Designing Effective Database Systems (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book gives you a points-to-points look-in on various core aspects ie: component parts & pieces, which earmark & characterizes the design of an effective database system
i'd say, this is a good (first,introductory db design book). it will endow you with the vision or skills to look at/objectively qualify ,the items you need to take into consideration all along the way to designing an effective database system from the beginning of the db design lifecycle to its watershed
This book is...
- Is a good, first birds-eye view of core aspects of the database design terrain from 5,000 feet.
- It's like circling at a high altitude of the database terrain first, whilst still practically clearly seeing the individual trees from the forest.
Its a 319 page read . the detail level is just about right to serve as a quick review of items to consider.
If its sorta your first dip into data & database design , its a good place to start but i'd recommend you take this book, couple it & digest it together with a read of :"Database Design" by Sams; ISBN:0672317583 -(a terrific book!) subsequently after ;
and you'll have a really good,full 20:20 vision of the database system design domain/aspect.
digesting these together gives you a brilliant foundation.
Value: The second book(ie: the Sams book), will patch-up on areas like relationships & give you more meat on all the core checklist of items to objectively consider straight away, if say tomorrow you found yourself commencing with/starting a db design effort. it's a better cookbook.
Riordan's book then would seem a very nice starter/introduction
At this new knowledge point/vantage, you are now equipped with a greater, squarer view of the terrain at some 7,000 feet. ie: at this point, if you were interested in doing the sql-server design exam: 70-229, or the Oracle fundamentals I equivalent: 1Z0-031, everything would make so much more sense re: triggers, sprocs, functions, cursors, Business rules + Constraints, RAID Backup , Indexing, Views, the SQL angle etc. if you pick up an ExamCram2 book + Transcender, Testking or whatever you select as your exam study guide of preference, you'll be able to finally see & understand how things -(aspects of the puzzle), actually all fit together and be able to translate almost effortlessly from conceptual design aspects to the necessary logical design-blueprint , to the physical implementation aspects.
And that which you understand... you won't forget
After digesting the Riordan book followed by the Sams book, you are now ready for intermediate to proficient level. 10,000 to 12,000 feet - design proficiency.
as a 3rd level book , i'd recommend you move on to reading the following 4 (ordered here by: most-entailed to least-entailed):
(1.) Database Modelling Essentials; ISBN:0126445516 ;
Value:(brings you a solid handle on building a database model to support a businesses activities)
(2.) Database Solutions; ISBN:0321173503 ;
Value: (clarity in cruising comfortably between d relational model and a good, solid, logical design...[a great book])
(3.) Database Design for Mere Mortals; ISBN: 0201752840 ;
Value: (great for reviewing Table Relationships -(setting-up joins) and reading the ERD -[Entity Relationship Diagrams])
AND
(4.) Databases Demystified; ISBN:0072253649 ;
Value: (great for stepping you linearly through the database lifecycle again, with good explanations about what you should be sure you are doing & obtaining from each stage/step of the lifecycle)..ie: that which will be expected of you at each step/stage chunk
To cap things up, Read :
- "Beginning Relational database design" ; ISBN:1590594630 ;
Value: (pulls all your data modelling personal resource skills together and reconstitutes them for you by casting you in a role where you practice modelling a complete system from scratch ie: -[from gathering the requirements specification, to the end of the detailed conceptual database design effort for the system]);
And you'll have all the core skills you need to build/design one mean database, enterprise-oriented or otherwise or reverse-engineer one.
if you are already in the thick of a project and are really pressed to find a db design solution -[(logical) + (implementation in SQL code)] right now, maybe consider buying or looking into purchasing the pricey: "Data Model Resource CD_ROM" ;ISBN:0471388289;
Value: it boasts a library of proven: tried and tested Universal Data Models, for all Enterprise types.
So, all you'll need do is adapt or borrow a design solution/model or architecture that applies closely to what you're trying to accomplish modelling for your database project ,and adapt & implement it as a solution for the database system you are designing. it's Magic!
Though i rated d Riordan book 4 stars for the depth of its content matter, the book rates more like a 4.5 for sheer readability & clarity of explanations for such an often notoriously complex technical subject area.
I'd talk about core books that translate to laying-out a solid physical database implementation & tuning for performance, but thats gonna have to wait till maybe a future book review
cheers.
-------

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"Riordan covers core skills for any developer--database design and development--in a perfect amount of detail. This book should be on every professional developer's reading list."--Duncan Mackenzie, developer, Microsoft (MSDN)"Designing a database is not a trivial subject. Riordan brings experience and clear explanations to a fundamental part of software development."--Patrick Birch, database and technical writing consultant"If you buy only one book on database design, make it this one. Riordan has a talent for explaining technical issues in simple language, without over simplifying."--Brendan Reynolds, developer, Dataset IT Systems and Microsoft Access MVP"A book that will expertly guide you in how to develop a database for a client-- and how to do it right the first time!"--Kenneth D. Snell, Ph.D., ACCESS developer and Microsoft Access MVP "Riordan has produced a unique book that brings together a formal, yet commonsense, approach to relational database design...and then goes further! Many database designers will find immense value in the steps to developing practical data warehouse designs.If you are seeking a framework for designing transactional databases, or want to step out into the world of analytical databases, Riordan's book excels at bridging both worlds."--Paul Irvine, vice president, engineering, Via Training"Riordan takes a complex subject and makes it easy. If you're over your head on a database design project, this book will help bail you out!"--Mike Gunderloy, contributing editor, Application Development Trends"This book covers a wide range of database design and data modeling topics in a well-organized, easy to understand format."--Amy Sticksel, Sticksel Data Systems, Inc."In Designing Effective Database Systems, Riordan's style, wit, and attention to detail are outstanding."--Sandra Daigle, Microsoft Access MVP The Software Developer's Step-by-Step Guide to Database Design World-renowned expert Rebecca M. Riordan has written the definitive database design book for working developers who aren't database experts. No matter how messy or complex your data challenge, Designing Effective Database Systems shows you how to design an effective, high-performance database to solve it.Riordan begins by thoroughly demystifying the principles of relational design, making them accessible to every professional developer.Next, she offers the field's clearest introduction to dimensional database modeling--practical insight for designing today's increasingly important analytical applications. One task at a time, the author illuminates every facet of database analysis and design for both traditional databases and the dimensional databases used for data warehousing, showing how to avoid common architectural pitfalls that complicate development and reduce extensibility. The book concludes with comprehensive, expert guidance on designing databases for maximum usability.This book will teach you to *Understand relational database models, structures, relationships, and data integrity principles *Define database system goals, criteria, scope, and work processes *Construct accurate conceptual models: relationships, entities, domain analysis, and normalization *Build efficient, secure database schema *Master the elements of online analytical processing (OLAP) design: fact tables, dimension tables, snowflaking, and more *Architect and construct easy, efficient interfaces for querying and reporting *Learn from practice examples based on Microsoft's Northwind sample databaseRiordan has helped thousands of professionals master database design and development, earning Microsoft's coveted MVP honor for her exceptional contributions.Nobody is more qualified to help you master database design and apply it in your real-world environment.

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SQL in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is designed as a reference -- the book that you keep
near your workstation after you learn the basics, because you
haven't got everything memorised yet. It's great for that. I
refer to it when I have a question.
But actually I picked up this book with no prior knowledge of
SQL (except that I knew it was for doing database stuff) and
learned enough to get started in a couple of days. The intro
is great for that.
The great thing about this book is that it covers the four
major SQL implementations in a relatively unbiased fashion.
This is nice because if you switch from one to another you
don't have to go looking for a new book. (Otherwise, you
would; as you will see from reading this book, the various
implementations differ considerably and also differ from
the unimplemented standard, which the book also covers.)
This book is not, and is not intended to be, a tutorial for
people who are utterly unfamiliar with the very concept of
a database, but it's okay to be utterly unfamiliar with SQL.
This book also is not a strategy guide for how to plan and
organise your database; this is an _implementation_ book.
As such, it doesn't cover things like deciding which data
to put in which table, when to create another table and
when to create an entirely separate database, or that sort
of thing. What it does tell you is what query syntax you
need to create and interact with your database, your tables,
and the data in your tables. It also explains datatypes,
because they vary considerably between the different SQL
implementations, and table types and the various attributes
(indeces and whatnot).
Additionally, this book is not a security guide. It does
include information about permissions, but only in terms of
the syntax used, not in terms of strategy.

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For programmers, analysts, and database administrators, SQL in a Nutshell is the essential reference for the SQL language used in today's most popular database products. This new edition clearly documents every SQL command according to the latest ANSI standard, and details how those commands are implemented in Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Oracle 11g, and the MySQL 5.1 and PostgreSQL 8.3 open source database products. You'll also get a concise overview of the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) model, and a clear-cut explanation of foundational RDBMS concepts -- all packed into a succinct, comprehensive, and easy-to-use format. This book provides:

Background on the Relational Database Model, including current and previous SQL standards
Fundamental concepts necessary for understanding relational databases and SQL commands
An alphabetical command reference to SQL statements, according to the SQL2003 ANSI standard
The implementation of each command by MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server
An alphabetical reference of the ANSI SQL2003 functions, as well as the vendor implementations
Platform-specific functions unique to each implementation

Beginning where vendor documentation ends, SQL in a Nutshell distills the experiences of professional database administrators and developers who have used SQL variants to support complex enterprise applications. Whether SQL is new to you, or you've been using SQL since its earliest days, you'll get lots of new tips and techniques in this book.

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Database in Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners Review

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(More customer reviews)Over the last week or so, I've been reading C. J. Date's book Database In Depth - Relational Theory for Practitioners (O'Reilly). While it's a well-done title, it's the type of book I have a hard time reading...
Contents:
Introduction; Relations Versus Types; Tuples And Relations; Relation Variables; Relational Algebra; Integrity Constraints; Database Design Theory; What Is The Relational Model?; A Little Bit Of Logic; Suggestions For Further Reading; Index
C. J. Date, along with E. F. Codd (the acknowledged "father" of relational database theory), are probably the two most influential individuals in this field. Much of what we know and practice in today's RDBMS packages all goes back to the work these two have done. Rather than write a textbook style discussion of the finer points of database theory, Date has used this book to update some of his thinking and to consolidate a number of his talks and writings of late. For serious students of relational database concepts, I'd consider this the latest "must read" to keep up with current thinking by one of the masters.
Having said that, I had a hard time slogging through the material. I tend to gravitate to technical reading material that is practical and understandable. Debates over finer points of arcane minutia will cause me to zone out quickly. Unfortunately, I felt that way through a lot of this book. There is a lot of solid technical material here, and it's definitely geared towards serious readers. Date doesn't have a lot of kind words to say about how database vendors have implemented the relational model, nor does he feel SQL is a good thing. I, on the other hand, figure the packages are what they are, and you had better learn to use them to create the systems needed by your customers. That's probably why I'm a developer and not a system architect. Reading a number of pages on why Date and Codd disagree on whether nulls are valid or allowed doesn't do much for me. They're there, you need to understand them, and then you need to move on. Another hard part for me was the heavy emphasis on mathematical proofs and such. Since I don't have that type of background, I'm quickly lost...
Even though I wasn't completely enamored with the book, I still think it is a good title. For the right reader, this will be material that they will benefit from. For the average person who got training on Oracle or DB2 and understand basic relational database theory, this may be a bit more difficult to get through...

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This book sheds light on the principles behind the relational model, which is fundamental to all database-backed applications--and, consequently, most of the work that goes on in the computing world today.Database in Depth: The Relational Model for Practitioners goes beyond the hype and gets to the heart of how relational databases actually work.

Ideal for experienced database developers and designers, this concise guide gives you a clear view of the technology--a view that's not influenced by any vendor or product.Featuring an extensive set of exercises, it will help you:

understand why and how the relational model is still directly relevant to modern database technology (and will remain so for the foreseeable future)
see why and how the SQL standard is seriously deficient
use the best current theoretical knowledge in the design of their databases and database applications
make informed decisions in their daily database professional activities
Database in Depth will appeal not only to database developers and designers, but also to a diverse field of professionals and academics, including database administrators (DBAs), information modelers, database consultants, and more.Virtually everyone who deals with relational databases should have at least a passing understanding of the fundamentals of working with relational models.
Author C.J. Date has been involved with the relational model from its earliest days.An exceptionally clear-thinking writer, Date lays out principle and theory in a manner that is easily understood. Few others can speak as authoritatively the topic of relational databases as Date can.

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Data Quality: The Field Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)I like this book quite a bit because although it's not a huge doorstop of a tome in terms of length, it's quite complete and thorough. Some data quality books cover management aspects, some the technical aspects, and some take other angles. This book takes a look at all of the different angles on data quality and sums them up into a very nice package.

One of the things I liked about it is the section on social aspects of data quality, since so many technical people I work with have a great idea but aren't able to implement it for lack of understanding of the social aspects of working on data quality projects. Another is a part where Redman goes through the process of how data quality is tracked over time, to see if things are improving, and the way that he draws a distinction between records that are "perfect", and records that are "usable", which points out some differences that are important. There is even a very relevant section on data quality problems in the US elections of 2000.

The nice thing about this field guide is that it should have everything an organization needs to do some serious data quality work (including even middle management roles and responsibilities). I think it's a very solid book that would be a great addition to data manager's and other tech manager's libraries.



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Can any subject inspire less excitement than "data quality"? Yet a moment's thought reveals the ever-growing importance of quality data. From restated corporate earnings, to incorrect prices on the web, to the bombing of the Chinese Embassy, the media reports the impact of poor data quality on a daily basis. Every business operation creates or consumes huge quantities of data. If the data are wrong, time, money, and reputation are lost. In today's environment, every leader, every decision maker, every operational manager, every consumer, indeed everyone has a vested interest in data quality.Data Quality: The Field Guide provides the practical guidance needed to start and advance a data quality program. It motivates interest in data quality, describes the most important data quality problems facing the typical organization, and outlines what an organization must do to improve. It consists of 36 short chapters in an easy-to-use field guide format. Each chapter describes a single issue and how to address it. The book begins with sections that describe why leaders, whether CIOs, CFOs, or CEOs, should be concerned with data quality. It explains the pros and cons of approaches for addressing the issue. It explains what those organizations with the best data do. And it lays bare the social issues that prevent organizations from making headway. "Field tips" at the end of each chapter summarize the most important points. Allows readers to go directly to the topic of interestProvides web-based material so readers can cut and paste figures and tables into documents within their organizations Gives step-by-step instructions for applying most techniques and summarizes what "works"

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Data and Reality Review

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(More customer reviews)This text is deemed fundamental by, for instance, Christopher J DATE, the current leader in the field of Relational Data Management. This alone is reason enough to grant it a place at my wishlist.

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Database Administration: The Complete Guide to Practices and Procedures Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has three things going for it:
(1) It describes the DBA function as it exists in the real world. More importantly, it breaks the categories of "DBA" out into specialities, such as system DBA, data architect, analysts and modelers, developers and data warehouse DBAs - each speciality is vastly different in practice - and provides skill profiles and roles and responsibilities for each.
(2) Proposes an organizational structure for all DBAs, regardless of database (DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) and skill. As a consultant who specializes in IT organizational management and processes I heartily endorse this structure. It's also consistent with recommendations made in "IT Organization: Building A Worldclass Infrastructure " by Harris Kern, Stuart Galup and Guy Nemiro, and "Building Operational Excellence: Strategies to Improve It People and Processes" by Dale Kutnick and Bruce Allen.
(3) A complete and comprehensive listing of tasks and responsibilities for DBAs, ranging from creating the database environment to data warehouse administration, and everything in between (data modelling, performance and capacity management, tuning, back-up and recovery, etc.)
While achieving the recommendations for organizational structure is a daunting and complex task, assimilating the extensive list of tasks and recommendations can be accomplished quickly. One way to attain immediate value from this book at the organizational level is to derive database administration policies and processes from this book, and refer to this book for the procedures.
The ideal audience for this book includes IT managers who need to understand the complexity and scope of the DBA function under their cognizance, senior DBAs who want to implement consistent procedures, and HR specialists who develop job descriptions and recruit DBAs.

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Part tutorial and part reference, Database Administration explains and examines each of the components that comprise the discipline of database administration. The book opens by providing an overview of the responsibilities of database administrators (DBAs) along with the various "flavors" of DBAs and their tasks. From there, the book proceeds chronologically through every task a DBA is likely to encounter. Although designed as a comprehensive survey of the entire DBA environment, the book's individual chapters are also well suited for quick look-up of specific information.

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Absolute Beginner's Guide to Databases Review

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(More customer reviews)I had no experience with databases before I read this book. I didn't even understand the basic concepts. This book includes basic definitions, detailed database design, SQL statements, how to use Microsoft Access (creating tables, relationships, queries, forms and reports). If you have little or no experience with databases, you will definitely take advantage of this book. It's very easy to read.

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Absolute Beginner's Guide to Databases brings the elements of a database together using easy to understand language, perfect for the true beginner. It not only gives specific hands on practice, but also provides an overview of designing, maintaining and using a database. This book covers what databases are used for, why databases are important, why the design of the database is important, database normalization, keys to solid database design, differences in types of databases, and indexes--what they are, how we use them, and why they are important.

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High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, Replication, and More Review

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(More customer reviews)Well, the first thing you want to do when you finish a book like this is go on and on about how impressed you are. This is one of the best database technology books I've read, and the best one on MySQL.
Digging into the book I would say I was an intermediate DBA. With 12 years experience on Oracle I was a seasoned DBA. And although I've used MySQL for about 10 years, I had not used all of the high end or newest 5.0 and 5.1 features. After reading this book, or while reading it, you'll be ready to dig into everything from MySQL master-master replication (not to be confused with multi-master), creating a logging server, optimizing your query cache, or even using some of the Google MySQL patches to add some much needed but missing feature to MySQL.
The book is organized pretty well. Keep in mind that this is not a beginner book. If you're looking for more general across the board MySQL book, I'd recommend the APress Pro MySQL by Kruckenberg and Pipes Pro MySQL (Expert's Voice in Open Source). It is also very good, but hits more of the beginning topics (as well as some advanced ones). So given the intermediate to advanced audience, this book dives right into benchmarking and profiling at the beginning.
Queries... those pesky SQL commands that you send to your database. They're so important to performance, yet so sadly misunderstood. This book devotes two chapters to the topic, one about schema and index optimization, and one about query performance. These two work together. You need to understand indexing to make best use of them, and how to write good queries to get only the data you need. The indexing chapter hit on index types supported by MyISAM, and ones for InnoDB. It talked about rebuilding, and when it's important, and statistics, and how they are different across the different storage engines. And this is a key point. Going into this book with my Oracle background, I had a lot of questions about how the optimizing engine aka the cost-based optimizer, works and interacts with the storage engines. It's all laid out here in clear detail. It was pretty obvious that these others are closely involved with the actual database development, and/or interviewed some of them to get the information correct. This is something I've had a hard time finding in other books, and really key to understanding how to optimize and tune queries. Where does the query cache sit, when and how are queries parsed, when does the optimizer pickup statistics, and how does it use them. You'll learn all the ins and outs of the explain facility, which you'll of course need to know to tune queries.
The next chapter on advanced features covered the query cache in detail, how to set it up, how to tune it, and how to monitor it. The chapter also covers UDFs, cursors, stored procedures, views, full-text searching, merge tables, partitioning and so on. One other topic it really investigated was distributed (XA) transactions. You might at first think these are an advanced topic that most users don't need to know about unless your application uses them. After all, who needs to query tables in a remote database when your application can connect and do that? Well it turns out MySQL is using XA transactions internally all the time within it's storage engine architecture. One case is when you have a transaction which uses two storage engines, ie tables with different storage engine attributes. But that's not all. MySQL also treats the binary log mechanism to be a storage engine in it's own right, so interaction between your InnoDB table transactions, and the binary log is effectively an XA transaction.
The next two chapters talk about server settings, and optimizing the OS and Hardware. All important topics, and given substantial coverage. Hand these chapters to your storage engine guru, system administrator or read them yourself if you wear all those hats!
A chapter on Replication, of course we expected to find a. What you'll be glad about is that it's 65 pages of the nuts and bolts of using replication after the five minutes it took you to set it up in MySQL. It'll help you keep your databases in sync, and help you identify them when they're not. What, my replication slaves might be out of sync? There is also coverage of the new row-based replication, and how it may help alleviate many of the current limitations of MySQL replication. There is also solid coverage of various replication topologies, from single master and many slaves, to distributed master, master-master, and how to create a logging server. You'll also learn why MySQL doesn't support multi-master replication, which is where both masters received updates, and are forced to resolve conflicts, and a whole host of new problems.
After that come a few chapters on topics outside the database tier, but equally important, from load balancing, to HA, tuning your webserver to caching and so on.
The finishing chapters include backup, security, and using the built-in server status commands. And finally a chapter on other tools for interacting with and monitoring your MySQL database.
Ok, great... a wonderful book. Any criticisms. Well I save those for last because they're really minor. If you read the book cover-to-cover you'll probably take notes like I did, so you'll be doing your own summarization. But at the end of various chapters, so chock full of new and very useful information, I sometimes wished there was exactly that, a summary of the topics, and quick list of bulletpoints. That would give one an easy way to look up advice for tuning specific areas and so on.
All-in-all though this book is really a tour de force for understanding MySQL database technology. Go get a copy!

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High Performance MySQL is the definitive guide to building fast, reliable systems with MySQL. Written by noted experts with years of real-world experience building very large systems, this book covers every aspect of MySQL performance in detail, and focuses on robustness, security, and data integrity. High Performance MySQL teaches you advanced techniques in depth so you can bring out MySQL's full power. Learn how to design schemas, indexes, queries and advanced MySQL features for maximum performance, and get detailed guidance for tuning your MySQL server, operating system, and hardware to their fullest potential. You'll also learn practical, safe, high-performance ways to scale your applications with replication, load balancing, high availability, and failover. This second edition is completely revised and greatly expanded, with deeper coverage in all areas. Major additions include:
Emphasis throughout on both performance and reliability
Thorough coverage of storage engines, including in-depth tuning and optimizations for the InnoDB storage engine
Effects of new features in MySQL 5.0 and 5.1, including stored procedures, partitioned databases, triggers, and views
A detailed discussion on how to build very large, highly scalable systems with MySQL
New options for backups and replication
Optimization of advanced querying features, such as full-text searches
Four new appendices
The book also includes chapters on benchmarking, profiling, backups, security, and tools and techniques to help you measure, monitor, and manage your MySQL installations.

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Learning SQL Review

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(More customer reviews)Like everyone else, I'm pressed for time. It's all I can do to keep up with Java, let alone related incidental technologies such as SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Ant, etc. But as one reviewer pointed out: make no mistake, you need to know SQL. And if you don't (hell, even if you do), this is just a flat-out good book to have and read. I had previously purchased and read "SQL for Dummies", but threw that book out when I got this one. (To be honest, it wasn't just this book that made me toss the "Dummies" book; I never really liked it to begin with.)
I like the way "Learning SQL" is written. Sure, facts are presented, but the author does a masterful job of telling you how and why those facts exist. In addition, the conversational tone of the book proceeds along the path you'd expect from a real conversation: from the simpler to the more complex, in a logical and sensical path. (Okay, so most conversations don't fall into that category. But this book sure does, so do yourself a favor and buy it!)
Oh, and one more thing related to being pressed for time: it's not the technical-typical 700+ pages, it's just a few hundred.

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Updated for the latest database management systems -- including MySQL 6.0, Oracle 11g, and Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 -- this introductory guide will get you up and running with SQL quickly. Whether you need to write database applications, perform administrative tasks, or generate reports, Learning SQL, Second Edition, will help you easily master all the SQL fundamentals. Each chapter presents a self-contained lesson on a key SQL concept or technique, with numerous illustrations and annotated examples. Exercises at the end of each chapter let you practice the skills you learn. With this book, you will:



Move quickly through SQL basics and learn several advanced features
Use SQL data statements to generate, manipulate, and retrieve data
Create database objects, such as tables, indexes, and constraints, using SQL schema statements
Learn how data sets interact with queries, and understand the importance of subqueries
Convert and manipulate data with SQL's built-in functions, and use conditional logic in data statements

Knowledge of SQL is a must for interacting with data. With Learning SQL, you'll quickly learn how to put the power and flexibility of this language to work.

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Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a technical person but have very little DB experience and purchased the book because I had to for a college class. I feel the book was simply OK. Some points were made well others I had to read several times. Over all the explanations were not as concise as I would like but in all fairness DB concepts are hard to explain. The overall layout was good however I think there should have been more attention during the intro to familiarize the reader with DB's and the related concepts before delving in to the details of each phase of DB creation.
My only real gripe is that a new revision is published every year and the previous version of the $100 + dollar book becomes worthless. To save money I bought the previous version and found all the material I needed. However for the final exam the instructor of the online class gave us page numbers to use as reference so I was forced to buy the latest version which was the same book with a few new references...
If you are buying this book for reference or if you are buying this because you are taking a face to face class I recommend that you buy the previous version required by the instructor at a greatly reduced cost. You may be able to do this w/ an online class if the professor (or classmates) are flexible and willing to help reconcile the different page numbers.


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Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management, Eighth Edition, a market-leader for database texts, gives readers a solid foundation in practical database design and implementation. The book provides in-depth coverage of database design, demonstrating that the key to successful database implementation is in proper design of databases to fit within a larger strategic view of the data environment. Updates for the eighth edition include additional Unified Modeling Language coverage, expanded coverage of SQL Server functions, all-new business intelligence coverage, and added coverage of data security. With a strong hands-on component that includes real-world examples and exercises, this book will help students develop database design skills that have valuable and meaningful application in the real world.

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Microsoft Access 2010 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft)) Review

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(More customer reviews)The book is very comprehensive. I have not read through the complete book as yet, however, the big advantage is that you can go to any section/subject and get the in depth information you require at any particular time. The information is also very clear and delves in great depth into each subject.
I especially like the complete samples of various database(s) as well as samples and code where applicable on the companion CD. With the CD you have the ability to load all these items onto your computer and make the references available at all times.
The greatest asset on the companion CD for me is the PDF file of the complete book. As I get older my eyesight is not like it used to be and I have trouble reading many books and periodicals. Having the book on PDF format makes it very easy for me to read.
Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase.

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You're beyond the basics, so dive right in and really put your database skills to work! This supremely organized reference is packed with hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds. It's all muscle and no fluff. Discover how the experts tackle Access 2010 -- and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery!

Master essential data management and design techniques
Import and link to data from spreadsheets, databases, text files, and other sources
Use action queries to quickly insert, update, or delete entire sets of data
Create custom forms to capture and display data
Design reports to calculate, summarize, and highlight critical data--and learn advanced techniques
Automate your application with macros and Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA)
Use Access Services to extend your database application to the Web
A Note Regarding the CD or DVD The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

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Conceptual Database Design: An Entity-Relationship Approach Review

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(More customer reviews)Following my teacher's recommendation, I bought this book for a class I had on Conceptual Database Design. This book is a masterpiece on data modeling, covering conceptual, logical and phisical database design in a clear and direct way. One of the bests parts of the book are the plenty exercises on the end of each chapter. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to be a serius database designer.

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This comprehensive book is written to meet the needs of database designers, programmers, and end-users interested in maximizing the power of conceptual and logical design using the entity-relationship approach. The authors, internationally know experts in the field, thoroughly examine conceptual design, functional analysis, and logical design with an emphasis on issues related to the user and the application. The text presents a unique step-by-step design methodology that incorporates state-of-the art software engineering and database design techniques and includes a large, realistic case study that illustrates key concepts. A capstone chapter, written by Dr. David Reiner, provides a survey of database design tools including basic tools for conceptual and logical design and current commercial database design and CASE Tools. Features *Teaches how to conceptualize, design, reverse engineer, or modify large relational, network, or hierchical database systems. *Introduces and explains concepts and their implementations using a step-by-step methodology that is accessible to database designers, end-users, and application programmers.*Emphasizes the entity-relationship model throughout, including coverage of generalization hierarchies, set-subset relationships, and a variety of semantic constraints. *Integrates functional analysis with data analysis to show how to create an integrated database environment for a variety of reasons. *Examines reverse mapping into E-R schema for the relational, network, and hierarchical models. *Illustrates how to implement design techniques through a large, realistic case study/application. *Provides an up-to-date survey and analysis of existing database design tools. 0805302441B04062001

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SQL Antipatterns: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Database Programming (Pragmatic Programmers) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently got a new job and inherited a vast collection of SQL queries to maintain. Reading Karwin's book has been a tremendous help! Each chapter considers a particular design issue ("How can I store more than one value in a field?") and shows the most common, flawed method (the "antipattern"). He carefully explains the disadvantages, then usually shows several other ways to accomplish the same goal.
One of the things I like best about the book is that the analysis isn't black and white. Every methods has advantages and disadvantages, which Karwin carefully unpacks. He also reviews and clarifies relational theory as he goes: his discussion of "Null" is a masterpiece. In general, he favors solutions that don't subvert the basic principles of relational database theory.
This would not be a good book to try to learn SQL or Database theory from, but if you are just starting to get some real-world experience it is a Godsend. Highly Recommended.

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Each chapter in this book helps you identify, explain, and correct a unique and dangerous antipattern. The four parts of the book group the anti​patterns in terms of logical database design, physical database design, queries, and application development. The chances are good that your application's database layer already contains problems such as Index Shotgun, Keyless Entry, Fear of the Unknown, and Spaghetti Query. This book will help you and your team find them. Even better, it will also show you how to fix them, and how to avoid these and other problems in the future. SQL Antipatterns gives you a rare glimpse into an SQL expert's playbook. Now you can stamp out these common database errors once and for all. Whatever platform or programming language you use, whether you're a junior programmer or a Ph.D., SQL Antipatterns will show you how to design and build databases, how to write better database queries, and how to integrate SQL programming with your application like an expert. You'll also learn the best and most current technology for full-text search, how to design code that is resistant to SQL injection attacks, and other techniques for success.

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Oracle PL/SQL for DBAs Review

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(More customer reviews)Are you a developer or database administrator? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Arup Nanda and Steven Feuerstein, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that allows you to take advantage of the PL/SQL-based functionality in the Oracle database that is the most critical for DBAs.
Nanda and Steven Feuerstein, begin by providing a whirlwind tour of the PL/SQL language, touching on all of the topics DBAs will need to become familiar with--from the basics of the PL/SQL block structure, identifier construction, and program data declarations, to the use of control and error-handling statements, to the construction of procedures, functions, packages, and triggers in PL/SQL. Then, the authors describe PL/SQL cursors and how you can improve database performance by taking advantage of such features as cursor reuse, cursor soft-parsing and soft-closing, and various characteristics of implicit cursors. Next, they explore the use of functions that can be used as data sources for queries and that are used frequently in Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) operations. The authors then explain how you can use Oracle's tools to build basic encryption and key management systems to protect sensitive data. They continue to explain how you can define policies on database tables so that you can restrict which rows particular users can see or change in those tables. Then, the authors show you how you can extend traditional Oracle auditing to capture both database changes and queries. Next, they discuss situations in which you may need to generate values. Finally, they describe the use of the DBMS_SCHEDULER package in scheduling jobs to be performed at regular intervals.
This most excellent book is here to help you get your job done. More importantly, this book is focused squarely on the language topics of special concern to DBAs.

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PL/SQL, Oracle's powerful procedural language, has been the cornerstone of Oracle application development for nearly 15 years. Although primarily a tool for developers, PL/SQL has also become an essential tool for database administration, as DBAs take increasing responsibility for site performance and as the lines between developers and DBAs blur.

Until now, there has not been a book focused squarely on the language topics of special concern to DBAs Oracle PL/SQL for DBAs fills the gap. Covering the latest Oracle version, Oracle Database 10g Release 2 and packed with code and usage examples, it contains:

A quick tour of the PL/SQL language, providing enough basic information about language fundamentals to get DBAs up and running
Extensive coverage of security topics for DBAs: Encryption (including both traditional methods and Oracle's new Transparent Data Encryption, TDE); Row-Level Security (RLS), Fine-Grained Auditing (FGA); and random value generation
Methods for DBAs to improve query and database performance with cursors and table functions
Coverage of Oracle scheduling, which allows jobs such as database monitoring and statistics gathering to be scheduled for regular execution

Using Oracle's built-in packages (DBMS_CRYPTO, DBMS_RLS, DBMS_FGA, DBMS_RANDOM, DBMS_SCHEDULING) as a base, the book describes ways of building on top of these packages to suit particular organizational needs. Authors are Arup Nanda, Oracle Magazine 2003DBA of the Year, and Steven Feuerstein, the world's foremost PL/SQL expert and coauthor of the classic reference, Oracle PL/SQL Programming.

DBAs who have not yet discovered how helpful PL/SQL can be will find this book a superb introduction to the language and its special database administration features. Even if you have used PL/SQL for years, you'll find the detailed coverage in this book to be an invaluable resource.

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Database Design Using Entity-Relationship Diagrams (Foundations of Database Design) Review

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(More customer reviews)Bagui and Earp's "Database Design Using Entity-Relationship Diagrams" is a very well written book. It's clear, concise, and well laid out. It also meets their intended audience and intent. From page xiii of the Preface:
"This book is intended to be used by database practitioners and students for data modeling. It is also intended to be used as a supplemental text in database courses, systems analysis and design courses, and other courses that design and implement databases."
And, from page xvii of the Introduction:
"This book was written to aid students in database classes and to help database practitioners in understanding how to arrive at a definite, clear database design using an entity relationship (ER) diagram."
The only reasons I give it a rating of four stars out of five instead of five stars out of five are purely a matter of taste. First, there's not a lot of breadth to this material. So, I'm not all that certain that a whole book is warranted (it really should be covered in full-fledged database books). Second, the majority of the book focuses on "Chen-like" ER diagrams because they are well-used and implementation independent (which is good reasoning). But, I'm pretty sure that most databases are relational nowadays, so more coverage in the vein of the last chapter (the Barker-like relational ER model) would be a good thing. If I could give the book four and one half stars, I would (it's really that good). But, since I can't, four stars will have to do. If you decide you really need a supplemental text in ER Diagrams, you can't go wrong with this book.

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Entity-relationship (E-R) diagrams are time-tested models for database development well-known for their usefulness in mapping out clear database designs. Also commonly known is how difficult it is to master them. With this comprehensive guide, database designers and developers can quickly learn all the ins and outs of E-R diagramming to become expert database designers. Because E-R diagrams are so fundamental to database design, this book is also an indispensable text for teaching computer science students the basics of database development.Database Design Using Entity-Relationship Diagrams clarifies E-R diagramming by defining it in terms of requirements (end user requests) and specifications (designer feedback to those requests). The book explains how open communication between designers and end users is critical to developing usable, easy-to-understand E-R diagrams that model both requirements and specifications. The authors explain, in an intuitive, informal manner, how to develop an E-R diagram, how to map it to a database, and how the resulting database can be tested. This definitive guide is a basic component for any database course, and is also an invaluable reference that database professionals can use throughout their careers.introbul>Features

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The Data Model Resource Book, Vol. 2: A Library of Data Models for Specific Industries Review

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(More customer reviews)First the content: Contains everything that is not taught in graduate school (been there), and everything that a data modeller needs know about data modelling.
Next the format: Consumerism at its worse! An incomplete template here, missing template there-a tease to lay out $400 for a complete set of templates (on top of the $100 plus for both volumes already laid out).
The conclusion: invest in volume 1 and familiarize yourself with the valuable concepts layed out there-save your money and TIME with volume 2.

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The Data Model Resource Book, Vol. 1: A Library of Universal Data Models for All Enterprises Review

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(More customer reviews)I like this book. It definitely saves a lot of time and mistakes while data modelling which is one thing you better get right in your app as data migration to a new model both at the app and database level is often a time consuming and bug prone process.
That being said the locked cd is a nuisance and sometimes the data model becomes almost ridiculously detailed. For instance in one part of the book the author talks about extending the person data model to include things such as the history of the person's gender (for instance if they had multiple sex changes). I have seen a lot of overbuilt data models that had lots of entities that were rarely used and contributed to a significant amount of clutter and generally overwhelmed developers with useless details and planning for corner cases that never happened.

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