SQL Pocket Guide (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) [Paperback]

Jonathan Gennick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596526881 | ISBN-13: 978-0596526887 | Publication Date: April 24, 2006 | Edition: Second Edition

SQL is the language of databases. It's used to create and maintain database objects, place data into those objects, query the data, modify the data, and, finally, delete data that is no longer needed. Databases lie at the heart of many, if not most business applications. Chances are very good that if you're involved with software development, you're using SQL to some degree. And if you're using SQL, you should own a good reference or two.

Now available in an updated second edition, our very popular SQL Pocket Guide is a major help to programmers, database administrators, and everyone who uses SQL in their day-to-day work. The SQL Pocket Guide is a concise reference to frequently used SQL statements and commonly used SQL functions. Not just an endless collection of syntax diagrams, this portable guide addresses the language's complexity head on and leads by example. The information in this edition has been updated to reflect the latest versions of the most commonly used SQL variants including:

• Oracle Database 10g, Release 2 (including the free Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE))
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005
• MySQL 5
• IBM DB2 8.2
• PostreSQL 8.1 database

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Gennick is an O'Reilly Media, Inc. editor specializing in database and programming titles. He writes extensively on database topics, and is the author of such successful books as: Oracle SQLPlus: The Definitive Guide, Oracle SQLPlus Pocket Reference, and Oracle SQL*Loader: The Definitive Guide. Jonathan contributes regularly to Oracle Magazine, and frequently explores interesting SQL topics on his own website, http://gennick.com. Jonathan is also a member of The Oak Table Network (http://www.oaktable.net), a group of Oracle experts known for their scientific approach to administering and developing Oracle based systems.

Jonathan got his start with relational database systems in 1990, first working with Ingres, and later with Digital's Rdb software. During that period he developed a fondness for SQL, and for the challenge of applying SQL creatively in ways that leveraged it's set-oriented capabilities.

In 1994 Jonathan made the leap to Oracle, and is now often found writing about it. Recent projects include Oracle SQLLoader (O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2001); Oracle SQLPlus Pocket Reference (O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2000); Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1999); More recently, Jonathan has made forays into other database products, coauthoring Transact-SQL Cookbook (O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2002) and editing Practical PostgreSQL (O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2002).

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (April 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596526881
• ISBN-13: 978-0596526887
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Specific Databases

More About the Author

I am an Oracle DBA, computer book editor, and writer residing in Munising, Michigan, and only six

blocks from Lake Superior. If you want to know more about me, please visit http://Gennick.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, not Great, November 20, 2004

By 

Jase T. Wolfe - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQL Pocket Guide (Paperback)

Its a pocket guide on just the data manipulation components of the SQL language for the 4 major versions (Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL and DB2) - you can't judge this as a complete reference or learning guide. As SQL data manipulation has only a finite set of keywords and a fairly strict syntax, its hard to go wrong. Like most pocket guides, only people that already know the topic should purchase. As this title only covers data manipulation and not definition language control language (for example, page 112 does list the CREATE TABLE keywords, but as a secondary example and not a true reference), if you are looking for a complete reference guide to all things SQL, this is not your title.

The biggest problem I had with this book is it's organization and layout. Unlike other keyword guides that organize keyword references alphabetically, any time you need to refresh your memory on a specific keyword you have to find it first in the back index as this guide organizes by topic (Inserting Tables, Deleting Data, Predicates, etc.). The topic-oriented structure would be better served in a learning text, or as a secondary table of content for a larger reference guide. Once you do find your keyword's page, the actual layout of the text can make it difficult to quickly identify the topic, keyword, and target vendor. If you're going to run everything together in very similar font sizes and weights without a page break, a few horizontal lines and inverse text won't kill you.

Definitely a useful reference book if you're on the go and need to carry a reminder with you, but as a day to day desktop reference, there are other guides which provide more complete reference as well as better formatting.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DML short reference for ORACLE, DB2, SQL Server and MySQL, May 21, 2004

By 

Gregor Theis (Meerbusch Deutschland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SQL Pocket Guide (Paperback)

"SQL Pocket Guide" is a short reference book for SQL DML (Data Manipulation Language = insert, update, delete, select verbs) and derived statements (merge in ORACLE, replace in MySQL is missing) for the following databases:
- ORACLE (9i und 10g)
- DB2
- SQL Server
- MySQL
Jonathan Gennick explains the ANSI SQL commands and the special implementations of the different databases. For every statement you will find at least one example that can be tested on Jonathan's example data (available from the O'Reilly website). This book does NOT describe the DDL (e.g. create table) or DCL (e.g. grant) statements of the respective databases. Maybe this book should have been named "SQL (DML) pocket guide" to avoid different expectations.

Being an ORACLE person, I can not comment much on the correctness of the information about the other databases, however I found it quite interesting to see the comparison (ORACLE seems to implement most options).

I found the organization of the book a bit strange when I read it from cover to back (I would have placed type conversions and literals together). If you are using this book as a reference this should not concern you because I found the index to be very good. A chapter numbering (or bigger differences in the font size for the chapter levels) would have made it easier for me to keep track of the subchapter level while reading.

The coverage of the DML statement's possibilities is quite high and lots of exceptions are covered. I (re)learned a lot of things like WITH in ORACLE, NVL2, CASE statement, RETURNING with UPDATE, INSERT und DELETE when I read this book.

I will continue to use this book as a starting point when I don't remember how to use a certain SQL/DML feature (reference lookup). "SQL Pocket Reference" already saved a colleague of mine valuable hours (because I just reread about the MERGE statement). You will not be able to learn SQL with this book but you will probably save some time with it, if you write DML a lot.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent LITTLE Book, July 1, 2005

By 

Randy Given (Manchester, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SQL Pocket Guide (Paperback)

This is an excellent LITTLE book. With books from O'Reilly or Wiley, you can usually rest assured that it is worth your money. This one certainly is. I bought two -- one for work and one for home. I also bought "SQL in a Nutshell" which is more extensive but much larger (but not a tome). For those quick now-how-do-I-write-that-stupid-little-sql-statement moments, this is the ticket.