Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days (4th Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book has provided me with a good background on using SQL. As a complete beginner I am pleased with the results and the clear syntax examples. After a few days I could create tables with my eyes closed and the explanations of the main types of SQL commands gave me a good grounding for further learning. For success with this book ignore the title and try not to push yourself to complete the book in 24hours - be patient and you will succeed! Good book but limited like all general SQL book by various SQL implementations on the market although tries to keep to ANSI-SQL standards! Good - definitely buy this book!

This is a good book for beginners but also gets you on the path to more advanced SQL programming. However, beginners beware: I think I found a programming typo in nearly every chapter of the book. The most glaring to me was in Day 14 (p. 340) when a column named "NEW_TOTAL" was referenced in view LATE_PAYMENT (created from table BILLS). BILLS has an AMOUNT field but no NEW_TOTAL field. I have over 20 years programming experience and I had to disregard this entire example. I fear beginners will miss these types of mistakes. If this is one of the better books available (as stated by a previous reviewer), then I'm not sure what book to buy. No typos should exist in a book designed to teach programming.

This book is well planned and presented, but the error checking is almost nonexistent. The book is riddled with bugs, misspellings (in tables, data, and such) and confusing mistakes. Online or offline (disk or CD) support is nonexistent and the user is forced to enter all data from an appendix in the back by hand.

In one almost humorous example of this negligence, the appendix has you create a table called "parts" and populate it with human body part descriptions such as, "Kidney", "Adam's Apple", "Spine", and such. On day six, there is an example of a bike shop that combines the human parts table with a bike shop supplier's customer list. The resulting database is interesting to say the least.

I would strongly recommend against trying this book at all if you are not using Oracle. It claims to teach all brands of SQL, but only truly concentrates on Oracle's SQL+. The differences in other implementations are covered with phrases such as,

"The preceding syntax will generally work with any SQL engine, but you may find some slight variations."

If you're still new to the world of data in general, then pass on this book and search another. If you have experience programming, and can usually debug logic errors and spelling mistakes, then this book is otherwise a helpful tutorial. The text descriptions and comments are written on a personal level and are clear and concise. The lessons flow in a smooth logical fashion and the bonus days really are a nice bonus. Just be ready for a little frustration along the way.

I used this book a few years ago when I began learning SQL. The book is pretty good. It helped me learn and understand sql. The book even talks about PL/SQL and Transact-SQL. Read it and pay close attention to the statements and you will get most of it. If you can download an oracle database software for free, install it annd practice what you are learning from the book. Practic helped me a lot to learn quickly.

I have no prior knowledge of SQL and only a fair idea of what databases can do. If you want to start learning the very basic fundamentals of SQL this is a good start. If you have no clue about databases you may want to look else where first, then come back to this book. A lot of space is wasted reminding the reader to check your documentation for the correct syntax since there are several flavors of SQL. Some of the examples seem to be very repetative. Overall, I have a good idea of what I can do with SQL and now it is which way to go, Oracle or Transact-SQL. If you have some SQL knowledge this may be too basic to be worth the time. I did finish the book in less than 21 hours.

I use(d) this book as the basis towards my WIN2K MCDBA...It is superior to anything out there including Microsoft's Official MCSE [Exam 70-228] SQL Server 2000 SA Training Kit... includes everything one needs assuming one immerses oneself in the book from Day 1 through Day 21 in addition to Day 22 (SQL Server Analysis Services (OLAP)) and Day 23 (English Query).It is both a superior reference book and programmer's guide. After purchasing Microsoft's official references I found myself repeatedly (frustrated by their shortcomings and referring back to this particular SAMS text). Enough cannot be said about this book.

* Note: This (original) review is based on the Edition which included the CDROM. I have noticed that the latest edition(s) do have have the CDROM included (msde engine, etc.). This would knock my review to ****.

To any beginner out there, you will not be able to practice any exercise unless you already know how to create a databse using SQL. If you already know SQL, why would you want to buy this book in the first place?

After downloading the source code file for the book, I was very upset that the author did not include the scripts listed in Appendix B and C. The scripts would have been a fundamental part that laid the foundation for the exercises. Instead I had to spend three days coding before I could actually try out the first example in this book. I purchased a few books on Oracle from other publishers(O'Reilly and Osborne) and they all provided appropriate source codes.

In another word, you simply cannot do the exercises without already knowing SQL!

Omitting the scripts that create a basic database so that all queries can be perfomed is unacceptable!

This book deserves a lower rating due to this omission. Thanks for nothing.

By the way, I learned how to create the tables for the exercises in this book by reading another book (Oracle 8i DBA Handbook by Kevin looney from Oracle Press).

I've used (bought) through about 120 Database books. I've worked though about 30 SQL Books(over 8 years). This is the best introductory book on SQL available. The bad reviewers are ignorant of how to use that glowing box thing called a computer(they can't find the available class files...)
The book is clear, explains the statements and gives specific examples. I work through database books for my job, and I can tell you 90 out of 100 are horrid, this is one of the less than 10% that is worth the time and money...

After reading some of the other reviews, I have to say that I think some may be a bit harsh in their evaluations of this book. I was a complete beginner when I found this book, and found it extremely helpful because I worked through it by simply 'reading' the text and looking at the examples (and yes there are some mistakes!). However, being someone that has a background in accounting not computer science, I was satisfied with this approach. I have now graduated to more advanced intermediate texts.

This text is very good at explaining the basics of SQL queries, and relational databases.

For a start-from-scratch introduction to SQL, this book is paced OK and is pretty approachable. I woudn't recommend it to anyone past the low novice level, though. Many subjects are dealt with far too lightly and often very uneven. "DISTINCT" is mentioned, for instance, in the Common Error section and in one other note area, but I didn't find an actual definition anywhere. This might be due to the index, which seemed half-hearted at best. This complicates learning, in that it's dificult to cross-refference and build on the lessons. As for using the book once the lessons have been run through, forget it. This book is pretty much worthless as a refference. Since this is a teaching book, I guess I shouldn't harp too much on it's value for ongoing refference. However, I doubt anyone buys a book with the intention of throwing it away after one read-through. There are better options out there.