a simple DBMS and SQL Engine parser

From: mahaa (mahaa_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/06/04 

Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 21:43:02 -0800

Hi guys;
i'm about to start an interesting c++ project described below...what i need
is some links; resources and help on how i can get started...thanks for
helping

Assignment:
In a nutshell, this assignment asks you to create a parse-tree for sample
test SQL statements and actually create the underlying data structures to
hold the data i.e. you are creating an extremely rudimentary SQL Engine
(front-end parser) and a DBMS (back-end data structures). Our SQL Engine can
be thought of as a bare-bone compiler. To test the SQL Engine and the DBMS,
you will create a sample database. Finally (non-programming part), you will
read up on the ODBC driver.
Note that a real compiler and a DBMS have functionality that is way beyond
what I am going to ask you to implement. In fact, your DBMS software creation
may disregard issues regarding efficiency – those that couple the DBMS to the
OS i.e. page buffering, blocking, concurrency, etc. Ours will be a
data-centric view i.e. we will only focus on how best to save the user data.
Treat this as DBMS-101 (It is more like DBMS-1.01).

Functionality:
Your SQL-Engine/DBMS software must offer the following capability-
Data: You must design data structures that will allow me to create tables
and delete (drop) tables, insert tuples into tables, delete tuples from the
tables and modify tuples values in tables possibly based on some criteria.
Querying of course is the most important and frequently performed activity,
but do NOT worry about joining tables or complicated queries. Data
Serialization is of course implied by retrieval.
Meta-Data/Data Dictionary: In addition, I should be able to look up names of
all tables that exist or the table definitions that exist and so on.
Future Requirements: I am being vague on this so that I may or may not add
some small functionality later.

Software Components:
SQL Engine: Create a basic parser. Your parser should be able to parse the
limited SQL statements that have been provided in Appendix A.
§ Include the test cases you used for the parser. Software Architecture and
Implementation documents should also be attached.
§ Have the parser create parse trees for the sample SQL statements in
accordance with your proposed grammar. The input could come from command-line
or a stored file.
§ Print the parse trees (In-order and Pre-order) for sample input to present
proof of correctness.
§ That completes the front-end of our SQL-engine.
DBMS: Propose a data structure, which will house the actual database. The
back-end of the program will “walk” the parse tree and create/fill in the
data-structures in the back-end DBMS accordingly.
§ Data Dictionary – meta-data details. I.e. lists details about tables and
fields.
§ Data Definition – creation of tables.
§ Data Manipulation – update/modify, storage and retrieval of records.
§ Disregard issues regarding efficiency – those that couple the DBMS to the
OS i.e. page buffer, blocking, etc.
§
Database: Create a sample database to test your SQL/DBMS software. You must
attach database schemas, tables with inserted values in your final submission.