GLOSSARY - Concepts of Database Management - page 406

Reserved word A word that is part of the SQL language.
REVOKE The SQL statement that is used to revoke
privileges from users of a database.
Roll up View and analyze higher levels of aggregation.
Rollback A process to recover a database to a valid
state by reading the log for problem transactions and
applying the before images to undo their updates; also
called backward recovery.
Row-and-column subset view A view that consists of a
subset of the rows and columns in a table.
Sandbox See test system.
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act A federal law enacted in
2002 that specifies data retention and verification
requirements for public companies, requires CEOs and
CFOs to certify financial statements, and makes it a
crime to destroy or tamper with financial records.
Save See backup.
Scalability The ability of a computer system to continue
to function well as utilization of the system increases.
SEC Rule 17a-4 The rule of the Security and Exchange
Commission that specifies the retention requirements of
all electronic communications and records for financial
and investment entities.
Second normal form (2NF) A relation is in second
normal form if it is in first normal form and no nonkey
attribute is dependent on only a portion of the primary key.
Secondary key A column (attribute) or collection of
columns that is of interest for retrieval purposes (and that
is not already designated as some other type of key).
Secondary sort key When sorting on two fields, the less
important field; also called minor sort key.
Security The prevention of unauthorized access to a
database.
SELECT The relational algebra command to select rows
from a table. Also, the retrieval command in SQL.
SELECT clause The part of an SQL SELECT command
that indicates the columns to be included in the query
results.
Server A computer that provides services to the clients
in a client/server system; also called a back-end
processor or a back-end machine.
Server-side extension Instructions executed by a Web
server to provide dynamic Web page capability. These
extensions are usually contained in separate files that
are referenced within the HTML documents.
Server-side script See server-side extension.
Session The duration of a Web client's connection to a
Web server.
SGML See Standard Generalized Markup Language.
Shared lock A lock that lets other users read locked data.
Shrinking phase A phase during a database update in
which the DBMS releases all the locks previously
acquired for a transaction and acquires no new locks.

Simple condition A condition that involves only a single
field and a single value.
Single-column index See single-field index.
Single-field index An index built on a single field
(column).
Single-item form A form layout that displays one record
at a time from the object on which it is a based.
Slice and dice In a data warehouse, selecting portions of
the available data, or reducing the data cube.
SMALLINT The SQL data type for integer data for small
integers.
Smart card Small plastic cards about the size of a
driver's license that have built-in circuits containing
processing logic to identify the cardholder.
Sort The process of arranging rows in a table or results
of a query in a particular order.
Sort key The field on which data are sorted; also called
a key.
SQL See Structured Query Language.
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) A
metalanguage used to create document markup lan-
guages; SGML became a standard in 1986. Languages
based on the full SGML are used to manage large,
complex reports and technical specifications for a
variety of computer platforms, printers, and other
devices.
Star schema A multidimensional database whose
conceptual shape resembles a star.
Startup form A form that opens when a user first
accesses a database and contains controls that let the
user easily open objects and work with them, and also
provides a level of security by restricting access to
objects.
Stateless A condition for a communication protocol,
such as HTTP, in which the connection between the
sender and the receiver, such as a Web server and a
Web client, is closed once the sender responds to the
sender's request and the sender retains no information
about the request or the sender.
Statement history The area of memory in MySQL that
stores the most recently entered command.
Static Web page A Web page that displays the exact
same content for all Web clients.
Stored procedure A file containing a collection of
compiled and optimized SQL statements that are
available for future use.
Structured Query Language (SQL) A very popular
relational data definition and manipulation language
that is used in many relational DBMSs.
Stylesheet A document that specifies how to process the
data contained in another document and present the
data in a Web browser, in a printed report, on a mobile
device, in a sound device, or in other presentation
media.

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