First Course in Database Systems, A (2nd Edition) (GOAL Series)

Written by well-known computer scientists, this accessible and succinct introduction to database systems focuses on database design and use. Provides a more extensive treatment of query processing than other books on the market. The authors provide in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the database designer, user, and application programmer. It covers the latest database standards: SQL: 1999, SQL/PSM, SQL/CLI, JDBC, ODL, and XML, with broader coverage of SQL than most other books. Now includes coverage of the technologies used to connect database programming with C or Java code-SWL/PSM, SQL/CLI, and JDBC. For database systems and database design and application professionals.

I currently have three titles in my list of "all-time great Computer Science books" -- from the selectivity it should be clear how difficult it is to earn a spot on said list -- and this is the third book on it (in order of date read, not quality). The other two are Patterson & Hennessy's Computer Organization and Design and W. Richard Stevens's TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1.

I was not particularly interested in databases -- the subdiscipline -- prior to taking the course for which I purchased this book. I must say though that the combination of straight-forward descriptions and easy to quickly grasp examples makes this topic ever more accessible.

The canonical examples provided -- consistent throughout and extended as new topics are broached -- as well as the relaxed yet careful language utilized throughout make this book a solid and worthwhile investment. More of an investment than the book itself (any book), though, is the time spent reading it. I was careful to read the book extraordinarily thoroughly -- even short snippets underneath examples and what have you -- and every time in doing so I was rewarded for this extra investment of time with enhanced knowledge and understanding. There is very little that is superfluous in this book yet at the same time every description is adroit; no description leaves you wondering about some aspect or another: the book is exceedingly thorough.


An overwritten brochure   October 12, 2003
 0 out of 4 found this review helpful

How can I put it nicely? I guess I can't so I'll be blunt. This book is great if you enjoy reading four paragraphs for information that can be readily conveyed in less than a sentence. I'm guessing if the authors wanted to omit all the worthless babble, this would be no thicker than a brochure and they couldn't get away with charging the insane list price it currently retails for.

In addition to poor stylistic taste, this book often fails to instruct the student on fundamentals of database principles by skipping vital steps in closure algorithms or normalization rules. If this is a "first book," then the authors should assume nothing about their reader's knowledge of database principles and not skip steps when explaining an algorithm for the first time.


could have been better   October 9, 2003
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

my class is using this book as the primary book. I have found that the explainations are often very wordy when they can be put very simply. So far the book has been using essentially one running example, i think this is one of the weaknesses in the book. also i have found that the excercises do not necessarily reflect the examples in the text. could be better.