Rating: 
Summary: Good, thorough book for a tough subject
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good, thorough book for a tough subject
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed Academic Overkill
Review: As a professional database consultant and college instructor, I found this textbook to be an academic exercise that is flawed in defining basic concepts and filled with useless details.While Rob and Coronel are listed as the authors, it's obvious that this was a departmental project at the Middle Tennessee State University, where they teach. The writing style is one of boring exposition perfomed by a team of writers against an arbitrary outline. It's incredible that a 750-page university text in 4th edition has inaccurate definitions and misleading examples of the basic concepts of the field. They don't event get 1st Normal Form right...as they show data in redundant rows and call that "repeating groups." For Transactions they give the ANSI definitions for COMMIT and ROLLBACK and then claim that they don't need to be used if "the application terminates normally." So, does that mean we should only use transaction processing when we write SQL with the intent to make applications that abend? The book revels is lots of useless details, providing more quantity that quality. Oddly, while the authors present themselves as Oracle experts, all the data shots (and accompanying databases provided on an instructor's CDROM by publisher Thomson Learning) are rendered in Microsoft Access. Many of the problems provided at the chapter ends are literally impossible to complete. How can a student normalize a one-row data sample with no business case or rules? How is a student supposed to derive exact Semester beginning and ending points from a list of random dates? Apparently, the editors didn't bother to have anyone attempt solving such problems. This textbook does not provide adequate training for basic SQL, professional database development, or serious database administration. I was forced to use it for college classes, and I supplemented with more outside material than I could cull from the text. It's not enough to allude to things like triggers and stored procedures--you have to actually write them in the real world. There are many other database books to choose from for both theory and practice.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Text
Review: At over 800 pages, it is short compared to other texts but isn't short on information. The text and database concepts are easy to understand and contain many end-of-chapter review questions to test your understanding. Lost of colorful charts, screen captures, and diagrams eases the learning curve. The concepts are applicable to most database systems in use today.
Rating: 
Summary: Covered the basics
Review: Decent book. Covered lots of info, but nothing that great. Buy it you have to for a class, but not much of a keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: How to make heavy stuff seem light
Review: Designing databases is hard work and involves a lot of thinking. This books makes it easy. It's very explantory, uses real-life examples, and encourages the reader to do some studying on his own. However, I have to deduct one crown...the book would be even better if it came with a CD-ROM. Typing all examples by hand into my PC may be the right (and hard) way to learn, but it's tiring.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, but perhaps too much so
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, unless you got the Interntional Edition!!
Review: Great text book, but like all students I was looking for the cheapest price tag. I got the international edition for half the price, however, I discovered that it is missing pages, though it claims to have the exact same content as US Edition. It is also missing a CD.US Edition comes with 2 CD's including the SQL Server CD, which the international edition doesn;t come with.
Unless you have a friend from whom you can copy the missing pages, hpefully if you discovered them early enough before an exam or homework and the CD. You're better off paying the $120+ price tag for a US edition book.
Rating:
Summary: An OK book.
Review: I am currently taking a class using this book. There are quite a few plusses in this textbook. One of the main benefits of this book has to be the fact that they way that it was written makes it fairly easy to read. The way it was written facilitates understanding of a very difficult subject. Another huge plus is the fact that through the book it is full of diagrams and pictures. These examples add a huge level of understanding. On the other hand there are a few negatives. At times the book can be a little long winded. Also some of the examples can be a little archaic and unorganized. I would recommend this book for people that want to get an understanding of how databases work. I would not recommend the book for people that want specific instruction of how to implement one.
Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners...
Review: I am taking a database class and this book is of very little help much like the teacher.
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