Customer Reviews

Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book presupposes no prior knowledge of Oracle SQL, or indeed of any SQL. de Haan writes for someone willing to study alone from this text, without benefit of the classroom.

Ah, but before I go further, I should add that there is one very attractive feature. The book has a CD with Oracle 10g for Microsoft Windows, and an associated Developer's License. You will need to install it to handle the many exercises he poses. (Another plus of the book.) But one can easily imagine an experienced developer getting the book for the CD alone.

Now if you do need to learn Oracle SQL, de Haan proceeds at a careful pace. He gives you the syntax in understandable chunks; not too much to overwhelm. SQL syntax diagrams can be formidable in their full glory. But piece by piece, you should be able to assimilate the content.

de Haan has also tried to keep to standard SQL syntax, as much as possible. At the level of an expected reader of the book, this is probably best. Oracle specific variants (just like other vendors' variants) tend to arise in more advanced contexts.

The main reason I love this book is because I can use it to teach someone, at any level, Oracle SQL or SQL*Plus by just pointing to sections and pages as examples. There are comprehensive query examples with Oracle and ANSI/ISO (SQL:2003) syntax, including specific Oracle limitations.

The details on SQL*Plus are excellent and even experts can learn quite a few essential tips. At many points reading the book I was provoked into testing further details on my own, because the approach is clear and helpful and it motivated me to think. A complete and accurate book including theory, syntax, examples, references and gotchas (caution and notes). It also includes 10g Oracle query features.

Great book. My copy gets used at work a lot. :-)

This book gets you started as a beginner and takes you all the way to becoming an intermediate SQL expert. Even those who think they know SQL can learn a lot from the book. Lex de Haan is a rare bird: he is both a very good teacher AND a consummate SQL savvy seasoned by industry practice. Lex knows what errors people make and he sets all the traps, to pick you out after you've fallen into them.
And it's up to date with the latest Oracle stuff, without drowning in hype.
The smart exercises and answers make this book ideal for teachers. I've had loads of university students work with the Dutch version, and I've been sorry for the lack of an English equivalent. But here it is at last!

This is an ideal introduction to Oracle SQL. I wish I had it when I was starting out. It's a combination reference and walkthrough that covers the fundamentals and some advanced techniques. The language is shown with graphs to show the syntax variations and the use of the operations is described in great detail. The text is a bit dry, but you can't fault it too much for that. An excellent book for those looking for an introduction to Oracle SQL, and probably useful for people with a mid level of experience as well.

First the negatives of the book:
* Page numbers are missing from all pages except the first page of each chapter. This is not a critical problem until one attempts to use the index at the back of the book to locate a specific topic.
* The initial word in a couple of paragraphs is missing.
* The left-most column of table 2-5 "SQL Arithmetic Operators" is blank. The left-most column of table 4-2 "SQL Comparison Operators" is blank.
* Between listing 9-14 and 9-15 (approximately page 244) the book states that an ORDER BY is executed before a ROWNUM filter in the WHERE clause is applied, when in fact the ORDER BY is applied after the ROWNUM filter is evaluated (based on the pre-existing order of the rows in the table blocks) - meaning that the desired rows from the query would not be returned, and that is why the inline view is required.
* The book states that GROUP BY requires a sort operation, but that is no longer the case with more recent releases of Oracle (it was a correct statement as of the original publication date).
* The front cover of the book states that the book includes a CD with a developer's license for Oracle 10g (version 10.1.0.2). No CD is included with the book, however a version of Oracle with a developer license may be downloaded from Oracle's OTN website.
* The book has limited coverage of analytical functions.

Like many of the Apress books, this book is extremely well written with a thoughtful layout and a careful progression of topics. This approach will help to advance the skills of readers who are just beginning to understand how to write Oracle SQL statements, and there is sufficient coverage of "newer" (or little known) syntax to assist long-term intermediate and advanced users of Oracle SQL in finding better ways of attacking old coding problems (using UPDATE against an inline view, instead-of-triggers, outputting HTML from SQL*Plus, regular expressions, INSERT ALL, SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH, etc.).

Syntax of SQL*Plus commands and Oracle specific SQL is interspersed throughout the book's chapters, introduced as those commands are needed by the author's examples. I initially felt a bit disappointed by this approach until I noticed the thoroughness and organization of appendix A "Quick Reference to SQL and SQL*Plus". For an intermediate to advanced user of Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus, that section of the book will prove invaluable when trying to determine if the correct linking syntax for a SQL statement is "ON", "IN", "OVER", "FROM", "TO", or "OF". For a beginner, that section of the book while help to quickly determine if a SQL command exists for a specific task.

Even with the negatives outlined at the beginning of this review, most of which appear to be typesetting issues, this book is still the best Oracle SQL reference that I have found so far, providing just enough detail to help a person to become productive when interacting with Oracle databases, without overwhelming the reader with 20 variations of different SQL statements which accomplish the same basic task. I just wish that I had found a book of this caliber a decade earlier.

Hi

Having read 100's of reviews on SQL*Plus books I finally decided on this book. I felt that I had to give feedback as this book is not as good as the other reviews make it to be. I was looking for a book that specifically contained info on SQL*Plus syntax and a bit of SQL.
I was full of expectations, but ended up being very disappointed. The books does cover SQL and it does cover SQL*Plus, but it never goes into any real depth on either topics. I love real world examples that I can actually refer back to and use on the job. Unfortunately this is not one of those books. If you are not an absolute beginner and can already do a fair bit of SQL/SQL*Plus then this book is not for you.

I have been doing a survey of Oracle books since I have a need to learn this database.. I took this book out of the library and I was looking at some of their samples that look like they have been thrown out there expecting you to get the data behind them. I went online to Apress looking for the source code and downloaded it only to find that the data is missing from the tables (actually all the code contained simple select statements).

If you are learning SQL, and they are presenting how to you functions, they should provide the data as a download, included CD or some other format. Otherwise, the reader will have no clue behind what they are trying to show you...

For example, in chapter 4 they are showing the difference between using the select statement with and without the distinct attribute. According to their discussion their are 8 rows displayed instead of 14 except what is the original data entered into the table? Am I missing something?

The only good book that I found is Oracle Database by Jason Price. Even though he focuses on some small stuff he is coherent, complete and thorough in his presentation. In addition the complete source code can be downloaded from the web. The only thing is that he stuffs a lot of the examples into a few files but you can easily cut the information out that you need (at least the table data is provided to the user which really helps)...

Update:

This past week, I went to the Apress website and filled out an errata on this book... Even though, they said the writer will be contacted, I do not think anything will come about changing this issue (even though I do not believe it is a major fix).

The best introduction to SQL around. Period.
This book is one of those rare instances in which an exceptionally savy author dedicates his knowledge and patience to the beginner in his field, instead of choosing the easy road of writing only high brow, terse and generally useless articles. The pace is gentle but fast enough to keep you interested, presentation style if fantastically clear and engaging. The teaching strategy is hands on and includes a through tutorial of SQL Plus, the essential tool for practicing and sharpening your SQL skills on Oracle.
Exercises are included and Lo and Behold, solutions are also given to all exercises, contrary to the usual sad practice in most technical books and textbooks. Ideal for teaching a class or self-study.
It's very sad that Lex De Haan left us, but we are lucky to have books like this in which his knowledge, talent and experience live on and can be precious to many database students and professionals.
Thank you, Lex.

What a pleasure to pick up a computer book and finish it.
I was completely new to SQL and was looking for a book that would get me started, this was it.
What impressed me more was when I came upon an obstacle the response I received from the author was quick and informative.

Many thanks Lex

Disappointed; although quite lengthy in its treatment of the subject matter what use is an index when the pages are not numbered? In addition, the much touted companion CD, where is it?