1.What Is Database ?

Ans: A database is similar to a data file in that it is a storage place for data. Like a data file, a database does not present information directly to a user; the user runs an application that accesses data from the database and presents it to the user in an understandable format.Database systems are more powerful than data files in that data is more highly organized. In a well-designed database, there are no duplicate pieces of data that the user or application must update at the same time. Related pieces of data are grouped together in a single structure or record, and relationships can be defined between these structures and records.When working with data files, an application must be coded to work with the specific structure of each data file. In contrast, a database contains a catalog that applications use to determine how data is organized. Generic database applications can use the catalog to present users with data from different databases dynamically, without being tied to a specific data format. A database typically has two main parts: first, the files holding the physical database and second, the database management system (DBMS) software that applications use to access data. The DBMS is responsible for enforcing the database structure, including: · Maintaining relationships between data in the database. Ensuring that data is stored correctly, and that the rules defining data relationships are not violated. · Recovering all data to a point of known consistency in case of system failures.

2.what is Relational Database ?

Ans : Although there are different ways to organize data in a database, relational databases are one of the most effective. Relational database systems are an application of mathematical set theory to the problem of effectively organizing data. In a relational database, data is collected into tables (called relations in relational theory). A table represents some class of objects that are important to an organization. For example, a company may have a database with a table for employees, another table for customers, and another for stores. Each table is built of columns and rows (called attributes and tuples in relational theory). Each column represents some attribute of the object represented by the table. For example, an Employee table would typically have columns for attributes such as first name, last name, employee ID, department, pay grade, and job title. Each row represents an instance of the object represented by the table. For example, one row in the Employee table represents the employee who has employee ID 12345. When organizing data into tables, you can usually find many different ways to define tables. Relational database theory defines a process called normalization, which ensures that the set of tables you define will organize your data effectively.

3.What is COMMIT & ROLLBACK statement in SQL ?

Ans : Commit statement helps in termination of the current transaction and do all the changes that occur in transaction persistent and this also commits all the changes to the database.COMMIT we can also use in store procedure.ROLLBACK do the same thing just terminate the currenct transaction but one another thing is that the changes made to database are ROLLBACK to the database.

4.What is SQL whats its uses and its component ?

Ans : The Structured Query Language (SQL) is foundation for all relational database systems. Most of the large-scale databases use the SQL to define all user and administrator interactions. QL is Non-Procedural language . Its allow the user to concentrate on specifying what data is required rather than concentrating on the how to get it.

5.What is Stored Procedure?

Ans : 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.

6.Advantages of Stored Procedure.

Ans : – Stored procedure can reduced network traffic and latency, boosting application performance.
- Stored procedure execution plans can be reused, staying cached in SQL Server’s memory,
reducing server overhead.
- Stored procedures help promote code reuse.
- Stored procedures can encapsulate logic. You can change stored procedure code without
affecting clients.
- Stored procedures provide better security to your data.

7.Difference between Function and Stored Procedure?

Ans : 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. 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.

8.What is Trigger?

Ans : 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 c
alled a nested trigger.

9.What are types of trigger?

Ans : There are two different types of triggers in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. They are INSTEAD OF triggers and AFTER triggers.

10.What is the difference between UNION ALL Statement and UNION ?

Ans : The main difference between UNION ALL statement and UNION is UNION All statement is much faster than UNION,the reason behind this is that because UNION ALL statement does not look for duplicate rows, but on the other hand UNION statement does look for duplicate rows, whether or not they exist.

11.What is cursors?

Ans : 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

12.Write some disadvantage of Cursor ?

Ans : Cursor plays there row quite nicely but although there are some disadvantage of Cursor .Because we know cursor doing roundtrip it will make network line busy and also make time consuming methods. First of all select query gernate output and after that cursor goes one by one so roundtrip happen.Another disadvange of cursor are ther are too costly because they require lot of resources and temporary storage so network is quite busy.

13.What is Index?

Ans : 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.

14.What is Identity?

Ans : Identity (or AutoNumber) is a column that automatically generates numeric values. A start and increment value can be set, but most DBA leave these at 1. A GUID column also generates numbers,the value of this cannot be controled. Identity/GUID columns do not need to be indexed.

15.What is the difference between clustered and a non-clustered index?

Ans : 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.

16.What is data integrity? Explain constraints?

Ans : 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.
A PRIMARY KEY constraint is a unique identifier for a row within a database table. Every table should have a primary key constraint to uniquely identify each row and only one primary key constraint can be created for each table. The primary key constraints are used to enforce entity integrity.
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.
A FOREIGN KEY constraint prevents any actions that would destroy links between tables with the corresponding data values. A foreign key in one table points to a primary key in another table. Foreign keys prevent actions that would leave rows with foreign key values when there are no primary keys with that value. The foreign key constraints are used to enforce referential integrity.
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.
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.

17.What are the null values in SQL SERVER ?

Ans : Before understand the null values we have some overview about what the value is. Value is the actual data stored in a particular field of particular record. But what is done when there is no values in the field.That value is something like .Nulls present missing information. We can also called null propagation.

18.What are the different types of Locks ?

Ans : There are three main types of locks that SQL Server (1)Shared locks are used for operations that does not allow to change or update data, such as a SELECT statement.(2)Update locks are used when SQL Server intends to modify a page, and later promotes the update page lock to an exclusive page lock before actually making the changes.(3)Exclusive locks are used for the data modification operations, such as UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE.

19.What is different in Rules and Constraints ?

Ans : Rules and Constraints are similar in functionality but there is a An little diffrence between them.Rules are used for backward compatibility . One the most exclusive diffrence is that we an bind rules to a datatypes whereas constraints are bound only to columns.So we can create our own datatype with the help of Rules and get the input according to that.

20.What is defaults in Sql Server and types of Defaults ?

Ans : Defaults are used when a field of columns is allmost common for all the rows for example in employe
e table all living in delhi that value of this field is common for all the row in the table if we set this field as default the value that is not fill by us automatically fills the value in the field its also work as intellisense means when user inputing d it will automatically fill the delhi . There are two types of defaults object and definations.Object deault:-These defaults are applicable on a particular columns . These are usually deined at the time of table designing.When u set the object default field in column state this column in automatically field when u left this filed blank.Defination default:-When we bind the datatype with default let we named this as dotnet .Then every time we create column and named its datatype as dotnet it will behave the same that we set for dotnet datatype.

21.What is the difference between a HAVING CLAUSE and a WHERE CLAUSE?

Ans : 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.

22.Can you tell me the difference between DELETE &TRUNCATE commands?

Ans : Delete command removes the rows from a table based on the condition that we provide with a WHERE clause. Truncate will actually remove all the rows from a table and there will be no data in the table after we run the truncate command.

23.How to get which Process is Blocked in SQL SERVER ?

Ans : There are two ways to get this sp_who and sp_who2 . You cannot get any detail about the sp_who2 but its provide more information then the sp_who . And other option from which we can find which process is blocked by other process is by using Enterprise Manager or Management Studio, these two commands work much faster and more efficiently than these GUI-based front-ends.

24.What is the use of DBCC commands?

Ans : 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.

25.What is Collation?

Ans : 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 casesensitivity, accent marks, kana character types and character width.