Exam 14: Database Design

A(n) __________________________________ is used to create, read, update, and delete records in the database and to navigate between different records and types of records.

A collection of interrelated files is known as:

A(n) _____________________________ is used by the DBMS to physically establish those record types, fields, and structural relationships. Additionally, the DDL defines views of the database.

_________________________________ distribution of the data has the unfortunate side effect that data cannot always be easily recombined for management analysis across sites.

In implementing a database schema, each supertype and subtype entity must be implemented with a separate table.

____________________________________ of a database means that it would be implemented on a single server regardless of the number of physical locations that may require access to it.

The database engine of a DBMS responds to commands to create, read, update, and delete records in the database.

Conventional files are relatively __________________ (easy or hard) to design and implement because they are normally designed for use with a single application or information system.

In today's database environment, the database technology itself usually predetermines and/or limits file organization for all tables contained in the database.

A variable-length record structure means that each record instance has the same fields, same number of fields and the same logical size.

Replication of data offers performance and accessibility advantages and reduces network traffic, but it also increases the complexity of data integrity and requires more physical storage.

Data independence refers to the fact that databases are defined separately from the information systems and application programs that will use them.

Centralization of a database means that it would be implemented on a single server regardless of the number of physical locations that may require access to it.

Prototyping is an alternative to doing database design.

Both triggers and stored procedures are reusable because they are stored with the tables themselves (as metadata).

_______________________________ integrity means that the architecture of relational databases implements the relationships between the records in tables via foreign keys.

Examples of high-performance relational DBMSs include Oracle, IBM's DB2, and Microsoft Access.

A(n) __________________________ is the smallest unit of meaningful data to be stored in a file or database.

Duplication of data items in multiple files is normally cited as the principal disadvantage of file-based systems.

Database technology offers the advantage of storing data in flexible formats.