(I) Homework Submission

•         • Written Assignment: Please bring the hard copy to the lecture class.
•         • Programming Assignment: Please submit digital report and code via gsubmit system.

        About gsubmit:

•         (1) The instructions of gsubmit is here.
•         (1) Make a new directory for each programming assignment. For example, make a folder PA1 for the report and code of programming assigmen 1.
•         (2) Copy all files directly into the folder. Do not compress (or zip) the files.
•         (3) The report for programming assignments should be in plain text file (*.txt), if the template is provided. Or submit pdf file (*.pdf), if the template is not available. Do not submit the report in other formats (*.rtf, *.doc or *.docx)
•         (4) Type gsubmit cs460 PAX to submit the whole folder (including the files in the folder).
•         (5) Type gsubmit cs460 -ls to check that you have successfully submitted the folder and files.
•         (6) Type gsubmit cs460 -cat PAX/[Filename] to check that your file is readable (*.txt, *.java or *.cpp).
•         (7) Grad students use cs660 instead of cs460 .
•         (8) The cs460 in gsubmit is case sensitive. Please use lowercase.

(II) Basic Terms

•         (1) Data:
                          A set of values (numbers, characters, other formats).

•         (2) Metadata:
                          A kind of data that describes other data.

•         (3) Database:
                          A very large collection (of files) of organized and related data.

•         (4) DBMS (Database Management System):
                          A software package/system that can be used to store, manage and retrieve data from databases that persist for long periods of time.

•         (5) Database System:
                          DBMS + data [+ applications].

•         (6) Data Model:
                          A framework for describing data, data relationships, data semantics, and data constraints.

•         (7) Schema:
                          The structure of the database using a particular model.

(III) Relational Model and Relational Databases

•         (1) Relational Model:
                          A database model based on first-order predicate logic.

•         (2) Entity Relationship Model:
                          An abstract conceptual data model used in software engineering to represent structured data.

•         (3) From Entity Relationship Model to Relational Model:
                          Entity Relationship Model and Relational Model are different.
                          Translate from Entity Relational Model to Relational Model.

•         (4) Relational Databases:

  •                         (a) Relation: Also called Table, made up of 2 parts: Schema and Instance.
  •                         (b) Schema: Specifies name of relation, plus name and type of each column.
  •                         (c) Instance: The actual data at a given time.
  •                         (d) Relational Database: A set of relations.
  •                         (e) Row: Also called Record or Tuple which represents a single, implicitly structured data item in a table.
  •                         (f) Column: Also called Attribute, a set of data values of a particular simple type.

(IV) An Example of a Relation (Table)