Beginning SQL Programming

Author: John Kauffman, Brian Matsik, Kevin Spencer, Ian Herbert, Sakhr Youness List Price: $49.99 Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price ISBN: B0000B0SXN Publisher: Wrox Press Inc (March, 2001) Edition: Paperback Sales Rank: 802,166 Average Customer Rating: 3 out of 5

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Customer Reviews

As another reviewer has mentioned, I don't believe the authors communicated much, if at all, when writing this book. It explains some concepts several times throughout the book, as if each author is taking a crack at it, and then other concepts are ignored completely.

Another really annoying thing about this book is that there isn't much hands on stuff, they just talk at you, rather than involve you. The 'try it out' sections typical of Wrox books are few and far between in this publication. There aren't any questions to test your knowledge at the end of each chapter either. I say again this book just 'talks at you'; it leaves you feeling quite numb.

It's odd that for a manual of over 700 pages you will feel as if you have learnt very little. Anything of real value, that would help you in the real world of development, has been left out. Sometimes it mentions some feature that would be of real value and then the words 'but we won't be covering that in this book' appear. This happens again and again to the point of insanity.

The only thing I have learnt from this book is that I will have to buy another book to learn SQL, but it won't be a Wrox publication this time, Wrox are beginning to fall in my estimation. I really don't know what Wrox and the authors were thinking when they released this, it really is terrible. You know you really get the feeling that Wrox are getting you to do their proof reading for them!

Apart from the appalling level of errors there is also a high level or repetition, which can only be down to poor communication among its authors. Then in other areas you'll find exceptional weak explanations or explanations lacking altogether.

The book skims over most of SQL, it doesn't cover it all by a long shot (as another reviewer has suggested). Also those who have praised this book must of read it like a novel, because if they really analysed and tested the code they would of realised most of it is incorrect. I just don't believe anyone who really examined this book could give it any praise, it really is awful.

Some of the try it out sections constantly use parts of SQL that aren't covered till later in the book, so you're pretty much left hanging, or jumping back and forward. Confusion reigns. You'll also find that the authors apply a style of SQL common to the DBMS they each use most often, so you end up with different types of SQL. This is all very well for an intermediate or advanced text but not in a book for beginners, as this just adds to the already overloaded confusion level.

The case study at the end of the book uses both ASP and VBScript so if you don't know those you can forget the case study. This is disappointing as case studies can really help your understanding of the language, and how it should be applied in the real world.

The errata page for the book on the Wrox website only includes about 9 errors (at the time of writing this). I've been told that they haven't got anyone to do these updates yet, this has been the case for sometime. So if you encounter trouble you'll have to find a forum and a helpful techie to help you through instead of Wrox support. This is very annoying and extremely disappointing consider the volume of errors. So prepare yourself for some major headaches.

If you complete this book you'll note yourself feeling numb and confused . You will have to buy another book to put all the wrongs in this book right in your mind, and believe me there are loads of wrongs to put right. This really is a very, very poor publication. DON'T BUY!!!

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