An Introduction To Relational Database Theory

Written by internationally recognized authorities in the database field, this book delivers a thorough discussion of the foundations of the relational model of database design, along with a systematic treatment of the formal theory for the model. In addition, the authors provide a survey of the performance of the model and include an encyclopedic reference to the available literature.

This concise guide sheds light on the principles behind the relational model, which underlies all database products in wide use today. It goes beyond the hype to give you a clear view of the technology -- a view that's not influenced by any vendor or product. Suitable for experienced database developers and designers.

Because databases often stay in production for decades, careful design is critical to making the database serve the needs of your users over years, and to avoid subtle errors or performance problems. In this book, C.J. Date, a leading exponent of relational databases, lays out the principles of good database design.

Relational Database Design and Implementation: Clearly Explained, Fourth Edition, provides the conceptual and practical information necessary to develop a database design and management scheme that ensures data accuracy and user satisfaction while optimizing performance. Database systems underlie the large majority of business information systems. Most of those in use today are based on the relational data model, a way of representing data and data relationships using only two-dimensional tables. This book covers relational database theory as well as providing a solid introduction to SQL, the international standard for the relational database data manipulation language. The book begins by reviewing basic concepts of databases and database design, then turns to creating, populating, and retrieving data using SQL. Topics such as the relational data model, normalization, data entities, and Codd's Rules (and why they are important) are covered clearly and concisely. In addition, the book looks at the impact of big data on relational databases and the option of using NoSQL databases for that purpose. Features updated and expanded coverage of SQL and new material on big data, cloud computing, and object-relational databases Presents design approaches that ensure data accuracy and consistency and help boost performance Includes three case studies, each illustrating a different database design challenge Reviews the basic concepts of databases and database design, then turns to creating, populating, and retrieving data using SQL

The study of relationship databases is a core component of virtually every undergraduate computer science degree course. This new edition of Theory and Practice of Relationship Databases retains all the features that made the previous edition such as success, and goes on to give even more comprehensive and informative coverage. Written in a tutorial style and containing a great many examples and exercises as well as extensively using illustrative and explanatory graphics, the author has produced an undergraduate textbook of great depth and clarity that is very easy to follow. The subject of relational databases is brought to life by the writing style and the inclusion of an homogenous case study that reinforces the issues dealt with in each chapter. The primary objective of the book is to present a comprehensive explanation of the process of development of database application systems within the framework of a set processing paradigm. Since the majority of these applications are built as relationship systems, a complete though reasonably concise account of that model is presented. Dr. Stanczyk has achieved this by concentrating on the issues that contribute significantly to the application development while de-emphasizing purely theoretical aspects of the subject. This has led to an imaginative and highly practical textbook that will be an excellent read for the undergraduate computer science student.

Addressing important extensions of the relational database model, including deductive, temporal, and object-oriented databases, this book provides an overview of database modeling with the Entity-Relationship (ER) model and the relational model. The book focuses on the primary achievements in relational database theory, including query languages, integrity constraints, database design, computable queries, and concurrency control. This reference will shed light on the ideas underlying relational database systems and the problems that confront database designers and researchers.

This remarkably comprehensive new book assembles concepts and results in relational databases theory previously scattered through journals, books, conference proceedings, and technical memoranda in one convenient source, and introduces pertinent new material not found elsewhere. The book is intended for a second course in databases, but is an excellent reference for researchers in the field. The material covered includes relational algebra, functional dependencies, multivalued and join dependencies, normal forms, tableaux and the chase computation, representation theory, domain and tuple relational calculus, query modification, database semantics and null values, acyclic database schemes, template dependencies, and computed relations. The final chapter is a brief survey of query languages in existing relational systems. Each chapter contains numerous examples and exercises, along with bibliographic remarks. - Back cover.