| | |  | Software Engineering | Home » » » 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.
| | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780596520830
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Alan Beaulieu | | Paperback:
| 336 pages | | Publisher:
| O'Reilly Media | | Publication Date:
| April 27, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0596520832 | | Product Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.9 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.9 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.2 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.06 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.01 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.79 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.01 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 41 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 41 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 48 found the following review helpful:
 Beats "SQL for Dummies" Hands DownMar 04, 2006
By Larry
Like everyone else, I'm pressed for time. It's all I can do to keep up with Java, let alone related incidental technologies such as SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Ant, etc. But as one reviewer pointed out: make no mistake, you need to know SQL. And if you don't (hell, even if you do), this is just a flat-out good book to have and read. I had previously purchased and read "SQL for Dummies", but threw that book out when I got this one. (To be honest, it wasn't just this book that made me toss the "Dummies" book; I never really liked it to begin with.)
I like the way "Learning SQL" is written. Sure, facts are presented, but the author does a masterful job of telling you how and why those facts exist. In addition, the conversational tone of the book proceeds along the path you'd expect from a real conversation: from the simpler to the more complex, in a logical and sensical path. (Okay, so most conversations don't fall into that category. But this book sure does, so do yourself a favor and buy it!)
Oh, and one more thing related to being pressed for time: it's not the technical-typical 700+ pages, it's just a few hundred.
59 of 65 found the following review helpful:
Programmers, please read!Oct 07, 2005
By Jack D. Herrington
"engineer and author"
If you're writing any type of database driven code and you think that you don't need to understand SQL, read this book. You do need to understand it, and this book teaches it very well.
Man, I'm so tired of cleaning up bad SQL code. Code that makes hundreds of queries when one would suffice. Or tables that have no primary keys. Or code that never makes use of joins. SQL is not horrible. It's worth understanding and knowing how to write well.
This book is well written, well illustrated, and makes learning SQL as pain-free as it can be. Please, please, please, read this book.
103 of 117 found the following review helpful:
 grammar-based approach can't get off the groundAug 29, 2006
By Matthew J. Garland
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. Its pure emphasis on the language somehow skips syntax, and the long verbal explanations are constantly seesawing away from themselves ("as we will see", "as we have seen").
I've finished the book and feel reasonably confident about using SQL now. So this book is serviceable...but unnecessarily painful, too.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Excellent choice for learning SQL...Oct 24, 2005
By Thomas Duff
"Duffbert"
To all my Notes/Domino developer colleagues, here's a tip you already know... it's time to learn SQL. If it's been on your list of "things to learn or brush up on", I'd recommend the book Learning SQL by Alan Beaulieu. It's an excellent way to get up to speed (or *back* up to speed).
Contents: A Little Background; Creating and Populating a Database; Query Primer; Filtering; Querying Multiple Tables; Working with Sets; Data Generation, Conversion, and Manipulation; Subqueries; Joins Revisited; Conditional Logic; Transactions; Indexes and Constraints; ER Diagram for Example Database; MySQL Extensions to the SQL Language; Solutions to Exercises; Further Resources; Index
Notes/Domino 7 incorporates the ability to store your Domino data in a DB2 repository. Then using Data Access Views, you can create application views that use SQL statements to generate the selection formula. While you don't absolutely *have* to know SQL, it'd be a good time to start adding that skill to your repertoire. Beaulieu's book is a clearly written tutorial on SQL that uses the open source MySQL database package to teach you the necessary skills. I like the decision to use MySQL, as it's something that's free and available to everyone. Trying to get DB2 up and running can be difficult, and it's definitely overkill if you're just trying to learn SQL. When you finish this book, you'll know all the key concepts that will allow you get data out of (and put data into) any relational database table out there. Obviously that's a valuable skill to have in your toolbox...
So... commit to picking up a new skill or two in the upcoming year. I'd recommend that one of those skills be a fundamental knowledge of SQL, and Learning SQL can help you get there.
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
SQL 101Oct 17, 2005
By Daniel McKinnon
"Dan"
Over the past 30+ years programming languages (popular ones) have come, gone, and new ones seem to appear every couple of years or so. FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, C, C++, Java, and now C#... the question isn't IF the next big language is going to come but WHEN. While the way we program has changed, the de facto standard for talking and creating databases hasn't changed much since the early 70s when SQL was created. While refined and standardized several times since its inception, SQL remains the tried and true backbone way of communicating with all databases, whether they are Oracle, SQL Server, MYSql, Access, etc.
For this reason, it is not only important, but I believe ESSENTIAL for all developers in this day and age to come quickly up to speed and learn what SQL is because no matter who you are, at some point (probably sooner than later) you will have to use SQL in your development career. Back when I was introduced to SQL in the mid 90s I knew nothing of what SQL was, thrown into it by immediately looking at SELECT queries, INSERTS, and so on. I would have loved some overview teaching guide to help me get my feet wet, instead learning the hard way.
Have no fear, those days are over.
With 'Learning SQL', Alan Beaulieu gives a great overview of what SQL is and what makes it so important in the world today. More than any other programming language, databases are what keeps the world moving on a daily basis, whether it's the financial sector, health care, government, etc. No matter where you using a computer, you will be accessing a database and for that data to be grabbed and manipulated, you will need to use SQL to make your calls/updates.
O'Reilly has a storied tradition of making great "Learning" books, and the same can easily be said here as well. I find it amazing that it took so long for a Learning SQL book to come out, but sometimes it's better to wait and let the finished product be even better with age.
Highlights include:
History of SQL (background)
Creating and populating a database
Using SELECT statements to get data
Filtering data with conditions
Querying multiple tables at once
Working with sets (UNIONS et al)
Data generation, conversion, manipulation
GROUP statements
Creating subqueries
JOINS in detail
Adding conditional logic
The importance of Transactions
Performance gains via Indexes and Constraints
For anyone that isn't a SQL expert, this is a great refresher for all. For anyone that is new or an amateur in their SQL careers, this book is absolutely a gem.
This should be required reading for all database 101 students, and I give it an A+ for not only the content within but the simplicity with which it is to read.
***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION
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