Customer Reviews

Instant SQL

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book after reading several favorable recommendations. Unfortunately, they were all from people who had some prior knowledge of SQL and "assumed" that this book would be good for beginners, because it made complete sense to them when they read it.

Having no SQL knowledge whatsoever, I had a hard time trying to fish out little SQL code tidbits that I could run myself, and thereby learn by doing. This book really discourages that. (See the reader review from 1998-04-10.)

If you are new to SQL, try Teach Yourself SQL in 24 hours (don't let the title throw you) from Sam's Publishing, which I found to be much better suited for neophytes.

Also, the author is member of Ansi SQL standards committee, and it shows. He talks about esoteric SQL topics, i.e. comparing facets of SQL-92 to sQL-89, etc. Not only does this get in the way of the useful content, it is usually an irrelevant distraction that the reader could do without.

Most people who are looking to learn SQL want explanations of SQL and examples. A nice plus is to have strategies for making your SQL run as efficiently as possible.

The problem with this book stems from the author's involvement with the group that sets standards for SQL. For example, after providing an example of SQL on page 259, the author states: "This is a legal expression in SQL-92, but isn't yet implemented in many products."

In other words, the example is permitted by the standards group, but you are not likely to be able to use it in Oracle, Sybase, Informix, SQL Server, etc. This type of teaching is quite common among people like the author who, as is noted on the back cover, has been a member of the ANSI X3H2 Database Standards Committee since 1987.

No doubt the book is theoretically correct. But is it practical?

When explaining the GROUP BY clause in SQL, the author gives example SQL that includes the line: GROUP BY partid. People who already know SQL will wonder about this example, because in the book's sample database partid's are unique -- it makes no sense to group them.

People who already know SQL will be lucky enough to realize that this is simply a bad example. But people who are trying to learn will scratch their heads and wonder what the real life purpose of the GROUP BY statement is -- it is not apparent from this example.

Sometimes a teacher who knows his subject very well is unable to explain it in a way that is helpful to beginners. Sometimes a teacher who is caught up in theoretical aspects of his subject is unable to explain it in a practical way. The author has both of these problems.

If you already have a good working knowledge of SQL, you might gain a few insights from this book. But the emphasis here is on the word "few." For example, the chapter on "Optimization and Performance Tips" probably should be retitled, "A Beginner's Guide to Putting an SQL Query Together." To give you an idea of how poor the advice is, the last section of this chapter on optimization and performance has a Bag of Tricks, and Trick #2 is: "Don't use more tables than you have to."

That's it -- that's the complete text of Trick #2! This has to qualify as one of the top ten least helpful SQL tips of the decade. If the author was teaching cooking, I wouldn't be surprised to see this tip: "When cooking food on the stove, don't burn anything."

So, if you are just learning SQL, you can certainly find a better offering than this one. Look for books that provide real life examples. Avoid books, like this one, that go off onto tangents about things that are permitted by the SQL-92 standard but have not been implemented yet in the database you will be using.

If you already know SQL and are looking for advanced tips and tuning ideas, look elsewhere. There are lots of good books brimming with ideas on these topics. This book just isn't one of them.

This book reads like a compilation of notes and papers from some standards conference. The author comes off as very full of himself and doesn't need to be bothered by giving practical content to this theory.

Much of the useful information is hidden in the author's syntax notation.

This book is too confusing for a beginner and too shallow for a pro. There is nothing "Instant" about this book. I am very disappointed with this WROX publication

The publisher of this book calls its line of books "Programmer to Programmer." This book is a good introduction to SQL, written for programmers. There is a strong emphasis on theory: of databases, of SQL, and of how to use SQL. Theory is presented before syntax, which was very helpful for me. The book's emphasis on theory, and the fact that it was written for programmers, are what make this book unique.

At times the flow of topics is a little confusing, and the book often reads like it was proofread by someone not well-versed in American English. However, the overall presentation of SQL and database concepts far outweighs the book's sometimes mediocre readability.

I would not recommend this book to the non-programmer, but I highly recommend it to the intelligent programmer who wants to understand SQL and be a high-quality database programmer.

The book starts with installation notes telling reader that instead of using password such and such and id such, as it is described in the software's help, you rathre have to use password "sql" and password "dba". I tried to enter "sql" and "dba" into the password-asking dialog box, and it did not work. Then I realized that it is password "sql" and USERID "dba", and not only it is a misprint, they are listed in a reverse order: first you enter "dba", and second - "sql". That's on the very first page. The page 5 states, that supplied version of Watcom SQL engine will not allow to execute commands CREATE, ALTER, DROP, GRANT or REVOKE. That makes impossible to practice anything you read up to the chapter 5. However, in chapter 6 on p. 162 author offers you to execute command ALTER TABLE, and if you already forgot about page 5, that's a lot of frustration. At this time it helps to return to page 8: "The code in this book has been extensively tested ... so if you encounter an error message ... please thoroughly check that you've typed the code in correctly ... if you don't type in all of the examples, then you may encounter problems later with certain structures or features which haven't been created".

I have read several books on SQL and while they have been useful none of them have explaned SQL as simply and clearly as this one. Probably the best and most unique part of this book is the explanation of how SQL actually works. If you are comming from a programming background you are going to be in for some convusion. SQL is not a procedural programming language but a set based one. The book clarifies this difference and helps programmers get off on the right foot. The book also covers the SQL language and syntax to a depth that is just right. SQL can be very complicated but only the experts will need to deal with those nitty gritty details that would only confuse most people (see Joe's book SQL For Smarties if you want the nitty gritty or are already an expert - or at least think you are!).. If there is one shortcomming to this book it is that it lacks significant examples of SQL in actual use. Check for "cookbook" type SQL titles to compliment this book if you need such help

Probably not the best book ever written for SQL, let alone for beginners.

However, it is the one I used to learn SQL. It covers the basics in a fairly concise manner, enough so to be able to move on to a more advanced book. I read it cover-to-cover, and didn't agonize over the side-tracking or standards discussions. What I wanted was the details on the syntax of the language and an understanding of what the statements do, and that is what was provided along with some basic examples. By the end of the book, I was able to use SQL at a novice level.

I'm not sure I'd use this book to teach a class on beginning SQL, but as a quick and dirty read to get a first taste of the language, it fits. P-)

Database design and SQL are difficult subjects but a book for beginners should make every effort to accomodate the beginner by simplifying it as much as possible. And, to a degree, this book does that. But there are too many forays into outer space. Consider this passage from page 122: 'You can summarize the rule as follows: if X and Y are columns and X is a key, then for any Z which is a proper subset of X, it can't be the case that Z determines Y.' No matter how elegant, I don't think anyone would argue that this is helpful for a beginner. On the contrary, it tends to make the subject seem as difficult as possible. Hardly a proper goal for a beginner's book. I am about half-way through this book and, increasingly, I am going to MSDN for a clearer explanation to each of the subjects that Celko addresses.

Ok, it's 10 years since this book was written and it is still the one I use as my SQL reference.

One note - I'm a programmer, not a DBA. So my SQL needs are pretty simple. But if you want a basic reference that covers all of the basics clearly - this is the book.

I ordered this book, despite the word "INSTANT" in its title (how "Instant" can SQL get?) only because it was Celko's latest book. This book is below Celko's usual caliber (I consider Joe Celko as one of the leading authorities on SQL and especially writing about SQL). It is intended for the begining/not-so-begining SQL programmer. The intermediate programmer would be happier and more satisfied with Celko's: SQL for Smarties. It is here where you can find the Joe Celko we used to know and admire who wrote for DBMS magazine! I only wish that Celko had written SQL books for begginers back when my generation of programmers were begining to learn the language.