Customer Reviews

Understanding DB2(R): Learning Visually with Examples

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I find it hard to believe that I am the first person to post a review of this book.

I spent quite a bit of time reviewing this book as I was about to be a guest speaker at a local college. Everything I read I found to be easy to understand and well-laid out. The best part for me is the case studies. Basically the authors go through an easy to understand scenario where they clearly demonstrate the concepts discussed in the chapter. There is a case study for each chapter, and 17 chapters.

I am still loosely involved with DB2 certifications and I was very happy to see that the authors included 20 sample questions for each chapter of the book. Writing good sample questions is difficult to do, but this author team has clearly put a lot of time and effort in to ensure that there are many questions that are useful whether you are just trying to validate your retention of the chapter or if you are trying to pass one of our exams. An appendix in the back of the book explains the answers to each question as well, but don't peek until you've tried to answer the questions on your own!

This book also has a diagram for everything. The cover says you'll be learning visually with examples, and that couldn't be more true. The CD also contains colour versions of the key diagrams so that you can print them and review them.

This book should be mandatory for anyone who is learning DB2 for the first time, but I also think that this book is useful as a reference book and a refresher for anyone who works with DB2.

This book is really rather interesting. It appears to take off where the old Don Chamerlain books ended. Don has not given us one of his tomes in quite some time (version 5, I believe) and they have been sorely missed. This book takes up that honorable tradition.

DB2 is a complex and at times complicated set of software services, and needs some sort of gentle entrance guide. By not assuming that the reader is familiar with anything, and by explaining everything is a visual manner, the book assists first-timers and even those of us who are experienced to walk confidently through the excersises and learn the tasks of a DBA or new-found developer.

A must read for those who need to be "up and running" as quickly as possible!!

If you have previous relational database experience, but are new to DB2, this book is for you. This book focuses on the administration tasks and features available in DB2.

The writing style of the book should appeal to those who like to learn using a lot of examples and diagrams (also included on the accompanying CD if you want to print them out in color). These complement the written material very well. All important DB2 administration concepts are explained in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner. Most topics include at least one example to re-inforce important ideas.

Two other features of this book that I really liked are the short Case Studies and numerous Review Questions at the end of each chapter. The case studies are based on common real life scenarios and are meant to illustrate how the topics covered in the chapter can be applied in a real life setting. This is very helpful for seeing the material "in action". The review questions also help solidify the important concepts covered in the chapter can be used while studying for the DB2 certifications.

I would also recommend this book if you are planning to study for the DB2 Certifications. I would read this one first, to have all the fundamental concepts explained in a clear and illustrative manner. I would then consider obtaining one of the other certification guides to fill in all the nitty gritty details you might expect on a certification test.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you have some relational database background and are looking to gain a clear and fundamental understanding of DB2 administration topics.

Finally, I am able to find a book that does teach me WHAT IS DB2? When I first saw the book, I was scared to see that I will need to read another set 900 pages. But when I started reading, I loved the clear instructions and step-by-step procedures. These helped me not only understand concepts but also test them. The name of this book says it all... Understanding DB2(R): Learning Visually with Examples. This book places heavy emphasis on writing code by using examples provided in throughout the book.

As an engineer, I like solving problems. And I was delighted to see the sample questions that helped me clear my DB2 certifications. I gave this book 5 stars because I commend the authors on a book that takes a hard/boring subject and makes it fairly readable. I also like their writing style and the code examples are great.

In conclusion, the book has good and usable information under its covers, and is a worthy read for novice as well as the experienced database designers and administrators.

This book has everything you need to get you started using DB2 however I felt it lacked some understanding of the SQL language.
The book comes with a trial version of the DB2 database. This is handy for precious.

eing an open source enthusiast, I wanted to learn about differences between PostgreSQL, DB2 and Oracle. This book provides a good starting point with a lot of graphical illustration (I can tell the authors have put in a lot of effort in the diagrams). I can see how this text is useful for someone working on their DB2 certification, those who wants a reference manual, and people like me who just want to learn about DB2 quickly.

The sample questions, in my opinion, is another book feature that distinguishes this book from other DB2 texts. Through the answers, they provide explanations of why a particular answer is right or wrong. It really helps the readers to understand the main concept and message delivered in the questions.

On the other hand, the case studies are somewhat moot; they do need to be elborated to provide solutions to problems readers will soon or have encountered.

This is a book I would recommend to my colleagues, I have not yet found something similiar in the Oracle world.

This is an excellent book for DB2 if you are a beginner or even an intermediate skilled user. This book covers not only DB2 9, it covers DB2 9.5 and the facts that pertain only to v9.5 are duly bulleted/annotated with the version number. This book treats DB2 from a DBA point of view so the SQL examples are pretty basic if you are a hardcore SQL programmer. If you are looking only for SQL programming for DB2 this is not the book to buy. But for an administrator, this is one of the best reference books on the desk. Since this book has lot of visual examples, you see what the authors are talking about rather than forming a mental image. Also, it covers XML/XQuery in DB2 in detail. Moreover, this book is an excellent reference if you are taking certification in DB2.
If you are on the lookout for the one book that will kickstart your DB2 career; this is the one.

If you have to own one DB2 book (Linux,Unix,Windows) , buy this one. Usually I end up buying 2 books. The first being a book being very visual and easy to read but lacking any real detail and practical knowledge. The second book is usually a scary developers guide which is extremely thorough but requires a PHD to read it, or you end up using it as a reference.

This book hits dead on!! Incredibly easy to read with examples and visuals that make understanding difficult concepts easy, but its encompasses every important concept in DB2 with plenty of detail. I love this book and recommend it to anyone looking for the DB2 book to buy. Of course there are times you will need to access DB2 Info Center when you need very specific detail, but this book will provide you on the right track and explain how you got there perfectly. Hats off to the authors of this one.

Probably the best general book available for the DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows product. By "general" I mean a book that covers the whole breadth of the product in one volume.

Not that this is a high-level overview. It goes into a great deal of detail on most aspects, with the coverage of the memory and process models being particularly impressive.

I liked the "with Examples" concept of this book : it made learning new concepts much easier. At first I wasn't sure whether I'd like the "Visually" aspect, since I've always been a "command line junkie", but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are plenty of command line examples as well as those using the GUI.

DB2 moves very quickly these days and it must be an extremely difficult task for the authors to keep up. I've got both the first and second editions and I look forward to also getting the 3rd edition when it comes out : the only issue will be how big it will be (there is a very visible increase in size between 1st and 2nd editions) !!! I wouldn't want the authors to cut anything out to keep the size down however.

I would highly recommend this book as both a beginning level resources as well as a shelf reference for the more experienced DBA. I love the format and layout. This makes it easy to find what you need.