Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Database Systems (v. 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is not Database for Dummies! The word introduction is a bit misleading to say the least and the words used are not the one you read in everyday life. If your are new to relational databases, you should read this book slowly (maybe one chapter per week). When you encounter a word or concept that you don't understand, go on the web or try an other book and find information about that subject. Then continue your reading. Reading this book is like creating a good database design: It's not easy, it is tiresome and a lot of time you will be discouraged. But in the end if you persevere it will be worthwhile.

I used this book for a college level database course. The author has done a superb job overall.

Superb job at covering major DB concepts.

The writting of the book as well as exceptional orginization of the book show that the author is indeed an expert on the topic. I found that while the author is not the best at explaining the concepts in the book, he is still very good. This leaves the reader with some thinking to do in order to fully understand the material (which is fine).

The book is very wordy. This is positive becuase it keeps the book interesting and not dry. (The author is very good at connecting with the reader, something not found in many computer books). On the negative side it opens the door for more error of interpretation(although the author's skills prevent this, mostly). On complicated issues in which a section needs to be re-read several times, there is much more to read.

Last, b/c of the wordiness most of the book cannot be used as a quick reference guide. (So students make sure to underline, highlight...)

Plenty of practice questions and suitable answers.

In general this is a superb book for an introduction, the concepts will stay with the good reader for many months. A definite buy!

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This book is a classic book on theory. It really explains, in detail, the theoritical underpinnings of modern relational database theory.

You should have a firm grasp of set theory before attempting this book, to read it without such prior knowledge will cause you to miss a great deal presented. He has firm reasons for his notation, albeit somewhat different from every day databases.

C.J. Date explains every theoretical concept in an easy way without being unprecise. He also explains the advantages and disadvantages of the concepts. He didn't make any comment without a detailed discussion of the background of it, so it is understandable for the reader. Allmost every comment sounds logical to me after some thinking about it, because it comes from the view of the reader. Very interesting are the discussion of the differences between the relational model and the SQL approach. Informative is also the discussion about nulls in the whole book especially in the chapter: Missing Information. I like the ideas about object oriented databases, because it becomes important to be aware of the benefits of them.

I used and still use this book as a standard for my lectures on databases, both in Poland and the Netherlands. Students generally see this as an excellent textbook, but also think it is rather difficault. Especially the "writing-style" is somewhat old-fashioned and not of today. In modern IT-education, where sometimes more emphasis is on 4GL, the book has become less useful unfortunately, but still students want it as a book of reference.

If you're going to be a database designer or researcher, you need to be familiar with this book. I enjoyed it, and found I had a much better understanding of database theory after reading it. This is not the book I would choose for someone who doesn't already have a lot of exposure to complex databases in their work, or has never been exposed to database theories and concepts before. Choose a different book if this is the case, and come back to this one later only if you find you have a deep interest in the theories and concepts of databases. Otherwise you'll be bored and frustrated.

Although this book is not easy to follow, because of its academic-type writting style, it's unvaluable for every Information Systems developer or Data Administrator. No other books presents with such a breadth the important concepts, and it gives a wealth of examples on standard SQL.

The Introduction to Database Systems, now in its 6th edition, is one of the fundamental texts of the database industry. Written by Chris Date, one of the few people in the world with the audacity (and scientific credence) to argue about the dreaded null problem with Dr. Codd, this book will give the serious database designer/developer a solid grounding in the relational database model (with enough material on other models to identify one in a crowded room). If you are going to get one book on relational database design, this is the one

One of the best relational database books on the markettoday. The book was well written, and includes nearly every aspect ofthe database development process. Date carefully and thoroughly lays out a foundation that is imperative to a beginner, and worthwhile to an experienced database developer. His chapters on SQL and Normalization were the best I've seen in any book on these subjects. Hope to see more, but then again, this book covered it all.

In my humble opinion, this a very poorly written textbook. I bought it because it was recommended to me as "the bible" of all database books, but boy, what a disappointment. The technical content is all there, and Date is obviously a authority on the topic, but the book is next to unreadable. I would recommend to the publisher that a good editor be let loose on this book - the O'Reilly books are good role models. In the meantime, I would look elsewhere (on Amazon!) for a database reference book.