Theory and Practice of Relational Databases - Softcover

Stanczyk, Stefan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0273030493 ISBN 13: 9780273030492

Publisher: Pitman, 1990

Synopsis

The aim of this textbook is to provide the tutorial features - the guidance for students, complete clarification and examples, and to provide them in a practical way. Every concept, formula, and operation are given precise definitions that cover both the form and the meaning. Also, whenever appropriate, a behavioural description is given. In recognition of some difficulties in dealing with abstract concepts numerous examples are presented. Similarly, whenever a theorem is presented a full proof follows and, if possible, the subsequent steps in proving are illustrated by example. The examples play a particular role in this book. Almost every chapter contains essentially the following categories: "explanatory examples" (helping to acquire and to understand the topics being introduced), "solved problems" (showing how to apply the information from a section of the current chapter or using the information from the whole chapter) and "exercises" (to encourage readers to solve these by themselves). Solutions and explanations are given for almost all of the problems presented in the book. The examples are selected so to ensure that solutions can be as objective as possible, and are not dependant on a specific view of a system designer. This book does not pretend to cover all aspects of relational theory, but concentrates on some systematic treatment of database design problems. The languages to communicate with a database are then presented as well defined formal systems, the systems on which possible standards (such as SQL) can be based - not the other way round. No specific knowledge of computing by the reader is assumed, though familiarity with its fundamental concepts (such as field, record, file, procedure, transaction) would be helpful. Similarly, some understading of basic notions of mathematical logic and set theory is required, though all the necessary facts are compiled in an appendix.

About this title

From the Back Cover

BACKCOVER: The first edition of Theory and Practice of Relational Databases provided a comprehensive introductory text to the process of developing database applications. This new and substantially revised edition follows the same tutorial-style format. It is rich with examples, questions and worked problems. It starts with data modelling and progresses through the fundamental concepts of relational databases, normalisation and relational algebra. A comprehensive description of the database language SQL is included. Supported by numerous illustrations, this section leads us through the algebraic operations and optimisations that lead to proficiency in SQL programming.

The object-orientation paradigm has been steadily attracting database researchers and application developers. This edition covers the modeling techniques, structural properties and programming principles of the paradigm as they apply to databases.

The book culminates in a detailed case study which brings together the examples and principles as a whole. An associated website contains an open-source and freely available database management system and provides additional information and links to further reading.

Theory and Practice of Relational Databases is an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the computer sciences, database practitioners and anyone with an interest in database development.

Stefan Stanczyk is Deputy Head of the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Oxford Brookes University where he directs Computing Studies. Bob Champion is Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering also at Oxford Brookes University. Richard Leyton is senior system administrator for beenz.com and is the author of an education RDBMS used at a growing number of universities around the world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pitman
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0273030493
• ISBN 13: 9780273030492
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 190