Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, if textually dense ACADEMIC textbook
Review: (Note this review applies to the sixth edition of this book).If you wish to quickly jump into database design without a full and rigorous knowledge of database theory (by no means a bad thing) then this book is not for you. If, however, you want a thorough grounding in the principles and practice of database theory considered from an academic standpoint, then this book is highly recommended. Date is one of the giant figures of relational database theory, and this masterful work covers, in exhaustive detail, all the elementary principles of the subject. The book commences with an overview of database systems and management, before moving on to introduce the relational model. Part II of the book covers in great detail the relational model, introducing the relational algebra and the relational calculus (and then showing the formal equivalence of the two). The SQL language is introduced. Part III discusses database design, with special emphasis on the vital topics of nonloss decomposition, functional dependencies and normalisation. For practical database designers this is perhaps the most valuable part of the book. Part IV covers data protection from the standpoints of integrity and implementation in practical systems. Part V gathers a miscellany of related topics such as optimization of queries, a discussion of the 'NULL' problem and an introduction to ditributed (i.e. client/server) database systems. Part VI is an introduction to object-oriented database systems, with an examination of the problems faced by traditional relational systems when faced with object-oriented problems. It is important to note the target audience for this book. This book is first and foremost academic by nature. Rigour is not sacrificed for conciseness or simplicity. It is textually dense, especially parts II and III (far and away the most important parts). The reader will have to put in a lot of work to fully grasp the details of the concepts. For example, Date's definition of third normal form (3NF): "A relation is in 3NF if and only if it is in 2NF and every nonkey attribute is nontransitively dependent on the primary key". To appreciate in detail the significance of this definition requires substantial effort. However, this effort will pay dividends when the time comes to actually design a real-world system. Failure to understand the principles of database theory at this level of rigour lies behind many failed implementation attempts. Not every database designer needs this knowledge, but a manager of a large database project certainly does. I would not recommend this book as an introductory text for an undergraduate course in database design, due to the large quantity of material covered and its highly theoretical exposition. I would, however, strongly recommend it for students at a higher level, professional database designers and implementors of database management systems.
Rating:
Summary: An EXCELLENT theoretical treatment
Review: An introduction to Database systems is an excellent work and to call this work an introduction is misleading (Date explains in the preface why he chose to call it an introduction). The work is theoretically extremely dense and it requires a lot of effort to fully understand all the concepts that Date treats really exhaustively throughout the book. The book gives in-depth insight into database design concepts and it breaks every term and concept down to the bone. The style in wich the book is written makes for pleasant reading and Date's use of the English language is brilliant. Date is certainly a master of database theory and I can recommend this book to everybody who is serious about the underlying concepts of the relational database model. As an academical textbook - this book is not intended for undergraduate study but for post-graduate study it is a winner. If there is one thing that I can complain about it is that the book sheds too few light on the theory of database optimization. I hope that the 8th Ed. will also cover this topic more extensively.
Rating: 
Summary: No longer recommended as an introductory text.
Review: I read an earlier edition of the book back in the mid 90s. At the time, that was the first serious book on relational database theory I read. I thought the earlier edition was a great introduction to the topic. It was a tough "college textbook" read, but well worth it. I would no longer recommend the latest version as an introductory text. One gripe is Date's introduction of his own language "Tutorial-D" to explain and illustrate concepts. There is no one place in the book you can go to for a comprehensive description of Tutorial-D. Instead, snippets of it are peppered throughout the text. Another gripe: he can be long-winded and pedantic, and he uses phrases like "mutatis mutandi." I understand he is a man with a mission to be exacting and precise. But somehow, he seems to have overdone it in this edition. The latest edition has many new chapters on object-relational, temporal databases, logic databases, and decision support systems. These are very convenient overviews, as always, filtered through Date's unerring and zealous devotion to the underlying relational theory. I think if you already understand relational theory and you are a practitioner in the field, this is still a comprehensive "must have book." But if you are starting out, you will want a kinder-and-gentler introduction. The "love-it-or-hate-it" reviews seems to support this viewpoint. I rated it 4 stars because (1) it is a classic (2) it is comprehensive (3) it is a reference work that any serious practitioner will want and (4) it has extensive and well-annotated references at the end of each chapter. I withheld the 5th star for the gripes I mentioned above.
Rating:
Summary: Passed on to me by my father...
Review: I received the fourth edition from my father way back when I was in school. Yes it is hard to read if you don't want to take the time to understand the mathematics and don't want to learn the theory. But 13 years later this is still the book to read if you really want to understand the foundation of relational databases. Don't read this book first if you're learning about relational databases. Read it when you have the time to devote to understanding the concepts and theory. If you understand the theory this book presents, you can and will be able to see and solve problems in your designs that others cannot. All theoretical technical books are meant for you to fundamentally and intuitively understand the subject so you can solve problems and performance issues that sometimes even the vendors can't. If you don't have those problems or you have someone else solve them for you, then don't buy this book. Otherwise consider this book as a must have for relational database design.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books out there
Review: If you are into DB theory, and you want to gain a strong understanding of it, this is one of the best avenues to get you there. There's not one single thing about this book that isn't totally great. Everything, everything about it is first rate.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books out there
Review: If you are into DB theory, and you want to gain a strong understanding of it, this is one of the best avenues to get you there. There's not one single thing about this book that isn't totally great. Everything, everything about it is first rate.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing for Engineering Students
Review: Of the several books i have refered to on DBMS (including the one by Silbershatz), I found C J Date's book most helpful. It starts right from the basic and touches the core of any topic. This book is all about precise and minute detail (Which actually makes the small topics look really BIG). In the context of exams this will always be my first recommendation to all computer and IT students. In fact class mates often asked me how I had that EXTRA peice of information at all the times. I topped the DBMS exams this year (and; Yes sir, full credit to C J Date) thanks to the reference of this really wonderful book. This is a best buy for both Graduate + Under Graduate students. In fact learners can also get a great deal of insight into this really interestiing subject. It is important to get a good start into DBMS; because this is a very boring and dry subject "At First Sight". Others authors had made this subject eeven more dry and uninteresting. OVERALL:
1) Every students MUST have.
2) Every learners MUST have.
ALSO
3) Good reference for teachers and lecturers.
Rating:
Summary: The embodiment of Khun's "normal science"
Review: Perhaps the most interesting fact about this text is the angle that it comes from - and that angle is clearly a scientific one. The relational model of data is a scientific model and Chris Date is at pains to expound this fact. Although the relational model is credited largely to Edgar Codd (interestly if you look up Codd in the index of this text you'll see the entry "Codd, Edgar F., passim") Date takes the theory and outlines it in such depth and clarity that this text essentially has become the bible in regard to the topic. I urge all database practioners to get a copy of this book and at least review the opening chapters. No Oracle, SQL-Server, DB2, XML, or other text will outline the fundamentals in such a comprehensive way. One of my bones with current trends in tertiary and industry education is the obsession with "product training", unfortunately too many graduates are leaving our institutions with a vague at best understanding of arguably the most complete, elegant, and instrumentally reliable model of data - the relational model (and calling themselves DBA's). Date is a credible contemporary theorist in a distinguished line including Codd, Quine, Church, and Russell and Whitehead. The direct relationship between the theory, model and the practical is undeniable - critics are simply ignorant!
Rating:
Summary: A must have!
Review: This book clearly explains how relational DB systems are designed and gives a solid foundation for you to do anything in the DBMS field! This is the best book I've found so far to cover this complex topic. I wish I hadn't wasted my time on other lesser books. I'd definetely recommend this to anybody that is serious about computers and databases!
Rating:
Summary: The 2nd best book on Database
Review: This book demands re-reading and bears it well. It has been very satisfying to see the progress of CJ Date's thinking since the third edition. After 25 years or so, I detect that he is coming far closer to the essence of his subject than others have. I imagine he could have put this down on one page but that wouldn't be a book! The details are great and some are so striking as to seem profound. How many people know that there are relations that have no attributes? Date also apologies for past misconceptions. It is gratifying to know that he now agrees with what some suspected - an relation attribute's value can be another relation, if we want it to be. The book is full of wisdom like that. Just like the author, I wish the builders of so-called relational systems would pay some attention to this thinking (which he freely admits is not all his own). Then they might spend less time refining ideas which the reader of this book will realize are clearly wrong, like not separating the physical from the logical. If they also read his 'Third Manifesto', co-authored with Hugh Darwen where his personal opinions shine through even more, they might see ways to simplify further as well as apply the ideas in new and useful ways and take databases to a new level. This book is not for anybody who only wants a 24 hour, or even a 21 day, treatment, although those are OK as far as they go. It is for anybody who is interested in the field, but perhaps not for some who only want a job. But i think this book has to be read to understand why! I would pay more for an even longer book with more detail on some of the early papers by others such as those about normalization. These papers are now very hard to obtain. The best book i've read on database (perhaps i should say relations and THEIR foundations) was Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, written in 1917 no less! It also bears re-reading.
| 
