This second edition relies on the same successful approach that distinguished the first: it covers the principles of database theory with unmatched thoroughness, and it rigorously links theory to the real world of database programming and administration. A careful discussion of SQL standards and a multitude of examples drawn from actual databases-Oracle, DB2, and Informix-complements the authors' concept-oriented instruction, allowing you to develop product-specific understanding and to learn the important differences between the SQL dialects that will enable you to write portable applications.
* Focuses extensively on the object-relational model that is rapidly gaining acceptance and revolutionizing the database industry. Collection types and UDF's are thoroughly covered.
* Introduces new relational features of SQL taken from the latest versions of today's most popular database products, Oracle, DB2, and Informix.
* Offers thorough coverage of the SQL-99 standard, including additions designed to help you take full advantage of the object-relational model.
* Provides expanded programming examples intended to improve your understanding of transaction processing and error handling.
* Explains clearly the principles of logical database design, including those relating to the E-R model and normalization, with a number of new illustrations and examples.
* Presents the latest indexing and query processing techniques, such as bitmap indexing, and shows how to use them to achieve significant performance improvements.
A standard text for database designers and programmers,
Database: Principles, Programming, and Performance is out in a new edition. This latest version of the detailed work of the O'Neils includes a new chapter on Object-Relational Structured Query Language (SQL) and its implementations in Oracle and Informix products. On top of that, the authors have revised their chapters on basic and advanced SQL, and added product-specific details (particularly having to do with Oracle, Informix, and IBM DB2 database products) to most areas of their coverage. As a result of these revisions, this book does a great job of balancing academic material with practical examples.
Furthermore, this book does a good job of straddling the schism that's begun to open up in the world of database architecture. Perhaps better than any other volume, this book documents the emerging object-relational strategy for representing data fairly, although most of the authors' coverage (as is fitting) goes to the more firmly established and better-supported relational database model. The authors' style intersperses sequences of theory-oriented prose and diagrams with queries and other listings that have to do with specific implementations, allowing readers to observe many of the phenomena described here. This book is a fine picture of the state of the art, painted with influences from business as well as information science. --David Wall
Topics covered: Modern database design and operation, including basic Structured Query Language (SQL), Object-Relational SQL and the object-relational model, indexing, query parsing, and performance-minded design.
