This document provides an introduction to an introductory course on database management systems. The course will cover database concepts and architecture, data modeling using entity-relationship modeling, the relational data model and SQL. It will help students understand the benefits of using relational databases and teach them to design database schemas and write basic CRUD functions. Students will be graded based on assignments, quizzes, a project, labs, midterm and final exams. The course materials will include two textbooks on database systems.

1. Intro to Databases
Instructor: Malik M. Ali Shahid
First Session: Introduction

2. 2
Purpose of this course
 An introduction to database
management systems
 Help students understand the benefits
that can be attained by using
Relational DBMS
 Enable students to become comfortable
in designing database schemas in SQL,
plus writing CRUD functions

3. 3
Course Summary
 This course covers these topics:
 Introduction to Databases & their users
 DBMS Concepts & Architecture
 Data Modeling using the ERM
 Relational Data Model & Algebra
 SQL (Schemas, Queries, Constraints)
 Functional Dependencies
 Normalization

4. 4
Course Books
 Primary Text:
 An Introduction to Database Systems – 8e.
 By C. J. Date
 Reference Text:
 Fundamentals of Database Systems – 4e.
 By Ramez Elmasri and S. B. Navathe

5. 5
Grading (tentatively)
 Assignments : 10%
 Quizzes: 10%
 Project : 10%
 Lab: 10%
 Midterm Exam : 20%
 Final Exam : 40%

6. 6
What was the need for Databases?
 The concept of a file system is where
our story begins
 Everything was done one way
 “Master Files” held information
 “Transaction Files” told the file system
what to do
 “New Master File” was created in place of
the old one
 “Error Files” stored what went wrong
 These were used for a very long time

7. 7
The File System
Transaction
File
Master File New Master File
Error
Log

8. 8
What was wrong with file system
approach?
 Too much programming knowledge
necessary
 Everyone who used them had to have a fairly
technical background
 In order to transact much of what was done you
had to know a lot about the system and files
 Took a good while to get information to where it
needed to go
 Hard to secure
 Integrity was hard to enforce
 Too much room for error
 Just not easy enough for corporations

9. 9
Now with Databases
 Built-in Support for
 Security & Access Control
 Constraints & Triggers
 Transactions
 Performance Tuning

10. 10
What is a Database?
 Basic Definition
 A Database is a collection of data files
 Complex Definition
 A Database is a structure that contains
information about many kinds of entities
and about the relationships between
those entities.

11. 11
Entities
 Entity – a person, place, thing, or event
 Entities become our categories of
information
 Customers
 Products
 Orders
 We organize our information in these major
entities (categories)
 These categories become the tables, that
will store our data

12. 12
Relationships
 Relationship – an association between
entities
 Relationships define how our data
files will talk to each other
 Customers “Place” Orders
 Orders “Are For” Products
 There are several key types of
relationships that we will talk about
later on

13. 13
More about Entities
 What does everyone have in common?
 Entities have basic properties too
 Properties of entities are called Attributes
 Attributes describe our categories
 A “Customer” has some basic properties
 Name
 Phone Number
 Address