In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, you will learn professional techniques to design and build efficient databases and query them to extract useful information. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds on the previous one, allowing you to learn the essentials of ANSI SQL from the ground up. Example code demonstrates the authors' professional techniques, while exercises written for MySQL offer the reader hands-on learning with an open-source database. Included are advanced techniques for using views, managing transactions, database administration, and extending SQL. Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common SQL tasks. Q&As, Quizzes, and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge. Notes and Tips point out shortcuts and solutions. New terms are clearly defined and explained. Learn how to...Use SQL-2003, the latest standard for the Structured Query LanguageDesign and deploy efficient, secure databasesBuild advanced queries for information retrievalSort, group, and summarize information for best presentationTune databases and queries for maximum performanceUnderstand database administration and security techniques For more than ten years the authors have studied, applied, and documented the SQL standard and its application to critical database systems. Ryan Stephens and Ron Plew are entrepreneurs, speakers, and cofounders of Perpetual Technologies, Inc. (PTI), a fast-growing IT management and consulting firm which specializes in database technologies. They taught database courses for Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis for five years and have authored more than a dozen books on Oracle, SQL, database design, and the high availability of critical systems. Arie D. Jones is Senior SQL Server database administrator and analyst for PTI. He is a regular speaker at technical events and has authored several books and articles. Database ANSI SQL User Beginning-Intermediate Register your book at informit.com/title/9780672330186 for convenient access to updates and corrections as they become available.
Hard to define whom this book I would recommend to. For someone who is completely new to the topic, some part of it would be challenging or even confusing. If you already know the basics, then most of it will be boring for you.
What I used it for is to check, if I really have covered "the basics". As an autodidact SQL learner it was helpful to see some kind of structure.
Even without reading another beginner SQL books I am sure you can easily find a better one.
The books is pretty average. If you're totally new to SQL, it will confuse you on every other page. The structure is not so clear, the code samples should have some more distinctive formatting, instead they're visually blending with the text. What's unforgivable, however, are the errors in some examples. Even though I was able to spot some of them, it makes you wonder how many you didn't notice.
If you don’t already have a basic grasp of SQL, this book won’t help much. If you do, it will probably only frustrate you. How have they made it to a sixth edition with this many errors!? I borrowed it free from my library, and I still feel ripped off. I did learn a few things as a very raw beginner, but mostly it was by reading these guys’ attempted explanation and thinking “that doesn’t even make sense” or “what the hell are they trying to show me here?” and going off to experiment on my own. Half the time I came back to make sure I hadn’t missed or misread something and confirmed that there was indeed a mistake or omission in the text ... maybe that was their intention all along? No, I’m pretty sure they’re just sloppy hack authors.
Overall I would not recommend this book. As a database administrator of 10 years and a course instructor, I considered this book for my sql course. The technical information was good and presented a good intro to the basics. However, the book contained lots of errors that made the assignments and examples difficult to follow. It seems as though the book had been updated to use new source code and new examples but lots of references to old code were not replaced. It was very confusing and frustrating. The editors need to go back through the book and fix the mistakes. It would be a decent book for beginners if they fixed them.
The book tells the reader to go to Appendix D to get the CREATE statements to create the tables needed to use the remainder of the book. Appendix D does not contain that information nor does anywhere else that I can find. All reviews on Amazon also say the same thing.
I chose to study this book for my lab examination on SQL. It's suitable for people who already know something about SQL. I wouldn't recommend it to beginners, because it doesn't have many examples and some of them are wrong.