Data Management Principles 

                             Module G15c Review 

The answers are at the end of this document. 


 1. Computers are designed primarily to hold 
 _______________. 

 2. The fundamental unit of computer data storage is an 
    on/off switch called a(n) ______________. 

 3. The word bit is derived from the words __________  
 _________. 

 4. When numbers are stored in a computer, number base 
 __ is used. 

 5. The term "character" is used to refer to _______ , 
    _________, and ________. 

 6. When characters are stored by computers, an 
    arbitrary code based on ________ is used. 

 7. One widely-used character code is called ASCII, 
    which stands for: _________ _________ ________ 
    ______ ___________ ___________. 

 8. One widely-used character code is called EBCDIC, 
    which stands for: 
    ___________________________________________________________. 

 9. The code for characters used on all microcomputers 
    is _________. 

10.The code for characters used on some large computers 
   is _________. 

11. What tells the computer whether a given storage 
    location is a character code, an instruction, or a 
    number? ________________________ 

12. A named storage space to hold related information 
   in secondary storage is called a ________________. 

13. Name at least three types of information that can 
   be held in files: ____________ ________________ 
   _____________ 

14. What form of organization do text files use? 
    ________________ 

15. Free-form storage usually contains only 
    ____________ type data. 

16. To find information in free-form storage, what kind 
    of search must a computer perform? 
    _____________________________ 

17. This unit of storage is intended to hold all the 
    necessary information about a person, place, thing, 
    or event: ___________. 

18. The original computer record was stored on 
    ________________. 

19. Programs using records which must all be the same 
    length are called ___________ -length systems. 

20. Programs using records which may vary in length are 
    called _____________-length systems. 

21. For greater flexibility, systems use __________-
    length record systems. 

22. For greater efficiency, systems use ________   -
    length record systems. 

23. Records are often subdivided into units called 
    ________   . 

24. Fields can be either ________   -length or ________   
    -length. 

25. Fields are usually either ________   -type or 
    ________   -type. 

26. Computers search for stored information in either 
    of two general ways: ____________  or ________   . 

27. This file search technique starts with the first 
    record in a file, then checks through all in order 
    until the desired record is found: ____________ . 

28. This file search technique can find any record just 
    about as fast as any other record:________   . 

29. Give an example of a task that is well-suited to 
    sequential searches: ______________________________ 

30. Give an example of a task that is well-suited only 
    to random searches: ______________________________ 

31. ___________ is one technique for providing random 
    access to files. 

32. Sequential access is generally useful only for 
    ____________ processing. 

33. ________   processing generally requires random, 
    rather than sequential, access techniques. 

34. Putting records in order is known as ________   . 

35. Records may be sorted either in ____________ order 
    or ____________ order. 

36. Putting records in order from small to large is 
    called _______________________ . 

37. Putting records in order from large to small is 
    called _______________________ . 

38. The field used to determine the order for sorting 
    is  called the ____________  field. 

39. Data management systems use "key" fields to 
    determine ____________ and ____________  of 
    records. 


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ANSWERS 
 1. Numbers 
 2. Bit 
 3. Binary digIT 
 4. 2 
 5. Letters, digits, and symbols 
 6. Numbers 
 7. American Standard Code for Information Interchange. 
 8. Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. 
 9. ASCII 
10. EBCDIC 
11. a program 
12. file 
13. characters, numbers, files, pictures, sounds 
14. free-form 
15. character (or) text 
16. sequential, or top-to-bottom, or entire file (until 
    found) 
17. record 
18. punched card 
19. fixed-length 
20. variable-length 
21. variable 
22. fixed-length 
23. fields 
24. fixed or variable length 
25. character-type or numeric-type 
26. sequential or random 
27. sequential 
28. random 
29. payroll processing 
30. airline reservation systems. 
31. Indexing 
32. batch 
33. interactive 
34. sorting 
35. ascending or descending 
36. ascending sort 
37. descending sort 
38. key 
39. order and uniquness