The book covers the most important requirements of teaching databases in a sharp and cleanly designed manner, and with a modular and progressive perspective. In fact, the whole book can be used for a full course (or pair of courses), but its first half can be profitably used for a shorter course.

The first and second parts of the book are designed for teaching how to master the two main skills that students need to learn: how to access a database (and write programs that involve database access) , and how to design its schema structure. These skills are required not only for the study of computer science, but also for students in engineering, science and business schools. These are the fundamental abilities for using a database that is engineered by an information technology expert. Appendices give further information about how to use Microsoft Access, DB2, and Oracle (particularly the first two are dedicated to database users).

The third and fourth parts are dedicated to computer science majors. Part Three describes database technology through a very modern approach, based on the identification of the important concepts, algorithms, architectures, and standards. Part Four is devoted to advanced topics (such as object-oriented databases, active databases, data warehouses, database and the Web). These parts are dedicated to computer science students who will, in perspective, become the information technology experts in charge for setting up a database application.