Logic and Databases: The Roots of Relational Theory [Paperback]

C. J. Date (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2007

Logic and databases are inextricably intertwined. The relational model in particular is essentially just elementary predicate logic, tailored to fit the needs of database management. Now, if you're a database professional, I'm sure this isn't news to you; but you still might not realize just how much everything we do in the database world is - or should be! - affected by predicate logic. Logic is everywhere.

So if you're a database professional you really owe it to yourself to understand the basics of formal logic, and you really ought to be able to explain (and perhaps defend) the connections between formal logic and database management. And that's what this book is about. What it does is show, through a series of partly independent and partly interrelate essays, just how various crucial aspects of database technology-some of them very familiar, others maybe less so- are solidly grounded in formal logic. It is divided into five parts:
*Basic Logic
*Logic and Database Management
*Logic and Database Design
*Logic and Algebra
*Logic and the Third Manifesto

There's also a lengthy appendix, containing a collection of frequently asked questions (and some answers) on various aspects of logic and database management. Overall, my goal is to help you realize the importance of logic in everything you do, and also- I hope- to help you see that logic can be fun.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

C. J. Date is an independent author, lecturer, researcher, and consultant, specializing in relational database technology (a field he helped pioneer). He is best known for his book An Introduction to Database Systems (8th edition 2004), which has sold over 750,000 copies and is used by several hundred colleges and universities worldwide. He is also the author of many other books on relational database management, including most recently Date On Databases: Writings 2000-2006 (2006). He was inducted into the Computing Industry Hall of Fame in 2004.

Product Details

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing (June 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1425122906
• ISBN-13: 978-1425122904
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #658,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Huge Disappointment!, September 22, 2009

By 

Michael Tozer (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Logic and Databases: The Roots of Relational Theory (Paperback)

It was with great excitement that I anticipated delivery of this book by Chris Date on Logic and Databases. The book's title boldly describes logic and databases as the roots of relational theory. Having been involved professionally with logical data modeling and relational database design since 1984, I was really thrilled to read a book that purportedly addressed a notion that I have held personally for, lo, these past twenty-five years: that the relational data model is well founded on logic, which is the science of correct reasoning. With this as a background, I must confess how terribly disappointed I was with this book.

Probably the main problem with Date's effort is that it is fettered by his obvious lack of training in the discipline of formal logic. One notes this even in the loose and common language Date employs when describing complicated subjects. The work is also truly overwhelmed by a sad reliance on the sophistry of symbolic logic, which is sort of like "grape nuts" or "christian science" in that it is not really one, nor the other. More importantly, Date makes the greatest and most important of admissions on Page 192 of this book. There, he relates that it has been many years since he's done any serious real world database design work. To those, like me, who had suffered through the rambling text to that point, the response to this admission was one word: "obviously"!

Date's two chapters on normalization and why "denormalization" ought to be resisted are at least decent. The rest of the book is hardly worth the effort.