This is an excellent thorough textbook. Any decent computer science program should at least mandate this as part of their required database systems course. It coalesces materials taught in discrete math, programming languages, operating systems, algorithms, and other fields. This textbook improved not only my database design skills tenfold, but also my software development skills as well. This textbook is fairly easy to read and comprehend, especially when compared to other CS textbooks.
Hands-down worst text book I have ever had the misfortune of being saddled with after 18 years of academic schooling. I am 43 and a military pilot and even the worst written flight manual is a shining beacon of knowledge. The book proports to be a fundementals text. It is not. The authors explain nothing but assume advanced concepts of relational algebra, set theory, and archaic database concepts are common knowledge. It is horribly organized with no logical flow. You must have a thorough understanding of XML, C, and other programming languages along with advanced SQL coding skills as you are expected to code in these languages with no explanations. I can't emphasize enough how far away this is from a "fundementals" text. It is a complete train wreck. If you are taking a course in database fundementals as a core requirement like I was, you are screwed unless you can convince the instructor to switch the text to a true fundementals book that actually explains the concepts. Man, I can't help but laugh looking back to when I bought this and was blissfully ignorant of this waste of money and tuition.
Used this book for a database class and it is truly awful. If you have experiences with database systems you will understand the concepts but still have trouble following the book as is constantly references other sections. Be prepare to be flipping pages back and forth.
This is the worst textbook I have ever had for an intro class. I am an undergrad non-CS major and this book was required as the main resource for my class. As other reviews have stated, for beginners this book is useless. The more advanced the material becomes, the more cryptically it is written in the book. I feel like reading it is a waste of my time because I don't understand most of the concepts in it. Another thing that is frustrating about the book is that it is constantly referring you to queries/figures from previous pages. It is already difficult for me to focus on reading the book without having to flip constantly to see an example of what the author is referring to. I would love to do some of the exercises to try to increase my understanding of the material, but the book has no solution manual (for students anyway) so I would have no clue whether I was answering the questions correctly. This book may be good for someone with a CS background who already has some DB understanding, but if you are just starting out on the subject and this book is not required for your class, get a different resource.
This is a textbook that was written for post-doctoral computer science students who enjoy discussing advanced set theory and predicate calculus rather than for those who wish to learn how a database is constructed. It is written at such a high level that there are many prerequisite courses one would need just to be able to start reading, or at least be able to read it without agony past chapter 17.
The discussions of XML begin well past what one would cover in an entire undergraduate XML course, and the assignments are so extraordinary that some of them in later chapters took 6+ hours to ponder, research and agonize over a single question. I have a great deal of practical database experience on a number of platforms and found this book very difficult to read.
Many of the discussions are incomprehensible for a beginner (or in many cases an experienced database professional!) and require a broad range of prior learning in order to make sense of the content. For virtually every concept in this enormous textbook, the path to the most difficult possible explanation is taken. The accompanying database sample is poorly designed and ill-considered and does not reflect any of the concepts of normalization in its design. For many of the SQL exercises, the queries will not produce any results so data must be keyed manually in order to yield results. It is an introductory textbook, yet provides no instructions on how to build the database for those who are new to SQL, UNIX or the database they intend to use to do the first assignments. I have helped over a dozen bright, capable, IT graduate students through a course using this textbook who read chapters two or more times with no comprehension.
I listed the book for sale on a popular textbook website moments after completing the graduate final, and have never been so happy to be rid of a book in my life. For those who are suffering through a course using this book - you might find some salvation in the cramster website that lists all of the solutions to the previous edition of this book (but that has most of the same exercises contained in different chapters). In many cases however, seeing the solution does not provide any insight into how one would answer the assignment questions.
For those who are course designers, please reconsider a more practical textbook, especially if there are IS, IT Project Management or non-development students in the degree program. Development students will make their way through this book using sheer grit and tenacity, but it is utterly incomprehensible for those who are not.
I had to buy this book for a graduate class. I am not the type who can just wing it - I have to actually read the material. The authors made even the simplest concepts difficult to understand. I found myself going on the internet to try to understand the material because it was very difficult to understand from the book. This was even the case with material I had previously learned - in that case I would go back to previous textbooks. Also, even though the book was recently republished in 2011 the authors use diagramming techniques from the 1970s - no one uses the Chen diagram anymore, everyone in the field uses the Crow's Foot diagram. This made it that much more difficult to understand the material.
I'd highly recommend finding another book.
This book was used for a graduate database class, by a seasoned programmer (me) and 12 other students who spent the entire class trying to figure out how to construct a query and who emailed me 10 times per day, EACH.
The book has a terrible index - for instance "self join" is not mentioned in the index but is a powerful SQL tool. The index at first glance looks very robust and comprehensive, but in practice is virtually useless, which is a BIG problem in a textbook of this size for new students.
I may actually keep this book since it is packed with information for more advanced programmers and covers topics that are of great interest to a programmer. This book was terrible to use for a graduate class where 90% of the students are IS majors and have no database experience. What was the class design team thinking?
The book does come with the online access code that is required to use the textbook. The Kindle edition as of the date of this writing does not, and the publisher responded with a stock response that only bundled textbooks come with the access code, which is incorrect. It is available from many sellers (for a lot less even with the access code) but the access code is required.
To find the scripts to build the tables in 3.5 and 3.6 required for most of the early SQL exercises, signon to the access code website and download the UNIX files (even if you are running WINDOWS), then go into the Chapter 3 folder and you can find the scripts to build the tables, and also the data for the company database.
The book is ok - but it was terrible for me as one of only two students in the online class who knew SQL since it is FAR too difficult for those learning SQL to even comprehend this as a learning tool.
If you want to LEARN SQL and know virtually nothing about it, buy SAMS Learn SQL in 24 Hours. That textbook will teach you SQL. If you need a good techy reference book in databases, well then this would do just fine, except for the terrible index.
This book really helped me with the theory of database systems. It explains the fundamentals of modeling data, and today that's very important to software engineers that work to get the best approach of business data.
The ERE model is showed and compared with UML class diagram, and that's very cool because permits more possibilities to modeling and understanding of the business. Also, the book explains the XML and Object-Oriented approach.
A very deep description of SQL and it's possible operations is described and this is related to architecture of database management systems, the way that the queries are processed and how the engine gets the data from the storage medium.
Totally recommendable to students and professionals as a reference.
Product Details :
Hardcover: 1200 pages
Publisher: Addison-Wesley; 6 edition (April 9, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0136086209
ISBN-13: 978-0136086208
Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.7 x 9.1 inches
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