Learning SQL Author: Amazon Prime Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering | Language: English | ISBN:
0596520832 | Format: PDF
Learning SQL Description
Updated for the latest database management systems -- including MySQL 6.0, Oracle 11g, and Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 -- this introductory guide will get you up and running with SQL quickly. Whether you need to write database applications, perform administrative tasks, or generate reports, Learning SQL, Second Edition, will help you easily master all the SQL fundamentals.
Each chapter presents a self-contained lesson on a key SQL concept or technique, with numerous illustrations and annotated examples. Exercises at the end of each chapter let you practice the skills you learn. With this book, you will:
- Move quickly through SQL basics and learn several advanced features
- Use SQL data statements to generate, manipulate, and retrieve data
- Create database objects, such as tables, indexes, and constraints, using SQL schema statements
- Learn how data sets interact with queries, and understand the importance of subqueries
- Convert and manipulate data with SQL's built-in functions, and use conditional logic in data statements
Knowledge of SQL is a must for interacting with data. With Learning SQL, you'll quickly learn how to put the power and flexibility of this language to work.
- Paperback: 338 pages
- Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2nd edition (April 27, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0596520832
- ISBN-13: 978-0596520830
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
It seems like most of the people writing reviews for this book already know databases to some degree. I didn't, so I'd like to share my experience.
This book takes an old-school, grammatical approach to the SQL language, grouping related commands into chapters, then explaining each, one by one.
This makes the first part of the book exhilarating. You go to the O'Reilly website and download a database to work on, and immediately you are querying, updating, etc, using the examples from the book. SQL at first seems refreshingly direct and powerful compared to the (OO) programming languages I know.
However, the 'a command followed by long verbal explanation" approach completely falls apart when the content goes even a little deeper. For me, the book took a nosedive at the first "Joins" chapter, and never recovered.
It was then I realized that I had not yet firmly grasped what a 'foreign key" was, so it was hard to get my head around the the idea of a join.
A simple graph would have helped at many points, but there are no graphs.
Nor are the code examples embedded in meaningful contexts or test cases. Indeed, the reasons for writing the code are almost in every case revealed AFTER the code is shown ("in that last query, the intent was..."), and the code is never commented, which makes it harder to understand and retain. And without any context, it is difficult to understand WHY to use one command over another. It seems like you can skin a cat a million ways in SQL--so why prefer one kind of filtering to another? Performance, readability, what?
I guess it sounds like I just wanted this book to be a 'Head First'-type book, and that's true. But even on its own terms, this book is frustrating.
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