Customer Reviews

Learning SQL: A Step-By-Step Guide Using Oracle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Despite the pile Oracle Certified Professional training material I received in class and the OCP certification books on SQL, there were aspects that I didn't fully understand until I read this excellent book.

Part I contains the absolute basics, all of which are as applicable to IT professionals and business users. The first three chapters are standard fare in most books of this sort - getting started and the basic commands (SELECT, CREATE, etc.). It's in Chapters 3-9 where the clarity of the author's writing pays off. These chapters cover Cartesian products, joins and aliases; set operations; grouping and sub queries. These are not easy to grasp by beginners, but the book clearly explains each, and also goes into details such as the differences between a join and sub queries, sub query correlation and similar topics.

Part II of the book covers more advanced tasks that are more suited to DBAs., with some material that will interest advanced business users and IT business systems analysts. For the DBA only are chapters on creating tables and using Oracle's SQL*Loader, triggers and PL/SQL (although some advanced business users employ PL/SQL it's rare, and the focus in the chapter on the subject is more in line with DBA uses). For all readers the chapter titled "Multiple Commands, START Files, and Reports" contains highly useful information, especially on how to do crude branching with the DECODE statement. The four appendices are also valuable references, and cover using Oracle in the UNIX environment, data dictionaries, the student database and associated tables, and improvements that Oracle made to 8i and 9i.

If you're pursuing your OCP certification and find that the class materials are too terse, or that the books are more focused on getting you through the exam instead of teaching you how to use SQL, get this book. For business users, IT business systems analysts and others who need to write and execute queries against an Oracle database and need a solid introduction to SQL this book will meet their needs.

This is a really good for a beginner to learn SQL using Oracle. The authors have very clearly explained the complicated terms and concepts, in a fashion we are used to learn in class rooms.

It can also be used as a reference book or as a quick refresher course for someone who have not used SQL in a few years or so.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone interested to learn SQL using Oracle.

i bought this book to learn SQL two year ago. The SQL table that comes with the book was meant for Oracle 8 and when i started learning SQL the version was 9 , so this book did not serve any purpose to me.

Thie is a great book for beginners, taking you from a background of SQl through an introduction of terms right into developing simple queries.

Yes, this book is outdated. But, given its stated mission, that's really not a problem. From page xv in the Preface, under the Audience and Coverage section:

"Overall, although this book does not discuss advanced features such as performance tuning issues or advanced PL/SQL, it is ideal for a beginning Oracle user to get an overview of what SQL and Oracle entails. The book gives a very good "feel" for what Oracle is and the many ways Oracle can be used. It certainly can be considered a starting point for what Oracle has to offer."

I was very impressed with how the authors wrote to this goal. The book starts from the premise that the reader has barely heard the word "database" and works up from there. It was really designed to be used in conjunction with an actual database theory course. So, the assumed level of knowledge seems to creep up a bit as the book progresses. But, even so, anyone even vaguely familiar with database theory should have no problem reading this book. It's very well done.

But, you wonder, why do I only give it an OK rating of 3 stars out of 5? Because the authors do one unforgivable thing: they teach new material in the Exercises. Exercises are supposed to measure how well people have learned the material taught in the book. They're not for teaching new material. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have given the book a Very Good 4 stars out of 5 rating. Still, if you don't really need the theory behind a database and just need to get by with a bit of SQL under Oracle, I do recommend this book.

I bought this book to refresh my knowledge of SQL, especially the new stuff that has been added in the past few years, such as GROUP BY ROLLUP. THIS BOOK DOES NOT COVER RECENT CHANGES TO SQL FOR ORACLE.