Physical database design and implementation
M Nolan
6 points * Four hours per week * First/Second semester * Caulfield * Prerequisites: COT2132 * Prohibitions: CFR3002
Embedding SQL in a host language, SQLCA - functions and values, implicit and explicit error handling; cursors - programming and when they are appropriate. Physical database design: conceptual model logical access maps, transaction maps, composite usage maps, trade-offs involved in designing for performance versus design for flexibility. Query optimisation: internal forms, query trees, access path selection - heuristics versus systematic, selection criteria. Database integrity mechanisms: recovery mechanisms and theory, concurrency mechanisms and theory, security mechanisms. Distributed database management systems: theory of distributed systems, problems of achieving distribution, current distributed systems. Database trends and state-of-the-art data models: current hardware architecture and its limitations for database management systems, current data models and their limitations, database research areas, object-oriented database.
Assessment
Examination (2 hours): 50% * Two practical assignments: 50%
Prescribed texts
Elmasri R and Navathe S B Fundamentals of database systems 2nd edn, Benjamin-Cummings, 1994