CS3431. Database Systems I

Required Textbook / Readings

The material covered in this course will closely follow the main text book. Homeworks may also be designed based on this course book. Thus all students are expected to assure that they have regular access to the textbook, preferably by purchasing it or by borrowing for the term. The slides utilized in this course were developed for this course, and further refined through several past offerings of this course by instructors here at WPI, emphasizing relevant material from the book. Some adjustments will be made as the course progresses. A new version of this textbook (third edition) is hot off the press, available since middle of October 2007:
A First Course in Database systems.
Third Edition (2008).
Jeffrey D. Ullman and Jennifer D. Widom
Pearson Prentice Hall.
ISBN: 0-13-600637-X
URL: The Prentice-Hall Web Page

The old version of this same textbook that you should be able to get a used version is similar in content, but does have a few significant changes. Information on the 2002 version of the book can be found at :

A First Course in Database systems.
Second Edition (2002).
Jeffrey D. Ullman and Jennifer D. Widom
Prentice Hall.
ISBN: 0-13-035300-0
URL: The Prentice-Hall Web Page

Recommended On-Line Material

The new book edition comes with a new on-line resource of homework online practicing and so on. If/as the publisher makes this site available to our course in time, it would be linked here:

URL: Goal - Online Prentice-Hall Course Practice Site: www.prenhall.com/goal

Other Recommended Books / Reading

Instead of above, if you are interested in databases, we encourage you to purchase the complete version of the above text book. This complete book includes all of the material on database design and modeling as required for this CS3431 class (in the first 10 chapters of this book), as well as all material on database implementation aspects currently required for CS4432 (in the next 10 chapters of this book). Buying the combined book will be cheaper than buying the 2 books separately.

Database Systems: The Complete Book
Hector Garcia-Molina, Jeffrey D. Ullman and Jennifer D. Widom
Prentice Hall.
ISBN: 0-13-031995-3
URL: The Prentice-Hall Web Page

For additional references on SQL, online references are very useful. You may also use the following book.

There are several other excellent database textbooks available, which cover the syllabus for this course. You may also find them useful for reference.