oracle

I bought this book to refresh my knowledge of SQL, especially the new stuff that has been added in the past few years, such as GROUP BY ROLLUP. THIS BOOK DOES NOT COVER RECENT CHANGES TO SQL FOR ORACLE.

This is a really good for a beginner to learn SQL using Oracle. The authors have very clearly explained the complicated terms and concepts, in a fashion we are used to learn in class rooms.

It can also be used as a reference book or as a quick refresher course for someone who have not used SQL in a few years or so.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone interested to learn SQL using Oracle.

Despite the pile Oracle Certified Professional training material I received in class and the OCP certification books on SQL, there were aspects that I didn't fully understand until I read this excellent book.

Part I contains the absolute basics, all of which are as applicable to IT professionals and business users. The first three chapters are standard fare in most books of this sort - getting started and the basic commands (SELECT, CREATE, etc.). It's in Chapters 3-9 where the clarity of the author's writing pays off. These chapters cover Cartesian products, joins and aliases; set operations; grouping and sub queries. These are not easy to grasp by beginners, but the book clearly explains each, and also goes into details such as the differences between a join and sub queries, sub query correlation and similar topics.

Part II of the book covers more advanced tasks that are more suited to DBAs., with some material that will interest advanced business users and IT business systems analysts. For the DBA only are chapters on creating tables and using Oracle's SQL*Loader, triggers and PL/SQL (although some advanced business users employ PL/SQL it's rare, and the focus in the chapter on the subject is more in line with DBA uses). For all readers the chapter titled "Multiple Commands, START Files, and Reports" contains highly useful information, especially on how to do crude branching with the DECODE statement. The four appendices are also valuable references, and cover using Oracle in the UNIX environment, data dictionaries, the student database and associated tables, and improvements that Oracle made to 8i and 9i.

If you're pursuing your OCP certification and find that the class materials are too terse, or that the books are more focused on getting you through the exam instead of teaching you how to use SQL, get this book. For business users, IT business systems analysts and others who need to write and execute queries against an Oracle database and need a solid introduction to SQL this book will meet their needs.