Descriptive Questions

1. Consider a dependency diagram of relation R and normalize it up to third normal form.

Redrawing the original diagram, we get -

(Intermediate steps you can now very well do it, looking at previous problem)
Final Relation in 3NF form:

Normalized relation,
- Employees (Proj_no, Emp_no, Proj_name, Emp_name, Job_Class, Chg_Hr,
Hrs_Billed)
- With set of FDs
- Proj_no, Emp_np -> Proj_name, Emp_name, Job_Class, Chg_Hr, Hrs_Billed
Emp_no -> Emp_name, Job_Class,Chg_Hr
Proj_no -> Proj_name
Job_Class -> Chg_Hr
2. Explain conflict and view serializability with suitable examples .
Ans.
View Serializability
o A schedule will view serializable if it is view equivalent to a serial schedule.
o If a schedule is conflict serializable, then it will be view serializable.
o The view serializable which does not conflict serializable contains blind writes.
View Equivalent
Two schedules S1 and S2 are said to be view equivalent if they satisfy the following
conditions:
1. Initial Read
An initial read of both schedules must be the same. Suppose two schedule S1 and S2. In
schedule S1, if a transaction T1 is reading the data item A, then in S2, transaction T1 should
also read A.

Above two schedules are view equivalent because Initial read operation in S1 is done by T1
and in S2 it is also done by T1.
2. Updated Read
In schedule S1, if Ti is reading A which is updated by Tj then in S2 also, Ti should read A
which is updated by Tj.

Above two schedules are not view equal because, in S1, T3 is reading A updated by T2 and
in S2, T3 is reading A updated by T1.
3. Final Write
 A final write must be the same between both the schedules. In schedule S1, if a transaction
T1 updates A at last then in S2, final writes operations should also be done by T1.

Above two schedules is view equal because Final write operation in S1 is done by T3 and
in S2, the final write operation is also done by T3.
Example:

Schedule S
With 3 transactions, the total number of possible schedule

1. = 3! = 6
2. S1 = <T1 T2 T3>
3. S2 = <T1 T3 T2>
4. S3 = <T2 T3 T1>
5. S4 = <T2 T1 T3>
6. S5 = <T3 T1 T2>
7. S6 = <T3 T2 T1>
Taking first schedule S1:

Schedule S1
 Step 1: final updation on data items
In both schedules S and S1, there is no read except the initial read that's why we don't need
to check that condition.
Step 2: Initial Read
The initial read operation in S is done by T1 and in S1, it is also done by T1.
Step 3: Final Write
The final write operation in S is done by T3 and in S1, it is also done by T3. So, S and S1
are view Equivalent.
The first schedule S1 satisfies all three conditions, so we don't need to check another
schedule.
Hence, view equivalent serial schedule is:
1. T1 → T2 → T3

Conflict Serializable Schedule

o A schedule is called conflict serializability if after swapping of non-conflicting
operations, it can transform into a serial schedule.
o The schedule will be a conflict serializable if it is conflict equivalent to a serial schedule.
Conflicting Operations
The two operations become conflicting if all conditions satisfy:
1. 1.Both belong to separate transactions.
2. 2.They have the same data item.
3. 3.They contain at least one write operation.
Example:
Swapping is possible only if S1 and S2 are logically equal.

Here, S1 = S2. That means it is non-conflict.

 Here, S1 ≠ S2. That means it is conflict.
Conflict Equivalent
In the conflict equivalent, one can be transformed to another by swapping non-conflicting
operations. In the given example, S2 is conflict equivalent to S1 (S1 can be converted to S2
by swapping non-conflicting operations).
Two schedules are said to be conflict equivalent if and only if:
1. They contain the same set of the transaction.
2. If each pair of conflict operations are ordered in the same way.
Example:

Schedule S2 is a serial schedule because, in this, all operations of T1 are performed before
starting any operation of T2. Schedule S1 can be transformed into a serial schedule by
swapping non-conflicting operations of S1.
After swapping of non-conflict operations, the schedule S1 becomes:
T1 T2

Read(A)
Write(A)
Read(B)
Write(B)
Read(A)
Write(A)
Read(B)
Write(B)
Since, S1 is conflict serializable.

3. Explain deadlock handling in DBMS with suitable examples.

Ans.
A deadlock is a condition where two or more transactions are waiting indefinitely for one
another to give up locks. Deadlock is said to be one of the most feared complications in
DBMS as no task ever gets finished and is in waiting state forever.
For example: In the student table, transaction T1 holds a lock on some rows and needs to
update some rows in the grade table. Simultaneously, transaction T2 holds locks on some
rows in the grade table and needs to update the rows in the Student table held by
Transaction T1.
Now, the main problem arises. Now Transaction T1 is waiting for T2 to release its lock and
similarly, transaction T2 is waiting for T1 to release its lock. All activities come to a halt state
and remain at a standstill. It will remain in a standstill until the DBMS detects the deadlock
and aborts one of the transactions.
Deadlock Avoidance
o When a database is stuck in a deadlock state, then it is better to avoid the database
rather than aborting or restating the database. This is a waste of time and resource.
o Deadlock avoidance mechanism is used to detect any deadlock situation in advance.
A method like "wait for graph" is used for detecting the deadlock situation but this
method is suitable only for the smaller database. For the larger database, deadlock
prevention method can be used.
Deadlock Detection
In a database, when a transaction waits indefinitely to obtain a lock, then the DBMS should
detect whether the transaction is involved in a deadlock or not. The lock manager maintains
a Wait for the graph to detect the deadlock cycle in the database.
48M
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Hello Java Program for Beginners
Wait for Graph
o This is the suitable method for deadlock detection. In this method, a graph is created
based on the transaction and their lock. If the created graph has a cycle or closed
loop, then there is a deadlock.
o The wait for the graph is maintained by the system for every transaction which is
waiting for some data held by the others. The system keeps checking the graph if
there is any cycle in the graph.
The wait for a graph for the above scenario is shown below:

Deadlock Prevention
o Deadlock prevention method is suitable for a large database. If the resources are
allocated in such a way that deadlock never occurs, then the deadlock can be
prevented.
 o The Database management system analyzes the operations of the transaction whether
they can create a deadlock situation or not. If they do, then the DBMS never allowed
that transaction to be executed.
Wait-Die scheme
In this scheme, if a transaction requests for a resource which is already held with a
conflicting lock by another transaction then the DBMS simply checks the timestamp of both
transactions. It allows the older transaction to wait until the resource is available for
execution.
Let's assume there are two transactions Ti and Tj and let TS(T) is a timestamp of any
transaction T. If T2 holds a lock by some other transaction and T1 is requesting for resources
held by T2 then the following actions are performed by DBMS:
1. Check if TS(Ti) < TS(Tj) - If Ti is the older transaction and Tj has held some resource,
then Ti is allowed to wait until the data-item is available for execution. That means if
the older transaction is waiting for a resource which is locked by the younger
transaction, then the older transaction is allowed to wait for resource until it is
available.
2. Check if TS(Ti) < TS(Tj) - If Ti is older transaction and has held some resource and if
Tj is waiting for it, then Tj is killed and restarted later with the random delay but with
the same timestamp.
Wound wait scheme
o In wound wait scheme, if the older transaction requests for a resource which is held
by the younger transaction, then older transaction forces younger one to kill the
transaction and release the resource. After the minute delay, the younger transaction
is restarted but with the same timestamp.
o If the older transaction has held a resource which is requested by the Younger
transaction, then the younger transaction is asked to wait until older releases it.

4. What are different database users? Give responsibilities of DBA

Ans.

1. Naïve users
o Naïve users are users who interact with the system using application programs that have
been developed previously
o For eg, student wants to pay fees Rs.50 then accountant will invoke a program called
fees_payment(). This program asks the accountant for the amount of fees to be paid
o Naïve users can read reports generated from the database

2. Application programmers
o Application programmers responsible for writing application programs that use the
database
o Application programmers are developers or computer professionals who write
application programs
o Application programmers develop user interfaces using any preferred language
o Rapid application development (RDA) tools are available nowadays that enable an
application programmer to construct application without writing code

3. Sophisticated users
o Sophisticated users interact with application without writing programs by using a
database query language
o This query will be solved by query processor
o Online analytical processing (OLAP) tools is used to view summaries of data in different
ways which helps analysts (eg sales of region, city etc.) with OLAP analysts can use data
mining tools , which help them find certain kinds of patterns in data

4. Specialized users
o Creates the actual database and implements technical controls needed to enforce
various policy decisions
o Specialized users are sophisticated users who develop database applications
The responsibilities of DBA are as follows –
• Makes the decision concerning the content of the database.
• Plans the storage structure and access strategy.
• Provides the support to the users.
• Defines the security and integrity checks.
• Interpreter backup and recovery strategies.
• Monitoring the performance and responding to the changes in the requirements.
5. Produce ER Diagram from the following relational database Schema.

Ans.
6. Book( book_id, title,author, cost)
Store(store_no, city, state, inventory_val)
Stock(store_no, book_id,quantity)
Consider above relational schema and formulate SQL queries for the following:
(i)Modify the cost of DBMS books by 10%
(ii)Find the author of the books which are available in Mumbai store
(iii)Find the title of the most expensive book
(iv) Find the total quantity of books in each store
(v) Add a new record in Book(Assume values as per requirement)
Ans.

7. Explain the transaction processing with the help of a state diagram?

Ans.
• A transaction is the sequence of one or more SQL statements that are combined together to form
a single unit of work.
Transaction State Diagram:

Transaction must be in one of these states:

1.Active:
• It is the initial state if a transaction.
• Execution of transaction starts in an active state.
• Transaction remains in an active state till its execution is in process.
2. Partially Committed:
• When the last operation of a transaction is executed it goes to a partially committed state.
• Here there is a possibility that the transaction may be aborted or else it goes to committed state.
3.Failed:
• A transaction goes to a Failed state if it is determined that it can no longer proceed with its normal
exection.
4.Aborted:
• Failed transaction when rolled back is in an aborted state.
• In this stage system has two options:
1) Restart the transaction: A restarted transaction is considered to be new transaction which may
recover from possible failure.
2) Kill the transaction: A transaction can be killed to recover from failure.
5.Committed:
• The transaction when successfully completed comes to this state.
• Transaction is said to be terminated if its neither committed nor aborted.

8. Consider the schema R={A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J} and set of functional dependencies

F= {{A,B}→{C}, {A}→{D,E}, {B}→ {F}, {F}→{G,H},{D}→{I,J}}.

What is the key of R?

Decompose R into 2NF and 3NF relations.
Ans.
 9. Explain log based recovery techniques with examples?
Ans.
Log-Based Recovery
o The log is a sequence of records. Log of each transaction is maintained in some stable storage so
that if any failure occurs, then it can be recovered from there.
o If any operation is performed on the database, then it will be recorded in the log.
o But the process of storing the logs should be done before the actual transaction is applied in the
database.
Let's assume there is a transaction to modify the City of a student. The following logs are written for
this transaction.
o When the transaction is initiated, then it writes 'start' log.
1. <Tn, Start>
o When the transaction modifies the City from 'Noida' to 'Bangalore', then another log is written to the
file.
1. <Tn, City, 'Noida', 'Bangalore' >
o When the transaction is finished, then it writes another log to indicate the end of the transaction.
1. <Tn, Commit>
There are two approaches to modify the database:
1. Deferred database modification:
o The deferred modification technique occurs if the transaction does not modify the database until it
has committed.
o In this method, all the logs are created and stored in the stable storage, and the database is updated
when a transaction commits.
2. Immediate database modification:
o The Immediate modification technique occurs if database modification occurs while the transaction is
still active.
o In this technique, the database is modified immediately after every operation. It follows an actual
database modification.
Recovery using Log records
When the system is crashed, then the system consults the log to find which transactions need to be
undone and which need to be redone.
1. If the log contains the record <Ti, Start> and <Ti, Commit> or <Ti, Commit>, then the Transaction Ti
needs to be redone.
2. If log contains record<Tn, Start> but does not contain the record either <Ti, commit> or <Ti, abort>,
then the Transaction Ti needs to be undone.
10. Design an EER schema for a BANK database.
Each bank can have multiple branches, and each branch can have multiple accounts and loans. Bank
keeps the track of different types of Accounts (Saving_aacount, Checking_account) ,
Loans(Car_loans,Home_loans,…) , each account’s Transaction (deposit, withdrawal,check,..) and
each loan’s Payments; both of these include the amount, date and time.
State any assumptions you make about the additional requirement clearly.
Ans.
11. Write SQL queries for the given database :

Emp(Eid, Ename, Sal, City)

Works(Eid, Cid)

Company(Cid, Cname, City)

i. Find the lowest paid employee.

ii. Find how many employees are working for the company ‘ANZ Cooperation”.
iii. Modify the database so that Joe now lives in “New York”.
iv. Find the total number of employees of each company.
v. Give all employees of ‘XYZ ‘company a 10% raise in salary.
Ans.
1.Find the lowest paid employee

2.Find how many employees are working for the company ‘ANZ Cooperation”
Select count * From employee
From Company
Where Cname = ‘ANZ Cooperation’;

3.Modify the database so that joe now lives in “New York”

Update employee
Set city = ‘New York’
Where name = ‘Joe’;

4.Find the total number of employees of each company

Select count * From employee;

5. Give all employees of ‘XYZ’ company a 10% raise in salary

Update employee
Set sal = (sal + (0.1 * sal))
Where eid = ( Sected eid from emp
where Cid = (select eid
from company
where company_name = ‘XYZ’);

12. Explain the three levels of abstraction in DBMS including physical and logical data
independence.
Ans.
Data Abstraction is a process of hiding unwanted or irrelevant details from the end user. It provides
a different view and helps in achieving data independence which is used to enhance the security of
data.
The database systems consist of complicated data structures and relations. For users to access the
data easily, these complications are kept hidden, and only the relevant part of the database is made
accessible to the users through data abstraction.
Levels of abstraction for DBMS
Database systems include complex data-structures. In terms of retrieval of data, reduce complexity
in terms of usability of users and in order to make the system efficient, developers use levels of
abstraction that hide irrelevant details from the users. Levels of abstraction simplify database design.
Mainly there are three levels of abstraction for DBMS, which are as follows −
• Physical or Internal Level
• Logical or Conceptual Level
• View or External Level
These levels are shown in the diagram below −
Physical or Internal Level
It is the lowest level of abstraction for DBMS which defines how the data is actually stored, it defines
data-structures to store data and access methods used by the database. Actually, it is decided by
developers or database application programmers how to store the data in the database.
So, overall, the entire database is described in this level that is physical or internal level. It is a very
complex level to understand. For example, customer's information is stored in tables and data is
stored in the form of blocks of storage such as bytes, gigabytes etc.
Logical or Conceptual Level
Logical level is the intermediate level or next higher level. It describes what data is stored in the
database and what relationship exists among those data. It tries to describe the entire or whole data
because it describes what tables to be created and what are the links among those tables that are
created.
It is less complex than the physical level. Logical level is used by developers or database
administrators (DBA). So, overall, the logical level contains tables (fields and attributes) and
relationships among table attributes.
View or External Level
It is the highest level. In view level, there are different levels of views and every view only defines a
part of the entire data. It also simplifies interaction with the user and it provides many views or multiple
views of the same database.
View level can be used by all users (all levels' users). This level is the least complex and easy to
understand.
For example, a user can interact with a system using GUI that is view level and can enter details at
GUI or screen and the user does not know how data is stored and what data is stored, this detail is
hidden from the user.
13. Consider the given schema:
● Employees (Empid, Fname, Lname, Email, Phoneno, Hiredate, Jobid, Salary, Mid, Did)

● Departments (Did, Dname,Managerid)

● Locations (Did, City,State)

Write the SQL queries for the following:

1. List the employees who have a manager who works for a department based in
Mumbai.
2. Give a 10% hike to all the Employees working in ‘D01’ department.

3. Display the information of the employees whose first name starts with ‘R’ in descending order
of their salary.
4. Find name of the department which are having more than 20 employees

5. Add a new record in departments(Assume values as per requirement)

14. Convert following E-R diagram to relational schema and equivalent schema diagram
 15. Explain 3NF .Consider relation r1 with the functional dependencies that hold on it.

r1(p, q, r, s, t)
p → q,r,s,t
s→t
check whether r1 is in 3NF or not .If it is not in 3NF decompose into 3NF.
Ans. Third Normal Form (3NF)
o A relation will be in 3NF if it is in 2NF and not contain any transitive partial dependency.
o 3NF is used to reduce the data duplication. It is also used to achieve the data integrity.
o If there is no transitive dependency for non-prime attributes, then the relation must be in third
normal form.
A relation is in third normal form if it holds atleast one of the following conditions for every non-trivial
function dependency X → Y.
1. X is a super key.
2. Y is a prime attribute, i.e., each element of Y is part of some candidate key.
 16. Explain transaction ,properties and states with suitable example
Ans.
Transaction
o The transaction is a set of logically related operation. It contains a group of tasks.
o A transaction is an action or series of actions. It is performed by a single user to perform
operations for accessing the contents of the database
Operations of Transaction:
Following are the main operations of transaction:
Read(X): Read operation is used to read the value of X from the database and stores it in a buffer in
main memory.
Write(X): Write operation is used to write the value back to the database from the buffer.
Let's take an example to debit transaction from an account which consists of following operations:
1. 1. R(X);
2. 2. X = X - 500;
3. 3. W(X);
Let's assume the value of X before starting of the transaction is 4000.
o The first operation reads X's value from database and stores it in a buffer.
o The second operation will decrease the value of X by 500. So buffer will contain 3500.
o The third operation will write the buffer's value to the database. So X's final value will be 3500.
But it may be possible that because of the failure of hardware, software or power, etc. that transaction
may fail before finished all the operations in the set.
For example: If in the above transaction, the debit transaction fails after executing operation 2 then
X's value will remain 4000 in the database which is not acceptable by the bank.
To solve this problem, we have two important operations:
Commit: It is used to save the work done permanently.
Rollback: It is used to undo the work done.

The transaction has the four properties. These are used to maintain consistency in a database, before
and after the transaction.
Property of Transaction
1. Atomicity
2. Consistency
3. Isolation
4. Durability
Atomicity
o It states that all operations of the transaction take place at once if not, the transaction is aborted.
o There is no midway, i.e., the transaction cannot occur partially. Each transaction is treated as
one unit and either run to completion or is not executed at all.
Atomicity involves the following two operations:
Abort: If a transaction aborts then all the changes made are not visible.
Commit: If a transaction commits then all the changes made are visible.
Consistency
o The integrity constraints are maintained so that the database is consistent before and after the
transaction.
o The execution of a transaction will leave a database in either its prior stable state or a new
stable state.
o The consistent property of database states that every transaction sees a consistent database
instance.
o The transaction is used to transform the database from one consistent state to another
consistent state.
Isolation
o It shows that the data which is used at the time of execution of a transaction cannot be used
by the second transaction until the first one is completed.
o In isolation, if the transaction T1 is being executed and using the data item X, then that data
item can't be accessed by any other transaction T2 until the transaction T1 ends.
o The concurrency control subsystem of the DBMS enforced the isolation property.
Durability
 o The durability property is used to indicate the performance of the database's consistent state.
It states that the transaction made the permanent changes.
o They cannot be lost by the erroneous operation of a faulty transaction or by the system failure.
When a transaction is completed, then the database reaches a state known as the consistent
state. That consistent state cannot be lost, even in the event of a system's failure.
o The recovery subsystem of the DBMS has the responsibility of Durability property.

States of Transaction
In a database, the transaction can be in one of the following states -

Active state
o The active state is the first state of every transaction. In this state, the transaction is being
executed.
o For example: Insertion or deletion or updating a record is done here. But all the records are
still not saved to the database.
Partially committed
o In the partially committed state, a transaction executes its final operation, but the data is still
not saved to the database.
o In the total mark calculation example, a final display of the total marks step is executed in this
state.
Committed
A transaction is said to be in a committed state if it executes all its operations successfully. In this
state, all the effects are now permanently saved on the database system.
Failed state
o If any of the checks made by the database recovery system fails, then the transaction is said
to be in the failed state.
o In the example of total mark calculation, if the database is not able to fire a query to fetch the
marks, then the transaction will fail to execute.
Aborted
 o If any of the checks fail and the transaction has reached a failed state then the database
recovery system will make sure that the database is in its previous consistent state. If not then
it will abort or roll back the transaction to bring the database into a consistent state.
o If the transaction fails in the middle of the transaction then before executing the transaction, all
the executed transactions are rolled back to its consistent state.
o After aborting the transaction, the database recovery module will select one of the two
operations:
1. Re-start the transaction
2. Kill the transaction

17. Explain timestamp based protocol and how timestamp-ordering protocol guarantees
serializability
Ans.
Timestamp-based Protocols
The most commonly used concurrency protocol is the timestamp based protocol. This protocol uses
either system time or logical counter as a timestamp.
Lock-based protocols manage the order between the conflicting pairs among transactions at the time
of execution, whereas timestamp-based protocols start working as soon as a transaction is created.
Every transaction has a timestamp associated with it, and the ordering is determined by the age of
the transaction. A transaction created at 0002 clock time would be older than all other transactions
that come after it. For example, any transaction 'y' entering the system at 0004 is two seconds
younger and the priority would be given to the older one.
In addition, every data item is given the latest read and write-timestamp. This lets the system know
when the last ‘read and write’ operation was performed on the data item

The timestamp-ordering protocol ensures serializability among transactions in their conflicting read
and write operations. This is the responsibility of the protocol system that the conflicting pair of tasks
should be executed according to the timestamp values of the transactions.
A conflict occurs when an older transaction tries to read/write a value already read or written by a
younger transaction. Read or write proceeds only if the last update on that data item was carried out
by an older transaction.
Otherwise, the transaction requesting read/write is restarted and gives a new timestamp. Here no
locks are used so no deadlock.
• The timestamp of transaction Ti is denoted as TS(Ti).
• Read time-stamp of data-item X is denoted by R-timestamp(X).
• Write time-stamp of data-item X is denoted by W-timestamp(X).
These timestamps are updated after a successful read/write operation on data item X.
Older transactions get priority over younger transactions in the event of conflict operation. Conflict is
resolved by rolling back and restarting transactions.
Rules for a transaction
To ensure serializability following rules are used −
Rule 1 − If a transaction Ti issues a read(X) operation.
If TS(Ti) < W-timestamp(X)
Operation rejected.
If TS(Ti) >= W-timestamp(X)
Operation executed.
All data-item timestamps updated.
Rule 2 − If a transaction Ti issues a write(X) operation.
If TS(Ti) < R-timestamp(X)
Operation rejected.
If TS(Ti) < W-timestamp(X)
Operation rejected and Ti rolled back.
Otherwise, the operation is executed.
Thomas' Write Rule
This rule states if TS(Ti) < W-timestamp(X), then the operation is rejected and Ti is rolled back.
Time-stamp ordering rules can be modified to make the schedule view serializable.
Instead of making Ti rolled back, the 'write' operation itself is ignored.
EFFECT − Thomas Write Rule allows such operations and is a modification on the Basic Timestamp
Ordering protocol. In Thomas Write Rule users ignore outdated writes