1. Define SQL?

  Structured query language is the standard command set used to communicate

with the relational database management system.
2. Define Dbms?
  A Database Management system consists of a collection of interrelated data and set
of programs to access that data.
3. What is the purpose of Database systems?
  A Database Management system provides a secure and survivable medium for the
storage and retrieval of data.In the real world, the data is shared among several
users and is persistent.
4. State the different between Security and Integrity?
  Security is a protection from malicious attempts to steal or modify data.

Integrity constraints guard against accidental damage to the database, by ensuribg

that authorized changes to the database do not result in a loss of data consistency.
5. Define Normalisation?
  Normalisation is an essential part of database design. A good understanding of the
semantic of data helps the designer to built efficient design using the concept of
normalization.
6. What are the purpose of Normalisation?
  Minimize redundancy in data.

Remove insert, delete and update anamoly during the database activities.

Reduce the need to reorganize data it is modified or enhanced.

What is RDBMS?
Relational Data Base Management Systems (RDBMS) are database management systems that
maintain data records and indices in tables. Relationships may be created and maintained across
and among the data and tables. In a relational database, relationships between data items are
expressed by means of tables. Interdependencies among these tables are expressed by data
values rather than by pointers. This allows a high degree of data independence. An RDBMS has the
capability to recombine the data items from different files, providing powerful tools for data usage.
What is normalization?
Database normalization is a data design and organization process applied to data structures based
on rules that help build relational databases. In relational database design, the process of
organizing data to minimize redundancy. Normalization usually involves dividing a database into
two or more tables and defining relationships between the tables. The objective is to isolate data
so that additions, deletions, and modifications of a field can be made in just one table and then
propagated through the rest of the database via the defined relationships.

What are different normalization forms?

1NF: Eliminate Repeating Groups
Make a separate table for each set of related attributes, and give each table a primary key. Each
field contains at most one value from its attribute domain.
2NF: Eliminate Redundant Data
If an attribute depends on only part of a multi-valued key, remove it to a separate table.
3NF: Eliminate Columns Not Dependent On Key 
If attributes do not contribute to a description of the key, remove them to a separate table. All
attributes must be directly dependent on the primary key
BCNF: Boyce-Codd Normal Form
If there are non-trivial dependencies between candidate key attributes, separate them out into
distinct tables.
4NF: Isolate Independent Multiple Relationships
No table may contain two or more 1:n or n:m relationships that are not directly related.
5NF: Isolate Semantically Related Multiple Relationships 
There may be practical constrains on information that justify separating logically related many-to-
many relationships.
ONF: Optimal Normal Form
A model limited to only simple (elemental) facts, as expressed in Object Role Model notation.
DKNF: Domain-Key Normal Form
A model free from all modification anomalies.

Remember, these normalization guidelines are cumulative. For a database to be in 3NF, it must
first fulfill all the criteria of a 2NF and 1NF database.

What is Stored Procedure?

A stored procedure is a named group of SQL statements that have been previously created and
stored in the server database. Stored procedures accept input parameters so that a single
procedure can be used over the network by several clients using different input data. And when
the procedure is modified, all clients automatically get the new version. Stored procedures reduce
network traffic and improve performance. Stored procedures can be used to help ensure the
integrity of the database.
e.g. sp_helpdb, sp_renamedb, sp_depends etc.
What is Trigger?
A trigger is a SQL procedure that initiates an action when an event (INSERT, DELETE or UPDATE)
occurs. Triggers are stored in and managed by the DBMS.Triggers are used to maintain the
referential integrity of data by changing the data in a systematic fashion. A trigger cannot be
called or executed; the DBMS automatically fires the trigger as a result of a data modification to
the associated table. Triggers can be viewed as similar to stored procedures in that both consist of
procedural logic that is stored at the database level. Stored procedures, however, are not event-
drive and are not attached to a specific table as triggers are. Stored procedures are explicitly
executed by invoking a CALL to the procedure while triggers are implicitly executed. In addition,
triggers can also execute stored procedures.
Nested Trigger:  A trigger can also contain INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE logic within itself, so
when the trigger is fired because of data modification it can also cause another data modification,
thereby firing another trigger. A trigger that contains data modification logic within itself is called a
nested trigger.
What is View?
A simple view can be thought of as a subset of a table. It can be used for retrieving data, as well
as updating or deleting rows. Rows updated or deleted in the view are updated or deleted in the
table the view was created with. It should also be noted that as data in the original table changes,
so does data in the view, as views are the way to look at part of the original table. The results of
using a view are not permanently stored in the database. The data accessed through a view is
actually constructed using standard T-SQL select command and can come from one to many
different base tables or even other views.
WhatisIndex?
An index is a physical structure containing pointers to the data. Indices are created in an existing
table to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. It is possible to create an index on one or more
columns of a table, and each index is given a name. The users cannot see the indexes, they are
just used to speed up queries. Effective indexes are one of the best ways to improve performance
in a database application. A table scan happens when there is no index available to help a query.
In a table scan SQL Server examines every row in the table to satisfy the query results. Table
scans are sometimes unavoidable, but on large tables, scans have a terrific impact on
performance.
Clustered indexes define the physical sorting of a database table’s rows in the storage media. For
this reason, each database table may have only one clustered index.
Non-clustered indexes are created outside of the database table and contain a sorted list of
references to the table itself.

7. Define Primary Key?

  The primary key is the columns used to uniquely identify each row of a table.

A table can have only one primary key.

No primary key value can appear in more than one row in the table.

8. Define Unique Key?

  Unique key is a one or more column that must be unique for each row of the table.
It is similar to primary key. Primary key column will not accept a null. Whereas the
unique key column will accept a null values.

9. Define Foreign Key?

  A foreign Key is a combination of columns with value is based on the primary key
values from another table. A foreign key constraint also known as Referential
Integrity Constraint.
10. Define View?
  A View is a database object that is a logical representation of a table.

It is derived from a table but has no longer of its own and often may be used
in the same manner as a table.

A view is a virtual table that has columns similar to a table.

A view does not represent any physical data.

11. Compare and contrast TRUNCATE and DELETE for a table?

  Both the truncate and delete command have the desired outcome of getting rid of all
the rows in a table. The difference between the two is that the truncate command is a
DDL operation and just moves the high water mark and produces a now rollback. The
delete command, on the other hand, is a DML operation, which will produce a rollback
and thus take longer to complete.
12. What is cursors?
  Cursor is a database object used by applications to manipulate data in a set on a row-
by-row basis, instead of the typical SQL commands that operate on all the rows in the
set at one time.
13. Define SubQuery?
  Nesting of Queries one within the other is called as a Subquery.

A table can have only one primary key.

14. What are the different types of subquery?

  Single row subquery

Multiple row subquery

Correlated row subquery

15. What are the different types of replication?

  The SQL Server 2000-supported replication types are as follows

Transactional

Snapshot

Merge

16. What is User Defined Functions?

  User-Defined Functions allow to define its own T-SQL functions that can accept 0 or
more parameters and return a single scalar data value or a table data type.
17. Define Self Join?
  Self join means joining one table with itself.
The self join can be viewed as a join of two copies of the same table.
18. Define Sequence?
  A Sequence is a database object that can be used to provide very quick generation of
unique numbers.
What is the difference between clustered and a non-clustered index?
A clustered index is a special type of index that reorders the way records in the table are
physically stored. Therefore table can have only one clustered index. The leaf nodes of a clustered
index contain the data pages.
A nonclustered index is a special type of index in which the logical order of the index does not
match the physical stored order of the rows on disk. The leaf node of a nonclustered index does
not consist of the data pages. Instead, the leaf nodes contain index rows.
What are the different index configurations a table can have?
A table can have one of the following index configurations:
No indexes
A clustered index
A clustered index and many nonclustered indexes
A nonclustered index
Many nonclustered indexes
What is cursors?
Cursor is a database object used by applications to manipulate data in a set on a row-by-row
basis, instead of the typical SQL commands that operate on all the rows in the set at one time.

In order to work with a cursor we need to perform some steps in the following order:

Declare cursor
Open cursor
Fetch row from the cursor
Process fetched row
Close cursor
Deallocate cursor
What is the use of DBCC commands?
DBCC stands for database consistency checker. We use these commands to check the consistency
of the databases, i.e., maintenance, validation task and status checks.
E.g. DBCC CHECKDB – Ensures that tables in the db and the indexes are correctly linked.
DBCC CHECKALLOC – To check that all pages in a db are correctly allocated.
DBCC CHECKFILEGROUP – Checks all tables file group for any damage.
What is a Linked Server?
Linked Servers is a concept in SQL Server by which we can add other SQL Server to a Group and
query both the SQL Server dbs using T-SQL Statements. With a linked server, you can create very
clean, easy to follow, SQL statements that allow remote data to be retrieved, joined and combined
with local data.
Storped Procedure sp_addlinkedserver, sp_addlinkedsrvlogin will be used add new Linked Server.
What is Collation?
Collation refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared. Character data
is sorted using rules that define the correct character sequence, with options for specifying case-
sensitivity, accent marks, kana character types and character width.
What are different type of Collation Sensitivity?
Case sensitivity
A and a, B and b, etc.
Accent sensitivity
a and á, o and ó, etc.
Kana Sensitivity
When Japanese kana characters Hiragana and Katakana are treated differently, it is called Kana
sensitive.
Width sensitivity
When a single-byte character (half-width) and the same character when represented as a double-
byte character (full-width) are treated differently then it is width sensitive.
What’s the difference between a primary key and a unique key?
Both primary key and unique enforce uniqueness of the column on which they are defined. But by
default primary key creates a clustered index on the column, where are unique creates a
nonclustered index by default. Another major difference is that, primary key doesn’t allow NULLs,
but unique key allows one NULL only.
How to implement one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships while
designing tables?
One-to-One relationship can be implemented as a single table and rarely as two tables with
primary and foreign key relationships.
One-to-Many relationships are implemented by splitting the data into two tables with primary key
and foreign key relationships.
Many-to-Many relationships are implemented using a junction table with the keys from both the
tables forming the composite primary key of the junction table.
Compl
19. Define Joins?
  A Join combines columns and data from two or more tables (and in rare cases, of one
table with itself).
20. What are the types of Joins?
  Equi joins

Cartesian Joins

Outer Joins

Self Joins.

21. Define Equi Joins?

  A Equi Join is a join in which the join comparison operator is an equality. When two
tables are joined together using equality or values in one or more columns, they
make an Equi Join.
22. Define Cartesian Join?
  Joining two tables without a whereclause produces a Cartesian join which combines
every row in one table with every row in another table.
23. What are three SQL keywords used to change or set someone's permissions?
  GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE
24. What are primary keys and foreign keys?
  Primary keys are the unique identifiers for each row. They must contain unique
values and cannot be null. Due to their importance in relational databases, Primary
keys are the most fundamental of all keys and constraints. A table can have only one
Primary key.

Foreign keys are both a method of ensuring data integrity and a manifestation of

the relationship between tables.
25. Define data model?
  Underlying the structure of the database is called as data model.
26. What is an Entity?
  It is a 'thing' in the real world with an independent existence.

27. What is BCP? When does it used?

  BulkCopy is a tool used to copy huge amount of data from tables and views. BCP does
not copy the structures same as source to destination.
28. Explain the use of the by GROUP BY and the HAVING clause?
  The GROUP BY partitions the selected rows on the distinct values of the column on
which the group by has been done.
 The HAVING selects groups which match the criteria specified.
29. What is DataWarehousing?
  According to Bill Inmon, known as father of Data warehousing. “A Data warehouse is
a subject oriented, integrated ,time variant, non volatile collection of data in support
of management’s decision making process”.
30. What are the advantages of Database?
  Redundancy can be reduced

Inconsistence can be avoided

The data can be shared

Standards can be enforced

Security can be enforced

Integrity can be maintained

31. What are the advantage of SQL?

  The advantages of SQL are

SQL is a high level language that provides a greater degree of abstraction

than procedural languages.

SQL enables the end users and system personnel to deal with a number of
Database management systems where it is available.

Application written in SQL can be easily ported across systems.

32. What is the difference between join and outer join?

  Outer joins return all rows from at least one of the tables or views mentioned in the
FROM clause, as long as those rows meet any WHERE or HAVING search conditions.

A join combines columns and data from two are more tables.

33. Define Boyce coded normal form?

  A relation is said to be in Boyce coded normal form if it is already in the third normal
form and every determine is a candidate key.
34. What are the transaction properties?
  Atomicity

Consistency

Isolation

Durability

35. What is data mining?

  Data mining refers to using variety of techniques to identify nuggests of information
or decision making knowledge in bodies of data and extracting these in such a way
that they can be put in the use in the areas such as decision support, predication,
forecasting and estimation.
36. Compare DBMS versus object oriented DBMS?
  DBMS consists of a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access
that data.
The object oriented DBMS is one of the type of dbms in which information is stored in
the form of objects.
37. What are the types of SQL Commands?
  Data Definition Language (DDL)

Data Manipulation Language (DML)

Data Query Language (DQL)

Data Control Language (DCL)

38. What is an attribute?

  An entity is represented by a set of attributes.
Attributes are descriptive properties possessed by each member of an entity set.
There are different types of attributes.
Simple

Composite

Single-valued

Derived

39. What are the different types of data models ?

  Entity relationship model

Relational model

Hierarchical model

Network model

Object oriented model

Object relational model

40. What is an active database?

  Active database is a database that includes active rules, mostly in the form of ECA
rules(Event Condition rules).
Active database systems enhance traditional database functionality with powerful rule
processing cabalities, providing a uniform and efficient mechanism for database
system applications.
41. What are ACID properties?
 

Atomicity

Consistency

Isolation
 Durability

42. Define Self Join?

  Self join means joining one table with itself.
The self join can be viewed as a join of two copies of the same table.
43. What is a tuple?
  A tuple is an instance of data within a relational database.
44. What is meant by embedded SQL?
  They are SQL statements that are embedded with in application program and are
prepared during the program preparation process before the program is executed.
After it is prepared, the statement itself does not change(although values of host
variables specified within the statement might change).

45. What is Functional Dependency?

  A Functional dependency is denoted by X Y between two sets of attributes X and Y
that are subsets of R specifies a constraint on the possible tuple that can form a
relation state r of R. The constraint is for any two tuples t1 and t2 in r if t1[X] = t2[X]
then they have t1[Y] = t2[Y]. This means the value of X component of a tuple
uniquely determines the value of component Y.
46. What are the different phases of transaction?
  The different phases of transaction are

Analysis phase

Redo Phase

Undo phase

47. What the difference between UNION and UNIONALL?

  Union will remove the duplicate rows from the result set while Union all does’nt.
48. What is diffrence between Co-related sub query and nested sub query?
  Correlated subquery runs once for each row selected by the outer query. It
contains a reference to a value from the row selected by the outer query.

Nested subquery runs only once for the entire nesting (outer) query. It does not
contain any reference to the outer query row.
49. What is the use of DBCC commands?
  DBCC stands for database consistency checker. We use these commands to check the
consistency of the databases, i.e., maintenance, validation task and status checks.
50. What is a Linked Server?
  Linked Servers is a concept in SQL Server by which we can add other SQL Server to a
Group and query both the SQL Server dbs using T-SQL Statements. With a linked
server, you can create very clean, easy to follow, SQL statements that allow remote
data to be retrieved, joined and combined with local data.

51. What is Collation?

  Collation refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared.
Character data is sorted using rules that define the correct character sequence, with
options for specifying case-sensitivity, accent marks, kana character types and
character width.
52. What are different type of Collation Sensitivity?
  The different phases of transaction are

Case sensitivity

Accent sensitivity

Kana Sensitivity

Width sensitivity

53. What is the difference between a primary key and a unique key?
  Both primary key and unique enforce uniqueness of the column on which they are
defined. But by default primary key creates a clustered index on the column, where
are unique creates a nonclustered index by default. Another major difference is that,
primary key doesn’t allow NULLs, but unique key allows one NULL only.
54. What is the difference between Function and Stored Procedure?
  UDF can be used in the SQL statements anywhere in the WHERE / HAVING /
SELECT section where as Stored procedures cannot be.

UDFs that return tables can be treated as another rowset. This can be used in
JOINs with other tables.

Inline UDF’s can be though of as views that take parameters and can be used
in JOINs and other Rowset operations.

55. What command do we use to rename a db?

  sp_renamedb “oldname” , “newname”
If someone is using db it will not accept sp_renmaedb. In that case first bring db to
single user using sp_dboptions. Use sp_renamedb to rename database. Use
sp_dboptions to bring database to multi user mode.
56. What is BCP?
  BulkCopy is a tool used to copy huge amount of data from tables and views. BCP does
not copy the structures same as source to destination.

57. What is Cross Join?

  A cross join that does not have a WHERE clause produces the Cartesian product of
the tables involved in the join. The size of a Cartesian product result set is the
number of rows in the first table multiplied by the number of rows in the second
table.
58. What is Storage Manager?
  It is a program module that provides the interface between the low-level data stored
in database, application programs and queries submitted to the system.
59. What are stored-procedures? And what are the advantages of using them?
  Stored procedures are database objects that perform a user defined operation. A
stored procedure can have a set of compound SQL statements. A stored procedure
executes the SQL commands and returns the result to the client. Stored procedures
are used to reduce network traffic.
60. 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.
61. What is OLTP?
  Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) relational databases are optimal for managing
changing data. When several users are performing transactions at the same time,
OLTP databases are designed to let transactional applications write only the data
needed to handle a single transaction as quickly as possible.
62. What is DDL (Data Definition Language)?
  A data base schema is specifies by a set of definitions expressed by a special
language called DDL.

63. What is Weak Entity set?

  An entity set may not have sufficient attributes to form a primary key, and its
primary key compromises of its partial key and primary key of its parent entity, then
it is said to be Weak Entity set.
64. What is a deadlock?
  Two processes wating to update the rows of a table which are locked by the other
process then deadlock arises.
65. What do you mean by flat file database?
  It is a database in which there are no programs or user access languages. It has no
cross-file capabilities but is user-friendly and provides user-interface management.
66. What is Storage Manager?
  It is a program module that provides the interface between the low-level data stored
in database, application programs and queries submitted to the system.
67. What is Index?
  An index is a physical structure containing pointers to the data. Indices are created in
an existing table to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. It is possible to create an
index on one or more columns of a table, and each index is given a name.
68. What is the difference between clustered and a non-clustered index?
  A Clustered index is a special type of index that reorders the way records in the
table are physically stored. Therefore table can have only one clustered index. The
leaf nodes of a clustered index contain the data pages. 

A Nonclustered index is a special type of index in which the logical order of the

index does not match the physical stored order of the rows on disk. The leaf node of
a nonclustered index does not consist of the data pages. Instead, the leaf nodes
 contain index rows.

69. What is the difference between a HAVING CLAUSE and a WHERE CLAUSE?
  HAVING can be used only with the SELECT statement. HAVING is typically used in a
GROUP BY clause. When GROUP BY is not used, HAVING behaves like a WHERE
clause. Having Clause is basically used only with the GROUP BY function in a query.
WHERE Clause is applied to each row before they are part of the GROUP BY function
in a query.
70. What is log shipping?
  Log shipping is the process of automating the backup of database and transaction log
files on a production SQL server, and then restoring them onto a standby server.
Enterprise Editions only supports log shipping. In log shipping the transactional log
file from one server is automatically updated into the backup database on the other
server.
71. What are primary keys and foreign keys?
  Primary keys are the unique identifiers for each row. They must contain unique values
and cannot be null. Due to their importance in relational databases, Primary keys are
the most fundamental of all keys and constraints. A table can have only one Primary
key.
Foreign keys are both a method of ensuring data integrity and a manifestation of the
relationship between tables.
72. What are check constraint?
  A Check constraint is used to limit the values that can be placed in a column. The
check constraints are used to enforce domain integrity.
96. What is Self Join?
  A self join can be of any type, as long as the joined tables are the same. A self join is
rather unique in that it involves a relationship with only one table.
73. What are the type of Synonyms?
  There are two types of Synonyms are :

Private

Public

74. What is an Integrity Constrains?

  An integrity constraint is a declarative way to define a business rule for a column of a
table.

75. What is Table?

  A table is the basic unit of data storage in an ORACLE database. The tables of a
database hold all of the user accessible data. Table data is stored in rows and
columns.
76. What is a synonym?
  A synonym is an alias for a table, view, sequence or program unit.
77. What is Rollback Segment?
  A Database contains one or more Rollback Segments to temporarily store "undo"
information.
78. What does COMMIT do?
  A Commit makes permanent the changes resulting from all SQL statements in the
transaction. The changes made by the SQL statements of a transaction become
visible to other user sessions transactions that start only after transaction is
committed.
79. What is a Database instance?
  A database instance (Server) is a set of memory structure and background processes
that access a set of database files.
80. What are Roles?
  Roles are named groups of related privileges that are granted to users or other roles.
81. What is SQLPlus?
  SQLPlus is an application that recognizes & executes SQL commands & specialized
SQL*Plus commands that can customize reports, provide help & edit facility &
maintain system variables.
82. What is the difference between normalization and denormalization?
  Normalizing data means eliminating redundant information from a table and
organizing the data so that future changes to the table are easier.

Denormalization means allowing redundancy in a table. The main benefit of

denormalization is improved performance with simplified data retrieval and
manipulation.
83. What is a trigger?
  Triggers are stored procedures created in order to enforce integrity rules in a
database. A trigger is executed every time a data-modification operation occurs (i.e.,
insert, update or delete). 
Triggers are executed automatically on occurance of one of the data-modification
operations.
84. What is the difference between static and dynamic SQL?
  Static SQL is hard-coded in a program when the programmer knows the statements
to be executed.
Dynamic SQL the program must dynamically allocate memory to receive the query
results.
85. What is UNIQUE KEY constraint?
  A UNIQUE constraint enforces the uniqueness of the values in a set of columns, so no
duplicate values are entered. The unique key constraints are used to enforce entity
integrity as the primary key constraints.
86. What is NOT NULL Constraint?
  A NOT NULL constraint enforces that the column will not accept null values. The not
null constraints are used to enforce domain integrity, as the check constraints.
87. What is meant by query optimization?
  The phase that identifies an efficient execution plan for evaluating a query that has
the least estimated cost is referred to as query optimization.
88. What is meant by embedded SQL?
  They are SQL statements that are embedded with in application program and are
prepared during the program preparation process before the program is executed.
89. What is File Manager?
  It is a program module, which manages the allocation of space on disk storage and
data structure used to represent information stored on a disk.
90. Define transaction?
  A collection of operations that fom a single logical unit of works are called transaction.
91. Define Constraints?
  Constraints is a rule or restriction concerning a piece of data that is enforced at the
data level.
A Constraint clause can constrain a single column or group of columns in a table.
There are five types of Constraint namely
Null / Not Null

Primary Key

Unique

Check or Validation

Foreign Key or References Key

92. What are types of sub-queries?

  Single-row subquery, where the subquery returns only one row.

Multiple-row subquery, where the subquery returns multiple rows.

Multiple column subquery, where the subquery returns multiple columns.

93. What is SQL Profiler?

  SQL Profiler is a graphical tool that allows system administrators to monitor events in
an instance of Microsoft SQL Server. You can capture and save data about each event
to a file or SQL Server table to analyze later.
94. Define Clusters?
  Clustering is a method of storing tables that are intimately related and often joined
together into the same area on disk.
A cluster contains one or more tables, which have one or more column in common
among them.
95. Define Indexes?
  Index is a general term for an Oracle/SQL features used to primarily to speed
execution and imposes uniqueness upon certain data.
The most important of an index is to ensure uniqueness of rows and help in speedy
retrieval of data.
96. What is data integrity?
  Data integrity is an important feature in SQL Server. When used properly, it ensures
that data is accurate, correct, and valid. It also acts as a trap for otherwise
undetectable bugs within applications.
97. What is De-normalization?
  De-normalization is the process of attempting to optimize the performance of a
database by adding redundant data.
De-normalization is a technique to move from higher to lower normal forms of
database modeling in order to speed up database access.
98. What is referential integrity?
  Referential integrity refers to the consistency that must be maintained between
primary and foreign keys, i.e. every foreign key value must have a corresponding
primary key value.
99. What is the difference between static and dynamic SQL?
  Static SQL is hard-coded in a program when the programmer knows the statements
to be executed. 
For dynamic SQL the program must dynamically allocate memory to receive the
query results.
100. Define Unique Key?
  Unique key is a one or more column that must be unique for each row of the table.
It is similar to primary key. Primary key column will not accept a null. Whereas the
unique key column will accept a null values.
101. Define Synonym?
  Synonym is an alternative method to creating a view that includes the entire table or
view from another user it to create a synonym.
A synonym is a name assigned to a table or view that may thereafter be used to refer
to it.
102. What is an Data Abtration?
  A major purpose of a database system is to provide users with an abstract view of the
data.There are three levels of data abstraction

Physical level

Logical level

View level

103. What is Transaction Manager?

  It is a program module, which ensures that database, remains in a consistent state
despite system failures and concurrent transaction execution proceeds without
conflicting.
104. What kind of User-Defined Functions can be created?
  There are three types of User-Defined functions in SQL Server 2000 and they are
Scalar, Inline Table-Valued and Multi-statement Table-valued.
105. What are defaults? Is there a column to which a default can't be bound?
  A default is a value that will be used by a column, if no value is supplied to that
 column while inserting data. IDENTITY columns and timestamp columns can't have
defaults bound to them. See CREATE DEFUALT in books online.
106. What's the maximum size of a row?
  8060 bytes. Don't be surprised with questions like what is the maximum number of
columns per table. Check out SQL Server books online for the page titled: “Maximum
Capacity Specifications”.
107. What is the difference between a local and a global variable?
  A Local temporary table exists only for the duration of a connection or, if defined
inside a compound statement, for the duration of the compound statement. 
A Global temporary table remains in the database permanently, but the rows exist
only within a given connection. When connection are closed, the data in the global
temporary table disappears. However, the table definition remains with the database
for access when database is opened next time.
108. What is a query?
  A query with respect to DBMS relates to user commands that are used to interact
with a data base. The query language can be classified into data definition language
and data manipulation language.
109. What is Relational Algebra?
  It is procedural query language. It consists of a set of operations that take one or two
relations as input and produce a new relation.
110. What is the difference between TRUNCATE and DELETE commands?
  TRUNCATE is a DDL command whereas DELETE is a DML command. Hence DELETE
operation can be rolled back, but TRUNCATE operation cannot be rolled back. WHERE
clause can be used with DELETE and not with TRUNCATE.
111. Describe the three levels of data abstraction?
  There are three levels of abstraction :

Physical level : 
The lowest level of abstraction describes how data are stored.
Logical level:
The next higher level of abstraction, describes what data are stored in database and
what relationship among those data.
View level:
The highest level of abstraction describes only part of entire database.
112. How to copy the tables, schema and views from one SQL server to another?
  Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS) is a set of graphical
tools and programmable objects that lets user extract, transform, and consolidate
data from disparate sources into single or multiple destinations.
113. What is the use of DESC in SQL?
  DESC has two purposes. 
It is used to describe a schema as well as to retrieve rows from table in descending
order.
114. What is a cluster Key?
  The related columns of the tables are called the cluster key. The cluster key is
indexed using a cluster index and its value is stored only once for multiple tables in
the cluster.
115. Define candidate key, alternate key, composite key?
  A candidate key is one that can identify each row of a table uniquely. Generally a
candidate key becomes the primary key of the table.

If the table has more than one candidate key, one of them will become the primary
key, and the rest are called alternate keys. 

A key formed by combining at least two or more columns is called composite key.
116. What are the purpose of Normalisation?
 

Minimize redundancy in data.

Remove insert, delete and update anamoly during the database activities.

Reduce the need to reorganize data it is modified or enhanced.

Normalisation reduces a complex user view to a set of small and stable

subgroups of fields or relations.

117. What is RAID?

  RAID, an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (sometimes incorrectly
referred to as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), is a technology that provides
increased storage functions and reliability through redundancy.
118. What is database replication?
  Replication is the process of copying / moving data between databases on the same
or different servers.
119. What are cursors?
  Cursors allow row-by-row prcessing of the result sets.
120. What is a weak entity types?
  The entity types that do not have key attributes of their own are called weak entity
types. Rests are called strong entity types .The entity that gives identity to a weak
entity is called owner entity. And the relationship is called identifying relationship. A
weak entity type always has a total participation constraint with respect to its
identifying relationship.
121. What are defaults?
  A default is a value that will be used by a column, if no value is supplied to that
column while inserting data. IDENTITY columns and timestamp columns can’t have
defaults bound to them.
122. What is specialization?
  It is the process of defining a set of subclasses of an entity type where each subclass
contain all the attributes and relationships of the parent entity and may have
 additional attributes and relationships which are specific to itself.
122. What are the different types of cursors?
  Types of cursors :

Static

Dynamic

Forward-only

Keyset-driven

123. What is a Catalog?

  A catalog is a table that contain the information such as structure of each file ,the
type and storage format of each data item and various constraints on the data .The
information stored in the catalog is called Metadata . Whenever a request is made to
access a particular data, the DBMS s/w refers to the catalog to determine the
structure of the file.
124. What is a view?
  A view may be a subset of the database or it may contain virtual data that is derived
from the database files but is not explicitly stored.
125. What are different types of end users?
  Casual end-users

Casual end-users

Sophisticated end users

Stand alone users

125. What is a data model?

  It is a collection of concepts that can be used to describe the structure of a database.
It provides necessary means to achieve this abstraction. By structure of a database
we mean the data types, relations, and constraints that should hold on the data.
126. What are types of schema?
  Internal schema

Conceptual schema

External schema

127. What are different types of DBMS?

  DBMS

RDBMS (Relational)

ORDBMS (Object Relational)

DDBMS (Distributed)

FDBMS (Federated)

FDBMS (Federated)
 HDBMS (Hierarchical)

NDBMS (Networked)

128. What is a lock?

  A lock is a variable associated with a data item that describes the status of the item
with respect to the possible operations that can be applied to it.

When is the use of UPDATE_STATISTICS command?

This command is basically used when a large processing of data has occurred. If a
large amount of deletions any modification or Bulk Copy into the tables has occurred,
it has to update the indexes to take these changes into account.
UPDATE_STATISTICS updates the indexes on these tables accordingly.
What types of Joins are possible with Sql Server?
Joins are used in queries to explain how different tables are related. Joins also let you
select data from a table depending upon data from another table.
Types of joins: INNER JOINs, OUTER JOINs, CROSS JOINs. OUTER JOINs are further
classified as LEFT OUTER JOINS, RIGHT OUTER JOINS and FULL OUTER JOINS.
What is the difference between a HAVING CLAUSE and a WHERE CLAUSE?
Specifies a search condition for a group or an aggregate. HAVING can be used only
with the SELECT statement. HAVING is typically used in a GROUP BY clause. When
GROUP BY is not used, HAVING behaves like a WHERE clause. Having Clause is
basically used only with the GROUP BY function in a query. WHERE Clause is applied
to each row before they are part of the GROUP BY function in a query. HAVING
criteria is applied after the the grouping of rows has occurred.
What is sub-query? Explain properties of sub-query.
Sub-queries are often referred to as sub-selects, as they allow a SELECT statement to
be executed arbitrarily within the body of another SQL statement. A sub-query is
executed by enclosing it in a set of parentheses. Sub-queries are generally used to
return a single row as an atomic value, though they may be used to compare values
against multiple rows with the IN keyword.

A subquery is a SELECT statement that is nested within another T-SQL statement. A

subquery SELECT statement if executed independently of the T-SQL statement, in
which it is nested, will return a result set. Meaning a subquery SELECT statement can
standalone and is not depended on the statement in which it is nested. A subquery
SELECT statement can return any number of values, and can be found in, the column
list of a SELECT statement, a FROM, GROUP BY, HAVING, and/or ORDER BY clauses
of a T-SQL statement. A Subquery can also be used as a parameter to a function call.
Basically a subquery can be used anywhere an expression can be used.

Properties of Sub-Query
A subquery must be enclosed in the parenthesis.
A subquery must be put in the right hand of the comparison operator, and
A subquery cannot contain a ORDER-BY clause.
A query can contain more than one sub-queries.
What are types of sub-queries?
Single-row subquery, where the subquery returns only one row.
Multiple-row subquery, where the subquery returns multiple rows,.and
Multiple column subquery, where the subquery returns multiple columns.