Beginning SQL

by Paul Wilton, John W. Colby

* Taking readers through the basics of the language, right up to some more advanced topics, this book is a practical, hands-on resource and aims to keep the reader involved at all times
* Focuses on the SQL standard and is loaded with detailed examples and code; each chapter includes practice exercises that readers can challenge themselves with before looking at the sample solutions in the appendix
* Paul Wilton is a successful Wrox "Beginning" book author and is an ideal author to write for those who want a firm grasp of standard SQL before learning the details specific to a particular database product
* SQL is an international standard for manipulating data in databases and is used by database programmers in all major database systems: Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, MySQL, and many others

501 pages, ebook

First published February 18, 2005

Reviews

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful intro.

[Frank Vineyard]

Read for class. Easy to read and thorough.

[Andrew Klem · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a lot of patience for poorly written, boring books, and I was extremely interested in the subject. It still took me 3 weeks to finish this.

Have you ever encountered a non-fiction book that made you hate every other book you were reading just because they involved the act of reading? This was one of those. It traumatized me. If I encounter this book in a dark alley, I will probably start crying. The portrait on the front cover should have warned frightened me away in the first place.

That being said, I learned a lot. But most of my other negative experiences have taught me life lessons as well...

I'll let everyone know when I find a GOOD book on the subject.

[Ji · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a quick read, but actually does quite a good job on introducing basic SQL. One added benefit of it is that it gives code examples in different SQLs, so it’s a good book for people who want to transfer from other SQL language to TSQL (I guess, since I didn’t go through that myself).