Databases Books

A birdseye view on the overall perspective of the Database Management System. I find the SQL Playbook section a great help in applying immediately whatever I've learned about the SQL in the earlier chapters.An excellent guide book.

Why waste your time reading 600+ pages to learn how to create a database? You can read this book and it is less than 300 pages! It covers everything. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to know what makes a great relational database work regardless of the DBMS. This is for beginners wanting to learn for the first time to those with DB experience that want a refresher on the fundamentals!

Chapter1: Statistics Collection (and monitors)
Chapter2: Mainframe Blocking and Buffering
Chapter3: PC Files and Buffers
Chapter4: DB2 System Tuning
Chapter5: Logical Database Design
Chapter6: Microsoft SQL 6.5 Tuning
Chapter7: Oracle 7.3 & 8.0 Tuning
Chapter8: Windows NT 4.0 Tuning
Chapter9: Windows 95 Tuning
Chapter10: PC & Client/Server Program Coding
Chapter11: Sybase 11 Tuning
Chapter12: Mainframe Coding
Chapter13: Mainframe Sorts
Chapter14: CA-IDMS 12 & 14 Tuning
Chapter15: Mainframe Multi-Level Caching
Chapter16: PC & Client/Server Caching
Chapter17: Communications and Networking
Chapter18: Advanced Topics

The advanced chapter is really hot. It covers new technology and techniques which are right on the edge. It completely covers major databases like Oracle Sybase and MS SQL, more so, than other tuning books out. aware of.

I was so impressed by the depth, comprehensiveness, and the presentation of this book. Anyone who wants to know more about security should read this book.

All three of Anna Dillon's books must be read!!! This is the last of the three, and you must read the first two ahead of this one since it is a continuing story of Katherine and her two children. These books are rich in Irish history, and they are NOT romance novels. They are dark stories of history, war and rebellion, brothels, and survival in brutal times and places. Nothing soft and sweet at all, but once you start the first book (Seasons) you won't be able to stop. Follow Katherine's story of survival as a servant in 1898 turbulent Dublin in Seasons, to her son Patrick's role as an Irish rebel and the brutality he must face in Another Season, to the story of her daughter Senga, her fears and her strength as she too faces the brutal world of kidnappers and killers, brothels and betrayal, in Seasons End.

I read all three of these books while in Dublin, and it was awesome to walk around and see the historic sites and streets that come up over and over in the books.

relation query optimizatio

This book is remarkable for the clear manner in which it explains the basics of relational databases in general and Oracle in particular. I am currently in training for Oracle Certified Professional and had been using study guides and class material to learn Oracle. These are fine for passing the OCP exam, but they leave many gaps in the finer points which lead to thoroughly understanding Oracle.

Since this book's goal is to explain Oracle's SQL Plus and PL/SQL languages instead of getting you through an examination with a passing grade it goes into details that my training missed. I especially like the way that database concepts, design and modeling are covered in the first chapter, and the step-by-step approach to teaching SQL and PL/SQL by actually performing useful tasks such as creating tables and working with tables.

In addition to the basics, this book covers advanced topics such as row locking, performance and joins and set operations. PL/SQL is given the same thorough treatment as SQL Plus and as you read through the book and actually perform the tasks on a real Oracle instance your understanding and skill level increases greatly. Since PL/SQL is rich in features and programming constructs the care with which the author explains the basics and how to apply them in a real environment made learning fun and builds your self confidence.

I also liked the attention given to database administration tasks in the final part of the book, and found the SQL Plus and PL/SQL quick reference in the back of the book useful on many occasions.

If you don't have the luxury of attending Oracle training this book is an excellent substitute, and even if you're going through OCP training this book will fill in the gaps that will surely arise since the course is fast paced. Note that this book uses Oracle 8i as the example environment, but the material works with the newer 9i version too.

Having taken classes from Dr. Johnson for 7 years at Western Washington University (http://www.cs.wwu.edu), I was fortunate to have seen early drafts of the first part of the book. It was complicated and hard to understand then, but the book seems to have polished out all the rough spots. I use this book frequently. It's the best database theory book I have read. Dr. Johnson is a very elegant writer and I enjoy reading his text as much as learning (re-learning) important concepts of Database theory and modeling. -Jeff Wandling System Architect, Real Networks

In this 3rd edition of The Third Manifesto, the authors have, in their own words, stripped the 'polemics'and added exercises to facilitate tuition.

This is a further refinement and expansion of their blueprint for a truly relational Database Management System (DBMS). It is fair to say that they are not influenced in the slightest by vendor concerns, and that is a refreshing but sadly diminishing trait in these computing times. Consequently, they will always call a spade a spade, and will not be shy is so stating. Therefore NULLs and duplicate tuples, for example, will always be abominations to be repulsed totally in any database that aspires to the 'relational' label.

Throughout all of their work concerning the Relational Model (RM), the first and foremost inspiration for which is of course E.F. Codd, there prevail several fundamental and immutable themes that are given full treatment in this volume: strict adherence to the mathematics of the RM (no NULLs, duplicates, etc.), clear separation of the logical and the physical (so often muddled together), the orthogonality of data types within the RM (data types do not impinge on or compromise the RM, and vice versa), proper and comprehensive declarative integrity constraints within the DBMS (no current SQL DBMS provides anything like full integrity constraint support), the many deficiencies of SQL (bearing in mind that Darwen and Date produced what is perhaps the definitive SQL reference in 'The SQL Standard') and therefore necessitating a better language (which they have devised, and called it 'D'). No physical aspects of implementing the authors' recommendations are considered in this book, and nor should they be.

Anyone who has clocked up any degree of significant experience on SQL DBMSs will surely have had 'fun' with duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate, etc., rows, or having totally incorrect results returned because NULLs have not been handled correctly; not to mention severe data integrity issues, or the quirks of SQL.

I have no doubt that had DBMSs from their inception adhered to principles similar to those as laid forth in this volume, DBMS professionals would have had much less 'fun', and end users would have had much more confidence in the data returned to them. It may be very late in the day where the major DBMS vendors are concerned, but hope springs eternal (almost).

I have used this book for over 14 years as a reference when learning dBase, Clipper, and all the FoxPlus/FoxPros. Now its my reference for learning new applications such as Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Access.