RDBMS

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“RDBMS Interview Questions and Answers will guide us here that relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) that is based on the relational model. Most popular commercial and open source databases currently in use are based on the relational model. Learn more about RDBMS with the help of this RDBMS Interview Questions with Answers guide”



98 RDBMS Questions And Answers

61⟩ A B C is a set of attributes. The functional dependency is as follows AB -> B AC -> C C -> B?

a) is in 1NF

b) is in 2NF

c) is in 3NF

d) is in BCNF

(a) is in 1NF since (AC)+ = { A, B, C} hence AC is the primary key. Since C B is a FD given, where neither C is a Key nor B is a prime attribute, this it is not in 3NF. Further B is not functionally dependent on key AC thus it is not in 2NF. Thus the given FDs is in 1NF.

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62⟩ Does PL/SQL support overloading? Explain?

The concept of overloading in PL/SQL relates to the idea that you can define procedures and functions with the same name. PL/SQL does not look only at the referenced name, however, to resolve a procedure or function call. The count and data types of formal parameters are also considered.

PL/SQL also attempts to resolve any procedure or function calls in locally defined packages before looking at globally defined packages or internal functions. To further ensure calling the proper procedure, you can use the dot notation. Prefacing a procedure or function name with the package name fully qualifies any procedure or function reference.

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63⟩ Tables derived from the ERD?

a) Are totally unnormalised

b) Are always in 1NF

c) Can be further denormalised

d) May have multi-valued attributes

(b) Are always in 1NF

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64⟩ Spurious tuples may occur due to?

i. Bad normalization

ii. Theta joins

iii. Updating tables from join

a) i & ii b) ii & iii

c) i & iii d) ii & iii

(a) i & iii because theta joins are joins made on keys that are not primary keys.

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65⟩ What is cold backup and hot backup (in case of Oracle)?

► Cold Backup:

It is copying the three sets of files (database files, redo logs, and control file) when the instance is shut down. This is a straight file copy, usually from the disk directly to tape. You must shut down the instance to guarantee a consistent copy.

If a cold backup is performed, the only option available in the event of data file loss is restoring all the files from the latest backup. All work performed on the database since the last backup is lost.

► Hot Backup:

Some sites (such as worldwide airline reservations systems) cannot shut down the database while making a backup copy of the files. The cold backup is not an available option.

So different means of backing up database must be used — the hot backup. Issue a SQL command to indicate to Oracle, on a tablespace-by-tablespace basis, that the files of the tablespace are to backed up. The users can continue to make full use of the files, including making changes to the data. Once the user has indicated that he/she wants to back up the tablespace files, he/she can use the operating system to copy those files to the desired backup destination.

The database must be running in ARCHIVELOG mode for the hot backup option.

If a data loss failure does occur, the lost database files can be restored using the hot backup and the online and offline redo logs created since the backup was done. The database is restored to the most consistent state without any loss of committed transactions.

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67⟩ Name two utilities that Oracle provides, which are use for backup and recovery?

Along with the RDBMS software, Oracle provides two utilities that you can use to back up and restore the database. These utilities are Export and Import.

The Export utility dumps the definitions and data for the specified part of the database to an operating system binary file. The Import utility reads the file produced by an export, recreates the definitions of objects, and inserts the data

If Export and Import are used as a means of backing up and recovering the database, all the changes made to the database cannot be recovered since the export was performed. The best you can do is recover the database to the time when the export was last performed.

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68⟩ What are stand-alone procedures?

Procedures that are not part of a package are known as stand-alone because they independently defined. A good example of a stand-alone procedure is one written in a SQL*Forms application. These types of procedures are not available for reference from other Oracle tools. Another limitation of stand-alone procedures is that they are compiled at run time, which slows execution.

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69⟩ What is database Trigger?

A database trigger is a PL/SQL block that can defined to automatically execute for insert, update, and delete statements against a table. The trigger can e defined to execute once for the entire statement or once for every row that is inserted, updated, or deleted. For any one table, there are twelve events for which you can define database triggers. A database trigger can call database procedures that are also written in PL/SQL.

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70⟩ What is ROWID?

The ROWID is a unique database-wide physical address for every row on every table. Once assigned (when the row is first inserted into the database), it never changes until the row is deleted or the table is dropped.

The ROWID consists of the following three components, the combination of which uniquely identifies the physical storage location of the row.

► Oracle database file number, which contains the block with the rows

► Oracle block address, which contains the row

► The row within the block (because each block can hold many rows)

The ROWID is used internally in indexes as a quick means of retrieving rows with a particular key value. Application developers also use it in SQL statements as a quick way to access a row once they know the ROWID

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71⟩ Name the three major set of files on disk that compose a database in Oracle?

There are three major sets of files on disk that compose a database. All the files are binary. These are

► Database files

► Control files

► Redo logs

The most important of these are the database files where the actual data resides. The control files and the redo logs support the functioning of the architecture itself.

All three sets of files must be present, open, and available to Oracle for any data on the database to be useable. Without these files, you cannot access the database, and the database administrator might have to recover some or all of the database using a backup, if there is one.

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79⟩ What do you mean by Correlated subquery?

Subqueries, or nested queries, are used to bring back a set of rows to be used by the parent query. Depending on how the subquery is written, it can be executed once for the parent query or it can be executed once for each row returned by the parent query. If the subquery is executed for each row of the parent, this is called a correlated subquery.

A correlated subquery can be easily identified if it contains any references to the parent subquery columns in its WHERE clause. Columns from the subquery cannot be referenced anywhere else in the parent query. The following example demonstrates a non-correlated subquery.

E.g. Select * From CUST Where '10/03/1990' IN (Select ODATE From ORDER Where CUST.CNUM = ORDER.CNUM)

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80⟩ What are database files, control files and log files. How many of these files should a database have at least? Why?

Database Files

The database files hold the actual data and are typically the largest in size. Depending on their sizes, the tables (and other objects) for all the user accounts can go in one database file—but that's not an ideal situation because it does not make the database structure very flexible for controlling access to storage for different users, putting the database on different disk drives, or backing up and restoring just part of the database.

You must have at least one database file but usually, more than one files are used. In terms of accessing and using the data in the tables and other objects, the number (or location) of the files is immaterial.

The database files are fixed in size and never grow bigger than the size at which they were created

Control Files

The control files and redo logs support the rest of the architecture. Any database must have at least one control file, although you typically have more than one to guard against loss. The control file records the name of the database, the date and time it was created, the location of the database and redo logs, and the synchronization information to ensure that all three sets of files are always in step. Every time you add a new database or redo log file to the database, the information is recorded in the control files.

Redo Logs

Any database must have at least two redo logs. These are the journals for the database; the redo logs record all changes to the user objects or system objects. If any type of failure occurs, the changes recorded in the redo logs can be used to bring the database to a consistent state without losing any committed transactions. In the case of non-data loss failure, Oracle can apply the information in the redo logs automatically without intervention from the DBA.

The redo log files are fixed in size and never grow dynamically from the size at which they were created.

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