Written by well-known computer scientists, this accessible and succinct introduction to database systems focuses on database design and use. It provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the database designer, user, and application programmer. The authors provide an overview of important programming systems (e.g., SQL, JDBC, PSM, CLI, PHP, XQuery, etc.) and the intellectual framework to put them into context.  For software engineers, database engineers, and programmers.

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This book is, however, a little disappointing. Most of it is good, some of it very good. But I do find some flaws in it. One of the glaring flaws deals with the attempt to extend the relational model from sets to bags (basically, to allow for duplicate tuples in relations.) This is the best attempt I've seen at formalizing "bag theory", but it introduces problems (some minor, others very serious) that aren't mentioned in the text. This review is too short and not the right place to expound on these problems. Chris Date's database text goes into most of them in substantial detail.

In summary, this book is good, with many good examples. I find it very readable. But it is not as good as Chris Date's Intro to Database Systems for the serious database professional. Ullman's book is good for showing another perspective to Date's solid (but somewhat opinionated) treatment of relational database theory.

8 of 9 found the following review helpful:

There's a reason the used price hews...Oct 23, 2003

There is a reason the used price for this book hews so closely to the list price: the book is a high-quality piece that is extraordinarily well written and easy to follow as well as deeply imbued with a great deal of information.

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.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Excellent bookMar 11, 2008
By Pachovski Veno "a wondering mathematician"
The book is excellent for beginners in the field of Databases. SQL is covered very good. The examples, (based on beer, bars, sells, drinkers, likes and ...) are also very good (although I do not like beer or alcohol in particular), explained in detail and the students understand them very well.
I am using it for the English speaking group of computer science at our University, and so far (we have covered almost half of the book), everything is going rather well. Thank you Mr.Ullman.

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