Joe Celko's Data and Databases: Concepts in Practice (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

by Joe Celko (Author) "So I am not the poet that T.S. Eliot is, but he probably never wrote a computer program in his life..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Chris Date, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Don't think Joe Celko's Data and Databases: Concepts in Practice is for computer beginners. It starts by defining mathematically what data is, relationships between data, and how all this becomes the information and wisdom that you really want from your database, with a host of fascinating examples and warnings. Read the introduction and you'll even understand statistics better.

The data and relationships in any database are only ever a subset of the real world with just the attributes and relationships that matter to how your database needs to work. As well as explaining all the concepts you need to build and design databases, Celko shows why these matter and how to decide what entities to use to represent data. He covers the major database design techniques; this soon becomes technical, with code snippets and references to various database theories, but usually the examples make sense of it all.

The section on time is fascinating as well as useful, but while the Y2K discussion covers all the important issues, it does seem dated, referring to problems in DOS and Windows 3.1 rather than Windows NT or Windows 95/98. Read this to understand the problem, not for information on how to fix it. The details of how to deal with numerical data, text and "exotic" data like multimedia and geographical information, how to encode data, and how to check for errors are certainly useful, but oddly all of these come before the explanation of what relational databases actually are and how they work.

You'll still need to learn the specifics of whatever database application you plan to use, but if you're a computer professional and you need a fast introduction to the nuts and bolts of database theory and programming, start here. --Penny Jannifer, amazon.co.uk

Product Description

Do you need an introductory book on data and databases? If the book is by Joe Celko, the answer is yes. Data and Databases: Concepts in Practice is the first introduction to relational database technology written especially for practicing IT professionals. If you work mostly outside the database world, this book will ground you in the concepts and overall framework you must master if your data-intensive projects are to be successful. If you're already an experienced database programmer, administrator, analyst, or user, it will let you take a step back from your work and examine the founding principles on which you rely every day-helping you to work smarter, faster, and problem-free.

Whatever your field or level of expertise, Data and Databases offers you the depth and breadth of vision for which Celko is famous. No one knows the topic as well as he, and no one conveys this knowledge as clearly, as effectively-or as engagingly. Filled with absorbing war stories and no-holds-barred commentary, this is a book you'll pick up again and again, both for the information it holds and for the distinctive style that marks it as genuine Celko.

* Supports its extensive conceptual information with example code and other practical illustrations.
* Explains fundamental issues such as the nature of data and data modeling, and moves to more specific technical questions such as scales, measurements, and encoding.
* Offers fresh, engaging approaches to basic and not-so-basic issues of database programming, including data entities, relationships and values, data structures, set operations, numeric data, character string data, logical data and operations, and missing data among others.
* Covers the conceptual foundations of modern RDBMS technology, making it an ideal choice for students.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558604324
• ISBN-13: 978-1558604322
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #719,875 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK for DB professionals, NOT for beginners, June 12, 2000

By	A. Mackie (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a strange book. I had a continual feeling of disjointed writing presenting a rag-bag collection of unconnected ideas.

If you need an introductory book on data and databases then DON'T buy this book, as it's nothing of the sort. If you need a book giving a complete, thorough grounding in all aspects of relation theory, data and databases, again DON'T buy this book. However, if you work with databases for a living, already have a reasonable understanding about them, and want an assorted collection of discussions about the nature of data and databases then certainly DO consider buying it - you may find it gives deeper insights in this case.

The title is interesting - "Data and Databases", which reflects the book itself. The first half of the book mostly discusses the nature of DATA, with the second half mostly about DATABASES. "Concepts" - certainly, the book is mostly about concepts. "In Practice" - definitely NOT the case, as the book is mostly conceptual with very little of a direct practical nature.

I found the chapter on Keys most useful - an in depth discussion about surrogate keys, which most books barely mention at all. However, even this chapter reflects the general nature of the book. For any given topic, Celko picks a specific aspect which interests him, discusses it at length, but gives very superficial coverage of other equally important aspects of that topic.

The main problem with this book is that the description on the back cover is a blatant misrepresentation of its contents. It leads you to believe it is a comprehensive grounding in all aspects of data and databases, but it simply isn't. Celko admits as much in the Preface, stating it is "a collection of ideas...not a complete, formal text".

Previous reviews range from 1 star to 5 stars, but both types of reviews are actually equally valid depending on where the reader is coming from. If you are new to databases and looking for an introductory text then this book is NOT for you, despite the publishers claiming so on the back cover. If you are experienced with databases then certainly DO consider it, as it does give insights you don't normally come across.

I would have given four stars, but can only give 3 due to (a) the disjointed presentation of topics, and (b) the blatant misrepresentation by the publishers about the book's contents. However, I do recommend it to experienced database professionals.

(p.s. - before someone else goes on about reviewers who don't what they are talking about, I've spent over a decade earning my living developing databases, and spent literally thousands of hours doing formal study to Masters level, so I do have a reasonable idea what I'm on about).

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit chaotic, but nice to read, July 11, 2000

By	Lex van de Pol (Tilburg Netherlands) - See all my reviews

The author starts with saying: "This book is a collection of ideas about the nature of data and databases". Perhaps this is the reason that it is a bit chaotic, there is no red line throughout the book. But I found some of the sections very interesting, like the data structures and relational tables. I would recommend the book to everyone who would like to explore the ideas behind relational databases and who wants to become a bit more advanced. But do not take it for granted all he says. Some of it points are discussible and everybody can have his own opinion, like the use of intelligent and surrogate keys. I like surrogate keys very much. Users always want to change their typing errors, no matter if it is the primary key and has some child records attached to it.

There is one thing I do not like that much in his books. His likes to show that he knows a lot or knows where to find it, without any use for the book. This irritates me a bit. For example, why on earth list the axioms of intuitionist mathematics. I suppose I am one of the few readers who heard about intuitionism before and it is of certainly no help in this book. It is not there for the purposes of the book! Or another example, section 1.2.2 tells a bit about bad math. He tries to show that reporters cannot do simple math. But why does he assume there is a linear relation between weight and burned calories? May be there is a fixed amount of calories that you always burn, no matter what you are doing. I am not an expert on calories, but his logic of showing somebody's errors is not always correct. The correct answer for this calorie problem should be: we do not know and the 'proof' of the reporter is wrong. This does not mean the proposition is wrong! Another mathematical error, he writes that: "The idea of a limit is that there is a value that the sum never exceeds". Well, this is the definition of a upperbound. In case the function is non-decreasing the smalles upperbound will be the limit, it is easy to proof this. Of course, this is not a math book, but if you use the techniques you should be correct.

However, still a nice book to have and Joe mailed me always back when I had a remark or question. This care deservers one extra star!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, and I wanted more, September 24, 1999

By	Brian Y. Anderson (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

Joe's book is great. It has everything for the most part that I was looking for. My only wish is that he would go further into some of the topics, but then he wouldn't have any information for another book. A good suppliment to this book is "Database Modeling & Design" by Toby Teorey. I think the two are a perfect marriage. I've been reading around "Introduction to Database Systems" for some time but now that I've finished Joe's book, I think I'm ready to tackle it.