Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using SQL

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The copy my company owns is so good, I decided to buy one for myself! This is an excellent reference to SQL and database design in general, from a basic discussion of the normal forms to the most complex applications of SQL. I use it as a learning tool as well as a reference. It features easy, understandable examples and discussions of the real-world differences between databases, application servers, and development techniques. Highly recommended.

SQL has come from the dusts and cobwebs of Codd-Date academia journals to a business use language. Rafe has written one of the best books I have browsed through. I develop in MS Access and the jump from Access to SQL Server or Oracle is intimidating. Even though MS says that the transition is easy, these are essentially different animals with different properties and behaviours.

The content design means that one can improve on one's knowledge of any (generic) product and still have an intro to a specific product.

The tips pages on the inside covers are a very good idea.

In such a high quality book however, the quality control of content does have a few bad spots.

And Rafe, stay away from words like "egregious" - we're here to learn SQL not English

When I was doing sorta minimal SQL and mostly concentrating on programming, database administration and debugging, the fairly sketchy SQL books I happened to buy first were good enough.

But recently I've started doing lots of web-database development, writing much more complex queries and having to be a lot smarter about SQL. This book has been quite helpful. Yes, there are a lot of words here, and yes, I would have trimmed a couple of chapters. But the book explains a great deal of complex info and is written very clearly. It's clear that the author is tied to real world -- I gather from his bio that he's a web application developer in real life. Wish I'd bought the book earlier.

When I want to quickly remind myself of some common bit of syntax, there are other books where I can find the info quicker. But when I have those "gee, how am I going to do *this*?" moments, this is the book I grab.

I found this to be an excellent reference tool. It hits on all the high points and helps to understand all the major concepts of relational databases and to grasp the variations of SQL and their syntaxes. My official textbook "SQL Essentials (Randolph & Griffin)" was a pitiful representation of a text reference at a level barely better than "SQL for Idiots". Historically, I have always liked QUE books and once again the SQL SE version was a tremendous supplement!

I have reviewed alot of Oracle SQL books and you would have to spend alot of money to get what this book delivers. You get the skinny on SQL. It mainly covers Oracle, but mentions the other databases thoughout the book. I go to this book when I need the syntax of how to construct a SQL statement. Very good book.

And just read the SQL reference in whatever DB product you have (Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, etc). Nothing new here except added verbiage which just takes longer to sift through.