Foundations of Databases

Rating:
Summary: My second database Book
Review: Here is the book to grow up from intro. It is definetely harder to read than Date, but - as it is always with math - the extra effort is rewarding.

There are some omissions, for example, 5NF is not covered. (While lower normal forms are more important from practical side, the higher ones are more interesting from math perspective). On the positive note, coverage of Extended Relational Model is much more open-minded as compared to C.Date, for example (BTW, Abiteboul's paper on object views is among the most cited).

Rating:
Summary: The Alice Book
Review: I googled "The Alice Book, databases", and nothing came out, so I'm fixing mostly this part in my review.

In a word, if you are a DBA, you don't need this book and won't be able to understand 99% of it, but if you are database theoretician, this book is on your bookshelf already.

This book quite complete review of relational database science as of 1995. In many cases, when studying particular subject I get away with original research papers available at citeseer and elsewhere, but often I find that it's much quicker just to open the Alice book at the right place.

Rating:
Summary: A good theory book but meaningless for engineers
Review: It is a good DB theory book for professors and students. It covers most topics in data models and database theories. But it is not suitable to be a textbook, and should be avoided by IT engineers in industry. The book is hard to read. There are too many maths elements in it. Compared with the discontinued book by Ullman, its English is not good, maybe because the first author is French.

Rating:
Summary: The difinitive database book
Review: This is THE book for database foundations and theory. Anyone serious on the subject already has a copy. Get your's and get serious about one of the most important areas of modern life.

Rating:
Summary: my favourite book about database theory
Review: Whenever I need to check or find some result about database theory,
I look into Foundations of Databases, and I find the answer, stated
and explained in a clear and understandable way. This book
contains all you need about foundations of databases, and even more ...