Rating: 
Summary: It tells you how to use DBMS features wisely
Review: I have been an IT professional for 5 years and have read dozens of books about relational database(ok, 60% of them are about Oracle so they are about relational database products). This book is the most helpful one in terms of clearify misconceptions about relational and object/relational database systems. I recommend it to anyone who want to gain an understanding beyond using a particular product such as Oracle or DB2.
Rating:
Summary: How to be better at IT than 99% of the rest of humanity
Review: I think the above title is too wishy-washy. It should be "How to be orders of magnitude better at IT than 99% of the rest of humanity, and have it be readily apparent to all who you work with and for". Because that's what will happen in your career in IT if you read and understand this book. I personally have made a career almost exclusively at rescuing one dysfuntional/unmaintainable IT system after another, simply by going in and applying the principles and understanding outlined in this and Fabian Pascal's earlier book. And I am regularly given "GURU of the GURUs" status for the only reason that I understand and apply these simple principles in IT applications.... 6 figure salary anyone?
Rating:
Summary: You definitely can find the gold in this book.
Review: If you can not find the gold in a single paragraph, you definitely can find in a single page. This is the best data modeling book I have ever read. What best I feel that it talks in-depth detail, namely, the problem of data modeling and its solution. In comparison, a lot of data modeling book talks only the rule, simply a clasroom instructor'style. In fact, data modeling rule is not hard to upderstand, but it is very hard to implement. This book really talks practically.
Rating: 
Summary: Not professional
Review: No disrespect to this gentleman Fabian Pascal, he might be a nice guy, but he probably needed some quick cash badly enough that he put this book together by using C.J. Date's name and made some quick bucks. I purchased so many books from Amazon Books and never had to write a bad review about any book because almost all of the books I got were professionally written books. I just waisted good (money) plus shipping and handling on this book. I started to belive either the authors are writing these reviews themselves or paying people to write a good review about their books. I consider myself very computer literate but I had no idea what this guy was talking about and the book shows the tables and graphics as a pictorial diagrams like a young kid put together. Maybe I am being rude, but I do not want anybody else to waist their money on books like this one. If anybody does not believe me go ahead buy the book and see it for themselves. I was thinking of buying C.J. Date's book "Introduction to Database Systems, Volume 1 (Addison-Wesley Publishing)" but now I am not really sure about that, because the book is ... dollars and this author took all his references from Date's books, and Mr. Date actually wrote a foreword about this guy. I just read Mark Whitehorn's "Inside Relational Databases" book and it was excellent, but the book was too short did not get into advance topics. I was in search of something with same quality but in little more details and some more real life samples in them. But unfortunatelly crossed this horrible one on the quest for good database book. I will appreciate anyone's honest recommendation about a good database book that explaines the RDBMS ins and outs without trying to sound like a genious wrote the book. Jeff Unsal (Long Island - NY)
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best database book for professionals
Review: There are hundreds of relational database books available that either address theory or design or a specific vendor application. This is the only book that I have found that addresses the gap between relational theory and its implementation in the real world. Buy it, read it, and demand that your vendor(s) develop a REAL relational database.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best database book for professionals
Review: There are hundreds of relational database books available that either address theory or design or a specific vendor application. This is the only book that I have found that addresses the gap between relational theory and its implementation in the real world. Buy it, read it, and demand that your vendor(s) develop a REAL relational database.
Rating: 
Summary: Clear thinking but SQL whining
Review: This book offers clear but challenging thinking about some important issues in relational database design, rules of integrity, and normalization. Pascal emphasizes principles of relational design based on predicate logic and set mathematics in a nice blend of theory and practical hints. He argues that many of the problems in using databases are a result of poor relational design. For example, in discussing duplicates he advocates prohibiting duplicates and the use of keys. Throughout he describes the problems if the data is not normalization. My only complaint is that he regularly complains about the design of the SQL standard. For example "Due to numerous flaws in the design and implementation of SQL, the performance of SQL DBMS ... leads users to denormalize for performance". As a user I have say over my design, but little sway over the SQL standard or my particular software package. With regard to denormalizing, I think there is also a tendency to use flat tables in web page pages, so perhaps Pascal should go over developing tools to program relational tables easier with ASP pages. I would have also appreciated his thoughts on dimensional modeling used in data warehouses.
Rating:
Summary: Clear thinking but SQL whining
Review: This book offers clear but challenging thinking about some important issues in relational database design, rules of integrity, and normalization. Pascal emphasizes principles of relational design based on predicate logic and set mathematics in a nice blend of theory and practical hints. He argues that many of the problems in using databases are a result of poor relational design. For example, in discussing duplicates he advocates prohibiting duplicates and the use of keys. Throughout he describes the problems if the data is not normalization. My only complaint is that he regularly complains about the design of the SQL standard. For example "Due to numerous flaws in the design and implementation of SQL, the performance of SQL DBMS ... leads users to denormalize for performance". As a user I have say over my design, but little sway over the SQL standard or my particular software package. With regard to denormalizing, I think there is also a tendency to use flat tables in web page pages, so perhaps Pascal should go over developing tools to program relational tables easier with ASP pages. I would have also appreciated his thoughts on dimensional modeling used in data warehouses.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Primer for Fundamental Database Issues
Review: This may be the most practical database book I will ever read. While it is not wriiten for the complete novice, I would say it is important as a good second book to read (an excellent first book would be Access Database Design and Programming by Steven Roman, or Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes by Ben Forta), after you have developed a rudimentary understanding of SQL. After working with SQL in any DBMS, you will begin to run accross some of the problems he addresses in his book - inconsistent treatment of nulls, duplicate information, etc. Each chapter stands on its own, making it valuable as a reference guide, and in many instances he provides SQL workarounds for problems brought on by...SQL. Although he does lay blame at feet of current DBMS vendors for not fully implementing the relational model, he addresses the fundamental lack of knowledge on the part of practitioners. By far the best chapter is the one on normalization, particularly his discussion on the fourth and fifth normal forms.
| 
