Customer Reviews

Date on Database: Writings 2000-2006

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Chris Date's new book is essentially the best of Chris Date's recent musings on database management and the relational model. The book anthologizes Date's prodigious output over the past seven years.

Anyone who is working with database systems ought to be familiar with the work of Chris Date. He is an independent author, lecturer, researcher, and consultant specializing in relational database technology. His outstanding book, An Introduction to Database Systems, is a standard in the field and is used by many universities to teach database management. His impact on the field has been profound.

Anyway, this book is a treasure. The book gallantly gallops from subject to subject covering many pertinent issues related to databases and DBMS implementation. The book tackles subjects both familiar and not-so-familiar in an authoritative and easy to read manner. If you think you completely understand SQL you owe it to yourself to read the chapters on SQL and relational misconceptions.

Yes, some of this material can be found for free on the web. But not all of it. And, even if all of it was freely available I would still want to own the book to have it readily available, all in one place.

This book is basically the latest in a series of books that Date has written like this for Addison-Wesley under the title Relational Database Writings. Date has moved to a new publisher (and a new title), but the content is as vital as ever. I own all of his previous titles and I heartily recommend this new one, too. If you work with databases, Date on Database will surely enlighten, entertain and educate you. You owe it to yourself and your career to read this book, as well as Chris Date's many other books.

I am just buying this book today. So why am I writing a review? Because everything said about Chris Date by Data Guy is absolutely right on. I too have all of his previous books, including his gold standard text book on database systems and his previous "Writings" books. Reading CJ Date is why I learned to love database. He's brilliant, and his logic really is a beautiful thing to read. There is no t uncrossed, no i undotted. One of my favorite writings and one I recommend to everyone is called "A Table Without Columns". We all get that you can have a table without rows. But when you understand that we can have a table without columns, and why, you begin to understand the brilliance of the relational model.

I agree with Data Guy - buy all of his Writings books especially. They are self-contained and every one you read will give you a better and deeper understanding of the relational model. And yes, it does matter in real life. Just think about the myriad failed or limping applications that exist because people so readily dismiss these important principles.