An Introduction to Database Systems, Volume I ^{4th Ed.}

The fourth edition of this bestselling text is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of database technology currently available. The database field has changed dramatically since the third edition was published. In particular, the relational approach has become much more widely accepted, not only in academic circles but also in the marketplace, as can be seen from the great number of relational products now available. The fourth edition of this book has therefore been completely rewritten, and indeed restructured, to reflect these changes. However, its overall objectives is still the same — namely to provide the basis for a solid education in the fundamentals of database technology.

The book is divided into six parts: basic concepts, a sample relational system, relational database management, the database environment, nonrelational systems, and some current developments. Important changes since the previous edition include:

• Significantly expanded treatment of storage structures
• Replacement of material on System R by material on DB2
• Considerably extended treatment of INGRES
• Greatly expanded and definitive treatment of all aspects of the relational model
• Extended and improved discussion of dependency theory (normalization)
• Material on recovery, concurrency, security, and integrity has been added
• Chapters on a typical inverted list system (DATACOM/DB) and a typical network system (IDMS) have been added
• Material on various auxiliary systems has been included — forms-based frontends, natural language interfaces, report writers, business graphics, application generators, etc.
• Discussion of certain more advanced topics (query optimization, distributed databases and database machines, and semantic modeling) have also been added

Readers will gain a general working knowledge of the overall structure, concepts, and objectives of modern database systems, and will become familiar with the theoretical principles underlying the construction of such systems.

• Part 1: Basic Concepts
1. An Overview of Database Management
1. Introduction
2. What is a database system?
3. Operational data
4. Why database?
5. Data independence
6. Relational systems and others
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
2. An Architecture for a Database System
1. Purpose
2. The three levels of the architecture
3. The external level
4. The conceptual level
5. The internal level
6. Mappings
7. The database administrator
8. The database management system
9. Data communications
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
3. The Internal Level
1. Introduction
2. Database access: an overview
3. Page sets and fills
4. Indexing
5. Hashing
6. Pointer chains
7. Compression techniques
8. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
• Part 2: A Sample Relational System
4. An Overview of DB2
1. Background
2. Relational databases
3. The SQL language
4. Major system components
5. Exercises
• References and bibliography
5. Data Definition
1. Introduction
2. Base tables
3. Indexes
4. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• Answers to selected exercises
6. Data Manipulation
1. Introduction
2. Simple queries
3. Join queries
4. Built-in functions
5. Advanced features
6. Update operations
7. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• Answers to selected exercises
7. The System Catalog
1. Introduction
2. Querying the catalog
3. Updating the catalog
• Exercises
• Answers to selected exercises
8. Views
1. Introduction
2. View definition
3. DML operations on views
4. Logical data independence
5. Advantages of views
• Exercises
• Answers to selected exercises
9. Embedded SQL
1. Introduction
2. Operations not involving cursors
3. Operations involving cursors
4. A comprehensive example
5. Dynamic SQL
6. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• Answers to selected exercises
• Part 3: Relational Database Management
10. An Overview of INGRES
1. Background
2. Data definition
3. Data manipulation: retrieval operations
4. Data manipulation: update operations
5. Views
6. Embedded QUEL
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
11. Relational Data Structure
1. An introductory example
2. Domains
3. Relations
4. Relational databases
• References and bibliography
12. Relational Integrity Rules
1. Introduction
2. Primary keys
3. Foreign keys
4. The two integrity rules
5. Implications of the two integrity rules
• References and bibliography
13. Relational Algebra
1. Introduction
2. A syntax for the relational algebra
3. Traditional set operations
4. Special relational operations
5. Examples
6. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
14. Relational Calculus
1. Introduction
2. Tuple-oriented relational calculus
3. Examples
4. Relational calculus vs. relational algebra
5. Domain-oriented relational calculus
6. Query-By-Example
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
15. Relational Systems
1. The relational model: a summary
2. Essentiality
3. Definition of a relational system
4. Enforcing the relational integrity rules
5. Some current relational products
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
16. Query Optimization
1. Introduction
2. A simple example
3. The optimization process: an overview
4. Optimization in System R
5. Optimization in INGRES
6. Implementing the relational operators
• References and bibliography
17. Further Normalization
1. Introduction
2. Functional dependence
3. First, second, and third normal forms
4. Boyce/Codd normal form
5. Good and bad decompositions
6. Fourth normal form
7. Fifth normal form
8. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
• Part 4: The Database Environment
18. Recovery and Concurrency
1. Introduction
2. Transaction recovery
3. System and media recovery
4. Three concurrency problems
5. Locking
6. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
19. Security and Integrity
1. Introduction
2. Security: general considerations
3. Security in SQL
4. Other aspects of security
5. Integrity: general considerations
6. A hypothetical integrity language
7. Security and integrity in INGRES
8. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
20. The Database Product Family
1. Introduction
2. Data access
3. Data presentation
4. Application generation
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Part 5: Nonrelational Systems
21. An Inverted List System: DATACOM/DB
1. Background
2. The inverted list model
3. An overview of DATACOM/DB
4. Data definition
5. Data manipulation
6. The Compound Boolean Selection Feature
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
22. A Hierarchic System: IMS
1. Background
2. The hierarchic model
3. An overview of IMS
4. Data definition
5. Data manipulation
6. Storage structure
7. Logical databases
8. Secondary indexes
9. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
23. A Network System: IDMS
1. Background
2. The network model
3. An overview of IDMS
4. Data definition
5. Data manipulation
6. Storage structure
7. The Logical Record Facility
8. The Automatic System Facility
9. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
• Answers to selected exercises
• Part 6: Some Current Developments
24. Distributed Systems
1. Introduction
2. Objectives and rationale
3. Problems of distributed systems
4. Some sample systems
5. Other types of distributed systems
6. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography
25. Semantic Modeling
1. What is the problem?
2. The overall approach
3. The entity/relationship model
4. The extended relational model RM/T
5. Concluding remarks
• Exercises
• References and bibliography

This one is a must read, together with Volume II.

Admittedly, extremely boring…