This book is a requirement for a course that I am taking. The book is riddled with errors. You can randomly open any page from the book- and you will find typos and confusing text. On some pages, the powerpoint slides for the book do not even match with the text of the book. This is the sixth edition of this textbook. I consider it inexcusable that the book has hundreds of typos even after being published for more than ten years. As another reviewer pointed out, the additional material that is needed for the book -like SQL schemas- do not even exist in the book's website- contrary to what the book claims. Anybody who is considering this book should think twice. Please get it from the library - go through the book for a week to see what I mean- and dump the book for any book that should be better than this.
There are more errors in this text book than in any other text book that I have ever seen. In addition to frequency, some are huge, gaping errors in diagrams and equations that completely confuse the subject. Along with this, there is supplemental content that is mentioned in the text as being available on the website that does not even exist (at least at the time of this writing) and the content that is actually available has the quality of being produced during a weekend of absinthe binging. The quality of this text is totally unacceptable for a 6th edition and even more so considering the exorbitant price.
This book doesn't explain things well and is extremely confusing.
I used to believe people from Bell Labs would do a good job: Brian Kernighan, dmr, Bjarne Stroustrup, they all write good books. Or like ken, he doesn't write a book at all.
Please do one thing at a time, and do it well.
This book is very comprehensive in covering all beginner aspects of database concepts. However, there are so many errors in this book I absolutely had to sell it because I couldn't stand keeping such a book. For the fifth edition I was very disappointed. The ERD symbols were incorrect, and there are typos galore. You actually have to know all about databases to actually read past the errors and understand everything. For someone who doesn't know database concepts, this book will only lead you to make errors when you try and apply the practices. I hope 6th edition is much better.
This is quite the typical Computer Science textbook, vastly overpriced and lacking any real information. Veteran CS students will be happy to find that even the most simple concepts have been reduced to pure math, this to make sure that creative students who have no passion for math do not have an unfair advantage.
If you can only read math (or prefer that everything in life is described purely in equation form), this is the best book on the market!
This is a required book for my undergrad Databases class. While reading over it before the semester started I began to wonder why my professor would ever choose such a terrible book. Of course it became clear when, on the first day of class, the professor began to read word for word off slides with the names of the authors sitting at the bottom along with the familiar 'cute' artwork from the cover. Note to instructors: choosing a book because it provides prewritten notes and allows you to be extra lazy is not a valid reason for choosing a textbook. The book is filled with lots of mathematical notation with few good examples. By good examples I mean those that involve realistic databases and not the 'Consider a schema R = (A, B, C, D, E)...' mathematical drivel that fills most of the pages.
I read some of the reviews here. The comments varies from a good book to a worthless one.
If you are really interested in making a career out of databases, then this is a book you got to read. An analogy that comes to mind is "You got to have a strong foundation to build a sky craper". This is exactly what this book is. It helps you build a strong foundation.
I got hold of this book when I was in my 4th Semester of my BS in computer science (1994 - 2nd Edition of this book) to clear my Database concepts exam. Ever since, whenever I feel I might not have understood some concept, I go back to this book.
One thing you got to understand is, its not a book that you can just read through and tell people that you have understood the concepts. You need to work the book.
Rgds,
Naveen
IBM DB2 UDB Certified Specialist.
I've read both this one and "DATABASE SYSTEMS: A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND MANAGEMENT" (Connolly/Begg), and the latter is by far the best. Some ideas that takes a few seconds to grasp Connollys book, took me about a half an hour to grasp in this one (which I noticed when I tried to refresh my memory). The reason is that it is written in a sometimes incredibly difficult and complex way. Why? For no good reason at all, as far as I can see. The descriptions are not any more "rigorous" or "exact", they are just difficult without gaining anything. The ideas are the same.
Avoid it, unless you want to waste you time with a book that makes learning 10 times slower than with a good one.
This was the required book for the Databases class at the University of Utah Computer Science department. It is a good book if you want to learn the theory behind databases. If you want to actually learn about practical information then pickup "The Practical SQL Handbook" by Bowman and others. Also note that the E-R diagrams Silberschatz uses is not widely used. I found the book to be poorly written. Buy this book only if you need it for school.
Too simplistic and way below computer science level. Good for an average user, who just wants to learn the concepts and theories but not going to actually create a database! It's all theories and theories and theories!
I sure know what a "primary key" is or what "relationships" are and how many kinds exist, etc, etc ... but it didn't really teach me how to create it. Just one or two vague examples, that's all.
I've never felt compelled to write a review prior to this... in fact, this isn't so much a review as it is a warning: If you are a new student to databases and you see this book as the one your class will be using... RUN and drop the course as fast as you can!!
This book was nothing but frustration for me: index is woefully inadequate (I gave up trying to look up terms that I'd learned earlier in the book when it came time to refresh my memory of them); examples were very unorganized (my book was filled with page markers trying to keep track of database relations, attributes, etc in order to try and follow example reasoning... the few times such reasoning was given.)
I tried supplementing the text with the web site that is available but became even more frustrated trying to wade through book material as well as related material from the web site (Why not put all that material from the website into the book?!?)
There is so much wrong with this book that I'm getting angry just thinking about it! This is a prime example of one of the things wrong with our education system... people can charge outlandish prices for textbooks but they are completely unaccountable their product. I was suprised to see this was a 4th edition... usually by this go round things have been spiffed up a bit!!
When I started teaching Database Concepts course, I used this book for my preparation. For me the content of the book was excellent and very informative. This book can be used along with the other DBMS books to understand the general architecture of DBMS, SQL, data modeling and relational theory. We cannot expect to see all the material we want to see from one book. We need to pickup the essential and good material from each book. This book has lot of good material for the people who want to understand relational database system.
I have been reading this book as a student and find that it is a very difficult book to read. The author really doesn't give you that may examples, just words. You almost have to guess where the author is going with examples. Sometimes he gives you a lot, other times he gives you none. I also think he goes overboard in trying to teach you all the background stuff of the queries. My instructor started having us read it, then skipped the chapter and went on. I don't think the author of this book really planned out what he was going to include in the book, its almost liking throwing a bunch of things into the pot to see what comes out of it. It could have been structured a lot better than what it is. He does try and teach you about E-R Modeling, but don't plan on any real examples. The ones he gives are either too basic or too complex, and there really isn't any explanation of the ones he does show you. It basically just leaves you hanging. You might as well plan on just taking a nap instead of reading this book. It is very hard to follow.
Too many database books ignore the semantics, research and design that go into databases. This book covers everything from the basics to the complex. You will learn the different design methdologies behind databases as well as the history and research that has gone into this field. You will also learn how to design and debug database systems. The book is excellently laid out and assumes no prior database knowledge. It doesn't discuss specific database systems, but it does cover the different styles and query languages you will come across (QBE, SQL, etc.) This book allows you to come away with the knowledge and expertise necessary for database applications. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in any way with databases. No matter what your interest, you will not come away empty handed.
Product Details :
Hardcover: 1376 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; 6 edition (January 27, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0073523321
ISBN-13: 978-0073523323
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 2 x 9.4 inches
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