SQL Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) | Anthony Molinaro | an eye opener for undergrads and grads...

SQL Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) | Anthony Molinaro | a great second book on sql

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SQL Cookbook (Cook...

	SQL Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) Anthony Molinaro O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2005 - 628 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

an eye opener for undergrads and grads alike

as a recent graduate i was surprised by the sql i came across
once i started working. as an undergrad i was required to use elmasri/navathe and felt that book did a nice job
of teaching database fundementals, but it really doesn't prepare you for real world sql.
other courses with end of semester and group projects
were realistic enough that the learning curve once you begin working is tiny.
not so, for sql. the sql you're taught is nothing close to the pollution that's out there.
this book does a great job showing and explaining real world sql, using a step by step approach.

the first 2 chapters were lame intros that i suggest you skip unless you're a complete noob.
things get interesting as early as chapter 3 when recipes like "performing joins/outer-joins
with aggregation" are introduced.

a very nice book that would be very useful as a supplement to any undergrad taking a database course
who wants to get a taste of real world sql.

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a great second book on sql

because the focus is on queries (the author states this on the cover and preface) you'll need a more traditional book on learning sql if you are completely new to it.
once you know the basics, this is a great "where to go next" book. there are chapters for complete novices, but being a "cookbook" (q&a format), i would not suggest this text as your only text on sql. instead this would make a good supplement to any of the intro sql books avaialable.
This book does a nice job of showing when and how to use different constructs of sql.
for example, once you learn GROUP BY (there is a window/group by tutorial in the back of the book), you might wonder when exactly do you use it or what queries do you use it for?
the recipes in this book do a nice job of explaining how various sql constructs (aggregates, window functions, pivot queries, etc) work and when to use them by tying verbal descriptions to real queries.
this is a good book for novice or intermediate developers looking to take their sql to the next level or dbas looking to improve their sql skills.

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Hand's down GREAT!

O'Reilly cookbooks are always a great way to quickly solve everyday problems...but this one goes above and beyond when it comes to solving sql problems! Within the first 5 minutes of flipping through the book I was able to get pure sql solutions to two of the more nagging problems I was using a lot of other code to accomplish (turning table rows into a delimited list, and parsing ip addresses in a field).

As a few other reviews have mentioned, it was really great to also have solutions for various DBs listed side-by-side. For consultants like me who are forced to work with a variety of databases, it makes my job A LOT easier knowing I can just turn to this book to get the syntax of a specific trick no matter if I'm working with Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, PostgresSQL, or even SQL Light.

If you have a need to interact with a database, this book will def. give you some tips and tricks to make your life easier AND most likely speed up the performance of your apps.

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Indispensable

Molinaro's book is an incredible resource, and sets a new standard. No matter how old a hand you are at SQL, you will learn a great deal from this book. I certainly have.

How much better can it get!

This text offers a systematic approach to tackle even the most complex issues that can be confronted in such a technically demanding subject! It's an elegant answer to some potentially ugly problems that can occur.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8

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