SQL in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference [Paperback]

Kevin Kline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000 | ISBN-10: 1565927443 | ISBN-13: 978-1565927445 | Edition: 1

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standardized query language for requesting information from a database. Historically, SQL has been the choice for database management systems running on minicomputers and mainframes. Increasingly, however, SQL is being adapted to PC database systems because it supports distributed databases--databases that are spread out over several computer systems, so that several users on a local-area network can access the same database simultaneously. Although there are different dialects of SQL, it is the closest thing to a standard query language that currently exists.

SQL in a Nutshell is a practical and useful command reference to the latest release of the Structured Query Language (SQL99), helping readers learn how their favorite database product supports any standard SQL command. This book presents each of the SQL commands and describes its use in both commercial (Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Oracle 8i) and open source (MySQL, PostgreSQL 7.0) implementations. Each command reference includes the command syntax (by vendor, if the syntax differs across implementations), a description, and informative examples that illustrate important concepts and uses.

SQL in a Nutshell is more than a convenient reference guide for experienced SQL programmers, analysts, and database administrators. It's also a great learning resource for novice and auxiliary SQL users such as system administrators, users of packaged client/server products, and consultants who need to be familiar with the various SQL dialects across many platforms.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

SQL in a Nutshell applies the classic O'Reilly "Nutshell" format to Structured Query Language (SQL), the elegant descriptive language that's used to create and manipulate stores of data. This book explains the purpose and proper syntax of hundreds of SQL statements, as defined in four major SQL implementations, and details each entry with explanatory text and illustrative examples. Perhaps best of all, authors Kevin and Daniel Kline feature MySQL in their coverage, and give it billing that's equal to that of Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. Their inclusion of open-source MySQL, which in most situations carries no license fee, is recognition of its growing popularity and suitability for serious database applications; also, it improves this book's appeal to Unix and Linux developers.

The majority of this slender book comprises eminently useful syntax documentation (which is in the style of Unix man pages, with bracketed options and monospace arguments) and the other information that's specific to individual statements and functions. Additionally, it includes a relatively small amount of conceptual information, such as a section on the proper use of NULL values. The material that's not statement-specific also contrasts data-type implementations of the four covered platforms--for example, readers learn that a PostgreSQL int2 value is known as a smallint in ANSI standard SQL. This is a particularly handy reference book, if you use one of the emphasized SQL implementations. --David Wall

Topics covered: Structured Query Language (SQL), as implemented in Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, as well as in ANSI standard SQL (SQL92 and SQL99). After an introduction to data types and relational database fundamentals (the latter is not emphasized), the authors document SQL statements and functions, one by one and alphabetically. They take care to point out differences among the four implementations.

About the Author

Kevin Kline is the Technical Strategy Manager for SQL Server Solutions at Quest Software, a leading provider of award winning tools for database management and application monitoring tools. Kevin is also a founding board member and former President of the international Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) and frequently contributes to database technology magazines, web sites, and discussion forums. Kevin's most popular book is SQL in a Nutshell published by O'Reilly Media. Kevin is also the author of monthly magazine columns for SQL Server Magazine and Database Trends & Applications. Kevin is a top rated speaker, appearing at international conferences like Microsoft TechEd, DevTeach, PASS, Microsoft IT Forum, and SQL Connections.

Daniel T. Kline (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1997) specializes Middle English literature and culture; Chaucer; literary and cultural theory; critical pedagogy; and digital medievalism. Among others, his publications include essays in Chaucer Review, College Literature, Comparative Drama, the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Philological Quarterly, and Literary and Linguistic Computing, and recent chapters in the Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women (Cambridge, 2003), Translating Desire in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (MRTS, 2005), Mass Market Medievalism (McFarland, 2007), Essays on Medieval Childhood: Responses to Recent Debates (Shaun Tyas, 2007), and Cultural Studies of the Modern Middle Ages (Palgrave, 2007). He edited Medieval Children's Literature (Routledge, 2003) and is co-editing The Medieval in Motion, a volume on contemporary film, TV, and videogame neo-medievalism. His current research concerns children, violence, and sacrifice in late-medieval England, and he has essays forthcoming on Emmanuel Levinas and medieval drama and the apocryphal Infancy of Jesus Christ in MS Laud 108. Prof. Kline is an Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Graduate Program in English at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is also the author/webmaster of The Electronic Canterbury Tales .

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565927443
• ISBN-13: 978-1565927445
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #564,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the book is, and what it is not., May 8, 2003

By 

Nathan Eady (Galion, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQL in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (Paperback)

This book is designed as a reference -- the book that you keep
near your workstation after you learn the basics, because you
haven't got everything memorised yet. It's great for that. I
refer to it when I have a question.

But actually I picked up this book with no prior knowledge of
SQL (except that I knew it was for doing database stuff) and
learned enough to get started in a couple of days. The intro
is great for that.

The great thing about this book is that it covers the four
major SQL implementations in a relatively unbiased fashion.
This is nice because if you switch from one to another you
don't have to go looking for a new book. (Otherwise, you
would; as you will see from reading this book, the various
implementations differ considerably and also differ from
the unimplemented standard, which the book also covers.)

This book is not, and is not intended to be, a tutorial for
people who are utterly unfamiliar with the very concept of
a database, but it's okay to be utterly unfamiliar with SQL.

This book also is not a strategy guide for how to plan and
organise your database; this is an _implementation_ book.
As such, it doesn't cover things like deciding which data
to put in which table, when to create another table and
when to create an entirely separate database, or that sort
of thing. What it does tell you is what query syntax you
need to create and interact with your database, your tables,
and the data in your tables. It also explains datatypes,
because they vary considerably between the different SQL
implementations, and table types and the various attributes
(indeces and whatnot).

Additionally, this book is not a security guide. It does
include information about permissions, but only in terms of
the syntax used, not in terms of strategy.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Overview,Light on Details, January 9, 2001

By 

C. Allwein "cmu_nort" (Lebanon, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SQL in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (Paperback)

I have to question whether any of the other reviewers even looked at the table of contents before purchasing this book:

Chapter 1. SQL, Vendor Implementations, and Some History - a general overview of SQL and where it comes from;

Chapter 2. Foundational Concepts - The general theory behind how a sql works;

Chapter 3. SQL Statements Command Reference - "Quick SQL Command Reference";

Chapter 4. SQL Functions - A standard function reference and vendor extensions;

Chapter 5. Unimplemented SQL99 Commands - commands in the sql standard which aren't implemented by vendors (MS, Oracle);

So as to what it says it covers, it does it quite well. Already being quite familiar with SQl, I still found this book to be useful both as a quick reference to commands as well as for a deeper understanding into how SQL works. This book makes an excellent companion to Transact-SQL Programming, also by Oreilly. If you need a complete SQL reference, get Transact-SQL. If you're looking for a background and introduction to SQL, get this book.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expanded 2nd Edition (more than 3x larger!), October 11, 2004

By 

G. Hamer (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SQL In A Nutshell, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Expanded 2nd Edition (more than 3x larger!)

fyi ... Amazon is including here reviews from both 1st and current 2nd edition. 1st Edition was a "slim" 224 pages (released December 1, 2000 per Amazon). 2nd Edition is 800 pages (released September 27, 2004 per Amazon). From 224 to 800 pages ... hmmm, quite a change!

Per OReilly.com, current 2nd edition covers commercial RDBMS (Oracle, DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server), and open source implementations (PostgreSQL, and MySQL). fyi, 1st edition did not cover DB2.

2nd Edition is updated to use the most current ANSI standard, SQL2003, as the baseline in comparing each of the RDBMS.

Sample chapter available at OReilly.com. Chapter 4, SQL Functions. As PDF, 28 pages.