Learning SQL (Paperback)

~ (Author), Beaulieu Alan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you have been avoiding coming to grips with SQL, or if you feel that you are only just coping with putting together queries and designing tables, then this is the book you need to understand what is going on." - Mike James, VSJ, July/August 2006 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Updated for the latest database management systems -- including MySQL 6.0, Oracle 11g, and Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 -- this introductory guide will get you up and running with SQL quickly. Whether you need to write database applications, perform administrative tasks, or generate reports, Learning SQL, Second Edition, will help you easily master all the SQL fundamentals.

Each chapter presents a self-contained lesson on a key SQL concept or technique, with numerous illustrations and annotated examples. Exercises at the end of each chapter let you practice the skills you learn. With this book, you will:

• Move quickly through SQL basics and learn several advanced features
• Use SQL data statements to generate, manipulate, and retrieve data
• Create database objects, such as tables, indexes, and constraints, using SQL schema statements
• Learn how data sets interact with queries, and understand the importance of subqueries
• Convert and manipulate data with SQL's built-in functions, and use conditional logic in data statements

Knowledge of SQL is a must for interacting with data. With Learning SQL, you'll quickly learn how to put the power and flexibility of this language to work.

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Product Details Paperback: 335 pages Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Annotated edition (April 27, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 0596520832 ISBN-13: 978-0596520830 Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1 inches Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #148,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #38 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Specific Databases > MySQL & mSQL #40 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Data Warehousing #44 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Data Mining

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	68% buy the item featured on this page: Learning SQL 4.4 out of 5 stars (28) $26.39
	13% buy Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes (3rd Edition) 4.5 out of 5 stars (151) $13.59
	9% buy SQL Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) 4.7 out of 5 stars (45) $26.37
	6% buy Head First SQL 4.2 out of 5 stars (37) $29.70

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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews 5 star:  (20) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (2) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.4 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 50 of 55 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Programmers, please read!, October 7, 2005 By  Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       This review is from: Learning SQL (Paperback) If you're writing any type of database driven code and you think that you don't need to understand SQL, read this book. You do need to understand it, and this book teaches it very well. Man, I'm so tired of cleaning up bad SQL code. Code that makes hundreds of queries when one would suffice. Or tables that have no primary keys. Or code that never makes use of joins. SQL is not horrible. It's worth understanding and knowing how to write well. This book is well written, well illustrated, and makes learning SQL as pain-free as it can be. Please, please, please, read this book. 60 of 67 people found the following review helpful: 2.0 out of 5 stars grammar-based approach can't get off the ground, August 28, 2006 By  Matthew J. Garland (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Learning SQL (Paperback) It seems like most of the people writing reviews for this book already know databases to some degree. I didn't, so I'd like to share my experience. This book takes an old-school, grammatical approach to the SQL language, grouping related commands into chapters, then explaining each, one by one. This makes the first part of the book exhilarating. You go to the O'Reilly website and download a database to work on, and immediately you are querying, updating, etc, using the examples from the book. SQL at first seems refreshingly direct and powerful compared to the (OO) programming languages I know. However, the 'a command followed by long verbal explanation" approach completely falls apart when the content goes even a little deeper. For me, the book took a nosedive at the first "Joins" chapter, and never recovered. It was then I realized that I had not yet firmly grasped what a 'foreign key" was, so it was hard to get my head around the the idea of a join. A simple graph would have helped at many points, but there are no graphs. Nor are the code examples embedded in meaningful contexts or test cases. Indeed, the reasons for writing the code are almost in every case revealed AFTER the code is shown ("in that last query, the intent was..."), and the code is never commented, which makes it harder to understand and retain. And without any context, it is difficult to understand WHY to use one command over another. It seems like you can skin a cat a million ways in SQL--so why prefer one kind of filtering to another? Performance, readability, what? I guess it sounds like I just wanted this book to be a 'Head First'-type book, and that's true. But even on its own terms, this book is frustrating. Its pure emphasis on the language somehow skips syntax, and the long verbal explanations are constantly seesawing away from themselves ("as we will see", "as we have seen"). I've finished the book and feel reasonably confident about using SQL now. So this book is serviceable...but unnecessarily painful, too. 32 of 34 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Beats "SQL for Dummies" Hands Down, March 4, 2006 By  Larry (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Learning SQL (Paperback) Like everyone else, I'm pressed for time. It's all I can do to keep up with Java, let alone related incidental technologies such as SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Ant, etc. But as one reviewer pointed out: make no mistake, you need to know SQL. And if you don't (hell, even if you do), this is just a flat-out good book to have and read. I had previously purchased and read "SQL for Dummies", but threw that book out when I got this one. (To be honest, it wasn't just this book that made me toss the "Dummies" book; I never really liked it to begin with.) I like the way "Learning SQL" is written. Sure, facts are presented, but the author does a masterful job of telling you how and why those facts exist. In addition, the conversational tone of the book proceeds along the path you'd expect from a real conversation: from the simpler to the more complex, in a logical and sensical path. (Okay, so most conversations don't fall into that category. But this book sure does, so do yourself a favor and buy it!) Oh, and one more thing related to being pressed for time: it's not the technical-typical 700+ pages, it's just a few hundred.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely straight and effective This book is great if you want to learn SQL quickly without taking the pain to scan the available tutorials from the Internet. Read more Published 1 month ago by T. Wenckebach 5.0 out of 5 stars Updated for the latest database management systems including Server 2008 and Oracle 11g Computer libraries will relish Alan Beaulieu's LEARNING SQL, 2ND EDITION, updated for the latest database management systems including Server 2008 and Oracle 11g. Read more Published 4 months ago by Midwest Book Review 5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, detailed, and useful If a person is looking to become a database administrator, or just needs to get up to speed on the basics with some understanding of what they are doing and why, this is an... Read more Published 5 months ago by M. Helmke 5.0 out of 5 stars Beginner's Luck Wouldn't it be great if your first study guide on databases covered database theory in general, your own favorite database server in particular, and also the ins and outs of SQL... Read more Published 6 months ago by William N. Coan 5.0 out of 5 stars Very Easy SQL This book is easy understand i dont know any about SQL and now y can make some querys with simple use of SELECT, FROM, WHERE. Published 7 months ago by L. Medero 5.0 out of 5 stars Good beginner book This is a great for those who want to learn mysql. It's easy to understand and the examples are clear and simple and teach you step by step what you need to know. Read more Published 13 months ago by Jeremy R. Laporte 3.0 out of 5 stars Keiths Review Very well written book. However, I really needed the book to learn Microsoft SQL Server and it is more directed towards MySQL, which I do not use. Read more Published 14 months ago by Keith E. Ducett Jr. 3.0 out of 5 stars Only for beginners I have been working with some fairly decent SQL from the past 3 years. I wanted to improve my basics and also learn some advanced topics. Read more Published 17 months ago by Vijay R 2.0 out of 5 stars Only for MySQL, not for Microsoft SQL Server Buy instead the excellent book by Ben Forta "SQL in 10 Minutes", which is a bit more simplistic but better. Read more Published on July 19, 2007 by A_2007_reader 5.0 out of 5 stars Not for a true novice I bought this book thinking I could learn SQL as a true novice. This book is not intended for a real beginner, but for developers/programmers that probably already know at least... Read more Published on June 21, 2007 by stayathomedad Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Annotated edition (April 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596520832
• ISBN-13: 978-0596520830
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #148,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #38 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Specific Databases > MySQL & mSQL
  #40 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Data Warehousing
  #44 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Data Mining

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Programmers, please read!, October 7, 2005

By	Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Learning SQL (Paperback)

If you're writing any type of database driven code and you think that you don't need to understand SQL, read this book. You do need to understand it, and this book teaches it very well.

Man, I'm so tired of cleaning up bad SQL code. Code that makes hundreds of queries when one would suffice. Or tables that have no primary keys. Or code that never makes use of joins. SQL is not horrible. It's worth understanding and knowing how to write well.

This book is well written, well illustrated, and makes learning SQL as pain-free as it can be. Please, please, please, read this book.

60 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars grammar-based approach can't get off the ground, August 28, 2006

By	Matthew J. Garland (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Learning SQL (Paperback)

It seems like most of the people writing reviews for this book already know databases to some degree. I didn't, so I'd like to share my experience.

This book takes an old-school, grammatical approach to the SQL language, grouping related commands into chapters, then explaining each, one by one.

This makes the first part of the book exhilarating. You go to the O'Reilly website and download a database to work on, and immediately you are querying, updating, etc, using the examples from the book. SQL at first seems refreshingly direct and powerful compared to the (OO) programming languages I know.

However, the 'a command followed by long verbal explanation" approach completely falls apart when the content goes even a little deeper. For me, the book took a nosedive at the first "Joins" chapter, and never recovered.

It was then I realized that I had not yet firmly grasped what a 'foreign key" was, so it was hard to get my head around the the idea of a join.

A simple graph would have helped at many points, but there are no graphs.

Nor are the code examples embedded in meaningful contexts or test cases. Indeed, the reasons for writing the code are almost in every case revealed AFTER the code is shown ("in that last query, the intent was..."), and the code is never commented, which makes it harder to understand and retain. And without any context, it is difficult to understand WHY to use one command over another. It seems like you can skin a cat a million ways in SQL--so why prefer one kind of filtering to another? Performance, readability, what?

I guess it sounds like I just wanted this book to be a 'Head First'-type book, and that's true. But even on its own terms, this book is frustrating. Its pure emphasis on the language somehow skips syntax, and the long verbal explanations are constantly seesawing away from themselves ("as we will see", "as we have seen").

I've finished the book and feel reasonably confident about using SQL now. So this book is serviceable...but unnecessarily painful, too.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beats "SQL for Dummies" Hands Down, March 4, 2006

By	Larry (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning SQL (Paperback)

Like everyone else, I'm pressed for time. It's all I can do to keep up with Java, let alone related incidental technologies such as SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Ant, etc. But as one reviewer pointed out: make no mistake, you need to know SQL. And if you don't (hell, even if you do), this is just a flat-out good book to have and read. I had previously purchased and read "SQL for Dummies", but threw that book out when I got this one. (To be honest, it wasn't just this book that made me toss the "Dummies" book; I never really liked it to begin with.)
I like the way "Learning SQL" is written. Sure, facts are presented, but the author does a masterful job of telling you how and why those facts exist. In addition, the conversational tone of the book proceeds along the path you'd expect from a real conversation: from the simpler to the more complex, in a logical and sensical path. (Okay, so most conversations don't fall into that category. But this book sure does, so do yourself a favor and buy it!)
Oh, and one more thing related to being pressed for time: it's not the technical-typical 700+ pages, it's just a few hundred.