The newest edition of the classic An Introduction to Database Systems incorporates the latest developments in relational databases, including semantic modeling, decision support, and temporal modeling. There's better information on distributed databases, security, and the mathematics of relational databases too. With the same strong coverage of fundamental theory that made its predecessors stand out, this book ranks as the definitive textbook for those studying database systems.

Books on client/server computing are often dry and academic. Not so with the Client/Server Survival Guide, now in its third edition. The trio of authors--Jeri Edwards, Dan Harkey, and Robert Orfali--make the topic interesting with a down-to-earth style that covers the informational landscape without boring the reader to tears. Numerous nontechnical diagrams drive home important concepts quickly.

Relational databases are powerful tools for organizing data, but learning to use them effectively can be painful. Relational Database Design for Mere Mortals explains the concepts of relational-database design in an easy-to-digest fashion that covers both the theoretical underpinnings and their practical implications. Hernandez covers all the basics--table and field structure, keys, relationships, business rules, and more--but always keeps his feet on the ground with advice for real-world implementations and a particularly strong section on analyzing your current database infrastructure.

In the SQL database community, Joe Celko is a well-known columnist and purveyor of valuable insights. In Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming, he picks up where basic SQL training and experience leaves many database professionals and offers tips, techniques, and explanations that help readers extend their capabilities to top-tier SQL programming.

MySQL and mSQL provides the essentials to programming with these two popular Unix freeware database packages in C/C++, Perl, Python, and Java. The book begins with a fine introduction to databases that covers tables, fields, indexes, and normalization. Then it explains the history of the freeware mSQL and MySQL packages (which offer better performance than commercial relational database management system (RDBMS) packages, though they don't support transactions or other features). Next the authors look at SQL as used within MySQL and mSQL and clarify where to download these packages and how to install them. Examples of how to program with MySQL/mSQL in C/C++ follow.

This book focuses exclusively on Oracle database design. It covers the most up-to-date Oracle issues and technologies, including massively parallel processors, very large databases, data warehouses, client-server, and distributed database. The design advice is detailed and thorough. The book delves deeply into design issues and gives advice that will have a major impact on your database and system performance.

Any Oracle developer who has used Oracle: The Complete Reference knows that it is an elegant, indispensable guide to the overwhelming world of Oracle database interaction. Its successor--Oracle8: The Complete Reference--is even more comprehensive. Succinct examples are used to document the many functions and SQL nuances available in the Oracle toolbox. The authors provide handholding introductions to more advanced topics such as PL/SQL and object-relational databases.

Databases are a vital part of any organization, whether they are large relational databases or small desktop databases. Your applications need to interact with these external databases, to allow users to download and browse data on their Palm devices. If a user changes any of the information, those changes have to be uploaded back to the database. Writing programs that do all of this is quite a challenge because you need to know how to select and update data from an external database, how to write programs for the Palm platform, and how to synchronize the data between the device and the external database. The required combination of database programming experience, platform knowledge, and user interface design skills is rare. This book fills in the gaps you might have in any of those areas.

A tutorial featuring step-by-step instructions, real-world examples, quizes, exercises, answers, and weekly reviews and previews. Coverage includes fundamental concepts and features of SQL, with chapters on functions, subqueries, manipulating data, database security, using views to retrieve useful information from the data dictionary, and using SQL to generate SQL statements. Includes a glossary, source code listings, and an ASCII table.