Graduate Programs in Software
Technical Seminar
The University of St. Thomas
St. Paul, Minnesota

© Copyright 1971 to 2002 Thomas P. Sturm
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Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 2

The goal of this seminar is to develop sound principles for determining the value of information, what data should he stored, how it should he organized, retrieved and managed to provide a manageably sized, responsive, user-friendly, accurate, information-producing relational database.
Objectives: By the end of the course, qualified and diligent participants should know:
The concepts of data and information and how data produces information
The identification procedure for entities and the procedure for determining their interrelationships
The relational database model and how it differs from other database models
How to construct logical data structures for modeling data
How to construct a relational database starting from a logical data structure
How to construct a relational database starting from an existing collection of data or existing “tables.”
The advantages and proper use of relational models
How to write simple queries in SQL to create, update, and retrieve data in a relational database
How to present users with an appropriate “view” of the data
The criteria for determining to what extent commercial database management systems are truly “relational.”
How to tune a relational system for efficiency
During the seminar, participants will be given opportunity to:
Identify attributes, entities, values, and relationships
Use relational operators on a set of tables to produce information
Normalize an existing set of data into a set of well-formed relations
Construct a logical data structure
Map a logical data structure into a set of well-formed relations
Write SQL statements to query and update a database
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 3

Day 1 - ANALYSIS
Data Concepts
Introduction and justification
Concepts of data, information and database
The need for information-producing systems
Data base design goals
Definition of entity, attribute, value, and relationship
Lab l - Entity identification
Database Concepts
Case Study 1
Database advantages and need for a database approach
Data independence
Data Models
Major non-relational database models
(flat file, indexed sequential, hierarchical, network)
Lab 2 - Structure identification
Relational Database Model:
Conceptual structure
Definition of a relation
Relational operators
Understanding relational terminology
Elimination of redundancy.
Lab 3 - Relational operators
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 4

Day 2: DESIGN
Relational Design Concepts:
Principles of logical database design
Modeling using Normalization:
Various normal forms
(zeroth, first through fifth, projection-join)
Identification of keys and relationships
Normalizing existing forms and databases
Case study 2
Lab 4 - Normalizing an order form
Modeling using Logical Data Structures
LDS components
Relating entities, attributes, and relationships
Handling 1-1, 1-many, and many-many relationships
Modeling choices
Constraint modeling and enforcement
Mapping logical data structures to well-formed relations
Lab 5 LDS construction
Lab 6 mapping LDS to a relational database
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 5

Day 3 - CONSTRUCTION
SQL:
ANSI standard query language
Table creation, update, and query operations
Table query for listing and summaries
Performing table joins
Creating end-user views.
Lab 7-writing SQL statements
Relational Database Criteria:
Measuring the ability to perform relational operations.
Conformance to established relational database criteria.
Levels of relational conformance
Codd's 12 rules
Oracle:
Data definition
Back-end
Communications
SQL*Plus and PL/SQL
Oracle Forms and Reports
Embedded queries
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 6

Day 4 - IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation:
Query optimization
Creating effective user views
Index creation
Designing read-only databases
Case study 3
Fourth Generation Languages:
Application generation
Developer 2000
Report generation
Data entry and screen painting
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 7

• Understand how data produces information
• Identify entities and their interrelationships
• Understand the relational model and how it differs from other models
• Construct a logical data structure for modeling data
• Re-form an existing collection of data into relational form
• Understand the advantages and proper use of relational models
• Write simple queries in SQL
• Present users with an appropriate “view” of the data
• Know the criteria for determining if a commercial product is truly relational
• Understand efficiency issues
• Learn some details of the Oracle database management system
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 8

1. Name
2. Company and Department
3. Data base systems used
(or planned to be used)
4. Data base projects you are working with
(or plan to be working with)
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 9

1. Data Concepts
2. Database Concepts
3. Data Models
4. Relational Model
5. Relational Design Concepts
6. Normalization
7. Logical Data Structures
8. SQL
9. Criteria for Relational Databases
10. Oracle
11. Implementation
12. Fourth Generation Languages
13. Exercises
14. References
Copyright © 1971-2002 Thomas P. Sturm Relational Database Design, Usage, and Implementation 10