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NCC EDUCATION

INTERNATIONAL ADVANCED DIPLOMA


IN
COMPUTER STUDIES

DATABASE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

11TH MARCH 2007

ANSWER ANY FIVE QUESTIONS


FROM THE SIX QUESTIONS GIVEN

Time: 3 hours

Clearly cross out surplus answers.

Failure to do this will result in only the first five answers being marked

Any reference material brought into the examination room must be handed
to the invigilator before the start of the examination

Database Design and Development HW March 2007 25/01/07 Final © NCC Education Ltd 2007
ANSWER ANY FIVE QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1 Marks

a) Briefly describe the following:


i) A Record 1
ii) SQL 2
iii) Meta-data 2
iv) UDT 2
v) Physical data independence 2
vi) Backup 1

b) Briefly describe the THREE levels of abstraction identified in the ANSI-SPARC architecture for a DBMS. 6

c) Briefly describe the recovery facilities provided by most DBMS. 4

Total 20 Marks

QUESTIONS CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE


Database Design and Development HW March 2007 25/01/07 Final © NCC Education Ltd 2007
QUESTION 2 Marks

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS SYSTEM:

patient

admission

medication

treatment

surgery

The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) above shows part of a proposed ERD for a patient admissions system in a
hospital. A patient is admitted to the hospital which may result in treatment. A patient can be admitted on several
occasions but for each admission, a new admission number is given. Each treatment regime may consist of either
one or more surgical procedures, or one or more medications. Each medication or surgery must be for a specific
treatment regime. Each treatment regime must be allocated to an admission. On admission each patient must be
allocated to a consultant (senior doctor). The consultant must be responsible for one or more patient admissions.

The following attributes have been identified:


• Admission number, admission date
• Patient number, patient name, patient address, sex, date of birth, contact number
• Consultant number, consultant name, specialty, contact number, sex
• Treatment number, treatment date
• Surgery number, surgery type, description
• Medication number, medication, type, description

a) Redraw the ERD in your answer booklet and include an entity for CONSULTANT. The optionality and 4
cardinality of the relationship should be shown.

b) i) Redraw the ERD diagram, to include the exclusivity for the treatment consisting of either surgery or 2
medication.
ii) Explain how the exclusivity for the treatment consisting of either surgery or medication will be 2
implemented.

QUESTIONS CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE


Database Design and Development HW March 2007 25/01/07 Final © NCC Education Ltd 2007
Marks

c) Explain how the Treatment entity could be implemented as a relational table. Illustrate your answer with a SQL 9
CREATE TABLE statement. Include all aspects of relational integrity.

d) Explain the term propagation constraint include an example by adding to the SQL code written in part c) above. 3

Total 20 Marks

QUESTION 3

a) Provide an example for each of the following:


i) A non procedural language 1
ii) Non loss decomposition 1
iii) A commercial relational DBMS 1
iv) Top down analysis 1

b) Describe the difference between data security and data control.


2

c) Briefly describe the FOUR properties of a transaction which may be abbreviated to the term ACID. 8

d) i) Explain the term integrity constraint. 2


ii) Using examples, describe a static constraint and a transition constraint. 4

Total 20 Marks

QUESTION 4

a) Most DBMS have facilities which enable the DBA to perform their duties. List SIX of the duties which a DBA
performs using DBMS tools. 3

b) Describe what the SQL commands COMMIT and ROLLBACK may be used for. 3

c) Explain why it important for the database developer to understand the physical storages devices available with 4
the database product chosen for implementation.

d) Many RDBMS index on primary and foreign keys automatically. Explain why this so. 3

e) Explain how de-normalisation can improve retrieval performance. 3

f) In terms of data access, choose a storage structure which would be the most efficient for a DBMS which has a 4
large volume of volatile data.

Total 20 Marks

QUESTIONS CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE


Database Design and Development HW March 2007 25/01/07 Final © NCC Education Ltd 2007
QUESTION 5 Marks

ORDER TABLE
OrderNumber DeliveryDate CustomerID OrderPrice ($)
20650 16/12/2006 C0153 3360.00
10045 02/12/2006 C0145 2145.00
10022 02/12/2006 C0007 167.00

CUSTOMER TABLE
CustomerID Name CreditStatus ($)
C0145 Bill Jones 4500.00
C0146 William Whittel 5000.00
C0153 Fred Moore 500.00
C0155 Brian Havens 2500.00
C0007 Joe Jones 450.00

a) Using the Customer table above, give an example of a tuple. 1

b) Using the Order table above, give an example of functional dependency. 2

c) Using the tables above, write SQL statements for the following:
i) To list the customer’s name with an order price greater than $2000. 3
ii) To count the number of orders with a price greater than $230. 3
iii) To remove all orders with a delivery date of 02/12/06. 2
iv) To increase the credit status by 10% for all customers. 2
v) To list all the names of the customers who do NOT have an order. 4

d) Write an assertion that will ensure that the credit status will always be greater than 100 but less than 10,000. 3

Total 20 Marks

QUESTION 6

a) Briefly describe the following:


i) A block 2
ii) The disk manager 3
iii) The file manager 3

b) Explain the differences between a logical database design and a physical database design. 4

c) i) Describe THREE benefits from data warehousing. 3


ii) Briefly explain the term OLAP. Give an example of where this may be used. 3
iii) There are physical schemas designed specifically for data warehousing. Name TWO of these. 2

Total 20 Marks

END OF PAPER
Database Design and Development HW March 2007 25/01/07 Final © NCC Education Ltd 2007

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