Database System Implementation

CS245 course then covers implementation of a DBMS, notably storage structures , query processing, and transaction management. We're on a quarter system at Stanford, so the principal course using this book — CS245 — is only ten weeks long. In the Winter of 1999, Hector Garcia-Molina used a "beta" version of this book, and covered the following parts: Sections 2. The balance of Chapters 6 and 7 (query optimization) is covered in an advanced course, CS346, where students implement their own DBMS. Other portions of the book that are not covered in CS245 may appear in another advanced course, CS347, which talks about distributed databases and advanced transaction processing. Schools that are on the semester system have the opportunity to combine the use of this book with its predecessor: A First Course in Database Systems. We recommend using that book in the first semester, coupled with a database-application programming project. The second semester could cover most or all of the content of this book. An advantage to splitting the study of databases into two courses is that students not planning to specialize in DBMS construction can take only the first course and be able to use databases in whatever branch of Computer Science they enter. Prerequisites The course on which the book is based is rarely taken before the senior year, so we expect the reader to have a fairly broad background in the traditional areas iii iv of Computer Science. We assume that the reader has learned something about database programming, especially SQL. It is helpful to know about relational algebra and to have some familiarity with basic data structures. Likewise, some knowledge of file systems and operating systems is useful. Exercises The book contains extensive exercises, with some for almost every section. We indicate harder exercises or parts of exercises with an exclamation point. The hardest exercises have a double exclamation point. Some of the exercises or parts are marked with a star. For these exercises, we shall endeavor to maintain solutions accessible through the book's Web page. These solutions are publicly available and should be used for self-testing. Note that in a few cases, one exercise B asks for modification or adaptation of your solution to another exercise A. If certain parts of A have Web-published solutions, then you should expect the corresponding parts of B to have solutions as well. Here you will find solutions to …