Professional Java Data by Thomas Bishop, et al (Wrox)

[Johannes de Jong]

This book does a fantastic job covering the different options available to the Java programmer when it comes to data centric problems / solutions. Though not a JDBC specific book, JDBC is the "golden thread" that runs through the whole book. Both the JDBC 2.0 optional packages and SQLJ are covered in depth , nice and up to date.
Most readers will be inclined to skip section I , (Software, Object, and Data Design and Modeling ), I suggest you don't its a fantastic summary on the subject. Technology watchers will be happy to see the inclusion of the chapter on JDO.
Case studies are included in books to make the theory come to life. This book has as many as 4. I would have preferred one massive case that took a "problem" , highlighted the options available to the designers , discussed the pro's and cons of each and implemented it.
I also wish the team that wrote this book took the time to choose one standard set of tools ie. data base servers, for their coding examples. I personally find it extremely irritating that I have to download and install something else first before I can try the code in a new chapter.
I highly recommend this book. This is the book you will grab when you want do "Data in Java".
(Johannes de Jong - bartender, August 2001)

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[Johannes de Jong]

Pse see Wrox's reply to my comment about the tools in this thread