Sams Teach Yourself Database Programming with Visual C++ 6 in 21 Days

by Lyn Robison and Lyn Robinson

Book Overview

In only 21 days, you'll have all the skills you need to get up and running efficiently. With this complete tutorial, you'll master the basics of database programming and then move on to the more... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672313502
• ISBN13: 9780672313509
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Sams
• Length: 600 Pages
• Weight: 2.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Hard to get, but well worth having.

I had a really hard time obtaining this book. For some reason, the publisher seems to have stopped printing it. The most recent edition was printed in 1999, so it is not that old. It really is a wonderful book. It does what I need most from a programming book - it explains a concept and then walks you through how to do it step by step. The book is extremely hands-on. After much searching, I was finally able to locate the book by means of an online used/out of print bookstore. Another thing I like about the book is that it uses Access as the database for all of the exercises. While SQL Server is important to learn, using it introduces another set of connection problems that you don't get with Access. I liked being able to learn the C++ database concepts without that extra level of headache. The book covers all the major database topics in a way that is thorough and easy to understand. And most importantly, it shows you how to actually use the stuff. It is worth the struggle to obtain it.

Great book for MFC programmers w/limited DB knowledge

This is a great book if you have MFC programming experience but very little database knowledge. It's as if the book was written for me. It's easy to read and it's a great introduction to database programming. You'll learn about SQL, ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, etc. I'll admit that I used to get mind-boggled by this "acronymic hell", but this book gives a great overview and everything finally makes sense. It helps if you have some understanding of COM (ie: what it is and what it's for), but it's not required as it's covered in later chapters. The author presents pros and cons of many different database technologies and provides clear programming examples. Obviously the other reviewers that complained about the examples didn't bother *reading* the book. Some of the examples require that you modify the code depending on where you've installed the sample files. However, these guys probably thought they could learn everything about database programming by cutting and pasting the example code into their programs. I would think that if you're going to buy a book, you should seriously consider reading what's inside...especially if you intend to add "database programmer" to your resume. Duh!

Excellent book for someone who knows MFC

This is certainly an excellent book to do database programming. It is well written and easy to understand. It also covers a lot of database technologies such as ADO and OLEDB. The examples are working fine. But you must know how to generate MFC project using wizard, as well as adding codes in the functions it generates. The previous reviewer cannot make programs work perhaps they don't know MFC at all. It is a book for intermediate users, not for ones without knowledge of MFC.

A very useful database book

I'm amazed to see those negative feedbacks below. I have over 10 years of C/C++ programming experience. And I found this book very useful. I didn't buy this book myself, I saw it at my friend's house. This is a very clearly and professioanlly written book on C++ database programming. I agree with the author, people who find this book hard to read or inaccurate should work on their C++ windows programming basics. I recommend them Jessie Liberty's "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days",and Horton's "Visual C++ 6.0", or if you already know some VC++, read "Programming Windows" 99 edition. After finishing those books, maybe this book will seem more useful. I knew C++ database programming before already, and I really do not have that much criticism for this book.However I want to point out one thing, 570 pages are far from enough to cover all aspects of C++ Windows database programming. But as one of the "21 Days" book, this is really of good quality. If you want to study all the aspects in depth, you have to figure them out on your own, because there are not that many good and advanced books on this subject. After reading an intro and one or two more advanced books, you are on your own, that's how we all learned.

I have found the code examples to be very helpful!

I am about half way through the book and have not had any serious problems with the author's code examples. I have about 18 years of mainframe programming experience, but I have taken only one "Intro to C++" course at the local JuCo. I found Mr. Robison's descriptions of how to use Visual/C++ to be exact and have had very little trouble completing the examples. I feel that I could do most of what I want (be able to use a simple Access DB in my program) after reading through Chapter 6. I have read a lot of programming books over the years, and this one does an excellent job of walking you through the material.