SQL Pocket Guide, Second Edition

By Jonathan Gennick
April 2006
Pages: 192
Series: Pocket References
ISBN 10: 0-596-52688-1 | ISBN 13: 9780596526887
(5) (Average of 3 Customer Reviews)

Description

Now available in an updated second edition, our very popular SQL Pocket Guide is a major help to programmers, database administrators, and everyone who uses SQL in their day-to-day work. The SQL Pocket Guide is a concise reference to frequently used SQL statements and commonly used SQL functions. Not just an endless collection of syntax diagrams, this portable guide addresses the language's complexity head on and leads by example. The information in this edition has been updated to reflect the latest versions of the most commonly used SQL variants.
Full Description

SQL is the language of databases. It's used to create and maintain database objects, place data into those objects, query the data, modify the data, and, finally, delete data that is no longer needed. Databases lie at the heart of many, if not most business applications. Chances are very good that if you're involved with software development, you're using SQL to some degree. And if you're using SQL, you should own a good reference or two.

Oracle Database 10g, Release 2 (including the free Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE))
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
MySQL 5
IBM DB2 8.2
PostreSQL 8.1 database

Featured customer reviews

I use this several times each week, March 19 2009

Rating:

Submitted by BluJai [Respond | View]

I own several items in the "Pocket Guide" series. I use this the most frequently by far. Few issues I run into are missing. It is incredibly useful for those quick questions (e.g. "what was the correct syntax for that aggregate function again?").

If you use SQL on a regular basis, keep this reference handy!

Perfect :), January 31 2009

Rating:

Submitted by Fabio Alessandro Locati [Respond | View]

This is a perfect book. Is complete but is not too long. I think that is the best compromise between lenght and contents :).

Small is beautiful, November 21 2006

Rating:

Submitted by Peter B. [Respond | View]

Its rare to find some good value in such a small book. Packed with all the key information, written concisely and at the right level of competence it provides a useful reminder of the power of SQL. Direct and to the point examples reinforce knowledge and encourage the user to explore the finer points of syntax to increase their own productivity.

I just wish that the mainstream DB suppliers take up the challenge to demistify some of their own flavours of SQL.

Peter B.

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Media reviews
"So many dimensions are folded into this compact book that it took me more than a few moments to see what I was looking at. In the space of 184 pages, SQL Pocket Guide, Second Edition documents, explains, illustrates and compares the most common SQL statements from Oracle (10g), DB2 (8.2), SQL Server (2005), MySQL (5.0) and PostgreSQL (8.1), with occasional notes on previous versions, and pointers to more material on the author's web site. The book bills itself as "A Guide to SQL Usage" and it has an ample amount of explanatory material in addition to syntax and examples."
-- Graeme Williams, Slashdot.org

"I would recommend this book to every DBA or Developer working on multiple database flavors! You can quickly find how you can do something. For ex.: What Datetime Functions are available in Oracle or SQL Server or ...? Not all implementations of SQL are the same in the different databases and not every SQL is available in the same way. This book not only tells you about SQL but it also proofs it on the hand of a sample schema. The sample schema can be downloaded from the O'Reilly site."
-- Dmitri Gielis, Dmitri Gielis Blog

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"I would recommend this book to every DBA or Developer working on multiple database flavors!"
--Dmitri Gielis, Dmitri Gielis Blog