Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes (Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes) [Paperback]

Ben Forta (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672316641 | ISBN-13: 978-0672316647 | Publication Date: August 1999

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes is a tutorial-based book, organized into a series of easy-to-follow, 10-minute lessons. These well-targeted lessons teach you in 10 minutes what some books take several hours or days to teach. It is for those users who don't have the time to read lengthy chapters, or are not inclined to read "manuals." You will learn retrieving and sorting data, advanced data filtering, using wildcard filtering, manipulating data, combining queries, using views, creating and using stored procedures, and creating triggers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes is a tutorial-based book, organized into a series of easy-to-follow, 10-minute lessons. These well-targeted lessons teach you in 10 minutes what some books take several hours or days to teach. It is for those users who don't have the time to read lengthy chapters, or are not inclined to read "manuals." You will learn retrieving and sorting data, advanced data filtering, using wildcard filtering, manipulating data, combining queries, using views, creating and using stored procedures, and creating triggers.

About the Author

Ben Forta is Allaire Corporation's product evangelist for the ColdFusion product line. Ben has over 15 years of experience in the computer industry, and spent 6 years as part of the development team responsible for creating OnTime, one of the most successful calendar and group-scheduling products, with over one million users worldwide. Ben is the author of the popular ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit, and the more recent Advanced ColdFusion 4 Application Development Kit.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Sams (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672316641
• ISBN-13: 978-0672316647
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ben Forta is Adobe Inc.'s Senior Technical Evangelist, and has over two decades of experience in the computer industry in product development, support, training, and marketing. Ben is the author of the best-selling ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit and its sequel Advanced ColdFusion Application Development, as well as books on SQL, Regular Expressions, JavaServer Pages, WAP, Windows development, and more. Over 1/2 million Ben Forta books have been printed in a dozen languages worldwide. Ben co-authored the official ColdFusion training material, as well as the certification tests and official study guides for those tests, writes regular columns on ColdFusion and Internet development, and now spends a considerable amount of time lecturing and speaking on application development worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

219 of 226 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good job at its intended job, January 16, 2000

By 

Charles Arehart (Alpharetta GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes (Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes) (Paperback)

Ben Forta has done a great job distilling the most pertinent basic SQL concepts into simple, easy to read form. Befitting its "10 minute" moniker, this is a wonderful book for new SQL programmers. But it's also subtly different in a way that will particularly suit folks coming into SQL for the first time as part of their involvement in using web database development tools such as ColdFusion and Active Server Pages.

One one level, any new SQL programmer using any DBMS will appreciate the easily digested coverage of the fundamental query and update basics. The books is well-written, an easy read, and goes beyond those basics without going too far.

Even moderately experienced readers will be well-served by the clear, simple discussions of important topics (like data manipulation and aggregating functions, grouping data, subqueries, views, etc) that can be easily forgotten, as well as other topics (such as using transactions, constraints, triggers, etc.) that can get lost in wading through other more voluminous tomes. Ben presents a very nice balance of fundamental topics.

But there's more to this book than being a simple intro to SQL. That audience of web db developers is an exploding one, and they bring some unique needs for which Ben provides a valuable perspective. Most SQL books have some DBMS-specific bias, despite SQL's purpose as a tool for accessing any kind of database in a consistent manner. Web application development environments like ASP and CF are also similarly database-agnostic. There are subtle points about using SQL in such environments that are different from using it, say, in a query builder or in a client/server environment.

Ben, who was lead author of the highly regarded ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit, presents the subjects in a manner suitable to such programmers and the way they'd code SQL and use its results, and he also sprinkles in discussions of how to take care of cross-platform issues on particular tasks, and often offers specific solutions for the most popular DBMS's used by that audience, such as Access, SQL Server, and Oracle.

On still another level, other books also get bogged down in issues of database design, creation, administration, security, etc. Important though those topics are, most development shops are growing to a point where those tasks are being handled by different people, and the developer who simply wants to code retrieval and update applications is challenged to find a good intro sql book that doesn't wade into detail on topics that they may not yet be able to understand, let alone ever need to perform. There are other great books that do cover those subjects, and readers would do well to seek those out as they progress in their learning.

It certainly makes it challenging to find (and no less to write) a SQL book. There are just so many potential audiences. For its intended purpose though, "Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes" is very well done. As in his previous books, Ben is right on the money--and for a very low price, at that!

147 of 153 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily Understood by a 13 year old, August 20, 2000

By 

bob (Vienna, Virgina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes (Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes) (Paperback)

I am only 13 years old and understood every line of this book!

This is a great book to get you started in database management using SQL. The format of the book is one I've never seen, I love it. He first explains a new concept, compares it to other previously learned concepts, and then gives an example. Following this he explains the example. There are lots of other things helpful in his technique as well, such as showing the examples for Oracle users (a Database management program).

The thing that I really like is the perfect balance of explanations and examples. It is hard to find a page in the book without at least one example.

Upsides to this book
---------------------
not to many words
easy to handle concepts
well written
great for beginners

Downsides to book
------------------
Not the best book for reference, but not bad.
not for advanced SQL users

Over all, the best computer book I've ever read, don't hesitate to get yourself a copy.

53 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good as a basic intro, but don't depend solely on this book, October 18, 2000

By 

"schapel" (Hillsborough, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes (Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes) (Paperback)

This book is clearly aimed at the beginning SQL programmer with little or no knowledge of relational databases. It's a good intro that will quickly get the reader up to speed at writing some very simple queries and updates on an existing database.

However, in working with other programmers, I've learned that it's true about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. If your only knowledge of SQL and relational databases comes from this book, you're in danger of missing out on some very basic information, such as how to normalize a database or perform an outer join.

If you learn SQL from this book, you'll quickly want to get another book on SQL that's more complete to fill you in on this missing critical information. Unless for some reason you need to start programming in SQL as soon as possible (in other words, before you understand what you're doing), just skip this book and buy just the more complete book.