MCQs for assertions and NULL in SQL

Links to the relevant SWC teaching materials for questions:

MCQ1 - Defensive programming

MCQ2 - Missing data

MCQ1

If your table Visited looks like:

ident	site	dated
751	DR-3	1930-02-26 
752	DR-3	-null-
837	MSK-	1932-01-14

Then a SQL query of

SELECT * FROM Visited WHERE dated!=NULL;

will result in the following ouput:

(1)

  751	DR-3	1930-02-26
  752	DR-3	-null-
  837	MSK-	1932-01-14 ***    

(2)

0 ***     (3)

There will be no output, i.e. nothing. *** (4) 

751	DR-3	1930-02-26
837	MSK-	1932-01-14 *** ***

MCQ2

In the context of programming, a precondition is:

1. something that must be true at the start of a function in order for it to work correctly
2. something that is always true at a particular point inside a piece of code
3. a condition that must be fulfilled before other things can happen or be done
4. knowing beforehand what output you would like your program to produce

This is a theoretical question, where the distractors are

• the definition of an invariant (2) (which is another concept introduced in the same module as a precondition)
• the “non-programming” definition of a precondition (3) and
• a much simpler worded statement that makes sense in the context of programming (4) (and is a precondition for you writing a program) - but is not the definition of a precondition as applied to programming or a function.