Tietojenkäsittelytieteen laitos

Obs!The lectures are cancelled on Sept 18 and Sept 20, probably also the next week. Exercise sessions will be held, based on self-reading.

Prerequisites: Basics in Databases (or the older Information Systems); Data Structures (Tietokantojen perusteet or Informaatiojärjestelmät; Tietorakenteet).

The lectures as well as the weekly practice-group sessions will be given in Finnish.

For foreign students, English translations of the weekly homework assignments are provided (see the links below).
Written solutions to exercises should be given during the exercise week to Anna Pienimäki.

If you have not yet made your registration you should make it (group 99). In addition, please, contact the lecturer, Prof. Hannu Erkiö (on sick-leave until Sept 30th) or Anna Pienimäki.

The first exercise week is this week (Sept 17-21).

Exercises (homeworks)

• Exercise 1
• Exercise 2
• Exercise 3
• Exercise 4
• Exercise 5
• Exercise 6

The examination can be taken in English.

Time of the examination: Friday, November 2nd, at 15:00-19:00 (place: Porthania I).

(There is one examination at the end of the course, plus some re-trials in so-called final exams later).

There are two alternatives in passing the course: by the course examination (max. 50 credit points) and homeworks (max. 10 points), or by the final exam later. When the course exam is used the homeworks are obligatory: at least about half of the weekly assignments must be solved, for 4 weeks at least. To pass the course, you should have at least 30 credits (at least 25 credits from the exam; approximate limits).

(A foreign student may also take part in one of the weekly (Finnish) practice-group sessions but at least some knowledge of Finnish is needed.)

Textbook of the course:

R. Elmasri & S. B. Navathe: Fundamentals of Database Systems, 3rd edition. Addison-Wesley, 2000. Also the 2nd edition of the book (1994) can be used.

The contents of the course (by chapters of Elmasri & Navathe (EN)):
Obs. EN comments below are not exact and are somewhat preliminary (at least for the later parts of the course).
In some parts it is quite difficult to separate the parts which have been covered and which have not been covered.

1. Introduction (database system concepts, dbms)
	EN, Chs. 1-2; a very short review only. 
2. Storage structures used in DBMSs.
	EN, Chs. 5 except the following parts:
	  5.2.2, 5.3
	  5.9.1 (assumed as a prerequisite)
3. Index structures in databases
        EN, Chs. 6 except the following parts:
	  details of the algorithm 6.2
	  6.4-6.5
4. Query processing and optimization
	EN, Ch. 18 (excluding some details, mainly in 18.4.3-4;
	most parts have been covered at least partially)

5. Database transaction management
	general: EN, Ch. 19, especially 19.1.-19.3.
	log-based recovery: EN, Ch. 21, especially 21.1, 21.3, partly
		21.2.1 and 21.5(LSN)
	concurrency control: EN, Ch. 19.5.1, 19.5.3, 19.6, 
		20.1 (20.1.3 only shortly), 20.5.1