IS 260 Database Theory

Term: Winter 2025

Class Hours: 1000 - 1120 on Mondays & Wednesdays

Classroom: BT-127A

Instructor: Rick Udlock
Office Phone: 533-3795
Email: Rick.Udlock@SFCC.Spokane.edu
Office: 18-112H

Course Description:

This course serves as a foundation for working with databases. It reviews what a database is and the various database models such as hierarchical, network, relational, entity, object oriented and NOSQL. It then focuses on the relational database management system and covers design concepts, SQL, normalization and database administration. Grades will be based on two exams, homework/lab assignments and a course project.

Course Outcomes:

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

• Describe popular database systems
• Design a fully normalized database
• Create an Enhanced Entity Relationship diagram of the schema
• Generate the physical database from this diagram
• Given an improperly implemented database, converted it into a correct design
• Import and export table data into and from different DBMSs
• Understand when and how to use transactions for updates
• Understand when and how to use triggers
• Create user accounts and implement access security to safeguard data

Course Outline:

The following topics will be covered:

• Data & Tables
• The SELECT Statement
• DELETE & UPDATE
• Smart Table Design: Normalization
• ALTER
• Advanced SELECT
• Multi-Table Database Design
• Joins & Multi-Table Operations
• Subqueries
• Outer Joins, Self-Joins & Unions
• Constraints, Views & Transactions
• Security

Required Text and Materials:

Murach's MyQL 3rd Edition
by Joel Murach
ISBN-13: 978-1-943872-36-7

Prerequisites:

• IS 165 with a 2.0 or higher
• I strongly recommend taking up through at least Math 88 before signing up for this class.

Overall Syllabus

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