DataBase Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management (4th Edition) [Paperback]

Thomas M. Connolly (Author), Carolyn E. Begg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0321294017 | ISBN-13: 978-0321294012 | Edition: 4

This book places a strong emphasis on good design practice, allowing readers to master design methodology in an accessible, step-by-step fashion. In this book, database design methodology is explicitly divided into three phases: conceptual, logical, and physical. Each phase is described in a separate chapter with an example of the methodology working in practice. Extensive treatment of the Web as an emerging platform for database applications is covered alongside many code samples for accessing databases from the Web including JDBC, SQLJ, ASP, ISP, and Oracle's PSP. A thorough update of later chapters covering object-oriented databases, Web databases, XML, data warehousing, data mining is included in this new edition. A clear introduction to design implementation and management issues, as well as an extensive treatment of database languages and standards, make this book an indispensable, complete reference for database professionals.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Database Systems, Second Edition provides a strong foundation in good design practice. Using an accessible, step-by-step approach, students will master a database methodology. Then, the authors apply this methodology to worked examples so students learn to design and build applications using a leading commercial database system. Also, a central, realistic case study is integrated throughout the text to provide an understanding of the issues involved. This new edition will build on the clear, accessible presentation of the successful first edition. New to the Second Edition Includes additional and simplified examples. Features new material on distributed databases including interactions with web-based data. Contains new material on object-oriented databases that covers the latest ODBM standards. Illustrates concepts with screen shots from Accesso. Offers new coverage of query processing and optimization, data mining, data warehouses, multimedia databases, and the Internet.

0201342871B04062001 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Thomas Connolly was a designer of RAPPORT, the world's first commercial portable DBMS, and of the LIFESPAN configuration management tool -- a winner of the British Design Award.

Carolyn Begg specializes in the application of database systems in biological research. They are both authors of the best-selling book Database Systems, also published by Addison-Wesley.

Anne Strachan has experience of database design in industry and now she applies it in her teaching and research at the University of Paisley in Scotland. She focuses on problems associated with large diverse sets of data sets in organizations.

0201342871AB04062001 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1400 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 4 edition (June 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321294017
• ISBN-13: 978-0321294012
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #743,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for a database course., December 15, 1998

By 

Tom VonOxford "schabetc" (Oxford, Oh USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and Management (International Computer Science Series) (Paperback)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Book on Database Management Systems, November 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and Management (International Computer Science Series) (Paperback)

Comprehensive - that is the first word that comes to my mind after reading the book Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management. If you are in search of a book that will help you in mastering the subject of Database Management Systems this is it. The coverage is exhaustive and in-depth. While reading the table of contents and preface, I thought that the authors were very ambitious in the scope and are promising too much. But after reading the book, I am glad to say that I was mistaken - the authors have very successfully delivered whatever they have promised and more.

The book is ideal for a student of database management systems. It is also a valuable book for the practicing professional. In fact the people, who are in the database profession, who uses databases or develop applications involving database management systems, will find this book invaluable and will be able to appreciate it much more than a beginner. It is a connoisseur's delight.

The authors assume nothing. Each and every concept is built from scratch. The level of detail is so impressive that one can think this book as a collection of books of various database-related topics. For example, the section on SQL is so comprehensive that, it can stand on its own as a separate book. Such detailed coverage is found for all the topics in the book and is one of its best features. The case studies, worked examples and the presentation style, the concepts in boxes, excellent illustration, review questions, etc. will go a long way in improving the usefulness of the book.

Another feature that makes this book stand out form other books on database management, is its coverage of the latest technologies. The chapters of Distributed Database Management, Object-Oriented and Object-Relational Database Management Systems, Web based database applications, Data Warehousing, OLAP and Data Mining, etc. will prove invaluable to the students as well as the practitioners, novices as well as experts.

When dealing with theoretical concepts like data modeling, normalization, it is the usual practice of most authors either to go too mathematical or to gloss over the subject. This book is by far the best in this respect as it takes an optimum approach. The explanations are not too mathematical, but the topics are explained in sufficient detail, so that the reader will have a very good understanding of the concepts like normalization, functional dependency, etc.

Four most useful features of this book are the logical organization chart (suggesting the various paths that one can follow), the references, the suggested readings and the index. When reading or studying a book of this size - 1093 pages - these features are quite invaluable.

The usefulness of the book could have been improved if an electronic version was provided. It would have made references easy. Also the Deductive database model is not covered. An appendix on the database related sites on the Internet would have been nice. Also a description of the major database systems and vendors could have been included.

So in the final analysis, this is a must read and must have book for every database professional. For students it is a valuable course material. For professionals it is a very good self-study guide. For practitioners it an excellent refresher and a good way to keep track of the latest developments in the database field. An excellent buy!

Copyright 1998, Pegasus Book Club

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, readable book on Database Management Systems, July 2, 2005

By 

Bryan J. Higgs (Milford, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management (4th Edition) (Paperback)

I am struck by the types of comments that have been made about this book. There seem to be two camps:
1) Those who think it's a very well structured, interesting, informative book
2) Those who think it's a terrible book.

Those in the latter category seem to think that the terms 'tuples' (rows), 'relations' (tables), 'attributes' (columns) are somehow Britishisms, because the book is written by authors from a Scottish university. In fact, those terms are used in the database literature, and come from the mathematical foundation behind relational databases.

I use this book in a course I teach on Database Management Systems, and I have found it easier to read and use than many other academic database books. The first time I taught the course, I inherited the choice of text book from my predecessor; it was a disaster as a textbook! I substituted this book, and my students seem to like it reasonably well.

Because you can't reasonably cover the material in this book in a single semester, I do think that it might be better to break the book up into two smaller books. That way, the first of the two might be more usable in a single semester course. Not all colleges necessarily have a two semester sequence, and if they don't, this book is overkill for just a single semester.