 | |
| |
Oracle SQL Interactive Workbook (2nd Edition)
 |
Author: Alice Rischert
List Price: $44.99
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0131002775
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (24 December, 2002)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 234,550
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 out of 5
|
Customer ReviewsRating: 2 out of 5
Oracle SQL needs Help
This book waltzes through conceptually difficult material for the novice SQL'er. Correlated subqueries are given 3 pages. This is ridiculous! Furthermore, before a SQL novice can digest the conceptual ideas, Rishert presents examples which differ from what the novice is trying to digest. Yes, the examples present true information, but they leave the novice wondering what makes sense. The book needs a re-write if it wants to be presented to the community as a 'learning tool'. I'd recommend it to a novice provided the novice has a tutor on call.
Rating: 5 out of 5
On a desert island querying dbases, have this book with you.
Could you master a foreign language with a reference work? If so, then this book is not for you because you're already a guru. Oracle Press books handle that nicely. SQL is analogous to a foreign language, and most people learn foreign languages through extensive exercises that build towards mastery. This book does that, and, as such, there's little out there that compares. If you patiently enter every SQL query in this book and break it down into its constituent parts, examine each query's output, do every exercise even if it means looking at the solution as you solve it, complete every "Test Your Thinking" exercise, redo chapters 4, 5, and 7 at every opportunity, and think, this book will become the most extensive SQL reference work you can imagine--that's right SQL, not simply Oracle's implementation of it. This is because this book shows you how to apply SQL in ways you may not have imagined (my brain still hurts). The drawbacks: (1) Oracle dbase software required for the companion dbase--don't get this book if you don't have access to Oracle because it relies on intimate knowledge of the companion dbase, (2) dizziness from the frequency of your hand smacking your forehead when asking yourself "Why didn't I think of that"? The prose is succinct and elegant in its clarity except for chapter 7, where the need for and role of correlative subqueries, inline views, and scalar subquery expressions and the theory behind them could have been explicated better, particularly where and when they can/should substitute for equijoins. Specifically, a one-stop-shopping set of guidelines as to when these types of subqueries are desirable over their equijoin counterparts would have been very helpful.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Book lacks detail
The book informs you of various sql commands, but fails to give you the general syntax. If what you are trying to do has not been explicitely done in the book, it is unlikely to find what you are looking for in the book. The book is truly a workbook, and nothing else, and should not be purchased as an oracle sql refrence book.
Similar Products
· Oracle DBA Interactive Workbook
· Oracle PL/SQL Interactive Workbook (2nd Edition)
· Oracle Forms Interactive Workbook
· Oracle9i: The Complete Reference
· OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide
| | | | | |
| |
