Customer Reviews

Database Management Systems

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I compared this book with two other reference books (Date and Elmasri/Navathe). This book is the best of the three when it comes to presenting the whole database field with a special focus on the design of databases. The key differences to the other books I compared it with are that Date focuses much more on the relational model, whilst Elmasri/Navathe has many side-notes on Oracle and Access. This book by Ramakrishnan/Gehrke deals more with design aspects of databases and gives a broad, yet also somewhat deep introduction in this respect. It does not say much about any database systems on the market but focuses more on concepts. If you are specifically interested in database design, I would recommend getting an advanced book that deals with these issues. However, if you are looking for a general dbms reference book with a special focus on design, this is the best book on the market. Unlike other books (for instance Date), it is also written in a very effective manner and comes right to the point. This easy style is especially advantageous when it comes to more difficult topics such as normalization. Where others delight in formalization, this book actually explains. Solutions for half of the questions in the book can be downloaded from the author's website by anyone.

This book covers all the aspects of a DBMS, from theory to practical usage. The internals are explained very well. The thing I liked most is that it covrs not only RDBMS, but also OODBMS, ORDBMS, XML, etc. which are emerging technologies. Since databases are the most critical part of any enterprise system, all the people in IT industry - from junior programmer to project managers - must read this book if they want to learn about databases.

This book is good for engineers which work with databases. There are explained all aspects of databases. On the other hand, the book is not reccomended for those who are interested in theory of databases. There is no formal propositions or proves of anything in this book.

This book is good for a undergraduate course, but nothing beyond.

It is great for introducing databases, but the coverage on database design is pathetic. I would recommend the stanadard book by Ullman (2e) for this topic, for the more interested reader.

The bibiography at the end of the book is great!

This is a little bit more theoretical than most database books. I liked it because this was what I was looking for.

This book is good for engineers which work with databases. There are explained all aspects of databases. On the other hand, the book is not reccomended for those who are interested in theory of databases. There is no formal propositions or proves of anything in this book.

not good enough, still have typo and did not explain some term (i.e. 1NF, 2NF) I will recommand Ramez Elmasri's Fundamentals of Database systems

The matter is well presented and discussed in detail. If you want to know the internals of the database this is THE book.

This book is good for engineers which work with databases. There are explained all aspects of databases. On the other hand, the book is not reccomended for those who are interested in theory of databases. There is no formal propositions or proves of anything in this book.