Part 1: The database for an online computer parts store Question 1: State where the beginning and end

of the transaction should occur 1. For query information about parts that the company sells The beginning of the transaction : before step 2 (after step 1) The end of the transaction : after step 2 Reason: Because During the progress, operation in step 2 is a real operation to database, otherwise operation in step 1 is only "chooses a part category fr om a menu" and in step 3 is only a "displays all the retrieved parts' informatio n". Both of these two don't have any effect on make data inconsistent . So We needn't add them in our transaction which will reduce the c oncurrency of the application. 2. For query the quantity of each part currently in stock The beginning of the transaction : before step 2 The end of the transaction : after step 2 Reason: Because During the progress, there has a if-else statement , so we sh ould set two commit operation both at the end of each statement. The operation in step 1 is just let the user "fills in check out information and confirms the order" and don't have effect on make data incon sistent. The step 2 has a a real operation to database, so we begin t he transaction before step 2 and end in each statement. Question 2: State what isolation level the transaction should be run at. 1. For query information about parts that the company sells The isolation level should be READ UNCOMMIT. Reason: Because the user only need to read the part's information and would n ot write them. In order to make the best concurrency. We can set the isolati on to READ UNCOMMIT. 2. For query the quantity of each part currently in stock The isolation level the transaction as serializable. Reason: Because operations in this tranction have writing operaions, it must be set as serializable which can avoid the tranction inconsistent. Part 2: The database for census Question 1: State which index supported by PostgreSQL will improve the p erformance of each query.

1. Query First: Set a hash index on the column encrypted_name.A hash Index as followed: select * from census where encrypted_name = '9946561' Reason: In this query, PostgreSQL is using a sequential scan on the c ensus table on 'encrypted_name '. Because this is an equality selection condition based on 'enc rypted_name'. and the hash index can improve the select operation when it i s a equal operation. 2. Query 2: Set a b_tree index on column family_income. A b-tree Index as followed: select * from census where family_income between 10500 and 55000; Reason: In this query, PostgreSQL is using a sequential scan on the c ensus table that visits actual rows. The total run-time cost of this query is available disk-page fetch units and a total run time of 1500.89 msec. So we only need to access data range query and b_tree index c an improve the select operation when it lookup in a range. Because the clustering index will improve the operation when it is used in a range and the selective on the corresponding column is very low. Question 2 : Are any of the indexes you suggest above candidates for clu stering. We can set a clustering index on the column family_income during the query 2. Because the clustering index will improve the operation when it is used in a range and the selective on the corresponding column is very low. Question 3 : It occupies one or two disk blocks, would you still index t he table? NO, If the database is small, and there are only one or two disk blocks,there is no need to use index. Because when we use index that want to minimize the number of se quential scans used in an application. And an index is only useful when the number of tuples that satis fy a condition are small compared to the total number of tuples for the entire t able. Because when we set an index in another disk blocks. If we use these indexs to lookup the data. The system have to change the pages, As we know ,the change between the disk blocks is very low effic iency. To the small database I think maybe no index is better for our d atabase.

Part 3: Question 1 the answer is in alterDBexam3.sql . Question 2