10 — Data, Systems, and Applications Free Online FlashCards

When does data become information?

Data becomes information when it is organized and interpreted in a meaningful context.

What does a DBMS provide?

A database management system (DBMS) is software used to create, query, protect, and maintain a database.

What uniquely identifies each row in a table?

A primary key uniquely identifies each row in a relational table.

What does a foreign key reference?

A foreign key is a reference to a key identifying a row in another table.

What does a database query abstract away?

A query states what information is needed; the DBMS determines how to find it, using methods such as indexes or join algorithms.

What is the purpose of normalization?

Normalization separates data into related tables to reduce unnecessary duplication and update problems.

What does atomicity guarantee?

Atomicity means a transaction’s operations all occur, or none occur.

How does an inverted index support text search?

An inverted index maps each term to the documents in which it appears, using postings lists of matching document identifiers.

What does precision measure?

Precision is the proportion of returned results that are relevant.

What does recall measure?

Recall is the proportion of all relevant results that are returned.

What does an API contract specify?

An API contract specifies available operations, accepted inputs, produced outputs, and possible errors or side effects.

What is an abstraction layer?

An abstraction layer provides services to the layer above while relying on services from the layer below.