Written by well-known computer scientists, this accessible and succinct introduction to database systems focuses on database design and use. The authors provide in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the database designer, user, and application programmer, leaving implementation for later courses. It is the first database systems text to cover such topics as UML, algorithms for manipulating dependencies in relations, extended relational algebra, PHP, 3-tier architectures, data cubes, XML, XPATH, XQuery, XSLT.