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Summary: Quick-Start Guide
Review: I was tired of heading to the Tech department to find out how to retrieve & arrange the data I wanted from existing tables. This book is just what I was looking for: examples of correct syntax & statements, without the pages & pages of technical jargon.
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Summary: Thank God for this book!
Review: Finally! A quick reference guide for SQL. I find myself going to this book 100 times more often the the "so-called" manuals for SQL7. The book is laid out for quick and easy reference to the information I need. Great Job Ben!
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Summary: Fantastic Overview!
Review: This book is exactly what I was needing. I had been getting by learning some SQL by looking at example ASP pages. Everytime I needed something more, I had to go to a friend that knew SQL and ask how to do it. This book eliminates that now. For learning how to do the different types of SQL commands without needing all that other database stuff, you can't beat this, especially the price!
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Summary: Best getting-started title
Review: This is without doubt the best SQL getting-started book I have seen yet (and I have lots of SQL books). I read Ben's notes describing the book's purpose and I believe his goals have been more than met. If you need to learn SQL buy this book.(And as for the comment beneath mine about the lack of information on implementation differences, that is just incorrect, maybe that reviewer saw an earlier draft because the copies I have cover this throughout the book and there are even entire appendixes on this).
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Summary: Good Beginner's Book, Great Brush-up Book For Old-Timers
Review: I was asked to review the pre-release version of this book and I'm glad I did! Although this book is not an all-encompassing-bible (and is not intended to be so,) it delivers a high magnitude of information in a easy-to-use and digestable manner. This book is great for beginners that wish to broaden their SQL knowledge and excellent for the "old pro" to use for quick reference. I also wish that I had this book when I was learning SQL. Great job Ben!
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Summary: General SQL, without the particuliarities of specific DBMSs.
Review: After reviewing Ben Forta's Coldfusion book, I've been asked to review the pre-version of his soon-to-be-released book on SQL. This book really covers all the SQL commands an Internet/Intranet developer needs to interact with existing databases through ODBC or OLEDB. Unfortunately, the particuliarities of the various database systems (SQL Server, Access, Oracle, Sybase, etc.) are not covered. You will still need to consult the documentation of each of them to learn how to optimize an operation for a specific product or know what is supported and what syntax to use for advanced database manipulations. You'll have to make an effort on this, Ben.
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Summary: A good beginners book
Review: Overall a good beginners book on SQL. Ben Forta Covers most of the details that Beginners can get stumped on very nicely! A must for anyone just starting to lean SQL!
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Summary: A must read
Review: Having read several pre-release chapters of Ben's upcoming book, I can recommend this book to both beginner and sequel "old-timers" who might have gotten a little rusty in their SQL skills. The book outlines in plain English some of the most commonly used commands from the SQL language-and leaves out the rocket science that confuses most new comers. While not a definitive treatment on the language (as Ben himself notes in the text), with this book in hand, anyone should be up and running with the fundamentals of SQL in no time. Having said that, there is still plenty of coverage concerning some of the more in-depth features of SQL such as aggregate functions, joins, grouping, etc. A must read for anyone wishing to get up and running with SQL quickly and painlessly!
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Summary: It's about time!
Review: The publisher sent me a copy to review before publishing and I can only say that I wish I had had this book when I was learning SQL.
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Summary: A whole new way to learn SQL
Review: This book was born out of necessity. I have been teaching and writing on SQL for a long time - but whenever I was asked to recommend a good book on SQL I found myself somewhat stuck. There are good SQL books out there, but most of them are oriented towards database administrators or developers working within a highly database and SQL-centric world. And as such, most of them are overkill - they tend to provide too much information instead of just what most of us need to know. This book has a specific audience in mind and was designed to be very different from other offerings out there. Instead of being geared towards DBA's, this book is designed for real-world developers who write in Visual Basic, C/C++, ColdFusion, ASP, Delphi, Java, and any other language. Instead of being designed for folks who's occupation is data manipulation, this book is oriented towards users of other client applications, Word users who need to mail-merge against a back end database, report writer users needing to extract information from corporate data stores, and anyone who needs to manipulate and interact with databases, but for whom database manipulation is not a full-time job. It does not start with database fundamentals, normalization, relational database design, referential integrity, and security infrastructures. Yes, these issues are covered, but that is not the emphasis or the positioning, Rather, the book starts with the SQL SELECT statement, and then adds filtering, sorting, and so on. Table creation, working with different datatypes, implementing constraints, using stored procedures and triggers, and more are all introduced clearly and methodically in small bite size chucks. The emphasis on getting stuff done, and getting it done quickly helping you be productive as quickly as possible in whatever tool or environment you use. I hope you find that these objectives have been met, and I welcome your feedback. Enjoy.
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