Database Design and Development: A Visual Approach

by Raymond D. Frost, John Day, Craig Van Slyke

For students in the introductory course in database who want to learn how to design rather than just manipulate relational databases.The book that balances database theory, business problem solving, and hands-on-practice. This book prepares student for the workplace without sacrificing rigorous academic theory.

528 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2005

Reviews

[Bob Kozik · Rating 2 out of 5]

While chapters 1-5 did a good job of introducing the reader to the concept of database modeling and design the remaining 8 chapters were too tightly coupled to specific implementations. This is a book I'd suggest to a junior who's comfortable enough with whatever aspect of programming is their focus but they want to learn about relational databases too. Anyone other than that isn't going to get a whole lot of value out of this book outside of the core first five chapters.

At the end of the day if you're junior and see this at a used book store a few bucks its a decent buy. Just note that chapters 1-5 are the meat, and choose either chapters 6-7 or 10-11 to learn the application. Normally I'd say read a textbook cover-to-cover but chapters 6-7, 8-9, and 10-11 are so redundant you might as well skip 2 of those sets unless you're really struggling with relational DBs and/or SQL. Then find another book on 'data modeling' if you're hooked and want to go deeper.