SQL: Visual QuickStart Guide (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

by Chris Fehily (Author)
Key Phrases: ask your system administrator, glandular problem, datetime types, Result of Listing, Microsoft Access, Sarah Buchman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
SQL is a standard interactive and programming language for querying and modifying data and managing databases. This task-based tutorial and reference guide takes the mystery out learning and applying SQL. After going over the relational database model and SQL syntax in the first few chapters, veteran author Chris Fehily immediately launches into the tasks that will get readers comfortable with SQL. In addition to covering all the SQL basics, this thoroughly updated reference contains a wealth of in-depth SQL knowledge and serves as an excellent reference for more experienced users.

From the Back Cover

Database management. It may sound daunting, but it doesn't have to be, even if you've never programmed before. SQL: Visual QuickStart Guide isn't an exhaustive guide to SQL written for aspiring programming experts. It's simply an invaluable resource for those who want a fast, easy way to harness information living in complex databases.

Because author Chris Fehily assumes no prior programming experience on your part (just a familiarity with your OS's file system), he spends the first few chapters laying out the basics, including clear explanations of the relational database model and SQL syntax. Then he jumps into step-by-step tasks designed to get you comfortable using SQL right away. You'll learn how to use SQL's most popular statements and commands to maintain, retrieve, and analyze database information, and to create and edit database objects. Each visually oriented task features the actual code and plenty of screenshots to keep you on track. Fehily takes a software-independent approach to teaching SQL, but includes tips for specific database software. You may not be a programming expert, but with SQL: VQS, who will be able to tell? --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 3 edition (June 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321553578
• ISBN-13: 978-0321553577
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #143,549 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book helped get me a job, August 22, 2002

By	Diane Yee (Belmont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQL (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

Recently I was "redeployed" - which is the word that my company uses for "laid off if you can't find another job (quick) within the company". I speed-read this book, like cramming for an exam, and applied for the junior database administrator position and got it! Later, the senior DBA told me that I got the job because I knew subtle things about SQL and relational databases that the other candidates didn't know (or got wrong). For example, the difference between a database and a DBMS, why SQL doesn't stand for "Structured Query Language", the difference between server and desktop DBMSes, what the "relational" in "relational database" refers to, the normal forms, and the difference between SQL syntax and semantics. Most of these things were in the first few chapters. Author! Author!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Makes My Job Easier., September 4, 2002

By	Melanie Pennington (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQL (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

There are several "software-independent" SQL books available. I thumbed through a number before landing on this one. I believe I got real lucky.

I'm a research analyst at a large medical center. I pull data from various sources using SQL front-ends and stuff data into MS Access for analysis or additional manipulation. I needed an SQL reference for both parts of my job, understanding what I was getting from the hospital systems and writing better SQL in Access or imbeddded SQL in VBA code. This book serves my needs because it is a thorough reference and also because it has plenty of Access examples and tips.

I'm also impressed with the layout of the Visual QuickStart Guide. It is very easy to find the information you are after and the bullet points are generally right on target with the details important to the task at hand. I haven't had to read the entire book cover to cover to do some work, and that's the point. When the author does interject himself, his comments are insightful and meaningful. An example, "Although SELECT is powerful, it's not dangerous. You can't use it to add, change or delete data... The dangerous stuff starts in Chapter 9."

A great technical reference in a crowded field.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extensive Treatment of Nulls, September 5, 2002

By	Kenneth L Gutwillig (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQL (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

Anyone who uses SQL regularly knows that it's absolutely critical to understand nulls - you can't write SQL programs or interpret results without mastering them. In most of the SQL books that I've read, nulls are mentioned once near the beginning and not given much screen time afterwards - perhaps popping up in an example here and there. This book takes the different (and welcome) approach of weaving the implications of nulls throughout the entire text. In addition to null rudiments, this book addresses crucial issues such as detecting and counting nulls, how nulls give rise to three-value logic (true/false/unknown), when nulls are considered to be duplicates and when they aren't, substituting actual values for nulls and vice versa, how nulls sort, how nulls propagate through computations, which functions ignore nulls and which don't, how nulls affect joins, and how nulls cause problems in subqueries. The book also contains specific tips for Oracle, which (for some reason) considers empty strings to be nulls.