Dennis Shasha is the author or coauthor of seven books, including this book's predecessor Database Tuning: A principal Approach (Prentice Hall) and Out of Their Minds: The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists (Copernius/Springer-Verlag), numerous journal and conference papers, and four patents. He also writes monthly puzzle columns for Scientific American and Dr. Dobb's Journal. Philippe Bonnet is an experiment database researcher. He directs code development of the open source object-relational database system Predator developed at Cornell.

"For the novice, this book gives sage advice on the performance issues of SQL-level logical database design that cuts across all systems. For me at least, the physical database design was particularly interesting, because the book presents the implications of design choices on IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft systems. These systems are quite different internally, and the book's example will surprise even the systems' implementers."—Jim Gray, Microsoft"Shasha and Bonnet prove the value of applying timeless principles to everchanging technology. The unique wealth of practical ideas, facts, and examples equip database practitioners "in the trenches" like no other resource. Chapter 2 alone is worth the price of the book."—Bob Badour, Online Curmudgeon

• ForewordPreface Chapter 1: Basic Principles Chapter 2: Tuning The Guts Chapter 3: Index Tuning Chapter 4: Tuning Relational Systems Chapter 5: Communicating With The Outside Chapter 6: Case Studies From Wall StreetChapter 7: Troubleshooting by Alberto Lerner Chapter 8: Tuning E-Commerce Applications Chapter 9: Celko On Data Warehouses: Techniques, Successes, and Mistakes by Joe Celko Chapter 10: Data Warehouse Tuning Appendix A: Real-Time Databases Appendix B: Transaction Chopping Appendix C: Time Series, Especially For Finance Appendix D: Understanding Access Plans Appendix E: Configuration Parameters Glossary Index