Database Systems: The Complete Book (GOAL Series) [Hardcover]

Hector Garcia-Molina (Author), Jeffrey D. Ullman (Author), Jennifer D. Widom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0130319953 | ISBN-13: 978-0130319951 | Edition: US ed

For Database Systems and Database Design and Application courses offered at the junior, senior and graduate levels in Computer Science departments. Written by well-known computer scientists, this introduction to database systems offers a comprehensive approach, focusing on database design, database use, and implementation of database applications and database management systems. The first half of the book provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the database designer, user, and application programmer. It covers the latest database standards SQL:1999, SQL/PSM, SQL/CLI, JDBC, ODL, and XML, with broader coverage of SQL than most other texts. The second half of the book provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the DBMS implementor. It focuses on storage structures, query processing, and transaction management. The book covers the main techniques in these areas with broader coverage of query optimization than most other texts, along with advanced topics including multidimensional and bitmap indexes, distributed transactions, and information integration techniques. Resources: Author Website http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/dscb.html

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Hector Garcia-Molina, Jeffrey D. Ullman, and Jennifer Widom, well-known computer scientists at Stanford University, have written an introduction to database systems with a comprehensive approach. The first half of the book provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the database designer, user, and application programmer. It covers the latest database standards SQL-1999, SQL/PSM, SQL/CLI, JDBC, ODL, and XML, with broader coverage of SQL than most other texts. The second half of the book provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the DBMS implementor. It focuses on management, covering the principal techniques in these areas with broader coverage of query optimization than most other texts. Advanced topics include multidimensional and bitmap indexes, distributed transactions, and information integration techniques. This comprehensive book is valuable either as an academic textbook or as a professional reference book.

NOTEWORTHY FEATURES

• Offers a readable presentation with engaging, real-world examples. Includes aspects of SQL programming not found in some other texts: SQL/PSM (persistent stored modules), JDBC (Java interface), and SQL/CLI (ODBC, or open database connectivity).
• Introduces both object-oriented design, through the ODMG standard ODL, and object-relational design from the SQL-99 standard.
• Provides extensive coverage of query processing and query optimization, supported by an extended relational algebra that is designed to match the real features of SQL. Covers information integration, including warehousing, mediators, OLAP, data cubes, and data-mining techniques.
• Explains many important, specialized topics, such as error-correction in RAID disks, bitmap indexes, use of data statistics, and pointer swizzling.
• Supported by additional teaching materials on the book's home page at http://www-db.stanford.edu/~ullman/dscb.html.

About the Author

JEFFREY D. ULLMAN is the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of 16 books, including Elements of ML Programming (Prentice Hall 1998). His research interests include data mining, information integration, and electronic education. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, the SIGMOD Contributions Award, and the Knuth Prize.

JENNIFER WIDOM is Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Her research interests include query processing on data streams, data caching and replication, semistructured data and XML, and data warehousing. She is a former Guggenheim Fellow and has served on numerous program committees, advisory boards, and editorial boards.

HECTOR GARCIA-MOLINA is the L. Bosack and S. Lerner Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. His research interests include digital libraries, information integration, and database application on the Internet. He was a recipient of the SIGMOD Innovations Award and is a member of PITAC (President's Information-Technology Advisory Council).

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1152 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; US ed edition (October 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130319953
• ISBN-13: 978-0130319951
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #519,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on database systems, January 24, 2002

By 

Ian Kaplan (Livermore, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Systems: The Complete Book (GOAL Series) (Hardcover)

Years ago I read Jeffrey Ullman's "Principles of Database
Systems", which concentrated heavily on relational calculus.
Prof. Ullman is a polymath who has published on topics ranging
from database systems to compiler theory and design. I've
found that his work is excellent, but not exactly light
reading. In many cases the books Prof. Ullman has co-authored
lean heavily toward formalism (e.g., lots of equations.
See for example Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman's "The Design and
Analysis of Computer Algorithms").

I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Database Systems: the
complete book" is extremely readable and very complete
(living up to its title). The first half of the book covers
database systems at the high level, discussing relational
and object models. Even the chapter on relational algebra is
more readable that other work I've waded through. Every time
a concept is introduced the authors provide an example.
The second half of the book covers database implementation
and archiectural issues (e.g., B-trees and other data
structures for fast database implementation).

The sub-title ("The Complete Book") is not an exageration.
It is a great pleasure to find a book that covers database
systems from the user level to low level disk I/O. The authors
even provide some interesting observations on commercial
database trends. In the excellent chapter on the Object
Definition Language (ODL) and object database systems they
note that the early predictions for object database systems
proved overly optimistic since these systems did not provide
users enough of an advantage over relational systems to
displace these systems in the market.

The authors are professors at Stanford and this book is
a college textbook. The complete coverage of database
systems and the readable nature of this book makes it
an excellent reference for professionals like me who
took database systems long ago and need a complete
current reference.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Databases, November 29, 2004

By 

Håkon Hallingstad (Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Systems: The Complete Book (GOAL Series) (Hardcover)

This book helps you understand how databases works. The second half of the book explains how data is stored (100 pages), how indexes are built (100 pages), query processing (150 pages), transaction management (100 pages), and durability and recovery (50 pages). This is one of the best book, if not the best, on database implementation.

The first half of the book is about databases from the user's perspective (e.g. SQLs). Although I was mainly interested in the second half, I found the first half to be an excellent reference on SQL.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, February 28, 2006

By 

H. Karn - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Systems: The Complete Book (GOAL Series) (Hardcover)

I bought this book because it was assigned as the primary textbook for a database course. But I have also consulted this book in courses on data structures and algorithms, computer organization, operating systems, programming languages, and even knowledge-based systems (the section on data mining).

The book is not always easy to read, because the material is not easy. The authors write very clearly, and give many good examples to illustrate their points.

I like the clean layout of the book. I appreciate that it does not have the gratuitous, gimmicky, irritating graphics and sidebars that some authors of computer science textbooks think they have to throw in to keep us amused.