DB2 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Java inteview questions
DB2 SQL Tutorial
Mainframe inteview questions
1) How would you find out
the total number of rows DB2 INTERVIEW
in a DB2 table? QUESTIONS - advertisement
Use SELECT COUNT(*) ... in
db2 query
2) How do you eliminate
duplicate values in DB2
SELECT ?
Use SELECT DISTINCT ... in
db2 query
3) How do you select a row
using indexes in DB2?
Specify the indexed columns
in the WHERE clause of db2
query.
4) How do you find the
maximum value in a
column in db2?
Use SELECT MAX(...) .. in db2
query
5) How do you retrieve the first 5 characters of
FIRSTNAME column of DB2 table EMP ?
SQL Query : SELECT SUBSTR(FIRSTNAME,1,5) FROM EMP;
6) What are aggregate functions?
Bulit-in mathematical functions for use in SELECT clause.
7) Can you use MAX on a CHAR column?
YES.
8) My SQL statement SELECT AVG(SALARY) FROM
EMP yields inaccurate results. Why?
Because SALARY is not declared to have NULLs and the
employees for whom the salary is not known are also
counted.
9) How do you concatenate the FIRSTNAME and
LASTNAME from EMP table to give a complete
name?
SELECT FIRSTNAME || ・・|| LASTNAME FROM EMP;
10) What is the use of VALUE function?
1. Avoid -ve SQLCODEs by handling nulls and zeroes in
computations
2. Substitute a numeric value for any nulls used in
computation
11) What is UNION,UNION ALL? ・
UNION : eliminates duplicates
UNION ALL: retains duplicates
Both these are used to combine the results of different
SELECT statements.
Suppose I have five SQL SELECT statements connected
by UNION/UNION ALL, how many times should I specify
UNION to eliminate the duplicate rows? -
Once.
12) What is the restriction on using UNION in
embedded SQL?
It has to be in a CURSOR.
13) In the WHERE clause what is BETWEEN and IN?
・
BETWEEN supplies a range of values while IN supplies a
list of values.
14) Is BETWEEN inclusive of the range values
specified? ・
Yes.
15) What is 'LIKE' used for in WHERE clause? What
are the wildcard characters? ・
LIKE is used for partial string matches. ・・( for a string
of any character ) and 狙・(for any single character ) are
the two wild card characters.
16) When do you use a LIKE statement?
To do partial search e.g. to search employee by name,
you need not specify the complete name; using LIKE, you
can search for partial string matches.
17) What is the meaning of underscore ( 狙・) in
the LIKE statement? ・
Match for any single character.
18) What do you accomplish by GROUP BY ...
HAVING clause? ・
GROUP BY partitions the selected rows on the distinct
values of the column on which you group by.
HAVING selects GROUPs which match the criteria
specified
19) Consider the employee table with column
PROJECT nullable. How can you get a list of
employees who are not assigned to any project?
SELECT EMPNO
FROM EMP
WHERE PROJECT IS NULL;
20) What is the result of this query if no rows are
selected:
SELECT SUM(SALARY)
FROM EMP
WHERE QUAL=閃 SC・
NULL
21) Why SELECT * is not preferred in embedded
SQL programs?
For three reasons:
If the table structure is changed ( a field is added ), the
program will have to be modified
Program might retrieve the columns which it might not
use, leading on I/O over head.
The chance of an index only scan is lost.
What are correlated subqueries? -
A subquery in which the inner ( nested ) query refers
back to the table in the outer query. Correlated
subqueries must be evaluated for each qualified row of
the outer query that is referred to.
22) What are the issues related with correlated
subqueries? ・
???
23) What is a cursor? why should it be used? ・
Cursor is a programming device that allows the SELECT
to find a set of rows but return them one at a time.
Cursor should be used because the host language can
deal with only one row at a time.
24) How would you retrieve rows from a DB2 table
in embedded SQL? ・
Either by using the single row SELECT statements, or by
using the CURSOR.
Apart from cursor, what other ways are available to you
to retrieve a row from a table in embedded SQL? -
Single row SELECTs.
25) Where would you specify the DECLARE CURSOR
statement? ・
See answer to next question.
26) How do you specify and use a cursor in a
COBOL program? ・
Use DECLARE CURSOR statement either in working
storage or in procedure division(before open cursor), to
specify the SELECT statement. Then use OPEN, FETCH
rows in a loop and finally CLOSE.
27) What happens when you say OPEN CURSOR?
If there is an ORDER BY clause, rows are fetched, sorted
and made available for the FETCH statement. Other wise
simply the cursor is placed on the first row.
28) Is DECLARE CURSOR executable?
No.
29) Can you have more than one cursor open at
any one time in a program ? ・
Yes.
30) When you COMMIT, is the cursor closed? -
drona questions
Yes.
31) How do you leave the cursor open after issuing
a COMMIT? ( for DB2 2.3 or above only )
Use WITH HOLD option in DECLARE CURSOR statement.
But, it has not effect in psuedo-conversational CICS
programs.
32) Give the COBOL definition of a VARCHAR field.
A VARCHAR column REMARKS would be defined as
follows:
...
10 REMARKS.
49 REMARKS-LEN PIC S9(4) USAGE COMP.
49 REMARKS-TEXT PIC X(1920).
33) What is the physical storage length of each of
the following DB2 data types:
DATE, TIME, TIMESTAMP?
DATE: 4bytes
TIME: 3bytes
TIMESTAMP: 10bytes
34) What is the COBOL picture clause of the
following DB2 data types:
DATE, TIME, TIMESTAMP?
DATE: PIC X(10)
TIME : PIC X(08)
TIMESTAMP: PIC X(26)
35) What is the COBOL picture clause for a DB2
column defined as DECIMAL(11,2)? - Ramesh
PIC S9(9)V99 COMP-3.
Note: In DECIMAL(11,2), 11 indicates the size of the data
type and 2 indicates the precision.
36) What is DCLGEN ? -
DeCLarations GENerator: used to create the host
language copy books for the table definitions. Also
creates the DECLARE table.
37) What are the contents of a DCLGEN? -
1. EXEC SQL DECLARE TABLE statement which gives the
layout of the table/view in terms of DB2 datatypes.
2. A host language copy book that gives the host variable
definitions for the column names.
38) Is it mandatory to use DCLGEN? If not, why
would you use it at all? -
It is not mandatory to use DCLGEN.
Using DCLGEN, helps detect wrongly spelt column names
etc. during the pre-compile stage itself ( because of the
DECLARE TABLE ). DCLGEN being a tool, would generate
accurate host variable definitions for the table reducing
chances of error.
39) Is DECLARE TABLE in DCLGEN necessary? Why
it used?
It not necessary to have DECLARE TABLE statement in
DCLGEN. This is used by the pre-compiler to validate the
table-name, view-name, column name etc., during pre-
compile.
40) Will precompile of an DB2-COBOL program
bomb, if DB2 is down?
No. Because the precompiler does not refer to the DB2
catalogue tables.
41) How is a typical DB2 batch pgm executed ?
1. Use DSN utility to run a DB2 batch program from
native TSO. An example is shown:
DSN SYSTEM(DSP3)
RUN PROGRAM(EDD470BD) PLAN(EDD470BD) LIB('ED
01T.OBJ.LOADLIB')
END
2. Use IKJEFT01 utility program to run the above DSN
command in a JCL.
Assuming that a site 痴 standard is that pgm name = plan
name, what is the easiest way to find out which pgms are
affected by change in a table 痴 structure ?
Query the catalogue tables SYSPLANDEP and
SYSPACKDEP.
42) Name some fields from SQLCA.
SQLCODE, SQLERRM, SQLERRD
43) How can you quickly find out the # of rows
updated after an update statement?
Check the value stored in SQLERRD(3).
44) What is EXPLAIN? ・drona questions
EXPLAIN is used to display the access path as determined
by the optimizer for a SQL statement. It can be used in
SPUFI (for single SQL statement ) or in BIND step (for
embedded SQL ).
45) What do you need to do before you do
EXPLAIN?
Make sure that the PLAN_TABLE is created under the
AUTHID.
46) Where is the output of EXPLAIN stored? ・
In userid.PLAN_TABLE
47) EXPLAIN has output with MATCHCOLS = 0.
What does it mean? ・
a nonmatching index scan if ACCESSTYPE = I.
48) How do you do the EXPLAIN of a dynamic SQL
statement?
1. Use SPUFI or QMF to EXPLAIN the dynamic SQL
statement
2. Include EXPLAIN command in the embedded dynamic
SQL statements
49) How do you simulate the EXPLAIN of an
embedded SQL statement in SPUFI/QMF? Give an
example with a host variable in WHERE clause.)
Use a question mark in place of a host variable ( or an
unknown value ). e.g.
SELECT EMP_NAME
FROM EMP
WHERE EMP_SALARY > ?
50) What are the isolation levels possible ? ・
CS: Cursor Stability
RR: Repeatable Read
51) What is the difference between CS and RR
isolation levels?
CS: Releases the lock on a page after use
RR: Retains all locks acquired till end of transaction
52) Where do you specify them ?
ISOLATION LEVEL is a parameter for the bind process.
53) When do you specify the isolation level? How?
During the BIND process. ISOLATION ( CS/RR )...
I use CS and update a page. Will the lock be released
after I am done with that page?
No.
54) What are the various locking levels available?
PAGE, TABLE, TABLESPACE
55) How does DB2 determine what lock-size to
use?
1. Based on the lock-size given while creating the
tablespace
2. Programmer can direct the DB2 what lock-size to use
3. If lock-size ANY is specified, DB2 usually chooses a
lock-size of PAGE
56) What are the disadvantages of PAGE level
lock? - RAMESH www.geocities.com/srcsinc
High resource utilization if large updates are to be done
57) What is lock escalation?
Promoting a PAGE lock-size to table or tablespace lock-
size when a transaction has acquired more locks than
specified in NUMLKTS. Locks should be taken on objects
in single tablespace for escalation to occur.
58) What are the various
locks available? DB2 INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS - advertisement
SHARE, EXCLUSIVE, UPDATE
59) Can I use LOCK TABLE
on a view?
No. To lock a view, take lock
on the underlying tables.
60) What is ALTER ? ・
SQL command used to
change the definition of DB2
objects.
61) What is a DBRM, PLAN ?
DBRM: DataBase Request Module, has the SQL
statements extracted from the host language program by
the pre-compiler.
PLAN: A result of the BIND process. It has the executable
code for the SQL statements in the DBRM.
62) What is ACQUIRE/RELEASE in BIND?
Determine the point at which DB2 acquires or releases
locks against table and tablespaces, including intent
locks.
63) What else is there in the PLAN apart from the
access path? ・
PLAN has the executable code for the SQL statements in
the host program
64) What happens to the PLAN if index used by it
is dropped?
Plan is marked as invalid. The next time the plan is
accessed, it is rebound.
65) What are PACKAGES ? ・
They contain executable code for SQL statements for one
DBRM.
66) What are the advantages of using a PACKAGE?
1. Avoid having to bind a large number of DBRM
members into a plan
2. Avoid cost of a large bind
3. Avoid the entire transaction being unavailable during
bind and automatic rebind of a plan
4. Minimize fallback complexities if changes result in an
error.
67) What is a collection?
a user defined name that is the anchor for packages. It
has not physical existence. Main usage is to group
packages.
In SPUFI suppose you want to select max. of 1000 rows ,
but the select returns only 200 rows.
68) What are the 2 sqlcodes that are returned? ・
100 ( for successful completion of the query ), 0 (for
successful COMMIT if AUTOCOMMIT is set to Yes).
69) How would you print the output of an SQL
statement from SPUFI? ・
Print the output dataset.
70) How do you pull up a query which was
previously saved in QMF ? ・
??
71) Lot of updates have been done on a table due
to which indexes have gone haywire. What do you
do? ・
Looks like index page split has occurred. DO a REORG of
the indexes.
72) What is dynamic SQL? ・
Dynamic SQL is a SQL statement created at program
execution time.
73) When is the access path determined for
dynamic SQL? ・
At run time, when the PREPARE statement is issued.
74) Suppose I have a program which uses a
dynamic SQL and it has been performing well till
now. Off late, I find that the performance has
deteriorated. What happened? ・
Probably RUN STATS is not done and the program is
using a wrong index due to incorrect stats.
Probably RUNSTATS is done and optimizer has chosen a
wrong access path based on the latest statistics.
75) How does DB2 store NULL physically?
as an extra-byte prefix to the column value. physically,
the nul prefix is Hex ・0・if the value is present and Hex
詮 F・if it is not.
76) How do you retrieve the data from a nullable
column? ・
Use null indicators. Syntax ... INTO :HOSTVAR:NULLIND
77) What is the picture clause of the null indicator
variable? ・
S9(4) COMP.
78) What does it mean if the null indicator has -1,
0, -2? ・
-1 : the field is null
0 : the field is not null
-2 : the field value is truncated
79) How do you insert a record with a nullable
column?
To insert a NULL, move -1 to the null indicator
To insert a valid value, move 0 to the null indicator
80) What is RUNSTATS? ・
A DB2 utility used to collect statistics about the data
values in tables which can be used by the optimizer to
decide the access path. It also collects statistics used for
space management. These statistics are stored in DB2
catalog tables.
81) When will you chose to run RUNSTATS?
After a load, or after mass updates, inserts, deletes, or
after REORG.
82) Give some example of statistics collected
during RUNSTATS?
# of rows in the table
Percent of rows in clustering sequence
# of distinct values of indexed column
# of rows moved to a nearby/farway page due to row
length increase
83) What is REORG? When is it used?
REORG reorganizes data on physical storage to reclutser
rows, positioning overflowed rows in their proper
sequence, to reclaim space, to restore free space. It is
used after heavy updates, inserts and delete activity and
after segments of a segmented tablespace have become
fragmented.
84) What is IMAGECOPY ? ・
It is full backup of a DB2 table which can be used in
recovery.
85) When do you use the IMAGECOPY? ・
To take routine backup of tables
After a LOAD with LOG NO
After REORG with LOG NO
86) What is COPY PENDING status?
A state in which, an image copy on a table needs to be
taken, In this status, the table is available only for
queries. You cannot update this table. To remove the
COPY PENDING status, you take an image copy or use
REPAIR utility.
87) What is CHECK PENDING ?
When a table is LOADed with ENFORCE NO option, then
the table is left in CHECK PENDING status. It means that
the LOAD utility did not perform constraint checking.
88) What is QUIESCE?
A QUIESCE flushes all DB2 buffers on to the disk. This
gives a correct snapshot of the database and should be
used before and after any IMAGECOPY to maintain
consistency.
89) What is a clustering index ? ・
Causes the data rows to be stored in the order specified
in the index. A mandatory index defined on a partitioned
table space.
90) How many clustering indexes can be defined
for a table?
Only one.
91) What is the difference between primary key &
unique index ?
Primary : a relational database constraint. Primary key
consists of one or more columns that uniquely identify a
row in the table. For a normalized relation, there is one
designated primary key.
Unique index: a physical object that stores only unique
values. There can be one or more unique indexes on a
table.
92) What is sqlcode -922 ?
Authorization failure
93) What is sqlcode -811?
SELECT statement has resulted in retrieval of more than
one row.
94) What does the sqlcode of -818 pertain to? ・
This is generated when the consistency tokens in the
DBRM and the load module are different.
95) Are views updateable ?
Not all of them. Some views are updateable e.g. single
table view with all the fields or mandatory fields.
Examples of non-updateable views are views which are
joins, views that contain aggregate functions(such as
MIN), and views that have GROUP BY clause.
96) If I have a view which is a join of two or more
tables, can this view be updateable? ・
No.
97) What are the 4 environments which can access
DB2 ?
TSO, CICS, IMS and BATCH
98) What is an inner join, and an outer join ?
Inner Join: combine information from two or more tables
by comparing all values that meet the search criteria in
the designated column or columns of on e table with all
the clause in corresponding columns of the other table or
tables. This kind of join which involve a match in both
columns are called inner joins.
Outer join is one in which you want both matching and
non matching rows to be returned. DB2 has no specific
operator for outer joins, it can be simulated by combining
a join and a correlated sub query with a UNION.
99) What is FREEPAGE and PCTFREE in
TABLESPACE creation?
PCTFREE: percentage of each page to be left free
FREEPAGE: Number of pages to be loaded with data
between each free page
100) What are simple, segmented and partitioned
table spaces ?
Simple Tablespace:
Can contain one or more tables
Rows from multiple tables can be interleaved on a page
under the DBAs control and maintenance
Segmented Tablespace:
Can contain one or more tables
Tablespace is divided into segments of 4 to 64 pages in
increments of 4 pages. Each segment is dedicated to
single table. A table can occupy multiple segments
Partitioned Tablespace:
Can contain one table
Tablespace is divided into parts and each part is put in a
separate VSAM dataset.
101) What is filter factor?
one divided by the number of distinct values of a column.
102) What is index cardinality? ・
The number of distinct values a column or columns
contain.
103) What is a synonym ?
Synonym is an alternate name for a table or view used
mainly to hide the leading qualifier of a table or view.. A
synonym is accessible only by the creator.
104) What is the difference between SYNONYM
and ALIAS?
SYNONYM: is dropped when the table or tablespace is
dropped. Synonym is available only to the creator.
ALIAS: is retained even if table or tablespace is dropped.
ALIAS can be created even if the table does not exist. It is
used mainly in distributed environment to hide the
location info from programs. Alias is a global object & is
available to all.
105) What do you mean by NOT NULL WITH
DEFAULT? When will you use it?
This column cannot have nulls and while insertion, if no
value is supplied then it wil have zeroes, spaces or
date/time depending on whether it is numeric, character
or date/time.
Use it when you do not want to have nulls but at the
same time cannot give values all the time you insert this
row.
106) What do you mean by NOT NULL? When will
you use it?
The column cannot have nulls. Use it for key fields.
107) When would you prefer to use VARCHAR?
When a column which contains long text, e.g. remarks,
notes, may have in most cases less than 50% of the
maximum length.
108) What are the disadvantages of using
VARCHAR?
1. Can lead to high space utilization if most of the values
are close to maximum.
2. Positioning of VARCHAR column has to be done
carefully as it has performance implications.
3. Relocation of rows to different pages can lead to more
I/Os on retrieval.
109) How do I create a table MANAGER ( EMP#,
MANAGER) where MANAGER is a foreign key which
references to EMP# in the same table? Give the
exact DDL.
First CREATE MANAGER table with EMP# as the primary
key. Then ALTER it to define the foreign key.
When is the authorization check on DB2 objects done - at
BIND time or run time?
At run time.
110) What is auditing?
Recording SQL statements that access a table. Specified
at table creation time or through alter.
