Unit 4

Activity 1d – Worksheet

1 Give the name of the item labelled A in Figure 1.

Field, Row, Attribute

2 Give the name of the item labelled B in Figure 1.

Record , Row , Tuple

3 (a) The flat file database has data redundancy.

Data redundancy is the unnecessary repetition of data.

(b)(i) Give an example of data that is redundant in Figure 1.

The customer named Madison Junk from skip tube, had ordered 4 different types of products. Here the customer
information is repeated four times

(b)(ii) Explain why the data given in (i) is redundant.

The customer’s details are repeated in all the four records to satisfy the four items purchased.

4 (a) Give an example of an update anomaly that could occur.

When the country of Madison Junk is updated in the Third row, the country of the same person will not be
updated in the other two records.

4 (b) Give an example of an insert anomaly that could occur.

Insertion of product codes and unit costs without the insertion of customer information in the beginning of the
record will be problematic.

4 (c) Give an example of a delete anomaly that could occur.

If a record for a purchase of a certain product is deleted, because the purchase was cancelled by the customer, the
product codes and unit costs will also be deleted leading into destruction of the whole database.