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.
Patrick O'Neil is a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He is responsible for a number of important research results in transactional performance and disk access algorithms, and he holds patents for his work in these and other database areas. Author of "The Set Query Benchmark" (in
The Benchmark Handbook for Database and Transaction Processing Systems, also from Morgan Kaufmann) and an area editor for
Information Systems, O'Neil is also an active industry consultant who has worked with a number of prominent companies, including Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Praxis, Price Waterhouse, and Policy Management Systems Corporation.
Elizabeth O'Neil is also a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. She serves as a consultant to Sybase IQ in Concord, Massachusetts, and has worked with a number of other corporations, including Microsoft and Bolt, Beranek, and Newman. From 1980 to 1998 she implemented and managed new hardware and software labs in the Computer Science Department of the University of Massachusetts at Boston.