Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management

by Thomas M. Connolly, Carolyn Begg, Carolyn E. Begg

Book Overview

KEY MESSAGE: This best-selling text introduces the theory behind databases in a concise yet comprehensive manner, providing database design methodology that can be used by both technical and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321210255
• ISBN13: 9780321210258
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
• Length: 1374 Pages
• Weight: 4.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent and comprehensive database book

This book isn't for the faint of heart. It's not for someone who wants a quick understanding of how to create a database. This book is for someone who, whether student or practitioner, wants a completely thorough treatment of the topic of databases, with virtually no topic left out, and with enough detail and examples to apply the techniques in practice. It will be most valuable if you have at least some experience or exposure to databases, but if you're really are interested in the topic, it's not necessary. There were a few places in the opening chapters that briefly spoke to concepts not yet introduced, or assumed some IT background, though this is rare, and the studious reader could use the index to temporarily jump ahead and gain sufficient understanding. That said, this is the most comprehensive book on databases, from idea through implementation, logical through physical, including optimization, that I have ever read. There isn't a topic that I've come across in my experience with database related projects, or my own attempts to create business tools using a database, that this book doesn't appropriately address. Having managed numerous IT projects using Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server, I already had a good foundation in databases. But then I found myself creating a few databases myself using MS Access (Jet and MSDE) and then SQL Server. However, it's one thing to manage a project that uses a database, but quite another to be doing the design and development oneself. I experienced moments of frustration when I couldn't use some of the views/queries to perform updates to the base tables, and when I couldn't get some views/queries to work as intended, or sometimes wasn't sure how to start to author a solution (I learned that some of my relationships were highly recursive and that is a weakness of the relational model, and solved by a little bit of code). This book gave me the insights as to why each was the case, as well how to solve all of them. There's nothing like experiencing a, "Why won't this work!", followed by, "Oh, that's why.", followed by, "That was easy to fix." That's what this book did, when numerous other books on Access and SQL Server were too high level. Some have indicated this book to be boring, and padded with unnecessary text. It isn't exciting like a thriller, but it's not supposed to be. Its intention is to educate, and it does that exceedingly well. If you have a thirst for knowledge or passion for databases or information systems, you'll love it. If you're a student with no choice but to take a course that uses this text, but are otherwise uninterested in databases, you would probably rather be using a more high level and less expensive book. However, if you plan a career in IT, don't sell this book back. I assure you that you will use it in the future. Someone else didn't like the writing style of the book because the authors are from the United Kingdom. This is rarely evident, but when it is, it doesn't detract: f

Open the doors to RDBMS

This book opened the doors of relational database management systems to me. Prior to reading it I had some general experience with MySQL but an incomplete understanding of the subject. Much to my surprise I found I really liked working with a RDBMS's so I began searching for a book that would give me a solid introdcution to the theory and practice. I think this book fit the bill. After reading it I was ready to tackle a data migration project from Unify to Informix. Now I work as a database programmer. I have since purchased and read other RDBMS books about Informix (the RDBMS I have worked most with) but I find that I still refer to this text from time to time to clear up some minor points of confusion. This book will not make you an expert with RDBMS's but it will give you the background necessary to build up your confidence so you can tackle other tasks. At times the prose can be a bit drawn out but those sections are few and far between. Be advised though that this book uses conceptual/practical approach to database design. While it provide some examples using MS Access and Oracle I find the conceptual discussions more interesting and indeed more useful. With this foundation I was able to begin working with Informix Dynamic Server-an RDBMS that is clearly not the focus of this book.

Fine exposition

I looked at a number of books on database theory, and found this to be the best. By far. It covers the relational calculus quickly and easily, and on the other end of the spectrum covers examples from the most broken-down type of database, Microsoft Access. And in the middle, it covers concepts relating to application programming to the politics of XML support as intermediary between different databases.Beautiful book, good editors.

This book is a great and comprehensive database book.

This book will teach you everything you need to know about databases from start to finish. The SQL sections have everything from the basics to more advanced queries. You really get more bang for your buck with this book!

Excellent book for a database course.

I used this book to teach a course in Database Systems. I thought it gave the best presentation of typical database topics that I have ever seen. I believe that data modeling is the essence of database and this book has more chapters on database design than any other five database books combined. The chapter on normalization was at just the right level. At the same time, the book is one of the few to acknowledge the need for denormalization.These authors have clearly been practitioners. It shows throughout the book.