Sebastopol, CA--"The explosive growth of the information technology industry and the need to compile, store, access and manipulate increasingly larger masses of data has required the development of ever more sophisticated database management tools," says Kevin Kline, coauthor of the new release, SQL in a Nutshell (O'Reilly, US $29.95). "SQL, since its first incarnation in the 1970s, has developed hand in hand with the information boom and, as a result, is the most widely used database manipulation language in business."

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standardized query language for requesting information from a database. Historically, SQL has been the choice for database management systems running on minicomputers and mainframes. Increasingly, however, SQL is being adapted to PC database systems because it supports distributed databases-databases that are spread out over several computer systems, so that several users on a local-area network can access the same database simultaneously. Although there are different dialects of SQL, it is the closest thing to a standard query language that currently exists.

SQL in a Nutshell, is a practical and useful command reference to the latest release of the Structured Query Language (SQL99), helping readers learn how their favorite database product supports any standard SQL command. This book presents each of the SQL commands and describes its use in both commercial (Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Oracle 8i) and open source (MySQL, PostgreSQL 7.0) implementations. Each command reference includes the command syntax (by vendor, if the syntax differs across implementations), a description, and informative examples that illustrate important concepts and uses.

SQL in a Nutshell is more than a convenient reference guide for experienced SQL programmers, analysts, and database administrators. It's also a great learning resource for novice and auxiliary SQL users such as system administrators, users of packaged client/server products, and consultants who need to be familiar with the various SQL dialects across many platforms.

• Chapter 4, SQL Functions, is available free online.

• More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bios, and samples.

• A cover graphic in jpeg format.