Rating: 
Summary: Good mix of theory and practice
Review: "~I bought this book along with 3 other database titles because I needed some quick help in modeling a database. I am a relative newcomer to this field, but I've read a few other books and can pick up things pretty quickly. I was a little concerned about the price for 286-page book, but I found myself grateful for the lack of time-wasting filler. is on SQL; that is not quite accurate. The second half of the book, entitled "Practice" is mostly taken up by 3 detailed real world examples, starting with a description of the businesses to be databased, and ending with ER diagrams and SQL database definitions. The first 2 chapters of "Practice" review SQL and the capabilities of CASE tools, but most of it is taken up by the three examples. The examples are very helpful because they run into some of the same modeling problems I have"~ been stumped by, and they introduce things not covered in the Theory part of the book, such as 3-way composite entities and multiple relationship between the same 2 entities. diagrams with explanation. Harrington's book sort of splits the difference between these two other books, but all are helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: beginner oriented
Review: Clearly a beginner's text. Positive in that it does mention object-relational design. Can be read in a day but contents are not substantial enough in my opinion. Somewhat disappointed in Morgan Kaufmann for publishing this work. Teorey's volume I'd prefer.
Rating:
Summary: The "Cliff Notes" version to Date's Classic Series
Review: Having read, for lack of a better word, the classic text on databases by Date, this book is a must have. It explains clearly the concepts that were illuminted at in other texts but slightly out of the reach of full comprehension. This book is a fantastic suppliment and guide if you are taking a database course or an administrator.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner book on relational database design!
Review: I bought this book because I needed to understand relational data base design in a hurry. I was not able to put it down because its clear discriptions and interesting easily understood examples hooked me into the early morning hours. The author anticipated, then answered every mental question I had, right on cue. This book is like reading the clearest lecture notes from a great database design college course. For example, her lesson on normalization levels was not only easy to understand but fun to read! Yes, this book was a joy, not a task to read and understand. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Clearly mixed reviews
Review: I have to give this book a very mixed review. As many reviewers pointed out, there were some errors at key points, which muddied things up for someone new to databases. There were a few places where pages were added with little value; I really didn't need to see 6 pages of the "Mighy-Mite motors product catalog", the 20 pages of SQL CREATE TABLE statements, or even the chapter on CASE tools. On the positive side, I appreciated the discussion of normalization, as well as "Codd's Rules". For those who have used keys packed with information, the section on "Avoiding meaningful primary keys" was useful. I appreciated the cursory mention of data flow diagrams; as I often think that database designers and database application developers would benefit from using these techniques to communicate the intersection of tables and process. I would have appreciated including this in the case studies. The case studies were thought provoking, and brought home some of the problems about many-to-many relationships.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly mixed reviews
Review: I have to give this book a very mixed review. As many reviewers pointed out, there were some errors at key points, which muddied things up for someone new to databases. There were a few places where pages were added with little value; I really didn't need to see 6 pages of the "Mighy-Mite motors product catalog", the 20 pages of SQL CREATE TABLE statements, or even the chapter on CASE tools. On the positive side, I appreciated the discussion of normalization, as well as "Codd's Rules". For those who have used keys packed with information, the section on "Avoiding meaningful primary keys" was useful. I appreciated the cursory mention of data flow diagrams; as I often think that database designers and database application developers would benefit from using these techniques to communicate the intersection of tables and process. I would have appreciated including this in the case studies. The case studies were thought provoking, and brought home some of the problems about many-to-many relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Intro to Theory . . .
Review: I would say that this is a fairly good book for introductory theory of RDBases. I'm recommending it to peers whom are interested in learning Databasing as a career change. The second half teaches generic SQL, making it a good intro overall.
Rating:
Summary: OK, but doesn't live up to her own standard
Review: I'll give three out of the five stars on the benefit of the doubt rule. After all, the organization seems reasonable, the choice of topics appropriate for the title, and all the right CASE diagrams styles are sprinkled throughout. But the truth is, I only took a really close look at two spots in the book. For the first random sample I hit a passage in the preface or introduction in which the author was casting aspersions on those riff-raff who think themselves qualified to teach database design because they are familiar with PC data software such as Access. I next jumped to the middle of the book and read the explanation of the ANSI data types DECIMAL and NUMERIC, in which the author stated that the value for the precision specifier includes the character for the decimal separator, a common mistake for those whose closest exposure to the database world comes from working with dBASE. I put the book back on the shelves.
Rating:
Summary: Leave this one on the shelf!
Review: I've been programming for quite a while, but up until a couple of years ago, I had never done anything with databases. When I switched jobs and needed to learn, I asked a few friends where to begin. At the time they recommended "SQL For Dummies" and "Oracle8: The Complete Reference" -- starting with the first and then diving in to the second. This didn't work so well for me. SQL For Dummies is actually a reasonable review of constructing basic SQL statements, but it didn't provide me with any conceptual framework for thinking about databases. The complete Oracle8 reference book certainly seemed to have a lot of material in it, but it was a bit too daunting (1300 pages) for a tutorial. I learned the basics that I needed to learn and have gradually assimilated things since then. Recently I came across this book at Amazon and found that it had pretty good customer reviews, so I thought I'd check it out. It is excellent. This is the book I wish I had had from day one. The book begins by reviewing basic concepts of databases and database design, plus by going over the various documents and diagrams that typically go along with databases. Then it briefly reviews the SQL one would use to create databases. And it ends with three detailed database design examples. These examples are pretty substantial -- in each case I read the description and thought "this is too complex a database to cover here" but the author broke the problem in comprehensible pieces, drew entity-relationship diagrams, and worked through the design. I highly recommend this book to people just starting out with databases. You will probably need to follow it with something that teaches you more SQL, but that should follow, not preceed, an introduction like this.
Rating:
Summary: Great place to start learning databases
Review: I've been programming for quite a while, but up until a couple of years ago, I had never done anything with databases. When I switched jobs and needed to learn, I asked a few friends where to begin. At the time they recommended "SQL For Dummies" and "Oracle8: The Complete Reference" -- starting with the first and then diving in to the second. This didn't work so well for me. SQL For Dummies is actually a reasonable review of constructing basic SQL statements, but it didn't provide me with any conceptual framework for thinking about databases. The complete Oracle8 reference book certainly seemed to have a lot of material in it, but it was a bit too daunting (1300 pages) for a tutorial. I learned the basics that I needed to learn and have gradually assimilated things since then. Recently I came across this book at Amazon and found that it had pretty good customer reviews, so I thought I'd check it out. It is excellent. This is the book I wish I had had from day one. The book begins by reviewing basic concepts of databases and database design, plus by going over the various documents and diagrams that typically go along with databases. Then it briefly reviews the SQL one would use to create databases. And it ends with three detailed database design examples. These examples are pretty substantial -- in each case I read the description and thought "this is too complex a database to cover here" but the author broke the problem in comprehensible pieces, drew entity-relationship diagrams, and worked through the design. I highly recommend this book to people just starting out with databases. You will probably need to follow it with something that teaches you more SQL, but that should follow, not preceed, an introduction like this.
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