FDA051 Fundamentals of Modern Database Systems

Lectures:

ca 10 h

Recommended for

This is a fundamental course for students without previous database knowledge.

The course was last given:

Spring 2000.

The course runs:

Every second year.

Goals

The aim of this course is to give a thorough introduction to the theoretical and practical issues underlying the design and implementation of modern database systems.

Prerequisites

Elementary programming.

Knowledge about data structures and algorithms (e.g. TDDB57).

Organization

This course is organized as a series of meetings, with an accompanying lab course.

Contents

This course covers the fundamentals of the database field. The subject of the database field is how to use computers to store and manage usually large quantities of data.

The first part of the course covers how to design a database, i.e. how to model reality using the Entity-Relationship (ER) model and how to translate ER models into efficient representations of data in computers using a database management system (DBMS). In particular we study how to design and use relational databases where data is stored as tables and is retrieved and updated using the database language SQL.

Further, the course covers how a DBMS is structured and what major facilities it provides. For instance, to handle concurrent access to shared databases a transaction mechanism is provided, to describe the data there is a schema facility, to query data there is a general query facility, to reliably store data there is a recovery mechanism.

Literature

- Elmasri, Navathe: Fundamentals of Database Systems, 3rd Ed, Addison-Wesley, 2000.

- Lab material

Teachers

To be announced.

Examiner

Nahid Shahmehri

Schedule

Spring 2002.

Examination

- Written exam

- Laboratory assignments

Credit

3 credits.