Relational Databases
Define referential integrity
Referential integrity means that no value of a
foreign key attribute can exist unless that value
exists in a related table where the attribute is the
primary key.
Relational Databases
Define a foreign key
A foreign key is an attribute which appears in an
entity and appears in another entity as the primary
key.
Relational Databases
Define a compound key
A compound key is a uniquely identifying primary
key made up of 2 or more attributes.
Relational Databases
Define entity integrity
Entity integrity states that every entity must have a
primary key, which is both unique and non-null.
Relational Databases
Define 1NF
1NF: Remove repeating data to a new entity along
with a copy of the primary key.
Relational Databases
Define 2NF
2NF: Remove partial dependencies to a new entity
along with a copy of the entity the dependency is
based on.
Relational Databases
Define 3NF
3NF: Remove non-key (transitive) dependencies to a
new entity along with a copy of the attribute the
dependency is based on.
Relational Databases
What is the purpose of an entityrelationship diagram?
An E/R diagram describes the cardinality of the
relationships between entities in a relational
database model.
Relational Databases
What is the purpose of an data dictionary?
A data dictionary provides a plan of how attributes
should be created in a database, e.g. unique fields,
validation checks and attribute types.
Relational Databases
What is boolean data?
Boolean data is data which can only ever be one of
2 states, such as True/False , On/Off, Yes/No.
Relational Databases
What is metadata?
Metadata is data about data, e.g a data dictionary
is metadata for the data that will be entered into a
database.
Relational Databases
What is a surrogate key?
A surrogate key is a replacement key for a situation
where there may be a large compound key or no
obvious key at all.
Relational Databases
What is a compound key?
A compound key is one which is made of 2 or more
attributes.
Relational Databases
What is an object data type?
An object data type is one which holds data such as
a picture, movie, sound or a file.
It contains data that cannot be sorted or searched
like other attributes.
Relational Databases
What problems can occur leaving a
database table in unnormalised form?
Anomalies can occur in an unnormalised system.
Either deletion, addition or update anomaly.
Relational Databases
What are the 2 distinct problems that can
occur in using a meaningful identifier as a
primary key in a database table?
A meaningful identifier can lead to duplication of
the identifier meaning the key is not unique.
Also the identifier may have to change its value
leading to multiple changes having to be made.
Relational Databases
What is a link data type?
An attribute type which provides a link to another
resource, such as a video file or web page.
Relational Databases
What does the term term cardinality mean, Cardinality describes the nature of the relationships
between tables in a relational database.
and what are the different types of
Cardinality can be 1:1, 1:M or M:M (M:N)
cardinality that can exist in a database
table?
Relational Databases
What does the term domain constrains
mean?
Domain constraints refers to the range of
acceptable values allowed for an attribute.
Setting an attribute as unique or applying a range
check are 2 methods of applying domain
constraints.
