Customer Reviews

Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management

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

 

 

This book is top notch...I've read many DB design books, but this one took the cake..When I took my database design class at my university, the professor was great, but the book was even BETTER!!!! I never knew about "normalizing data" until I saw this book and took the class!!! The theory, concepts, examples, and illustrations are 5-star quality!! I still use this book today, and its more than a year passed now, when I need to look up or refresh myself on a concept...Excellent learning tool, as well as a great reference for DB design....Only one problem, the book is "big" in size!!! Get it IF you can!!!

If you are taking a college level course in the fundamentals of database design and you are having a hard time understanding what your professor is talking about, then this textbook is a must. Your professor might cover the topics in a difference sequence, but you could very easily find your way around in this textbook. It covers all the basics of relational design (which is the topic most colleges teach) in an excellent manner. It is full of textual examples coupled with graphical representations. No need to get the latest edition. Even an older one would do. Have fun with databases.

First let me just say I liked this book. Why? Because it is a pretty IT book with useful and informative color screenshots and illustrations that are explanatory. It is of course both fortunate and unfortunate that the author uses screenshots of MS Access databases almost exclusively.

I do wish the author had spent more time discussing web-database application integration. Also, he only used Coldfusion (the most expensive variety) to illustrate web-database interactivity. This is great for learning some basic Coldfusion tagging, but how about something useful for small-time web hosters and others who want to use PHP, which is not only free but more powerful than Coldfusion. Ah well.

This book is very large in height - you'll see what I mean when you pick it up. The sections on ER diagramming, SQL, normalization, and design are top notch. However when the book gets into the later chapters, and covers more difficult subjects such as distributed database apps, transactional databases and Internet-related topics the coverage becomes a little weak. He does give a fine overview of all the topics presented however and the book is not totally boring to read either. The author is very lucid.

I recommend this book as an introductory text on databases but nothing more.

A very useful book for a complex subject. To be fair, I must disclose that I just completed the Database Techniques course at Middle Tennessee State with Mr. Coronel as the instructor (a co-author of the book). I do not know Dr. Rob, but Coronel was a great teacher and used the book extensively. We covered the entire book (5th ed) and I have actually read it; unlike some reviewers have admitted too. I believe the book is useful for learning the basics of database design. Topics such as normalization, entity relationships and SQL queries and transactions are very complex. I had been exposed to these topics in other classes, but never quite grasped them. This book helped me understand these topics and to achieve proficiency in using the tools in database design. The problems and review questions at the end of each chapter were useful for applying the knowledge in hands-on exercises to reinforce learning. Other reviewers have given the book low scores for having mistakes and unworkable assignments. Sure the book has mistakes, but I do not believe any book is perfect. The class found some mistakes in the 5 th ed, but those were noted and will be corrected in the next edition. Also mentioned by a reviewer were the assignments that were "literally impossible" to complete. That's curious? I completed them just fine. This isn't a book I would buy to just try to learn on my own. I think you need an experienced teacher to guide you through the process. However, if this book is required for a database class and you are debating whether you should by it, by all means, get it. I think you can learn much from it.