Why Are Databases Awesome?

They're Everywhere

$$$

Rank		Organization	Sales (B$)	FY	Market cap (B$)	Headquarters
1		Microsoft	118.2	2019	946.5	Redmond, WA, US
2		Oracle	39.6	2019	186.3	Austin, TX, US
3		SAP	29.1	2019	134.9	Walldorf, Germany
4		ADP	14.5	2019	52.0	New York City, NY, US
5		Adobe	9.5	2019	132	San Jose, CA, US
6		Salesforce	13.3	2019	120.9	San Francisco, CA, US
7		VMware	9.0	2019	77.2	Palo Alto, CA, US
8		Intuit	6.4	2019	66.8	Palo Alto, CA, US
9		SS&C Technologies	6.3	2019	16.0	Windsor, Connecticut
10		NetApp	6.2	2019	11.0	Sunnyvale, CA, US

8 of 10 Forbes Top Software Companies
Have a Focus on Data Management Systems

Interesting Problems

How do we ask and answer questions about data?

How do we manipulate and persist data?

Databases

Which Tools To Use

And When?

Template for 90% of this class

What is the best, correct technique for task X, when Y is true?

1. How do you define Correct and Best?
2. What correct alternatives are available?
3. How do you find the best available alternative

Expectations

Algorithms / Data Structures

$O(\cdot)$ Analysis, Sort Algos, Trees, Hash Tables

How to use a database

CSE 4/560 (or equivalent)

Scala

Java, C++, C# or similar is usually good enough

(but you need actual programming experience)

(Rapid-start tutorial on Thursday)

Me

TA

Syllabus/Course Info

https://odin.cse.buffalo.edu/teaching/cse-462/

https://odin.cse.buffalo.edu/teaching/cse-562/

(same link)

CMS (Forum, Assignments)

https://piazza.com/buffalo/spring2021/cse462562

Polls

https://app.sli.do/event/iobhymgr

Course Structure

Concepts (50% of Grade)

• Homework (20%; ~12 Assignments, Drop any 4); Groups of up to 4.
• TBD: Comprehensive Final 20%
• +10% to whichever you do better on

Practicum (50% of Grade)

• Rebuild the guts of Spark's Catalyst Engine
• Solo Project
• 4 Checkpoints (+ 5 free points for Checkpoint 0)

Lectures

Lectures will be on YouTube, streaming T/R from 12:30-2 and available for later replay.

You don't need to attend, but you are paying me to be here.

I'll be monitoring the chat. Don't ever hesitate to ask a question or comment (No need to raise your hand first).

Please keep things civil and be respectful of your fellow classmates, TA, and anyone else around.

I've torn the guts out of Catalyst. What remains:

• SQL Parser
• Logical Plans: Relational Algebra Trees
• Expression: Primitive-valued expression trees + evaluation logic

Your mission: Replace the missing bits (sort of).

• Analysis: Tidying up SQL's corner cases
• Execution: Answering queries fast (single-node)
• Optimization: Eliminating redundancy
  and picking the best algorithms.

We give you...

Gutted Catalyst

Data (CSV Files)

Schema Information (CREATE TABLE)

Questions (SQL Queries)

Real World Challenge

You get graded on your code's...

Correctness

~1/3 credit for getting the right answer.

Performance

~2/3 credit for getting it reasonably fast.

+leaderboards for getting it really fast.

Checkpoint 0: "Hello World"

5/50 pts

• Submit a simple Scala program
• Make sure that the submission workflow works for you.

Checkpoint 1: "Get it Working"

10/50 pts

• Interpret Relational Algebra (Spark's LogicalPlan)
• Load CSV Files
• Run Basic Select, Project, Join Queries
• Nested Queries

Checkpoint 2: "Big Data"

12/50 pts

• Order By
• Limit
• Too much data for memory

Checkpoint 3: "Aggregates"

8/50 pts

• Aggregation

Checkpoint 4: "Precomputation"

15/50 pts

• You get a few minutes to pre-compute
• Load data
• Cache views
• Build indexes

Academic Integrity

Cheating is submitting any work that you did not perform by yourself as if you did.

References (when cited)

Wikipedia, Wikibooks (or similar): OK

Public Code

Stack Exchange (or similar): Not OK

Discussing concepts/ideas with classmates

“A hash index has O(1) lookups”: OK (except during exams 😇 )

Sharing code or answers with anyone

“Just have a look at how I implemented it”: NOT OK

For-hire code: NOT OK

MOSS

MOSS

Zero Tolerance

If I catch you submitting someone else’s code (including pay-for-code services), you will fail the class.

Group Responsibility

If your teammate cheats on a group assignment, the entire group will be penalized.

Share Code, Share Blame

If someone else submits your code or other course materials as their own, you will be penalized as well.

Questions/Concerns?

Analysis: Answering user-provided questions about data

What kind of tools can we give end-users?

• Declarative Languages
• Organizational Datastructures (e.g., Indexes)

Manipulation: Safely persisting and sharing data updates

What kind of tools can we give end-users?

• Consistency Primitives
• Data Validation Primitives

So let's talk structure...

Primitive

Basic building blocks like Int, Float, Char, String

Tuple

Several ‘fields’ of different types. (N-Tuple = N fields)

A Tuple has a ‘schema’ defining each field

Set

A collection of unique records, all of the same type

Bag

An unordered collection of records, all of the same type

List

An ordered collection of records, all of the same type

Your data is currently an Unordered Set
of Tuples with 100 attributes each.

Tomorrow, you’ll be repeatedly asked for 1 specific attribute
from 5 specific tuples identified by the first attribute

Can you do better?

Better Idea: Rewrite data into a 99-Tuple of Maps keyed on the 1st attribute

This representation is equivalent and better for your needs.

Declarative specifications make it easier to find equivalences.

SQL

• Developed by IBM (for System R) in the 1970s.
• Standard used by many vendors.
  • SQL-86 (original standard)
  • SQL-89 (minor revisions; integrity constraints)
  • SQL-92 (major revision; basis for modern SQL)
  • SQL-99 (XML, window queries, generated default values)
  • SQL 2003 (major revisions to XML support)
  • SQL 2008 (minor extensions)
  • SQL 2011 (minor extensions; temporal databases)

A Basic SQL Query

            SELECT  [DISTINCT] targetlist
            FROM    relationlist
            WHERE   condition
    

1. Compute the $2^n$ combinations of tuples in all relations appearing in relationlist
2. Discard tuples that fail the condition
3. Delete attributes not in targetlist
4. If DISTINCT is specified, eliminate duplicate rows

This is the least efficient strategy to compute a query! A good optimizer will find more efficient strategies to compute the same answer.

Example Data

SELECT * FROM Trees;

Wildcards (*, tablename.*) are special targets that select all attributes.

            SELECT tree_id, spc_common, boroname
            FROM Trees
            WHERE boroname = 'Brooklyn'
    

In English, what does this query compute?

What is the ID, Commmon Name and Borough of Trees in Brooklyn?

      SELECT latitude, longitude 
      FROM Trees, SpeciesInfo
      WHERE Trees.spc_common = SpeciesInfo.name
        AND SpeciesInfo.has_unpleasant_smell = 'Yes';
    

In English, what does this query compute?

What are the coordinates of Trees with bad smells?

      SELECT Trees.latitude, Trees.longitude 
      FROM Trees, SpeciesInfo
      WHERE Trees.spc_common = SpeciesInfo.name
        AND SpeciesInfo.has_unpleasant_smell = 'Yes';
    

... is the same as ...

      SELECT T.latitude, T.longitude 
      FROM Trees T, SpeciesInfo S
      WHERE T.spc_common = S.name
        AND S.has_unpleasant_smell = 'Yes';
    

... is (usually) the same as ...

      SELECT latitude, longitude 
      FROM Trees, SpeciesInfo
      WHERE spc_common = name
        AND has_unpleasant_smell = 'Yes';
    

Expressions

            SELECT tree_id, 
                   stump_diam / 2 AS stump_radius,
                   stump_area = 3.14 * stump_diam * stump_diam / 4
            FROM Trees;
    

Arithmetic expressions can appear in targets or conditions. Use ‘=’ or ‘AS’ to assign names to these attributes. (The behavior of unnamed attributes is unspecified)

Expressions

  SELECT tree_id, spc_common FROM Trees WHERE spc_common LIKE '%maple'
    

SQL uses single quotes for ‘string literals’

LIKE is used for String Matches

‘%’ matches 0 or more characters

Union

    SELECT tree_id FROM Trees WHERE spc_common = 'red maple'
    UNION [ALL]
    SELECT tree_id FROM Trees WHERE spc_common = 'sycamore maple'
    

Computes the set-union of any two union-compatible sets of tuples

Adding ALL preserves duplicates across the inputs (bag-union).

Aggregate Queries

    SELECT [DISTINCT] targetlist
    FROM relationlist
    WHERE condition
    GROUP BY groupinglist
    HAVING groupcondition
    

Aggregate Queries

    SELECT spc_common, count(*) FROM Trees GROUP BY spc_common