SQL in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference Guide

I'm not a DBA, and I don't pretend to be one. I'm a C++ programmer and the only time I care about SQL is when I'm trying to coerce some database to give up the information I need. As I don't develop on an internet connected machine, I'm constantly running to the Google Gods to answer my SQL questions. But no more! This book keeps me in front of my dev machine where I belong. It has just the right level of detail. I find it very akin to a man page level of detail, which is perfect for my needs. It also presents SQL statements for various implementations; the MySQL and Postgres inclusion is key! Overall, it makes an excellent reference. I don't think you'd be able to learn the language or discover advanced techniques from it though.

I've purchased several "In a Nutshell" books before, but this is the first that I wouldn't rank 5-stars. Usually, these books are well-organized (they are meant to be a QUICK reference, after all), but SQL in a Nutshell fails at this.The book is almost 600 pages long, but it's only 4 chapters. Chapter 3, which covers statement commands, has no subsections and nothing is listed in the table of contents. You have to thumb through over 400 pages to find the statement you're looking for.If they would add subsections, and a table of contents, this book would be a lot, lot better. The information is clear and concise (what is expected from the "In a Nutshell" series), and covers the differences in statements between different SQL versions, it's just very, very poorly organized.

I like using this as a desk reference. Although I do have to agree with a previous reviewer who mentioned the examples are a little light. It is 3x the size of my 1st edition and I'm still pleased that I upgraded, but it is somewhat frustrating when you look for a specific function and don't find it. All in all, it does help me when I can't remember the specific syntax for the majority of commands I can't recall from direct memory (which seems to be increasing with age!). I am in general a fan of the "in a nutshell" series and not disappointed in this one.

While this is a very good reference book and deserves the 4 stars, I continually get frustrated with 1 thing: The index is poor. I don't know how many times after not finding something in the index I've had to skim through the table of contents and then search a bit through the pages. This can be very frustrating for a reference book.Again, though, the content has been very helpful for months of Oracle & MySQL reference.

This is a nice memory jog reference book. Fortunately, it covers many 'flavors' of SQL (SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, etc) for each entry. However, the index is lacking, many clauses are not included in the index, and -IMO- many index entries are not logically placed. I think had this book been as complete as the JavaScript Pocketguide it would have gotten 5 starts. All and all, still a very nice reference 85% of the time.

O'Rielly books are always great. This one is no exception. Getting started in SQL and this is proving to be a nice reference book. Very handy with how different variations on SQL have slightly different syntaxes. This lays them out clearly making my life easier. This plus google equals projects done!

Useful, worth to have in your office (locked), it contemplates many unknown SQL capabilities and feature in the SQL language itself. It's worth to take a look on this book so you understand the logic behind SQL rather that using an interface like PL/SQL or DBArtisan,

Bought this product as required for work. Enjoy ed it.