Rating: 

There is little meat to the descriptions of the vendor-specific SQL variants. Specially, I expected to see details on the differences between Sybase/Microsoft data types, functions and their Oracle counterparts. Or how PostgreSQL and MySQL syntax differ. Sure, there are tables and tables of syntax, but no context or descriptions of how each vendor implements the same type or function; how they are the same; how they are different. Since each vendor already provides a reasonable set of card-oriented, one-page documentation, this volume seems to fill no specific niche nor perform any really useful function, unlike most of the "Nutshell" books.

There are no tricks or tips to speak of. When they are mentioned, there are no specifics given for how or why.

Overall, this book was very disappointing, especially in light of the VERY STRONG effort put forward in "Transact SQL Programming" book by the same author and publisher. While that volume provides no specific information on MySQL or Oracle, neither does "SQL in a Nutshell". Further, "Transact SQL Programming" is just plain a better SQL book, overall.