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This is an extraordinarily academic book. In his preface, C.J. Date goes so far as to lament having to use Structured Query Language (SQL) in some of his examples because it's "so far from being a true embodiment of relational principles." What's more, he writes in a very academic style, peppering his heavily footnoted prose with mathematical expressions and words like relevar and tuple. The academic style and highbrow language isn't a bad thing, since this book deals with complicated, largely abstract phenomena in depth.
Be aware that An Introduction to Database Systems is a far cry from the highly graphical, problem-focused books that target the community of commercial database developers, and as such requires more careful study. This book is about theories, concepts, and ideals rather than problems, solutions, and specific implementations. Per se, it will enable you to become a better database programmer--but only if you supplement it with practical guides and hands-on experience. --David Wall --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No longer recommended as an introductory text.,
By DTC# "ROP" (ROP) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An Introduction to Database Systems (Hardcover)
I read an earlier edition of the book back in the mid 90s. At the time,
that was the first serious book on relational database theory I read. I
thought the earlier edition was a great introduction to the topic. It
was a tough "college textbook" read, but well worth it.I would no longer recommend the latest version as an introductory text. One gripe is Date's introduction of his own language "Tutorial-D" to explain and illustrate concepts. There is no one place in the book you can go to for a comprehensive description of Tutorial-D. Instead, snippets of it are peppered throughout the text. Another gripe: he can be long-winded and pedantic, and he uses phrases like "mutatis mutandi." I understand he is a man with a mission to be exacting and precise. But somehow, he seems to have overdone it in this edition. The latest edition has many new chapters on object-relational, temporal databases, logic databases, and decision support systems. These are very convenient overviews, as always, filtered through Date's unerring and zealous devotion to the underlying relational theory. I think if you already understand relational theory and you are a practitioner in the field, this is still a comprehensive "must have book." But if you are starting out, you will want a kinder-and-gentler introduction. The "love-it-or-hate-it" reviews seems to support this viewpoint. I rated it 4 stars because (1) it is a classic (2) it is comprehensive (3) it is a reference work that any serious practitioner will want and (4) it has extensive and well-annotated references at the end of each chapter. I withheld the 5th star for the gripes I mentioned above.
60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, if textually dense ACADEMIC textbook,
By David Gillies (San Jose, Costa Rica) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An Introduction to Database Systems (Hardcover)
(Note this review applies to the sixth edition of this book).If you wish to quickly jump into database design without a full and rigorous knowledge of database theory (by no means a bad thing) then this book is not for you. If, however, you want a thorough grounding in the principles and practice of database theory considered from an academic standpoint, then this book is highly recommended. Date is one of the giant figures of relational database theory, and this masterful work covers, in exhaustive detail, all the elementary principles of the subject. The book commences with an overview of database systems and management, before moving on to introduce the relational model. Part II of the book covers in great detail the relational model, introducing the relational algebra and the relational calculus (and then showing the formal equivalence of the two). The SQL language is introduced. Part III discusses database design, with special emphasis on the vital topics of nonloss decomposition, functional dependencies and normalisation. For practical database designers this is perhaps the most valuable part of the book. Part IV covers data protection from the standpoints of integrity and implementation in practical systems. Part V gathers a miscellany of related topics such as optimization of queries, a discussion of the 'NULL' problem and an introduction to ditributed (i.e. client/server) database systems. Part VI is an introduction to object-oriented database systems, with an examination of the problems faced by traditional relational systems when faced with object-oriented problems. It is important to note the target audience for this book. This book is first and foremost academic by nature. Rigour is not sacrificed for conciseness or simplicity. It is textually dense, especially parts II and III (far and away the most important parts). The reader will have to put in a lot of work to fully grasp the details of the concepts. For example, Date's definition of third normal form (3NF): "A relation is in 3NF if and only if it is in 2NF and every nonkey attribute is nontransitively dependent on the primary key". To appreciate in detail the significance of this definition requires substantial effort. However, this effort will pay dividends when the time comes to actually design a real-world system. Failure to understand the principles of database theory at this level of rigour lies behind many failed implementation attempts. Not every database designer needs this knowledge, but a manager of a large database project certainly does. I would not recommend this book as an introductory text for an undergraduate course in database design, due to the large quantity of material covered and its highly theoretical exposition. I would, however, strongly recommend it for students at a higher level, professional database designers and implementors of database management systems.
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An indispensible text for serious practioners,
By Willie the Shake "synthus" (Mountain Lakes, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An Introduction to Database Systems (8th Edition) (Paperback)
This is not a how-to, it is a how-to-understand. I own multiple editions
of this book starting with the 3rd, when many of the examples referred
to RBase. It won't tell you, with simple color diagrams and
cut-and-paste examples, how to optimize your Oracle SQL queries or tune
your DB/2 engine, but it will teach you the underlying principles of
relational databases, from which the serious professional will be able
to extrapolate. If you have the intelligence and stomach for it and you
actually read it, it will serve you much better than the SQL in 24 hours
picture books that some reviewers seem to be looking for -- it is a
timeless and effective conceptual work on the subject that spans the
evolution of commercial product implementations. Dilitantes and
desperadoes, head for the Dummies aisle -- this one's not for you.
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