Computer Science: Chapter 6 Questions

25 July 2022
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The first step in the database design process is to create tables and columns from entities and attributes.
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True
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When creating a relational database design from E-R diagrams, first create a relation for each relationship.
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False
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Each entity in the extended E-R model is represented as a table in the relational database design.
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True
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An entity needs to be examined according to normalization criteria before creating a table from it in the relational database design.
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False
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When creating a table in the relational database design from an entity in the extended E-R model, the attributes of the entity become the rows of the table.
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False
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By default, the identifier of the entity becomes the foreign key of the corresponding table.
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False
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The ideal primary key is short, numeric, and fixed.
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True
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A surrogate key is appropriate when the primary key of a table contains a lengthy text field.
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True
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One of the important properties of an attribute is whether or not it is required.
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True
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A surrogate key is a unique, system-supplied identifier used as the primary key of a table.
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True
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The values of a surrogate key have no meaning to the users.
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True
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A surrogate key should be considered when the key contains a lengthy text field.
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True
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Whether or not an attribute is required is determined during the database modeling phase.
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False
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A null value is an attribute value that has been set to zero.
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False
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Data types are consistent across all DBMS products.
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False
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A default value is the value the user enters into the row the first time the user enters data.
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False
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A data constraint is a limitation on data values.
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True
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The last step in creating a table is to verify table normalization.
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True
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One of the important properties of a column is whether or not it can have a NULL value.
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True
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A foreign key is a key that does not belong in any table.
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False
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In a relational database design, all relationships are expressed by creating a foreign key.
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True
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When the key of one table is placed into a second table to represent a relationship, the key is called a relational key in the second table.
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False
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To represent a 1:1 binary relationship in a relational database design, the key of one table is placed into the second table.
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True
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When placing a foreign key for a 1:1 relationship, the key of either table can be used as the foreign key in the other table.
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True
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In a 1:1 relationship, the foreign key is defined as an alternate key to make the DBMS enforce uniqueness.
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True
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In a 1:N relationship, the term parent refers to the table on the 'many' side of the relationship.
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False
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In a 1:N relationship, the table on the 'one' side is called the parent.
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True
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In representing a 1:N relationship in a relational database design, the key of the table representing the parent entity is placed as a foreign key in the table representing the child entity.
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True
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In representing a 1:N relationship in a relational database design, the key of the table representing the entity of the 'many' side is placed as foreign key in the table representing the entity on the 'one' side of the relationship.
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False
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To represent a 1:N relationship in a relational database design, an intersection table is created.
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False
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In 1:N relationships, the table on the 'many' side is called the child.
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True
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To represent a one-to-many relationship in a relational database design, the key of the child table is placed as a foreign key into the other table
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False
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To represent an N:M relationship in a relational database design, a table is created to represent the relationship itself.
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True
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To represent an N:M relationship in a relational database design, an intersection table is created.
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True
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To represent an N:M relationship in a relational database design, in essence it is reduced to two 1:N relationship.s
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True
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A key of an intersection table is always the keys of both parents.
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True
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In many-to-many relationship in a relational database design, the primary keys of both tables are joined into a composite primary key in the intersection table.
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True
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An intersection table is always ID-dependent on both of its parent tables.
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True
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An intersection table can have additional attributes besides the keys of its parent tables.
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False
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Like all ID-dependent relationships, the parents of an association table are required.
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True
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An association tables sometimes connect more than two entities.
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True
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An ID-dependent table can be used to represent multivalued attributes.
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True
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All identifying relationships are 1:N
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True
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When creating a table for an ID-dependent entity, both the key of the parent and the key of the entity itself must appear in the table.
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True
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The design transformation for all IS-A relationships can be summarized by the phrase "place the key of the parent table in the child table."
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False
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When transforming an ID-dependent E-R data model relationship into a relational database design where the child entity is designed to use a surrogate key, the relationship changes to a week but not ID-dependent relationship.
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True
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When transforming supertype/subtype entities into a relational database design, entity is created for the supertype only.
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False
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When transforming supertype/subtype entities into a relational database design, the key of the supertype table is placed into the subtype table typically as the key.
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True
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To represent an IS-A relationship in a relational database design, the IS-A relationship must be converted into a HAS-S relationship.
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False
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Discriminator attributes can be represented in relational designs.
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False
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When transforming supertype/subtype entities into a relational database design, all of the attributes for the supertype table are placed into the subtype relations.
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False
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When transforming an extended E-R model into a relational database design, recursive relationships are treated fundamentally the same as other HAS-A relationships.
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True
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Recursive M:N relationships are represented with an intersection table that shows pairs of related rows from a single table.
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True
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Referential integrity constraints should disallow adding a new row to a child table when the foreign key does not match a primary key value in the parent table.
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True
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A referential integrity constraint policy that insures that foreign key values in a table are correctly maintained when there is a change to the primary key value in the parent table called cascading insertions.
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False
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A referential integrity constraint policy that insures that all rows containing a particular foreign key value in a table are eliminated from the table when the row containing the corresponding primary key value in a parent table is eliminated from the database is called cascading deletes.
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True
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When the parent entity is required (M) in a relationship, ever row of the child table must have a valid, non-null value of the foreign key.
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True
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Cascading deletions are generally not used with relationships between strong entities.
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True
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Cascading deletions are generally not used with relationships for weak child entities.
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False
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If the parent is required, then a new child row must be created with a valid foreign key value.
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True
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When the parent entity has a surrogate key, the enforcement actions are the same for both parent and child.
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False
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When the child entity is required (M) in a relationship, there needs to be at least one child row for each parent row at all times.
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True
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It is easy to enforce the referential integrity actions for M-M relationships.
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False
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Which of the following is not a step in the database design process? A) Create tables and columns from entities and attributes B) Select primary keys C) Represent relationships D) Create constraints and triggers
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D
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The first step in transforming an extended E-R model into a relational database design is to ________. A) create a table for each relationship B) evaluate the entities against the normalization criteria C) create a table for each entity D) remove any recursive relationships
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C
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Each attribute of an entity becomes a(n) ________ of a table. A) column B) primary key C) foreign key D) alternate key
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A
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The identifier of the entity becomes the ________ of the corresponding table. A) primary key B) foreign key C) supertype D) subtype
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A
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Which of the following is not true for an ideal primary key? A) a composite of several long attributes B) numeric C) fixed D) short
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A
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A surrogate key should be considered when ________. A) A relationship is N:M B) A composite key is required C) The key contains a lengthy text field D) The key contains a number
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C
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Which of the following is not true about surrogate keys? A) They are identifiers that are supplied by the system, not the users. B) They have no meaning to the users. C) They are non-unique within a table. D) They can be problematic when combining databases.
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C
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Which of the following is not true about a NULL attribute? A) On insertion, entering the data for that field is optional. B) It is an important property of an attribute. C) It must have a default value specified. D) A primary key can't be NULL.
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C
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In a relational database design, all relationships are expressed by ________. A) creating a primary key B) creating a foreign key C) creating a supertype D) creating a subtype
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B
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When representing a 1:1 relationship in a relational database design, ________. A) the key of each table must be placed as foreign keys into the other B) the key of either table may be placed as a foreign key into the other C) the key of both tables must be the same D) the intersection table gets the key from both relations
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B
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To represent a one-to-many relationship in a relational database design, ________. A) the key of the child is placed as a foreign key into the parent B) the key of the parent is placed as a foreign key into the child C) an intersection table must be created D) the key of the table on the "many" side is placed in the table on the "one" side
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B
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When representing a one-to-many relationship in a relational database design, ________. A) the parent is always on the one side of the "one-to-many" relationship B) the child is always on the one side of the "one-to-many" relationship C) either parent or child can be on the one side of the "one-to-many" relationship, and the choice is arbitrary D) either parent or child can be on the one side of the "one-to-many" relationship, and special criteria indicate which table should be on the one side
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A
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Many-to-many relationships are represented by ________. A) two tables with an M:N relationship B) two tables with a 1:N relationship C) an intersection table which has M:N relationships with the two tables D) an intersection table which has 1:N relationships with the two tables
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D
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In many-to-many relationships in a relational database design, ________. A) the key of the child is placed as a foreign key into the parent B) the key of the parent is placed as a foreign key into the child C) the keys of both tables are placed in a third table D) the keys of both entity tables are placed in each other
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C
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In many-to-many relationships between strong entities in a relational database design, which of the following is not true? A) The intersection table is ID-dependent on one of the parents B) The intersection table is ID-dependent on both of the parents C) The relationships from the intersection table to the parent tables are identifying relationships D) The maximum cardinality to the intersection table is always N
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A
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In relational database design, ID-dependent entities are not used to ________. A) represent N:M relationships B) handle associative relationships C) represent relationships where the child identifier does not include the key of the parent D) handle archetype/instance relationships
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C
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When transforming an E-R data model into a relational database design, the key of the parent entity should be placed as part of the primary key into the child entity ________. A) when the child entity is ID-dependent B) when the child entity is non-ID-dependent C) when the child entity has a 1:1 relationship with the parent entity D) when the child entity has a 1:N relationship with the parent entity
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A
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When transforming an ID-dependent E-R data model relationship into a relational database design and the parent entity has a surrogate primary key and the child entity has a data identifier, then the primary key of the child table should be ________. A) the parent's surrogate key + the child's data key B) the parent's surrogate key + a surrogate key in the child C) either A or B will work, but method A is preferable D) either A or B will work, but method B is preferable
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D
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Which of the following is not true about N:M recursive relationships? A) Both foreign keys in the intersection table refer to the same table. B) Since it is a recursive relationship, an intersection table is not needed. C) The foreign keys in the intersection table can't refer to the same attribute in the parent table. D) Both B and C are correct.
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D
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Which of the following is not true about representing subtypes in a relational database design? A) One table is created for the supertype and one for each subtype. B) All of the attributes of the supertype are added to the subtype relations. C) The key of the supertype is made the key of the subtypes. D) An instance of the supertype may be related to one instance each of several subtypes.
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B
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In a supertype-subtype structure, discriminator attributes ________. A) are easily represented in a relational design B) cannot be represented in a relational design C) require application logic to determine which subtypes correspond to a specific supertype instance D) Both B and C are correct
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D
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Which of the following is not true of recursive relationships? A) When the recursive relationship is M:N, an intersection table is created. B) The rows of a single table can play two different roles. C) Recursive relationships can be 1:1, 1:N, or M:N relationships. D) When the relationship is 1:N, a new table must be defined to represent the relationship.
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D
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Which of the following is not true of MUST constraint? A) It may be needed in ternary relationships to enforce special business rules. B) It can be expressed directly in a relational model. C) It must be enforced by program code. D) It requires that one entity be combined with another entity.
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B
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The binary constraint MUST NOT indicates that ________. A) a specific binary relationship must not be included in a ternary relationship B) a table includes values that must not occur in a binary relationship C) a table includes values that must not occur in a ternary relationship D) a binary relationship includes value combinations that must not occur in a ternary relationship
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D
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The binary constraint MUST COVER indicates that ________. A) a specific binary relationship must be included in a ternary relationship B) a binary relationship includes a set of value combinations that must all occur in a ternary relationship C) a table includes values that must occur in a binary relationship D) a table includes values that must occur in a ternary relationship
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B
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For the M-O (parent mandatory, child optional) case, what action(s) should be taken to ensure minimum cardinality is maintained? A) Define referential integrity constraint from child to parent B) Make foreign key NOT NULL C) Will require trigger or other application code D) Both A and B are correct
answer
D
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A referential integrity constraint policy that insures that foreign key values in a table are correctly maintained when there is a change to the primary key value in the parent table is called ________. A) incremental updates B) incremental deletes C) cascading updates D) cascading deletes
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C
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A referential integrity constraint policy that insures that all rows containing a particular foreign key value in a table are eliminated from the table when the row containing the corresponding primary key value in a parent table is eliminated from the database is called ________. A) incremental updates B) incremental deletes C) cascading updates D) cascading deletes
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D
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A referential integrity constraint policy that guarantees that a row in a parent table always has a required entry in a child table ________. A) is known as a minimum cardinality enforcement action B) needs to be documented by the database development team C) is enforced in most DBMS products D) Both A and B are correct
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D
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When transforming an ID-dependent E-R data model relationship into a relational database design, the referential integrity constraints should allow ________. A) parent updates to cascade B) child updates to cascade C) child deletes to cascade D) Both A and B are correct
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A
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Briefly describe the process of converting an extended E-R model into a relational database design.
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To convert an extended E-R model into a relational database design, first tables and columns must be defined for each entity attribute. The attributes of the entity are represented as the columns of the table. Primary keys are then selected for each table, after which the relationships between the entities are represented through the creation of foreign keys. Next, constraints are specified. Finally the normalization is verified.
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Explain the pragmatic reason for using surrogate keys.
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Primary keys are commonly included in indexes, and are used to identify records to be retrieved by users. The ideal primary key is short, numeric and fixed. When the primary key contains a lengthy text field, this creates a large amount of duplicated data that must be frequently manipulated. For these reasons, it is often practical to use a surrogate key that is generated by the system and is relatively small and easy to manipulate.
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How are one-to-one recursive relationships addressed using the relational model?
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One-to-one recursive relationships are addressed just the same as one-to-one nonrecursive relationships. The only difference is that both of the related entity instances are in the same entity class. The key of either instance is placed in the other instance as a foreign key. In the case of a recursive relationship, this means that a new attribute is added to the entity class with a recursive relationship. For each instance, this new attribute will contain the value of the key attribute of the instance that is related.
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Explain the representation of a one-to-many strong entity relationship in a relational database design.
answer
One-to-many relationships are represented by placing the primary key of the table on the one side of the relationship into the table on the many side of the relationship as a foreign key. The term parent refers to the table on the one side of a 1:N relationship, and the term child refers to the table on the many side of the 1:N relationship. Therefore, the rule for representing a one-to-many relationship can be summarized as "Place the key of the parent table in the child table as a foreign key."
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Explain the representation of a many-to-many strong entity relationship in a relational database design.
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Many-to-many relationships cannot be directly represented in a relational database design. Therefore, many-to-many relationships are essentially broken into two one-to-many relationships by creating an intersection table that represents the relationship itself. The intersection table takes its key as a combination of the keys of the two original, or parent, entities. Each of the parent entities has a one-to-many relationship with the intersection table that is represented by placing the keys of the parents into the intersection table.
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What is an association relationship and how does it differ from an N:M relationship?
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An association relationship is very similar to an N:M relationship except that the intersection table has attributes of its own. This means that in addition to the foreign key fields linking to the two strong entities, there is at least one additional field in what would otherwise be called the intersection table but is now an association table. For example, intersection table ENROLLMENT for STUDENT and CLASS showing student enrollment in each class would normally have two columns: StudentID and ClassID. However, we can turn this intersection table into an association table by adding the column Grade, which records each student's grade in each class.
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What are MUST NOT and MUST COVER constraints?
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Both MUST NOT and MUST COVER constraints occur when working with three tables in a ternary relationship. When a MUST NOT constraint occurs, it indicates that one binary relationship of two of the tables contains combinations of values that are not allowed to occur in the ternary relationship. When a MUST COVER constraint occurs, it indicates that one binary relationship of two of the tables contains combinations of values that must all appear in the ternary relationship.
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What are the four sets of minimum cardinalities that can be present in a 1:N binary relationship?
answer
If we use the labels "Parent" and "Child" to represent, respectively, the one and many side of a 1:N relationship, we can then consider whether the parent and child must participate in the relationship. If one must participate, it is mandatory (M). If one does not have to participate it is optional (O). The four possible sets of minimum cardinalities are therefore: Parent optional and Child optional (O-O) Parent mandatory and Child optional (M-O) Parent optional and Child mandatory (O-M) Parent mandatory and Child mandatory (M-M)
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Using the VRG database as an example, briefly describe what a final database design consists of.
answer
The obvious part of the database design is the ER drawing itself, for example as shown for VRG in Figure 6-39. However, this needs to be accompanied by a summary of the database design relationships as shown in Figure 6-40. This document summarizes the cardinalities of relationships. For each relationship, we need a set of actions to enforce the minimum cardinalities. These can be based on Figures 6-28(a) and 6-28(b), the examples for VRG are shown in Figures 6-41 and 6-42. Finally, we need a set of column characteristics for each table, as shown in Figure 6-43 for VRG.