Database Systems: Design, Implementation and Management 13th Edition solution manual
| NOTE It is not too early to begin discussing proper structure. For example, you may focus student attention on the fact that, ideally, each row should represent a single entity. Therefore, each row's fields should define the characteristics of one entity, rather than include characteristics of several entities. The file structure shown here includes characteristics of multiple entities. For example, the JOB_CODE is likely to be a characteristic of a JOB entity. PROJ_NUM and PROJ_NAME are clearly characteristics of a PROJECT entity. Also, since (apparently) each project has more than one employee assigned to it, the file structure shown here shows multiple occurrences for each of the projects. (Hurricane occurs three times, Coast occurs twice, and Satellite occurs four times.) |
Given the file's poor structure, the stage is set for multiple anomalies. For example, if the charge for JOB_CODE = EE changes from $85.00 to $90.00, that change must be made twice. Also, if employee June H. Sattlemeier is deleted from the file, you also lose information about the existence of her JOB_CODE = EE, its hourly charge of $85.00, and the PROJ_HOURS = 17.5. The loss of the PROJ_HOURS value will ultimately mean that the Coast project costs are not being charged properly, thus causing a loss of PROJ_HOURS*JOB_CHG_HOUR = 17.5 x $85.00 = $1,487.50 to the company.
Incidentally, note that the file contains different JOB_CHG_HOUR values for the same CT job code, thus illustrating the effect of changes in the hourly charge rate over time. The file structure appears to represent transactions that charge project hours to each project. However, the structure of this file makes it difficult to avoid update anomalies and it is not possible to determine whether a charge change is accurately reflected in each record. Ideally, a change in the hourly charge rate would be made in only one place and this change would then be passed on to the transaction based on the hourly charge. Such a structural change would ensure the historical accuracy of the transactions.
You might want to emphasize that the recommended changes require a lot of work in a file system.
- Looking at the EMP_NAME and EMP_PHONE contents in Figure P1.5, what change(s) would you recommend?
A good recommendation would be to make the data more atomic. That is, break up the data componnts whenever possible. For example, separate the EMP_NAME into its componenst EMP_FNAME, EMP_INITIAL, and EMP_LNAME. This change will make it much easier to organize employee data through the employee name component. Similarly, the EMP_PHONE data should be decomposed into EMP_AREACODE and EMP_PHONE. For example, breaking up the phone number 653-234-3245 into the area code 653 and the phone number 234-3245 will make it much easier to organize the phone numbers by area code. (If you want to print an employee phone directory, the more atomic employee name data will make the job much easier.)
7. Identify the various data sources in the file you examined in Problem 5.
Given their answers to problem 5 and some additional scrutiny of Figure 1.5, your students should be able to identify these data sources:
- Employee data such as names and phone numbers.
- Project data such as project names. If you start with an EMPLOYEE file, the project names clearly do not belong in that file. (Project names are clearly not employee characteristics.)
- Job data such as the job charge per hour. If you start with an EMPLOYEE file, the job charge per hour clearly does not belong in that file. (Hourly charges are clearly not employee characteristics.)
- The project hours, which are most likely the hours worked by the employee for that project. (Such hours are associated with a work product, not the employee per se.)
8. Given your answer to Problem 7, what new files should you create to help eliminate the data redundancies found in the file shown in Figure P1.5?
The data sources are probably the PROJECT, EMPLOYEE, JOB, and CHARGE. The PROJECT file should contain project characteristics such as the project name, the project manager/coordinator, the project budget, and so on. The EMPLOYEE file might contain the employee names, phone number, address, and so on. The JOB file would contain the billing charge per hour for each of the job types – a database designer, an applications developer, and an accountant would generate different billing charges per hour. The CHARGE file would be used to keep track of the number of hours by job type that will be billed for each employee who worked on the project.