Databases

The course provides the fundamental concepts related to databases and systems for their management, with particular focus on relational database systems. The course addresses i) theory issues dedicated to models, languages, and design methodologies as well as security and transaction aspects; and ii) laboratory issues dedicated to the use of design and management tools for relational databases, as well as the main technologies for the development of web applications based on databases.

The student will acquire the following knowledge and the corresponding practical skills: design the conceptual scheme and the relational scheme of a database both starting from an informal description of the application domain and starting from a set of unstructured data; verify the level of normalization of the scheme and understand the concepts of functional dependency and normalization; understand and execute complex SQL queries correctly and define the execution plan in terms of relational algebra operations; understand, design and define the different types of indexes to optimize data access; implement active database functionalities by means of SQL procedures; understand and create web interfaces for data access.