central source of data meant to be shared by many users for a variety of
applications.
D) The concerns for data availability and security are minimized.
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 362

2) Which doesn't DBMS allow?

A) creation of database
B) classification of database
C) modification of database
D) updating the database
E) retrieval of data
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 362

3) Which is not an effectiveness objective of the database?

A) ensuring that data can be shared among users for a variety of applications
B) ensuring all data required for current and future applications will be readily available
C) allowing the database to evolve and the needs of the users to grow
D) allowing users to construct their personal view of the data without concern for the way the
data are physically stored
E) maintaining data that are both accurate and inconsistent
Answer: E
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 362

4) Which is an advantage of the database approach?

A) All of the data are stored in one place.
B) Data are more vulnerable to catastrophes.
C) It comes about when attempting to keep the cost of storing the data to a reasonable amount.
D) It allows users their own view of the data.
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 363

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5) Which is incorrect about reality, data, and metadata?
A) Within the realm of reality, there are entities and attributes.
B) There are record occurrences within the realm of actual data.
C) Within the realm of metadata, there are record definitions and data item definitions.
D) There are data item occurrences within the realm of files.
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

6) The symbol used to represent additional attributes of another entity that may not be present on
every record of the first entity is called an:
A) associative entity.
B) attributive entity.
C) entity subtype.
D) self-join.
E) ordinal entity.
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

7) When an entity has a relationship connecting it to itself, it is called a(n):

A) unitary relationship.
B) inverse relationship.
C) extensible join.
D) self-join.
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 365

8) What type of entity is used to represent repeating groups?

A) fundamental entity
B) associative entity
C) attributive entity
D) iterative entity
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 365

9) Which word is used interchangeably with the term data item?

A) attribute
B) record
C) key
D) tuple
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 366

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10) What is a collection of data items that have something in common with the entity?
A) a record
B) an attribute
C) a data item
D) an entity
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 367

11) What is defined as any data item in a record that is used to identify the record?
A) an attribute
B) a key
C) a primary key
D) an entity
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 367

12) What can be constructed by choosing two or more data items and combining them?
A) a primary key
B) an attribute
C) a secondary key
D) an entity
E) a concatenated key
Answer: E
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 368

13) Which type of file contains all the attributes for an entity as well as a primary key and
several secondary keys?
A) a transaction file
B) a relational file
C) a master file
D) a keyed index file
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 368

14) Transaction files:

A) are large files, containing all main information about an entity.
B) are used to update master files and produce reports.
C) cannot contain several record types.
D) are always stored using indexed-sequential organization.
Answer: B
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 369

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15) Which file is used when it is necessary to run a program, but no printer is available?
A) a master file
B) a table file
C) a report file
D) a work file
E) a transaction file
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 369

16) Which order is correct for the analyst to normalize a data structure?
I. Remove all repeating groups and identify the primary key.
II. Remove any transitive dependencies.
III. All partial dependencies are removed and placed in another relation.
A) III - II - I
B) I - II - III
C) III - I - II
D) II - I - III
E) I - III - II
Answer: E
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 372

17) Which of the following is true when implementing a one-to-many relationship?

A) The file on the one end has a foreign key consisting of the primary key of the many end.
B) The file on the one end has a concatenated key of its primary key and the many end key.
C) The file on the many end has a foreign key consisting of the primary key on the one end.
D) The file on the many end has a concatenated key of its primary key and the one end key.
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 381

18) Each master file should have programs to:

A) add new records.
B) update master file records.
C) delete master file records.
D) read and process records from the master file.
E) All of the above.
Answer: E
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 382

19) The integrity constraint that ensures that every many record in a one-to-many relationship
has a matching record in the one file is called:
A) entity integrity.
B) referential integrity.
C) domain integrity.
D) ordinal integrity.
E) cardinal integrity.
Answer: B
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 424382

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20) Which of the following is not one of the four anomalies that may occur when creating
database tables?
A) data redundancy
B) update anomaly
C) primary anomaly
D) insert anomaly
E) deletion anomaly
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

21) Which order is correct in the retrieval and presentation of data?

I. Select rows from the relation.
II. Derive new attributes.
III. Join two relations together.
IV. Present data.
V. Choose a relation from the database.
VI. Project columns from the relation.
VII. Calculate totals and performance measures.
VIII. Index or sort rows.
A) V - III - II - I - VIII - IV - VI - VII
B) V - III - VI - I - II - VIII - VII - IV
C) III - V - VI - I - II - VIII - VII - IV
D) V - III - II - I - VI - IV - VII - VIII
E) III - V - II - I - VI - VII - VIII - IV
Answer: B
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 384

22) The process of taking a logical data model and transforming it into a physical model that is
efficient for the most often used tasks is called:
A) referential integrity.
B) normalization.
C) denormalization.
D) data warehousing.
E) online analytic processing.
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 385

23) Which of the following is not a difference between a data warehouse and a traditional
database?
A) Data in a data warehouse are organized around major subjects rather than transactions.
B) Data in a data warehouse cover a much longer time frame that transaction data.
C) Data in a data warehouse are organized for rapid updating.
D) Data in a data warehouse are organized for fast queries.
E) Data in a data warehouse usually include data from outside sources.
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 387

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24) A process of applying algorithms for extracting patterns from data stored in data warehouses
that are typically not apparent to human decision makers is called:
A) data mining.
B) data warehousing.
C) data denormalization.
D) databasing.
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 388

25) ________ is the transformation of complex user views and data stores to a set of smaller,
stable
data structures.
A) Categorization
B) Capitalization
C) Alphabetization
D) Normalization
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 371

26) An alternative to building conventional files is building a ________.

A) data dictionary
B) data warehouse
C) database
D) data model
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 361

27) A ________ is a central source of data meant to be shared by many users for a variety of
applications.
A) database
B) data dictionary
C) data warehouse
D) data model
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 362

28) A well-designed ________ can be more flexible than separate files.

A) data dictionary
B) data warehouse
C) data model
D) database
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 362

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29) The information that describes data is referred to as ________.
A) metadata
B) gammadata
C) moredata
D) alphadata
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 363

30) Within the realm of ________, there are entities and attributes.
A) reality
B) metadata
C) relationships
D) databases
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 363

31) A(n) ________ represents additional attributes of an entity that may not be present on every
record of the entity.
A) entity subtype
B) entity type
C) primary entity
D) secondary entity
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

32) ________ are associations between entities.

A) Relationships
B) Subtypes
C) Types
D) Entities
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 363

33) A ________ represents more than one of the other entity.

A) crow's foot
B) single line
C) double line
D) dotted line
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 364

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34) An attribute is some characteristic of a(n) ________.
A) entity
B) relationship
C) reality
D) record definition
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

35) ________ is a process to eliminate repeating groups found in variable-length records.

A) Alpha row selection
B) First row selection
C) Normalization
D) Denormalization
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 371

13.2 True/False

1) The sharing of the data means that data need to be stored only once.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 362

2) Data have a better chance of being available in a conventional file system than in a database.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 362

3) Within the realm of metadata, there are record definitions and data item definitions.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

4) Any object or event about which someone chooses to collect data is an attribute.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

5) An entity subtype is an entity that is used to represent a many-to-many relationship.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 363

6) An associative entity is used for repeating groups.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 364

7) Many data items can be packed into a field; the field can be read and converted to a number of
data items.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 366

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8) A primary key is one of the data items in a record that uniquely identifies a record.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 367

9) An object identifier is a unique key for each record in the database, not just in a table.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 367

10) Secondary keys can be used to select a group of records that belong to a set.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 368

11) Metadata describes the name given and the length assigned each record.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 368

12) Master files are large and contain all the information about an entity.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 368

13) Table files are used to update master files.

Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 369

14) Transaction files contain information necessary to produce reports but are not able to update
master files.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 369

15) One of the primary advantages of the relational structure is that ad hoc queries are efficiently
handled.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 369

16) A one-to-many relationship may be implemented using a drop-down list.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 381

17) A many-to-many relationship may be implemented using three tables.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 381

18) Each distinct data entity may be stored on several master database tables.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 382

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19) Referential integrity means that all foreign keys in the many table must have a matching
record in the parent table.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 382

20) A deletion anomaly occurs when the entire primary key is not known and the database
cannot delete a record.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

21) An update anomaly occurs when the same data are stored in more than one place in the
database.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

22) Indexing is the logical ordering of rows in a relation according to some key.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

23) Presentation of the data abstracted from the database must take one of two forms: graphs and
tabular forms.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

24) Data mining is used to verify or validate patterns that humans are able to make themselves.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 388

25) An object identifier (OID) is a unique key for each record in the database, not just in a table.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 368

26) Master files contain all the information about a data entity.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 368

27) A master file contains information used to update master files and produce reports.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 368

28) In database literature, the views are referred to as schema.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 370

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29) In relational structures, a file is called a relation, a record is usually referred to as a tuple, and
the attribute value set is called a domain.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 371

30) A many-to-many relationship may be implemented using three tables.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 381

31) Each separate data entity should create its own master database table .
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 382

32) An update anomaly occurs when the entire primary key is not known and the database cannot
insert a new record.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

33) An insert anomaly results when a change to one attribute value either causes the database to
contain inconsistent data or causes multiple records to need changing.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

34) Entity integrity constraints are rules that govern the composition of primary keys.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

35) Referential integrity governs the nature of records in a one-to-many relationship.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 382

36) The process of taking the logical data model and transforming it into a physical model that is
efficient for the most often needed tasks is called normalization.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

37) A data warehouse is used to organize information for quick and effective queries.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 387

38) Online analytic processing is meant to answer decision makers' complex questions.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 388

39) Data mining can identify patterns that a human is unable to detect.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 388

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40) Business intelligence systems are built around the idea of processing small amounts of data.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 390

41) Business analytics (BA) is a term that covers the ideas of using big data along with a variety
of quantitatively based analytical tools (such as statistics and predictive modeling) to answer
management questions about trends and what-if questions.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 391

42) Text analytics can help organizational decision makers realize valuable insights into what
customers are thinking about the organization, the values and actions of the company, as well as
customer or vendor motivations for beginning, maintaining, improving, or discontinuing a
relationship.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 391

13.3 Short Answer

1) What is normalization?
Answer: Normalization is the transformation of complex user views and data stores to a set of
smaller, stable data structures.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 371

2) List and describe the four anomalies that may occur when creating database tables.
Answer:
1. Data redundancy occurs when the same data are stored in more than one place in the database.
2. An insert anomaly occurs when the entire primary key is not known and the database cannot
insert a new record, which would violate entity integrity.
3. A deletion anomaly happens when a record is deleted, resulting in the loss of other related
data.
4. An update anomaly results when a change to one attribute value either causes the database to
contain inconsistent data or causes multiple records to need changing.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 384

3) What is denormalization?
Answer: Denormalization is the process of taking the logical data model and transforming it into
a physical model that is efficient for the most often needed tasks.
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 385

4) What is the difference between a primary key and a secondary key?

Answer: A primary key is a key that uniquely identifies a record. A key is called a secondary
key if it cannot uniquely identify a record. Secondary keys either may be unique or may identify
multiple records in a database.
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 367

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5) Give two examples of primary keys that can be used to identify a person or thing.
Answer: Students may have a wide range of examples for this question. In the US, the most
common primary key is the social security number. Other examples include a drivers license
number or school ID number. Items can also have primary keys. Examples could include serial
numbers on manufactured goods, VIN numbers on cars and lot numbers on medications.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 367

6) What is business intelligence?

Answer: Business intelligence is information that is useful to an organization through the
processing of large amounts of data with BI technologies to help an organization meet its
strategic goals
Diff: 3 Page Ref: 391

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