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To quote the author from his preface; 'The book is more oriented toward the philosophy and foundations of data and databases than toward programming tips and techniques'. This is, however, not what the publisher suggests on the back cover of the book (and what Amazon quotes on its web site). This is a pity, because with a more accurate back fewer readers will be disappointed after buying this book.

The book describes underlying database issues like types of data, scales and measurement. It describes how you can easily make mistakes about the meaning of data.

The book continues with encoding schemes, set theory, keys, missing data, use of NULLs, (de)normalization, check digits, meta-data, transactions and database access structures. There is some background reading on the relational model, to what level databases really are relational. The book is accessible for a large audience because the mathematical theories are kept to a minimum. Most chapters hand you a topic on which you should reflect whether it applies to your own work. Readers looking for a more thorough grounding would have to go to several other books.