Notices

  • Assignment 2

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 13 July 2026, 09:43:14 PM, last modified Monday 13 July 2026, 09:44:45 PM.

    OK, there's enough of Assignment 2 to get started. I still need to add more example outputs. I think the spec is complete, but I'm sure you'll find things that aren't clear. Let me know when you do.

    Note the new due date: Monday 3 August.

  • Assignment 1 Update #4

    Posted by John Shepherd Sunday 28 June 2026, 09:09:24 PM, last modified Wednesday 01 July 2026, 12:53:51 PM.

    Somebody should have pinged me when I added the extra line about yeasts in the example in Q8 that I hadn't updated the paragraph preceding the example. I have mentioned the yeast issue a number of times elsewhere (e.g. in lectures), and thought that the example might be sufficient, but for the sake of completeness I have now updated the paragraph in the spec as well. (Thanks to Michelle Thomas for pointing this out on the forum)

    A reminder: there are no yeasts in the ass1.dump data, but there will be yeasts in the unseen database used for marking. If you want to check whether your Q8 function works with yeast, simply add a new ingredients(...) tuple of type yeast into the database, attached to some beer and then run Q8 on that beer.

  • Quiz 3 reminder

    Posted by Dylan Brotherston 🕴️ Thursday 25 June 2026, 05:12:48 PM.

    Quiz 3 is due in ~30 hours, currently only 25% of the course has completed the quiz.

    note that there is no quiz next week as assignment 1 is due, nor the week after due to flex week.

    Also a reminder that today is the UNSW T2 census date, today is the last day to drop a course without financial penalty.
    You can find more info about the census date here:
    https://www.unsw.edu.au/student/managing-your-studies/key-dates?Event+Type=Enrolment%2FDrop+course#browse
    https://www.unsw.edu.au/student/managing-your-studies/key-dates/census-date-enrolment-deadlines/implications#census

  • Help Sessions

    Posted by Tim Arney Sunday 21 June 2026, 06:42:08 AM, last modified Sunday 21 June 2026, 09:25:53 PM.

    The help session schedule is now available for the next couple of weeks. Sessions will run daily (Monday–Friday) on campus. Feel free to drop in if you’d like a hand with setting up your PostgreSQL server, the assignment or any course material.

  • Quiz 2 reminder

    Posted by Dylan Brotherston 🕴️ Thursday 18 June 2026, 09:50:38 PM.

    Just over 24 hours left to complete Quiz 2 and only 40% of the course has done so.

    If you are yet to submit Quiz 2 make sure you do so soon.

  • Thursday YouTube Video

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 18 June 2026, 06:14:30 PM.

    The Thursday YouTube video will be delayed. I need to get screen shots from Echo and sync with face shots from my Mac, thanks to theatre A/V not playing ball.

  • Assignment 1 Update #3

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 17 June 2026, 12:10:37 PM, last modified Wednesday 17 June 2026, 09:38:17 PM.

    We had forgotten to include the ORDER BY clauses in the test queries for autotest .

    They are now included so hopefully those "error" messages about correct tuples in the wrong order should go away.

    Let me know asap if there are any other problems.

    And there were ...

    I had put 12 marks in the spec. It should have been 13. It now is.

    I've added Yeast to the example for Q8 in the spec.

    Changes in the spec are in red , so hopefully easy to spot.

  • Assignment 1 Update #2

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 15 June 2026, 02:16:10 PM.

    Auto testing is now available (see Testing link in the Assignment 1 block).

    You can also give your solution now (either command-line or via Webcms3)

    I will cover SQL and PLpgSQL in the coming few lectures.

    If you have already finished the assignment I wonder whether (a) you're already working somewhere as a PostgreSQL DBA, or (b) you're a good prompt engineer.


  • Week 03

    Posted by John Shepherd Sunday 14 June 2026, 02:09:04 PM.

    The week 03 preview video is now available.

    Assignment 1 autotesting and Give setup will be available on Monday (June 15).

  • Assignment 1 Update

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 11 June 2026, 10:10:54 PM, last modified Friday 12 June 2026, 04:12:19 PM.

    I've added the sample outputs for all questions.

    More important, I realised that I forgot to give the function header for Q6 in the spec and describe the exact format for tuples. I have now done this (red text).

  • Quiz 1 Deadline

    Posted by Dylan Brotherston 🕴️ Thursday 11 June 2026, 06:07:02 PM.

    A reminder that Quiz 1 Deadline is Friday midnight, 30 hours from now.

    Less than 50% of the course has completed Quiz 1 so far.

    If you are yet to submit Quiz 1 make sure you do so soon.

  • Assignment 1

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 10 June 2026, 11:14:39 PM, last modified Thursday 11 June 2026, 05:30:03 AM.

    The Assignment 1 Spec is out. It says "draft" at the top, but it's 99.9% finalised.

    I'll add some sample outputs tomorrow, and a page with some ideas on testing.

    The database dump and the template file are available in ~cs3311/web/26T2/assignments/ass1/

    Let me know of any issues ASAP so I can fix them before the bulk of the class starts working on it.
    (The curse of "early adopters")

    Oh yes, and there's no autotesting set up and no submission ( give ) setup yet. Coming soon ...

  • Week 02

    Posted by John Shepherd Sunday 07 June 2026, 10:46:45 PM.

    The week 02 preview video is now available. Quiz 1 will be online on Monday moring. Tutes start this week. Assignment 1 will be released on Wednesday.

  • Weekly Preview Videos

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 03 June 2026, 11:01:28 AM.

    Each week on Sunday, I'll be posting a video previewing what's happening in the following week, things you should be doing, and highlighting some person or people who are significant in the history of databases.

    To give a feel for what these videos will be like I've made a "preview" video for week 01. Enjoy the hotdog. I'm sure Larry did.

  • Tuesday Week 01 Lecture Video

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 02 June 2026, 02:23:23 PM, last modified Tuesday 02 June 2026, 02:26:02 PM.

    My video from the lecture is now on YouTube.

    Unfortunately the audio volume is a bit low. You can make it audible using the volume controls on your computer, but be careful to reduce the volume before going back to another application.

    I'll try to get the volume right from Thursday on.

  • COMP3311 26T2 Course Intro Video

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 30 May 2026, 09:34:38 PM.

    I've made a Video Introduction to the course, the kind of thing that normally takes up a big chunk of the intro lecture.

    Please watch it before the first lecture on Tuesday 2nd June. It's 48 mins long.

    I'll repeat a little bit of this content in the lecture, but want to quickly get "down to business" of the course content.

    I look forward to seeing many of you in the Law Theatre at 11am on Tuesday.

  • Welcome to COMP3311 26T2

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 27 May 2026, 06:03:39 PM, last modified Wednesday 27 May 2026, 08:54:54 PM.

    Welcome to JAS' swansong edition of COMP3311.

    Accompanied by Dylan and a host of marvellous tutors, we'll guide you through the wonderful world of SQL and DBMSs.

    You think AI, MongoDB and Neo4j are good? Bah! You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

    I made a silly little welcome video which I'll accompany with a more detailed info video soon.


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