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Oracle SQL : The Essential Reference
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Author: David C. Kreines
List Price: $36.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 1565926978
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates (01 October, 2000)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 97,395
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 5 out of 5
It's a SQL REFERENCE, dummy!
I have found this book to be an invaluable reference to SQL, PL/SQL, and SQL*Plus syntax and usage. The previous review by Kevin McCormick seems to entirely miss the point of an Essential Reference - it is not intended to teach SQL concepts, and the introduction clearly states this. The book is well organized with exactly the information needed to write a particular statement. The examples are simple and to the point - I don't need a complex example; just something to show me what the statement should look like (for example, to show me that an argument should be a string and not a number). I bought two copies: one for the office and one for home. The book is as close to indispensible as you can get. I only hope the author is planning an update to Oracle 9!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Shame! Shame! Shame!
I was a programmer/analyst having used SQL and Oracle for some time, who was very much interested in adding a good SQL text to my IT reference library. My primary SQL reference at that time was the "Oracle Complete Reference" from Oracle Press. I had excellent success with O'reilly Oracle books in the past and thus purchased Oracle SQL.
I cant believe some of the basic SQL concepts that are omitted from this book!! The concept of a table alias, the Oracle DUAL table, SQL statements that accept a single value vs a list - not even mentioned in this book!! An entire text book on the single subject of SQL should be thorough! By thorough I mean cover in good detail the introductory concepts as well as the advanced.
O'reilly has excellent books published on the subjects of PL/SQL and SQL*Plus. Why does this author skimp on SQL concepts and waste chapters on these subjects that I'm not interested in!!! I usually find the O'reilly books preferable to the one's from Oracle Press. Not in the case of SQL!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Overrated
I have to disagree with the other reviewers and say that this book is overrated. It's one of those books where it's often hard to find the information and you end up looking elsewhere. To start off with, the index is not the greatest. Try looking up "ORDER BY". It's only mentioned in the index as one item in an EXPLAIN PLAN command. In general, I found the examples they use to be only bare bones examples. It would be nice to see some more complex SQL. On the plus side, the book seems fairly free of errors and a lot of information is packed into the pages. There's not a whole lot of writing but you shouldn't be expecting that given that it's an "essential reference". This isn't a bad book per se. However, it's been on my desk for nearly a year and I just don't find myself using it much.
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