Chapter 6 Responses

A problem with managing data resources in a traditional file format is data redundancy and inconsistency. The redundancy having the same information in multiple locations. Inconsistency is having one attribute meaning different things. Database management systems reduces redundancy and inconsistency by minimizing files in which the same data are repeated. While DBMS may only reduce redundancies, it eliminates inconsistencies. The data heirarchy goes from a database(group of related fies), to a file(group of same type of records), a record(group of related fields), field(group of words or numbers), down to a byte(group of bits), all the way down to a bit(either a 0 or 1). An entity is a person, place, thing, or event on which we store and maintain information. An attribute is a characteristic or quality describing a particular entity. Key fields are fields in a record that uniquely indentify instances of that record to be retrieved, updated, or sorted.