Bbit 304 Advanced Databases Systems
Bbit 304 Advanced Databases Systems
b) Study the HOTEL table below and answer the questions that follow:
a) Database tuning is an important activity during database maintenance. Describe FOUR guidelines
followed in database tuning.
[8 Marks]
b) Over time the databases grow in size and unnecessarily use disk space. Additionally, repeated
modifications to the database file may result in data corruption. This risk increases for databases
shared by multiple users over a network. Briefly describe any FOUR guidelines followed in
database repair.
[8 Marks]
c) A database lock is a variable associated with a data item in the database. Describe the difference
between binary locks and multi-mode locks.
[4 Marks]
QUESTION FOUR [20 MARKS]
a) Query processing would mean the entire process that involves query translation, optimization,
evaluation and finally extraction of data from the database. In this respect discuss the FIVE key
steps in query processing:
[10 Marks]
b) A database transaction is defined as a sequence of operations that must be executed as a whole
taking a consistent database state to another consistent state. Describe FIVE states of a database
transaction operation(s).
[10 Marks]
QUESTION FIVE [20 MARKS]
a) You have been requested to design a database for a certain football league. The client has provided
you with the following requirements:
“The league has several teams. Each team has several players, officials and home grounds. A
player can only play for one and only one team. A player has a country of birth but a country can
have more than one player in the same or different teams. Team officials have various
responsibilities in managing the team. But an official can only attend to a particular team. A team
may have one or more home grounds but a particular ground/field belongs to one and only one
team”.
Using Chen’s notation, produce a conceptual database design for this case complete with
cardinalities and optionalities
[10 Marks]
b) With respect to logical database design explain the difference between the following pairs of
concepts:
i. Single valued and multi-valued attributes
ii. Primary key and candidate key
iii. First normal form and un-normalized form
iv. Transitive dependency and partial dependency
[4 Marks]
c) Briefly describe the following types of advanced databases.
i. Temporal databases
ii. Spatial databases
iii. Mobile databases
[6 Marks]