Database Management Systems [Hardcover]

Raghu Ramakrishnan (Author), Johannes Gehrke (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072465638 | ISBN-13: 978-0072465631 | Publication Date: August 14, 2002 | Edition: 3

Database Management Systems provides comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of the fundamentals of database systems. Coherent explanations and practical examples have made this one of the leading texts in the field. The third edition continues in this tradition, enhancing it with more practical material.

The new edition has been reorganized to allow more flexibility in the way the course is taught. Now, instructors can easily choose whether they would like to teach a course which emphasizes database application development or a course that emphasizes database systems issues. New overview chapters at the beginning of parts make it possible to skip other chapters in the part if you don't want the detail.

More applications and examples have been added throughout the book, including SQL and Oracle examples. The applied flavor is further enhanced by the two new database applications chapters.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1104 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; 3 edition (August 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072465638
• ISBN-13: 978-0072465631
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Network Administration
  • #67 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A confusing and time-wasting book, April 23, 2005

By 

Zaid (Calgary) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Database Management Systems (Hardcover)

To database developers, administrators or curious students, with love:

It is very unfortunate that destiny had me suffer the tremendous pain and frustration in reading the 3rd edition of "Database Management Systems", by Ramakrishnan and Gehrke, to learn the fundamentals of DBMS, for the contents of the book lack preciseness and clarity, thus, leading to a lot of confusion and ambiguity in the mind of the reader, who is learning databases for the first time (and is presumably an experienced programmer).

Authors of the book have badly failed in properly covering the topics based on clear and formal definitions of fundamental database concepts. Many topics were not dealth with by the authors comprehensively and lack focus too. The book is full of hundreds of lines of explanation that require another expanation. It is true that this book is more like a puzzle for you to put together in order to make heads or tails of what the topic really is all about.

This book seems appealing, however, to the instructors, for the authors have provided them with supplementary material that mainly includes lecture slides, complete solutions to problems in the book, and some examination papers.

In summary and conclusion, the 3rd edition of "Database Management Systems", by Ramakrishnan and Gehrke, sucks and is it not worth your time or money. This conclusion higly propabilistically holds for all previous editions of the book. A strongly recommended alternative is "Fundamentals of Database Systems" by Elmasri and Navathe.

Oh, and by the way, those quotes (all of which I bothered to read) that the authors have selected to start each chapter of the book with are really silly, irrelevant and meaningless.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars please get another book that is much cheaper and better, October 28, 2004

By 

Q. Li "shijialee" (China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Management Systems (Hardcover)

I feel like reading puzzle while reading this book. If this is a book for advanced user, why my professor use it in the database introduction course ?

a lot typo in the text and many exercise answers are incorrect. countless sentences in the book just hard to read. don't waste your time and $100 on this book!!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book, December 8, 2005

By 

Ed Knorr (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Management Systems (Hardcover)

It's tough finding really good database books that provide a broad range of coverage of database related topics, including the internals of how (relational) database systems work. This is one of the best database books (database theory, concepts, internals, and state-of-the-art database topics) that has come along in 20-25 years. Please note that this is a university textbook. You won't learn MS Access programming or Oracle database administration from this book; if this is why you bought the book, you will probably be disappointed. You will, however, learn a lot about database concepts and internals. There are some small errors in the book, but that happens everywhere. The examples are pretty easy to follow, and the sidebars about DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, etc. are really nice.

This is a great book to keep on your reference shelf, whether you are an academic, or have a career in industry. We've been using this book at UBC for both our 3rd and 4th year database courses for several years, and have found it to be particularly good for teaching. Overall, the students seem to be pretty satisfied with it. We also use parts of the Garcia-Molina, Ullman, Widom text ("Database Systems: The Complete Book") for part of our 4th year course. It, too, is a very good book.