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Edgar F. Codd

Edgar Frank "Ted" Codd (19 August 1923

– 18 April 2003) was an English computer
scientist who, while working for IBM,
invented the relational model for database
management, the theoretical basis for
relational databases and relational
database management systems. He made
other valuable contributions to computer
science, but the relational model, a very
influential general theory of data
management, remains his most
mentioned, analyzed and celebrated
achievement.[6][7]
 Edgar "Ted" Codd

Born Edgar Frank Codd

19 August 1923[1][2]
Fortuneswell, Dorset,
England

Died 18 April 2003

(aged 79)
Williams Island,
Aventura, Florida, USA

Alma mater Exeter College, Oxford

 University of Michigan
Known for OLAP
Relational model[3]
Codd's cellular
automaton
Codd's 12 rules
Boyce–Codd normal
form

Awards Turing Award (1981)[4]

Scientific career

Fields Computer Science

Institutions University of Oxford

University of Michigan
IBM

Thesis Propagation,
 Computation, and
Construction in Two-
dimensional cellular
spaces  (1965)

Doctoral advisor John Henry Holland[5]

Biography
Edgar Frank Codd was born in
Fortuneswell, on the Isle of Portland in
Dorset, England. After attending Poole
Grammar School, he studied mathematics
and chemistry at Exeter College, Oxford,
before serving as a pilot in the RAF
Coastal Command during the Second
World War, flying Sunderlands.[8] In 1948,
he moved to New York to work for IBM as
a mathematical programmer. In 1953,
angered by Senator Joseph McCarthy,
Codd moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
In 1957 he returned to the US working for
IBM and from 1961–1965 pursuing his
doctorate in computer science at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Two
years later he moved to San Jose,
California, to work at IBM's San Jose
Research Laboratory, where he continued
to work until the 1980s.[1][9] He was
appointed IBM Fellow in 1976. During the
1990s, his health deteriorated and he
ceased work.[10]

Codd received the Turing Award in 1981,[1]

and in 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow
of the Association for Computing
Machinery.[11]

Codd died of heart failure at his home in

Williams Island, Florida, at the age of 79
on 18 April 2003[12].

Work
Codd received a PhD in 1965 from the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor advised
by John Henry Holland.[5][10][13] His thesis
was about self-replication in cellular
automata, extending on work of von
Neumann and showing that a set of eight
states was sufficient for universal
computation and construction.[14] His
design for a self-replicating computer was
only implemented in 2010.

In the 1960s and 1970s he worked out his

theories of data arrangement, issuing his
paper "A Relational Model of Data for
Large Shared Data Banks"[3] in 1970, after
an internal IBM paper one year earlier.[15]
To his disappointment, IBM proved slow to
exploit his suggestions until commercial
rivals started implementing them.

Initially, IBM refused to implement the

relational model to preserve revenue from
IMS/DB. Codd then showed IBM
customers the potential of the
implementation of its model, and they in
turn pressured IBM. Then IBM included in
its Future Systems project a System R
subproject – but put in charge of it
developers who were not thoroughly
familiar with Codd's ideas, and isolated the
team from Codd. As a result, they did not
use Codd's own Alpha language but
created a non-relational one, SEQUEL.
Even so, SEQUEL was so superior to pre-
relational systems that it was copied, in
1979, based on pre-launch papers
presented at conferences, by Larry Ellison,
of Relational Software Inc, in his Oracle
Database, which actually reached market
before SQL/DS – because of the then-
already proprietary status of the original
name, SEQUEL had been renamed SQL.
Codd continued to develop and extend his
relational model, sometimes in
collaboration with Christopher J. Date.
One of the normalised forms, the Boyce–
Codd normal form, is named after him.

Codd's theorem, a result proven in his

seminal work on the relational model,
equates the expressive power of relational
algebra and relational calculus (both of
which, lacking recursion, are strictly less
powerful than first-order logic).

As the relational model started to become

fashionable in the early 1980s, Codd
fought a sometimes bitter campaign to
prevent the term being misused by
database vendors who had merely added a
relational veneer to older technology. As
part of this campaign, he published his 12
rules to define what constituted a
relational database. This made his
position in IBM increasingly difficult, so he
left to form his own consulting company
with Chris Date and others.

Codd coined the term Online analytical

processing (OLAP) and wrote the "twelve
laws of online analytical processing".[16]
Controversy erupted, however, after it was
discovered that this paper had been
sponsored by Arbor Software
(subsequently Hyperion, now acquired by
Oracle), a conflict of interest that had not
been disclosed, and Computerworld
withdrew the paper.[17]

In 2004, SIGMOD renamed its highest prize

to the SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations
Award, in his honour.

Publications
Codd, E. F. (1968). Cellular Automata.
Academic Press, Inc. LCCN 68-23486 .
Codd, E. F. (1970). "Relational
Completeness of Data Base
Sublanguages". Database Systems: 65–
98. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.86.9277 .
Codd, E. F. (9 November 1981). "1981
Turing Award Lecture – Relational
Database: A Practical Foundation for
Productivity" .
Codd, E. F. (1990). The Relational Model
for Database Management (Version 2
ed.). Addison Wesley Publishing
Company. ISBN 978-0-201-14192-4.
 Codd, E. F.; Codd, S. B.; Salley, C. T.
(1993). "Providing OLAP to User-
Analysts: An IT Mandate" (PDF).

See also
Hugh Darwen
Database normalization
List of pioneers in computer science
Relational Model/Tasmania (RM/T)

References
1. Date, C. J. "A. M. Turing Award – Edgar
F. ("Ted") Codd" . ACM. Retrieved
2 September 2013. "United States –
 1981. For his fundamental and
continuing contributions to the theory
and practice of database management
systems."
2. "12 simple rules: How Ted Codd
transformed the humble database" .
The Register. Retrieved 19 August
2013.
3. Codd, E. F. (1970). "A relational model
of data for large shared data banks"
(PDF). Communications of the ACM.
13 (6): 377–387.
doi:10.1145/362384.362685 .
4. Codd, E. F. (1982). "Relational
database: A practical foundation for
productivity". Communications of the
ACM. 25 (2): 109–117.
doi:10.1145/358396.358400 .
5. Edgar F. Codd at the Mathematics
Genealogy Project
6. E. F. Codd at DBLP Bibliography
Server
7. Edgar F. Codd author profile page at
the ACM Digital Library
8. "Edgar F. ("Ted") Codd" . A. M. Turing
award. "he volunteered for active duty
 and became a flight lieutenant in the
Royal Air Force Coastal Command,
flying Sunderlands"
9. Rubenstein, Steve. "Edgar F. Codd –
computer pioneer in databases." San
Francisco Chronicle 24 April 2003:
A21. Gale Biography in Context. Web.
1 December 2011.
10. Martin Campbell-Kelly (1 May 2003).
"Edgar Codd" . The Independent.
Retrieved 24 October 2011.
11. ACM Fellows Archived 15 June 2009
at the Wayback Machine
12. Edgar F Codd Passes Away , IBM
Research, 2003 Apr 23.
13. Codd, Edgar (1965). Propagation,
Computation, and Construction in
Two-dimensional cellular spaces
(PhD thesis). University of Michigan.
14. Codd, E. F. (1968). Cellular Automata.
London: Academic Pr. ISBN 978-0-12-
178850-6.
15. Michael Owens. The Definitive Guide
to SQLite, p.47. New York: Apress
(Springer-Verlag) 2006. ISBN 978-1-
59059-673-9.
16. Providing OLAP to User-Analysts: An
IT Mandate by E F Codd, S B Codd and
C T Salley, ComputerWorld, 26 July
1993.
17. Whitehorn, Mark (26 January 2007).
"OLAP and the need for SPEED" . The
Register. Retrieved 30 December
2014.

Further reading
Date, C. J. (2000). The Database
Relational Model: A Retrospective Review
and Analysis: A Historical Account and
Assessment of E. F. Codd's Contribution
 to the Field of Database Technology .
Addison Wesley Longman. ISBN 978-0-
201-61294-3.
National Academy of Sciences (1999).
"Chapter 6: The Rise of Relational
Databases" . Funding a Revolution:
Government Support for Computing
Research . Washington DC, USA:
National Academy Press.

External links
Quotations related to E. F. Codd at
Wikiquote
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Edgar_F._Codd&oldid=928218120"

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