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SQL in a Nutshell applies the eminently useful "Nutshell" format to Structured Query Language (SQL), the elegant--but complex--descriptive language that is used to create and manipulate large stores of data. For SQL programmers, analysts, and database administrators, the new second edition of SQL in a Nutshell is the essential date language reference for the world's top SQL database products. SQL in a Nutshell is a lean, focused, and thoroughly comprehensive reference for those who live in a deadline-driven world.This invaluable desktop quick reference drills down and documents every SQL command and how to use it in both commercial (Oracle, DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server) and open source implementations (PostgreSQL, and MySQL). It describes every command and reference and includes the command syntax (by vendor, if the syntax differs across implementations), a clear description, and practical examples that illustrate important concepts and uses. And it also explains how the leading commercial and open sources database product implement SQL. This wealth of information is packed into a succinct, comprehensive, and extraordinarily easy-to-use format that covers the SQL syntax of no less than 4 different databases.When you need fast, accurate, detailed, and up-to-date SQL information, SQL in a Nutshell, Second Edition will be the quick reference you'll reach for every time. SQL in a Nutshell is small enough to keep by your keyboard, and concise (as well as clearly organized) enough that you can look up the syntax you need quickly without having to wade through a lot of useless fluff. You won't want to work on a project involving SQL without it.
Anonymous
Posted Thu Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2004
[A review of the 2nd edition, 2004.] Perhaps the best virtue of this book is that it spans all the major variants of SQL - db2, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft's SQL Server. The authors are not beholden to any particular vendor. Thus the book describes the common ground. That is, the commands and usage that are most likely to be the same or similar across these implementations. Because a major use of this book might be in migrating. To this end, the more code you can have in this common area, the less painful the migration. Another possible usage is if you are a DBA in charge of running 2 [or more] of these implementations. Perhaps due to some legacy issues, you have to support them. If you cannot merge SQL code into one common version, you can get problems. Being able to use this book to find quickly common commands and options to those commands might greatly help you maximise a common body of code.
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Posted Tue Aug 20 00:00:00 EDT 2002
Contrary to several reviewers, this book is *not* well-suited to its purpose, especially compared to O'Reilly's usual high standards. You can't find what you need quickly, basic information is often missing, and there are enough glaring typos to make everything in the book suspect. This is particularly true of the book's main claim to fame, the myriad of small differences between database products. Some examples: (1) The book explains that some databases use '!=' instead of the standard SQL not-equal operator, '<>'. Which databases? Do they support both operators, or just '!='? The book doesn't say. (2a) The book doesn't tell you that MySQL doesn't support subqueries in SELECT statements -- even though there's a subsection on 'MySQL Syntax and Variations' for SELECT statements. (2b) The index has no entries for subqueries under any conceivable heading: queries, nested queries, subqueries, or SELECT. So you can spend quite a long time *trying* to find out which databases support subqueries. (Most do.) (3) The table of contents has a glaring typo, that makes you wonder what else got past the proofreaders and fact-checkers. Chapter 3, 'SQL Statements Command Reference' doesn't have sub-headings for individual commands or groups of commands ... except for one: 'DROP Statements', which are supposedly discussed for 70 pages, a third of the book. If O'Reilly was in such a rush to get the book out that they didn't notice this, how can you have confidence in the book's accuracy?
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Posted Wed Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2002
If you are someone like me, someone who takes a broad brush approach to developing and thinks that there is an appropriate database vendor or open source solution for every scenario, you will really love having this book on your reference shelf. The cross-platform references are excellent and show every option and attribute in thorough and accurate detail for several major database solutions. On first glance, some may scoff at 'how easy SQL is' until they move to a new database. If you pointed out the cross platform references during their first mockery, they will be apologizing and begging you to borrow it because it has the value of five books in one thin, easy to read an navigate title.
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Posted Tue Jan 16 00:00:00 EST 2001
SQL in a Nutshell is designed as a cross- platform reference guide for people like me who are not experts and have to move between RDMS implementations (including desktop apps). In fact, SQL in a Nutshell's great virtue is that it finally levels the playing field by putting PostgreSQL and MySQL, the popular open source RDMS, on the same level with MS SQL Server and Oracle, each of which easily has its own market for high-end manuals and guides, while open source apps are freely available online. So, if you need full documentation on your favorite RDMS, go ahead and spend a couple of hundred dollars somewhere else. If you want a handy reference, simple explanations and comparisons, and an easy to read introduction to the four most important RDMSs currently available, pick up SQL in a Nutshell. You won't be disappointed.
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Overview
SQL in a Nutshell applies the eminently useful "Nutshell" format to Structured Query Language (SQL), the elegant--but complex--descriptive language that is used to create and manipulate large stores of data. For SQL programmers, analysts, and database administrators, the new second edition of SQL in a Nutshell is the essential date language reference for the world's top SQL database products. SQL in a Nutshell is a lean, focused, and thoroughly comprehensive reference for those who live in a deadline-driven ...