Mastering Oracle SQL by Sanjay Mishra and Alan Beaulieu published by O'Reilly is a great book for exploring the intricacies of Oracle SQL and particularly version 9ias as it relates to the SQL92 standard. SQL is not a glamorous programming language, but the authors make it accessible without talking down to their intended audience or presenting examples that are too simplistic. Like all O'Reilly books, the material is well presented, the authors can program as well as write, and the book has a very consistent and pleasing look.
The first chapters are introductory and review material. There is a short section on the history of SQL along with a bit of theory regarding relational database management systems. This section covers the basic DML statements, the WHERE clause, joins, group functions, subqueries, date formatting and date manipulation. This is what I would define as the heart of SQL, and the tools that most SQL programmers use every day. The chapters follow a basic formula: the topic is presented using traditional Oracle SQL, and then presented again using the newer adherence to the ANSI SQL92 standard. The two methods are compared and contrasted.
The next section is about getting the best from SQL. Presented in these chapters are set operations, hierarchical queries, partitions, objects and collections. This section is more focused to the newer versions of the ORACLE RDBMS. Programmers still using the older versions will find fewer things they can actually use, but this section does a good job of taking the reader beyond what they have encountered in school or training classes.
I was surprised to see a chapter on PL/SQL, the procedural extension of SQL; a subject large enough for complete books, and a language with its own intricacies and gotchas. As the focus is on SQL this chapter shows how PL/SQL and SQL interact, rather than delving deeply into PL/SQL.
The chapter that interested me the most was 14: Best Practices. A constant challenge facing many SQL programmers is finding ways to write code that is faster. This chapter does a good job of explaining why certain SQL statements execute faster than others, resulting in large increases in efficiency.
Synopsis
This is a very good book for SQL users who use the latest versions of ORACLE products at work, and want to start out creating the best possible SQL code right away. The time spent reading this book is very rewarding, and can be applied immediately to business situations encountered every day.
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