Customer Reviews

Database Solutions: A step-by-step guide to building databases

5 star:		(4)
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This book strikes just the right balance between theoretic rigour and practical examples/advice. The book defines an explicit, multi-step methodology, covering everything from requirements analysis, to logical modeling, to physical implementation, then shows how the methodology can be used in two involved, yet accessible, practice cases. The authors also sensibly show how this is implemented in common DBMSs (Access and Oracle).

If that wasn't worthwhile enough, the book contains two superb appendixes: one shows alternative modelling notations, the other provides diagrams and tables for 15 common data models. These in particular are an excellent idea -- I'm surprised more database design books don't provide them.

At any rate, this is the one database design book that I tend to recommend to my students. For students who are finding the formal computer science database design textbook too abstract, this book is a good counterweight; for students who need a single overview of database design, this book too is a great choice.

The authors have probably done a favour to the database designer community with this book. Wonder why nobody thought about a book of this kind before. There are numerous books on generic DBMS but very few on Database Design. The book is equally useful for managers and developers. The examples are superb and have been thoughtfully presented and analysed.

Also the fact that the authors decided to use UML as the data modeling notation instead of traditional notations makes this book more "in tune with times" and "practically applicable" in a software development environment.

I liked this book from the start because it explains how to start up a database from scratch to finalization and with great detail. 426 pages of good information for the amateur or pro. Comes with a CD full of examples and sql scripts to use and two full length, coded example databases.

I first became interested in databases while trying to make something helpful for a university library reserve department where I worked. Experimentation and consultation with the people at utteraccess.com led me to a good conception of what I would need to accomplish. Unfortnately, it was more than I could do in my spare time before graduation.

This book covers everything I learned and ties in with what I learned from my Abstract Data Structures course. Anyone who finds themselves working on a database without any prior experience should read this book; it's an exellent introduction to the concepts and methods of database design.

One thing I wondered at was the authors' failure to even mention the argument against using real data as primary keys. On utteraccess they make a good case for why primary keys should be only identification numbers for the database and not object attributes. Even if Connolly and Begg have a different view, I think they should have discussed the controversy and the reasons for their preference.

In all other respects I found this a thorough, helpful book that will not overwhelm the beginner with technicalities, but will establish a solid foundation for database work.