| | |  | Manager's Guides to Computing | Home » » » SQL: Practical Guide for Developers (The Practical Guides) | | | | | | | Description: | | Would the basics of SQL querying be useful to you, but you don't want to start at the very beginning? Do you wish you had an easy way to ramp up quickly to get a basic understanding of key features and capability? Then you need this book! Without a ton of conceptual information or general programming basics you already know, this book is a quick guide for computing professionals and programmers to learn the basics--and more--in an easily digestible way.
+ Provides tutorial-based instruction for the main features of SQL for programmers and other technical professionals in need of a brief but really good introduction to SQL.
+ The approach is vendor-neutral-so very adaptable and flexible-but the book's Web site includes information about DBMS-specific peculiarities.
+ The focus is on teaching concepts by walking through concrete examples and explanations, and self-review exercises are included at the end of each chapter.
+ Coverage is on the key features of the language that are required to understand SQL and begin using it effectively.
+ SQL 2003-compliant. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Michael J. Donahoo | | Paperback:
| 272 pages | | Publisher:
| Morgan Kaufmann | | Publication Date:
| August 15, 2005 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0122205316 | | Product Width:
| 184.25 centimeters | | Product Height:
| 234.5 centimeters | | Product Weight:
| 1.03 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.06 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.56 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.79 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.32 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 3 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 3 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 A work in progress? Not recommendedMar 13, 2007
By James D. Agnew
"Agneaux"
I am using this book in my "Intro. to SQL Database Programming" college course. I'm sorry, but I cannot recommend this book - it was obviously rushed to print before the bugs had been worked out; figures are missing important details (e.g., the Schema in Fig 1.4); and the index is laughably deficient. Not enough examples are given. This book should not have been printed in its present form. Numerous typos exist. It needs a lot of work. NOT RECOMMENDED
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Decent intro book... Unforgivable index..Sep 24, 2007
By Robert W. Waite
This would have been a fair book for a developer's quick reference. It covers many of the broad topics (select, update, nested queries, joins) and does so in a decent fashion. I originally bought this book so that I could have a quick reference nearby that I could look up UNION or other statements that are not used as much.
I was pretty happy with the book as I read through it... that is until the day that I actually had to find a statement in it. I have quite a large collection of computer books and I have never seen anything like it. If you turn to the index page to look up SELECT (I mean... really?) there is no entry there. In fact.. all you see is one page with three columns that have about 20 items per column. And all of this fills about half of the page. Oh wait! There is a little sticker up at the top of this ridiculous page that says "See such and such a webpage for full index".
The worst thing about this index is that it doesn't even have useful entries. It is as if some typesetter had about five minutes before the presses started up and someone said "Hey!!! Billy! We don't have an index! Why don't you randomly look up about 50 words in the book and make a real quick index! No one will know!" Well.. sadly.. Billy didn't have any idea what SQL was except that it starts with an 'S'.
The only reason I give two stars instead of -1 is that it seems that the author made a decent effort to make a simple introduction to SQL for a poor developer who needs a quick source for answers. The only problem is the index will not help someone find that quick answer.
So... I would stay away from this book unless you know that the index which has been posted on the publishers website is actually part of the book.
Bah to MK publishers! All they needed to do was spend two days making an index instead of scrambling and they would have had 4 stars and I wouldn't have tossed this book into the corner behind all of the other disappointing books I have.
 Clear and ConciseApr 07, 2009
By henry000
The content of the book lives up to the title - clear and concise, right to the point. It is tightly written, not too much and not too less - just enough for the intended target audience (students and/or beginner software developers). In my opinion the main strength of the book is there are plenty examples to illustrate the concepts, and the examples are very well written and structured throughout the book. The only weakness preventing it from getting a 5-out-of-5 is that the book does not have answers to the review questions and tests listed at the end of the chapters, kind of defeating the purpose of having these well thought-out tests in the book in the first place. However, if you are looking for a quick refresher or introductory to SQL, this book will do the job well.
| | |
|
