So you want to learn a SQL language and you are indeed a human? Don’t look further, this read will provide you some decent amount of the basic and those more advanced knowledge of SQL programming in no time. However be prepare for some long ass reading with this 4th edition of over nearly one thousand pages IT book.
| Pages | 960 |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 9th February 2018 |
| Target Audience | Juniors, Mids, Seniors |
| Author | John L. Viescas |
| Category | SQL, Database Management Systems |
Covered Subjects
Book starts quite slow with basic SQL concepts like: SELECT statement, filtering, ordering and finally grouping and having clauses. More of the standard mechanism like joining and altering data are included later in the book. These include all of the CRUD elements like: creating, replacing, updating and finally deleting of the rows.
Sub-queries come suddenly and without much of the alert of what these can cause in the future (similar to the MySQL docs for instance).
More complex conditions, CASE and if-else together with driver tables are covered on the very end of the book and do contains some decent examples.
The brand new content in the 4th edition contains: applying window function, more complex PL/SQL usages and finally advanced GROUP BY. Many other good tips especially for new SQL functionalities like: CUBE, ROLLUP or GROUPPING SETS are all included too.
Database design section is not long enough to learn from bottom all the required things, so check other publication to fulfill this particular aspect.
Writing Style
Not so great writing style for foreign reader, however it’s well proof read and have very little bugs and technical problems. Some small issues like missing space or wrongly wrapped words will not cause any confusions even for the Junior developers.
Examples
Well thought examples and a lot of them in each section will ensure that once the reader will try to repeat them himself, will learn a LOT from this publication.
Summary
Even if you read the on-line resources about SQL, the book still delivers extra coverage, more deeper examples and further explanations than any other website.
Overall it’s a worth to recommend book for beginners and mid developers. Even though the book targets at Seniors it doesn’t provide too much of the information for them in this case, too bad as the book already has 4th edition released.
$27 is a good offer for such subject, especially since any other, even lighter books, are more expensive and harder to get an used copy.
Where to buy?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SQL-Queries-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0134858336/
