Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design, and Implementation, Ninth Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)This textbook is, without question, one of the WORST I've ever come across - and I've read many. Not only have I had a significant amount of education (I'm currently working on a second master's degree) but have also spent many years teaching others (including graduate level courses). Considering that this is the ninth edition, it's hard to understand why anyone would continue to use it as an "introductory" text. Even the headings found on Amazon reviews from the last edition clearly highlight just some of the numerous problems that remain in this obscenely overpriced book; these include statements such as:

*Miserable Book
*Avoid - do NOT use book as reference do NOT use in a class!
*Not for the faint of heart
*Author knows, the rest of us guess
*NOT a good book for beginners


There have been so many complaints in my own introductory database class, that our instructor is now actively seeking another text to use instead of this one.

So, what exactly is wrong with this book? Plenty! Examples:

1.Verbose to an extreme - rambling discussions regarding topics that are only remotely related to the topic being covered.
2.Examples are filled with mistakes or are just plain wrong. My copy is now filled with corrections and comments from my instructor to NOT use the examples provided.
3.Chapter "summaries" are, more often than not, two or more full pages of solid text - and these are just the "summaries." Neither the author nor the editors of this book seem cognizant of just what a summary is - ever heard of bullet points, guys?
4.One of the most basic, primary, characteristics of quality teaching is the ability to "teach a little and then apply it." Instead, Kroenke bombards the senses with an ENORMOUS number of concepts in every single chapter, there is simply so much, that it is not possible to assimilate everything that is covered. Kroenke even has the audacity to note, in the introduction of one chapter near the beginning of the book, that readers should read the chapter "several times" in order to understand the material! Sure, it is often important to re-read SOME things but not entire chapters! Regardless of how many times you do attempt to get through the material - much remains incomprehensible due to horribly imcomprehensible presentation of the material!
5.Diagrams and other graphic materials are spread all over each chapter, although usually on pages other than their explanation. Not only does this make things extremely difficult when trying to understand them but the very fact that one must read an extensive amount of text just to even begin understanding what the example provides, before trying to figure out the exact concept that the example is trying the demonstrate, defeats the entire purpose of graphic examples in the first place!

I've now resorted to buying other books in order to understand what we're covering in our class. That has, without question, been FAR more useful than wasting anymore time with this nightmare.

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Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design, and Implementation (10th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Price over $130? Whew! But Kroenke's text is comparable in price (when purchased new) with its major competitor, Hoffer, Prescott, and McFadden's 7th edition (HPM), with which I will compare Kroenke's text below. (HPM is by the same publisher; eventually all textbooks will be sold by only one publisher!) To help with the price, I will not ask my students to buy a supplementary text for the database we choose to use, but will provide a few on library reserve.
Kroenke's text is geared more to the computer science major than to the business information systems major. For example, Kroenke recognizes that mySQL is now industrial strength, and so includes a discussion of it. For example, HPM is 700 pages of fine print, busy diagrams, and wordy explanations some of which talk down to the student ("A 'term' is a word or phrase that has a specific meaning for the business"). Kroenke's is 675 open, clearly written, succinct pages. At my college there is a sequence of courses for databases, another sequence for software engineering, and a third sequence for system analysis. HPM tries to do some of all of three of these topics, thereby diffusing a database focus. Kroenke's text by contrast is focused. In fact, the apparently comparable length to HPM is misleading, because which end chapters you read in Kroenke depends on the database you choose.
As the publisher's blurb says, Kroenke made a wise decision to introduce (easy) SQL early. And I add that Kroenke continues to introduce hard SQL later, such as nested EXISTS for the computer science major. HPM introduces SQL later, and only the easy parts.
XML is becoming increasingly important to database users. Kroenke's treatment of XML is adequate; HPM's treatment is cursory.
The chief advantage of HPM over Kroenke is the consistent use of a really excellent Mountain View Community Hospital project from beginning to end, providing continuity and depth.
I have been using Kroenke since the first edition. (I missed only the second and ninth editions.) So this is a biased review, in which it is hard for me to shake my history of good experience with previous editions.
I am among those sad to see that Kroenke's Semantic Object model didn't catch on, but given that it didn't, I'm glad that he finally relegated it to an appendix.
I am glad that Kroenke's text can be purchased for only $8 more with a CD containing Oracle or SQL Server, although I will use mySQL.
In short, I'm still a member of the Kroenke fan club.
--Gene Chase

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Database Processing (11th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)
For this review to make sense, you must keep in mind that I am referring to the 11th edition and that I used the book with MySQL. I chose the book for my course because my colleague had had good experiences with a number of the earlier editions using Oracle. I was excited that the 11th edition included MySQL as I was strongly leaning in that direction and having a quality textbook that support MySQL let me go ahead with this choice. My experiences, however, have not been favorable.
There is a lot of very good material in the book. Probably 80% of the material, battle tested in earlier editions is first rate. Another 10% involves issues that, while I am not happy with them, I will confess are a matter of taste. For example, I find the sections on dbaccess to be pointless. The problem is that the last 10% of the material, those that focus on MySQL, are a disaster.
Let me start with problems that will affect all readers. The book is badly proofread. This leads to a series of problems, such as mis-labeled diagrams, mis-numbered problems, duplicate problems, etc. These may seem minor, although given the price of the book one might think that Prentice Hall could hire someone to proof read it; however, they create many problems. For example, the review questions for chapter 2 use three printed data tables that are entered to allow the problems to be worked. Both Figure 2-22 and Figure 2-24 are labeled "WAREHOUSE Data", but have completely different data. The reader must puzzle out which of the two is in fact warehouse data and what table the other figure represents.
The instructors powerpoint slides have some typos as well. Particularly unhelpful is are bugs in SQL on slides
My biggest problems have to do with material specific to MySQL. Some are errors of omission. The text in chapter 2 discusses using the + sign for string concatenation; however, this is not supported by MySQL, which uses a function called concat. The text claims to call out differences between products, but makes no mention of this. It's a problem easily caught by having a proof reader try all the examples in each "supported" product. Another omission is that supporting code that is supplied for other products is missing for MySQL. For one of the chapter 2 examples, the SQLServer code provides insert statements for three tables of example data where the MySQL code only provides inserts for one of the tables. It took me considerable (unplanned) time to edit the SQLServer code to the point it would work on MySQL.
These problems pale in comparison to MySQL specific chapter 10B. Many of the code examples presented in 10B simply don't work in MySQL. Conveniently, this is an on-line chapter that is not actually printed in the book. This makes it easy to cut and paste the code examples into MySQL, something no one involved in the books production bothered doing.
What all this means is that an instructor planning on using this book needs to set aside enough time in his/her prep schedule to try ever snippet of code in the book, fix the problems, and prepare a workaround for their class. Some of these problems are covered in the errata for the book, currently 20 pages long, but none of the code problems in 10B are covered (some of the text problems from 10B are).
I contacted my helpful Prentice Hall sales rep about these issues, who expressed sympathy and assured me that I would be contacted by PH tech support for assistance, which never happened.


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Get readers straight to the point of database processing. Database Processing reflects a new teaching method that gets readers straight to the point with its thorough and modern presentation of database processing fundamentals. The eleventh edition includes active use of DBMS products, a new focus on database application processing, and coverage of Business Intelligence systems.

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Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a technical person but have very little DB experience and purchased the book because I had to for a college class. I feel the book was simply OK. Some points were made well others I had to read several times. Over all the explanations were not as concise as I would like but in all fairness DB concepts are hard to explain. The overall layout was good however I think there should have been more attention during the intro to familiarize the reader with DB's and the related concepts before delving in to the details of each phase of DB creation.
My only real gripe is that a new revision is published every year and the previous version of the $100 + dollar book becomes worthless. To save money I bought the previous version and found all the material I needed. However for the final exam the instructor of the online class gave us page numbers to use as reference so I was forced to buy the latest version which was the same book with a few new references...
If you are buying this book for reference or if you are buying this because you are taking a face to face class I recommend that you buy the previous version required by the instructor at a greatly reduced cost. You may be able to do this w/ an online class if the professor (or classmates) are flexible and willing to help reconcile the different page numbers.


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Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management, Eighth Edition, a market-leader for database texts, gives readers a solid foundation in practical database design and implementation. The book provides in-depth coverage of database design, demonstrating that the key to successful database implementation is in proper design of databases to fit within a larger strategic view of the data environment. Updates for the eighth edition include additional Unified Modeling Language coverage, expanded coverage of SQL Server functions, all-new business intelligence coverage, and added coverage of data security. With a strong hands-on component that includes real-world examples and exercises, this book will help students develop database design skills that have valuable and meaningful application in the real world.

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Data Modeling and Database Design Review

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(More customer reviews)I had the chance to take a class taught by N. Umanath, one of the authors, with this as the text.
This was not the case of the textbook being the chosen text because the author wanted sales. It was an amazing opportunity to learn the subject as the author intend(s/ed) it to be taught. My view of the book may be skewed because it was taught by the author (so he could have made up for deficiencies in the book, it's hard to say). But overall I learned a ton of stuff in a very short period of time, and felt several times more knowledgeable and capable on the subject.
Very understandable and readable. A few things are somewhat non-traditional, but they make very good arguments for where they diverge from tradition, and I personally believe that many of those divergences should be adopted at an enterprise level. Specifically their model for logical schemas.


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Data Modeling and Database Design presents a conceptually complete coverage of indispensable topics that each MIS student should learn if that student takes only one database course. Database design and data modeling encompass the minimal set of topics addressing the core competency of knowledge students should acquire in the database area. The text, rich examples, and figures work together to cover material with a depth and precision that is not available in more introductory database books.

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