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Year 11 Computing — Tables, records and fields

Read a database table as records and fields, count what it holds, and say what a primary key is doing in it.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.Put these tables in order of how many single pieces of information each one holds, fewest first.

    • 5 records of 4 fields
    • 4 records of 3 fields
    • 10 records of 3 fields
    • 2 records of 12 fields

  2. 2.A table has five fields and a hundred and twenty records. How many single pieces of information does it hold altogether?

  3. 3.A table holds one row for each of forty pupils, and every row has six columns. How many records does the table hold?

  4. 4.A table of two hundred pupils has a field holding the name of each pupil's form teacher, and the school has twenty form teachers. What is actually stored in that field?

    • a) A number saying which teacher, with the names kept nowhere
    • b) One teacher's name in every pupil's record, so most of the names are stored many times over
    • c) Nothing, because a field cannot hold the same value twice
    • d) Each teacher's name once, in the first record that needs it

  5. 5.Match each word to what it names in a database table.

    • Record
    • Field
    • Primary key
    • Table
    • Value
    • One column: one particular piece of information, asked of every row
    • The field whose value is never repeated in two records
    • All the records of one kind, kept together
    • What one field holds in one record
    • One row: everything the table holds about one thing

  6. 6.Two tables have exactly the same five fields as each other. One holds thirty records and the other forty-five. They are joined into a single table holding all of both. How many records does that table have?

  7. 7.What is a primary key for?

    • a) It is the password that has to be given before the table will open
    • b) It is whichever field happens to be the first column of the table
    • c) It is the field whose value is different in every record, so that any one record can always be picked out
    • d) It is the field the table is kept sorted by

  8. 8.A roll number that is meant to be a table's primary key is typed in twice by mistake, so two different records now hold 41. What can no longer be done?

    • a) The other records lose their roll numbers
    • b) No further records can be added to the table
    • c) One record can no longer be picked out by giving its roll number alone
    • d) The table can no longer be sorted by any of its fields

Answer key — Year 11 Computing — Tables, records and fields

  1. 1. 1. 4 records of 3 fields 2. 5 records of 4 fields 3. 2 records of 12 fields 4. 10 records of 3 fields
  2. 2.
    • 600
    • six hundred
  3. 3. 40
  4. 4. b) One teacher's name in every pupil's record, so most of the names are stored many times over
  5. 5. Record → One row: everything the table holds about one thing; Field → One column: one particular piece of information, asked of every row; Primary key → The field whose value is never repeated in two records; Table → All the records of one kind, kept together; Value → What one field holds in one record
  6. 6. 75
  7. 7. c) It is the field whose value is different in every record, so that any one record can always be picked out
  8. 8. c) One record can no longer be picked out by giving its roll number alone