Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: Not only does this book do a great job of explaining relational databases - it's a good read! I actually sat down and enjoyed my time reading through the descriptions and anecdotes and occasionally laughed out loud.It does what you think it's going to AND it does it in an enjoyable way.
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever written on relational databases
Review: Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou Mr Whitehorn. I had developed a very saleable piece of database software. After reading your book I looked at my program and cried with laughter. BIG tables full of unrelated data, covoluted queries to unleash even the simplest of reports, you name it I had done it wrong. I re-wrote the program in a tenth of the time it took me first time around and now I can make it do anything. Don't EVEN THINK about writing a database until you have read this book. You have been warned. Thankyou once again Mike Herberts.
Rating:
Summary: Totally excellent!
Review: The authors do a fantastic job of explaining relational databases-- in theory and in practice. Something I look for, even in a "techie" book is an easily-read, approachable style. Well this book has that in spades. There is humor, wit, and style in the pages without dumbing anything down or leaving out key info. Perhaps the best parts of this book:
1) It builds logically from nothing to a "whole lotta good stuff" (very quickly and clearly).
2) The "translation" of Codd's rules is wonderful. And this book is appropriate for self-taught learners as well as a classroom setting. In fact, the way this book is written lends itself to an unusually young (for the subject matter) audience. Great work!
Rating:
Summary: Totally excellent!
Review: The authors do a fantastic job of explaining relational databases-- in theory and in practice. Something I look for, even in a "techie" book is an easily-read, approachable style. Well this book has that in spades. There is humor, wit, and style in the pages without dumbing anything down or leaving out key info. Perhaps the best parts of this book:
1) It builds logically from nothing to a "whole lotta good stuff" (very quickly and clearly).
2) The "translation" of Codd's rules is wonderful. And this book is appropriate for self-taught learners as well as a classroom setting. In fact, the way this book is written lends itself to an unusually young (for the subject matter) audience. Great work!
Rating:
Summary: Damn good book on relational databases
Review: The books seems expensisve for its size, but sometimes good things come in small packages. The book is great! Full of examples and practical information. It covers all the key stuff, relational theory, Codd's rules, normalization, and SQL. And best of all it does it with Access (yes I don't have a copy of Oracle 8i lying around the house!). One of the better technical books I purchased recently.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Answers alot questions on relational databases.
Review: The first half of the book flows from one topic to the other giving great examples and explaining the subject in plain english. Each chapter of the second half of the book could be read seperately discussing topics like Codd's rules, normalization, and data manipulation. If you have been working with Access and you're not comfortable with the design of your database then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for the novice database designer
Review: This book is a fantastic introduction to relational databases. Whitehorn explains the terminology and the theory of RDBMSs in understandable terms injecting humor in just the right places.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding basic database concepts well
Review: This book is excellent! At the time I read this book I had been working with Access, Sybase, & Oracle for 7 years. However all of my database knowledge was product-oriented and I did not have a really firm grasp of general database concepts and principles: primary & foreign keys, tables, joins, and other basic concepts were never explained thoroughly. Sure you can read about these concepts in the documentation for whatever database product you're using, but everyone glosses over these important basic concepts and assumes that "someone else covered it", when in fact no one has. This book changes all that. Although it is written for beginners, I suspect that even intermediate administrators and developers will get a lot out of this book; it's the kind of book where just when you think you already know the material, you come upon some nugget of information that clears up a concept you'd always had trouble understanding. That's what makes this book valuable. The fact that the author is british doesn't surprise me; I've noticed lately that when it comes to technical writing, English authors do an excellent job of covering the basics before going on to the more technical material, whereas American authors tend to focus more on writing books and articles that are product-specific. Now that Mark Whitehorn has covered the basics in this book, I hope he will consider writing an Oracle book.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding basic database concepts well
Review: This book is excellent! At the time I read this book I had been working with Access, Sybase, & Oracle for 7 years. However all of my database knowledge was product-oriented and I did not have a really firm grasp of general database concepts and principles: primary & foreign keys, tables, joins, and other basic concepts were never explained thoroughly. Sure you can read about these concepts in the documentation for whatever database product you're using, but everyone glosses over these important basic concepts and assumes that "someone else covered it", when in fact no one has. This book changes all that. Although it is written for beginners, I suspect that even intermediate administrators and developers will get a lot out of this book; it's the kind of book where just when you think you already know the material, you come upon some nugget of information that clears up a concept you'd always had trouble understanding. That's what makes this book valuable. The fact that the author is british doesn't surprise me; I've noticed lately that when it comes to technical writing, English authors do an excellent job of covering the basics before going on to the more technical material, whereas American authors tend to focus more on writing books and articles that are product-specific. Now that Mark Whitehorn has covered the basics in this book, I hope he will consider writing an Oracle book.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding basic database concepts well
Review: This book is excellent! At the time I read this book I had been working with Access, Sybase, & Oracle for 7 years. However all of my database knowledge was product-oriented and I did not have a really firm grasp of general database concepts and principles: primary & foreign keys, tables, joins, and other basic concepts were never explained thoroughly. Sure you can read about these concepts in the documentation for whatever database product you're using, but everyone glosses over these important basic concepts and assumes that "someone else covered it", when in fact no one has. This book changes all that. Although it is written for beginners, I suspect that even intermediate administrators and developers will get a lot out of this book; it's the kind of book where just when you think you already know the material, you come upon some nugget of information that clears up a concept you'd always had trouble understanding. That's what makes this book valuable. The fact that the author is british doesn't surprise me; I've noticed lately that when it comes to technical writing, English authors do an excellent job of covering the basics before going on to the more technical material, whereas American authors tend to focus more on writing books and articles that are product-specific. Now that Mark Whitehorn has covered the basics in this book, I hope he will consider writing an Oracle book.
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