The Database Relational Model: A Retrospective Review and Analysis

The Database Relational Model: A Retrospective Review and Analysis is a retrospective of E.F. Codd's original ideas in which C.J. Date revisits the original papers, highlights their critical contributions to the basis of relational database management systems, and discusses the current day applications of these ideas. Codd's relational model, first presented to the world in a series of research papers from 1969 to 1979, was at the time revolutionary. More than 30 years later, however, it seems that the database community in general has come to regard the relational model as somewhat passe and no longer relevant, even though the entire database industry is founded on that model. Two factors that might explain this are that several of Codd's original papers have since become hard to find, and some of his writings were somewhat difficult to read and understand. This book aims to clearly evaluate Codd's original ideas and relate them to today's database society.