Rating: 
Summary: Solid Foundation for Database Concepts
Review: This is actually a pretty good book once you get around its conceit: that the author is in the classroom talking with his students. Had he refrained from the classroom conceit, he would have required only half the paper for the information that was in the book.But okay, assume you can get past that. How is the book? Well, in terms of content, it's excellent. The author takes you through the phases of building a database, showing you each step and explaining each aspect. He starts with database theory and then takes the reader through the design of an Access database. Then he teaches how to connect to and manipulate the database using the Visual Basic programming language objects. He talks about the data control explaining its main methods, events, and properties and then spends 3 chapters on creating and updating recordsets. The book doesn't give you enough information to make you an expert (you would need books on DAO and ADO for that). What it does is step methodically through each of the basic sequences of building a database, giving you a good foundation to continue learning.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Foundation - Great Support!
Review: This is the third book I'm working through in John's Learn to Program with Visual Basic series. I recommend you follow the course by starting with Learn to Program with Visual Basic followed by Learn to Program Visual Basic Examples before taking on this book. These are not the first Visual Basic books I've worked through, but John's series immediately revealed some bad programming habits that I had to break.
John begins this series, as well as each book, by teaching the fundamentals of good programming. By using a make-believe university classroom as the backdrop to this book, John is able to cover many of the basic questions and problems of beginner and intermediate programmers while avoiding the usually dry format of other computer books.
This book and this series is also backed up with great support. When I became stuck with a version conflict problem, I emailed John with a question and got a fast response that solved my problem. If you're a beginner and want to get a solid start in programming fundamentals, I recommend this book and this series!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: We'll what could I say, John Smiley does it again! This is the best database book. If you never done databasing with visual basic 6.0 then this is thee book for beginners. I am very satisfied with John Smiley's work and it has helped me a great deal the understanding of database designing.
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