Re: Materials for an Advanced Database course

An outstanding text that is probably good for at least two semesters of database
coursework is "Database Systems Concepts," 4th Edition, by Silberschatz, Korth
and Sudarshan (http://www.bell-labs.com/topic/books/db-book/). It contained far more than I could cover in a one-semester undergraduate course.

I used SQL Server 7.0 as software last year, since it has fairly modest system requirements. It may not be exactly SQL-92, but it is easy to install and has excellent development tools. It's strictly a back-end, which I liked, "purer" than say PL/SQL, which certainly is more versatile. But students who have a good background in SQL and in an imperative language can learn something like PL/SQL on their own later if they need to, I think. I'm told DB2 is a good product, and it has a free development version, but the installation was too daunting for me.

If the computers available to students are up to it, use SQL Server 2000, but even if they aren't, you can probably still find books that have the 7.0 120-day (conveniently just about a semester) evaluation copy inside. Depending on the kind of school and the kind of students, the Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance can be a real help - look into it at msdnaa.com.

If you do choose SQL Server as the software, recommend Kalen Delaney's Inside SQL Server 7.0 (or 2000) as a second textbook. I think it has the evaluation CD, too.

I don't know for sure what you mean by "advanced," but if Silberschatz et al.
doesn't go as far as you want, add Snodgrass (Developing Time-Oriented Database Systems in SQL). There are plenty of schools that use Date, but I really thought Siberschatz et al. did a better job of balancing theory and practice. Keep a copy of Date for your own reference and in the library.

Steve Kass
Drew University

--CELKO-- wrote:

>What would you want to see covered in a one semester Materials in an
>Advanced Database course taught at the graduate (or undergraduate)
>level?
>
>What materials (books, software, etc.) would you recommend for such a
>course?
>
>
Received on Sat Jan 18 2003 - 07:16:44 CET