Customer Reviews

Learning SQL

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

To all my Notes/Domino developer colleagues, here's a tip you already know... it's time to learn SQL. If it's been on your list of "things to learn or brush up on", I'd recommend the book Learning SQL by Alan Beaulieu. It's an excellent way to get up to speed (or *back* up to speed).

Contents: A Little Background; Creating and Populating a Database; Query Primer; Filtering; Querying Multiple Tables; Working with Sets; Data Generation, Conversion, and Manipulation; Subqueries; Joins Revisited; Conditional Logic; Transactions; Indexes and Constraints; ER Diagram for Example Database; MySQL Extensions to the SQL Language; Solutions to Exercises; Further Resources; Index

Notes/Domino 7 incorporates the ability to store your Domino data in a DB2 repository. Then using Data Access Views, you can create application views that use SQL statements to generate the selection formula. While you don't absolutely *have* to know SQL, it'd be a good time to start adding that skill to your repertoire. Beaulieu's book is a clearly written tutorial on SQL that uses the open source MySQL database package to teach you the necessary skills. I like the decision to use MySQL, as it's something that's free and available to everyone. Trying to get DB2 up and running can be difficult, and it's definitely overkill if you're just trying to learn SQL. When you finish this book, you'll know all the key concepts that will allow you get data out of (and put data into) any relational database table out there. Obviously that's a valuable skill to have in your toolbox...

So... commit to picking up a new skill or two in the upcoming year. I'd recommend that one of those skills be a fundamental knowledge of SQL, and Learning SQL can help you get there.

Over the past 30+ years programming languages (popular ones) have come, gone, and new ones seem to appear every couple of years or so. FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, C, C++, Java, and now C#... the question isn't IF the next big language is going to come but WHEN. While the way we program has changed, the de facto standard for talking and creating databases hasn't changed much since the early 70s when SQL was created. While refined and standardized several times since its inception, SQL remains the tried and true backbone way of communicating with all databases, whether they are Oracle, SQL Server, MYSql, Access, etc.

For this reason, it is not only important, but I believe ESSENTIAL for all developers in this day and age to come quickly up to speed and learn what SQL is because no matter who you are, at some point (probably sooner than later) you will have to use SQL in your development career. Back when I was introduced to SQL in the mid 90s I knew nothing of what SQL was, thrown into it by immediately looking at SELECT queries, INSERTS, and so on. I would have loved some overview teaching guide to help me get my feet wet, instead learning the hard way.

Have no fear, those days are over.

With 'Learning SQL', Alan Beaulieu gives a great overview of what SQL is and what makes it so important in the world today. More than any other programming language, databases are what keeps the world moving on a daily basis, whether it's the financial sector, health care, government, etc. No matter where you using a computer, you will be accessing a database and for that data to be grabbed and manipulated, you will need to use SQL to make your calls/updates.

O'Reilly has a storied tradition of making great "Learning" books, and the same can easily be said here as well. I find it amazing that it took so long for a Learning SQL book to come out, but sometimes it's better to wait and let the finished product be even better with age.

Highlights include:

History of SQL (background)
Creating and populating a database
Using SELECT statements to get data
Filtering data with conditions
Querying multiple tables at once
Working with sets (UNIONS et al)
Data generation, conversion, manipulation
GROUP statements
Creating subqueries
JOINS in detail
Adding conditional logic
The importance of Transactions
Performance gains via Indexes and Constraints

For anyone that isn't a SQL expert, this is a great refresher for all. For anyone that is new or an amateur in their SQL careers, this book is absolutely a gem.

This should be required reading for all database 101 students, and I give it an A+ for not only the content within but the simplicity with which it is to read.

***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION

Are you working with relational databases and writing applications, performing administrative tasks, or generating reports? If you are, you're in luck! Author Alan Beaulieu, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will show you how to interact with the data in your database.

Beaulieu, begins by exploring the history of computerized databases, including the rise of the relational model and the SQL language. Then, he demonstrates how to create a MySQL database, create the tables used for the examples in this book, and populate the tables with data. The author continues by introducing the select statement and further demonstrating the most common clauses. Next, he demonstartes the different types of conditions that can be used in the where clause of a select, update, or delete statement. Then, the author shows you how queries can utilize multiple tables via table joins. He continues with a discussion about data sets and how they can interact within queries. Then, he demonstrates several built-in functions used for manipulating or converting data. The author continues by showing you how data can be aggregated. Next, he introduces the subquery and shows how and where they can be utilized. Then, the author further explores the various types of table joins. He continues by exploring how conditional logic can be utilized in select, insert, update, and delete statements. Then, the author introduces transactions and shows how to use them. Finally, he explores indexes and constraints.

While this most excellent book demonstrates many of the SQL schema statements, the main focus of this book is on programming features. Filled with example code, you may use some of the code in this book in your programs and documentation. Basically, this book is here to help you get your job done--whatever it may be.

Caution, the book presumes readers understand databases organize data in tables and SQL inserts, updates, queries and deletes the data. If you do understand that but struggle with SQL syntax, this book is a great summary of SQL. It is well organized, clearly written with working examples to get you started quickly.

The book is more or less focused on MySQL and Oracle syntax, which means Itzik Ben-Gan's book on T-SQL is a better alternative for SQL Server folks. Also, advanced non-portable features are not well developed for either MySQL or Oracle.

It is rated 4 because it fails to explain the when and why in some places.

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?

Alan Beaulieu's Learning SQL comes as close as possible to covering exactly those three topics, and it covers them with clarity, completeness, enthusiasm, and scrupulous attention to the reader's needs.

When I say the book comes "as close as possible" to covering the designated topics, I'm making allowance for the fact that the examples in the book rely on MySQL Community Server, the no cost, freely available, open source database server.

The author recommends that you download and install MySQL and load the sample database so that you can run the examples and experiment with the data. In most cases, though, the examples will run on Oracle Database and SQL Server without modification, and in any case, when modifications are needed, they are provided in the text. Also, in point of fact, almost all of the SQL statements can be used in any application (e.g., Microsoft Access) that relies on SQL to query data.

The book starts by considering the challenges of storing data efficiently. It very briefly explores the history of computerized databases, including the rise of relational concepts and the development of SQL. Then the book introduces a very simple, easy-to-understand database of banking operations and begins to explore how data in the various tables can be added, modified, and deleted through the power of SQL.

The book's strength lies in its careful unfolding of concepts and examples. At no point are you asked to digest more than one concept at a time, and with each new concept, concrete examples are provided to illustrate the concept and cement your understanding.

The book takes note of the fact that SQL statements can be divided into schema statements, data statements, and transaction statements. The bulk of the book is devoted to explication of data statements, but schema statements are also covered fairly extensively in a chapter on creating and populating a database and in a separate chapter devoted to meta data. Transaction statements also receive a dedicated chapter.

Early in the book, a "Query Primer" demonstrates how to think about and exploit the power of SELECT, FROM, and WHERE clauses of standard queries. From there, the book proceeds to filtering, updating, and deleting, before proceeding to queries involving multiple tables. A chapter on basic set theory ("Working with sets") is very well done and includes highly graphical presentations. Additional chapters cover data generation, conversion and manipulation, aggregation, subqueries, conditional logic, indexes and constraints, and data views (i.e., interfaces to shield users from the complexity of the underlying data).

The entire book is well written and thoughtfully organized. As you read along and follow the examples, your reaction is likely to be, "Aha! This new concept is simple and easy to grasp, just like the last one!" And, indeed, Beaulieu does an excellent job of breaking down the complexities of database theory and the SQL language into fundamental underlying concepts that anyone can understand.

The book is so readable that you won't have any trouble breezing through it from start to finish in the order presented, but if you want to dip into it for reference purposes, the detailed table of contents and extensive index will allow you to do so. Either way, after just 320 pages of highly illustrated text, you will feel in complete command of SQL fundamentals.

I bought "Learning SQL" in order to begin to prepare myself for the Microsoft Certification Exam for SQL Server 2005. I had some prior knowledge of SQL, but almost exclusively in writing SELECT statements. "Learning SQL" broadened my knowledge with its simple, easy to follow chapters. All of the important concepts are explained, and the examples given are very clear and intuitive.

The best part about this book is that it also introduced me to MySQL. The command-line interface was at first daunting, but then focused me on the code and syntax and nothing else. The sample code available for free online also provides an excellent companion for this book, as the hands-on approach is undoubtedly the best way to cement the concepts. The exercises at the end of the chapters gave me confidence and assurance.

Overall, "Learning SQL" is a terrific book for people looking to bridge the gap to understanding SQL beyond clumsy SELECT statements to a much more comprehensive knowledge.

I have used a variety of SQL applications for over a decade now, and always used the reference documentation from the vendor. That does work just fine, but it left me ignorant of the greater SQL market, tools that the versions I was using didn't have, and better ways of dealing with common problems.

I have never found such an easy to comprehend explanation of the types of joins. I read this book 3 months ago, and just yesterday pulled it off my shelf to write a moderately complex query. I still could have done the job without it, but then I would have had to write 20 more lines of perl code, instead of one well written query.

I am a better SQL DBA having read the book, and its a valuable reference. How much more could I ask?