Rating: 
Summary: Great for beginners, lacks cd-rom and typos
Review: Sams Teach Yourself SQL 4th ed. is a great book for the beginner. It explains (otherwise complicated) concepts in normal everyday language.
What I don't like about this book is that the chapter 'Day 6' is pretty brief; the authors could have spent a lot more time explaining this function, especially since this is the most commonly used funtion in sql. I've also noticed numerous typos. For example, on p 185, the book asks you to create a table and name it "part", but when they give examples they use the name "parts" to refer to the same table (hmm...perhaps I should be directing this to the publishers). And the third aspect of this book that I dislike is the fact that there is no CD-rom. It would have helped alot and saved me a lot of time the writers included all of the example tables on a CD-rom, rather than having the reader type out all of the codes himself/herself.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good Book
Review: The book is quite good. I didn't actually need to key in a lot of the data as the examples made perfect sense.It makes for a good read, and you don't really even need to have the computer on -- as the examples are logical. It would have been nice had the author allowed downloading of the scripts to create the db's.
Rating:
Summary: Good stepping stone
Review: This book has provided me with a good background on using SQL. As a complete beginner I am pleased with the results and the clear syntax examples. After a few days I could create tables with my eyes closed and the explanations of the main types of SQL commands gave me a good grounding for further learning. For success with this book ignore the title and try not to push yourself to complete the book in 24hours - be patient and you will succeed! Good book but limited like all general SQL book by various SQL implementations on the market although tries to keep to ANSI-SQL standards! Good - definitely buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Book
Review: This book is well planned and presented, but the error checking is almost nonexistent. The book is riddled with bugs, misspellings (in tables, data, and such) and confusing mistakes. Online or offline (disk or CD) support is nonexistent and the user is forced to enter all data from an appendix in the back by hand. In one almost humorous example of this negligence, the appendix has you create a table called "parts" and populate it with human body part descriptions such as, "Kidney", "Adam's Apple", "Spine", and such. On day six, there is an example of a bike shop that combines the human parts table with a bike shop supplier's customer list. The resulting database is interesting to say the least. I would strongly recommend against trying this book at all if you are not using Oracle. It claims to teach all brands of SQL, but only truly concentrates on Oracle's SQL+. The differences in other implementations are covered with phrases such as, "The preceding syntax will generally work with any SQL engine, but you may find some slight variations." If you're still new to the world of data in general, then pass on this book and search another. If you have experience programming, and can usually debug logic errors and spelling mistakes, then this book is otherwise a helpful tutorial. The text descriptions and comments are written on a personal level and are clear and concise. The lessons flow in a smooth logical fashion and the bonus days really are a nice bonus. Just be ready for a little frustration along the way.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but sloppy.
Review: This book is well planned and presented, but the error checking is almost nonexistent. The book is riddled with bugs, misspellings (in tables, data, and such) and confusing mistakes. Online or offline (disk or CD) support is nonexistent and the user is forced to enter all data from an appendix in the back by hand. In one almost humorous example of this negligence, the appendix has you create a table called "parts" and populate it with human body part descriptions such as, "Kidney", "Adam's Apple", "Spine", and such. On day six, there is an example of a bike shop that combines the human parts table with a bike shop supplier's customer list. The resulting database is interesting to say the least. I would strongly recommend against trying this book at all if you are not using Oracle. It claims to teach all brands of SQL, but only truly concentrates on Oracle's SQL+. The differences in other implementations are covered with phrases such as, "The preceding syntax will generally work with any SQL engine, but you may find some slight variations." If you're still new to the world of data in general, then pass on this book and search another. If you have experience programming, and can usually debug logic errors and spelling mistakes, then this book is otherwise a helpful tutorial. The text descriptions and comments are written on a personal level and are clear and concise. The lessons flow in a smooth logical fashion and the bonus days really are a nice bonus. Just be ready for a little frustration along the way.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: This is a good book for a beginner who understands the concept of a database but does not have any actual experience with SQL. The first half of the book does a good job of explaining the basics. Once you have grasped this part it would be best to find information directly related to the database you are working with and the functions you will be preforming.
Rating: 
Summary: 21 days? Not so.
Review: To any beginner out there, you will not be able to practice any exercise unless you already know how to create a databse using SQL. If you already know SQL, why would you want to buy this book in the first place? After downloading the source code file for the book, I was very upset that the author did not include the scripts listed in Appendix B and C. The scripts would have been a fundamental part that laid the foundation for the exercises. Instead I had to spend three days coding before I could actually try out the first example in this book. I purchased a few books on Oracle from other publishers(O'Reilly and Osborne) and they all provided appropriate source codes. In another word, you simply cannot do the exercises without already knowing SQL! Omitting the scripts that create a basic database so that all queries can be perfomed is unacceptable! This book deserves a lower rating due to this omission. Thanks for nothing. By the way, I learned how to create the tables for the exercises in this book by reading another book (Oracle 8i DBA Handbook by Kevin looney from Oracle Press).
Rating:
Summary: 21 days? Not so.
Review: To any beginner out there, you will not be able to practice any exercise unless you already know how to create a databse using SQL. If you already know SQL, why would you want to buy this book in the first place? After downloading the source code file for the book, I was very upset that the author did not include the scripts listed in Appendix B and C. The scripts would have been a fundamental part that laid the foundation for the exercises. Instead I had to spend three days coding before I could actually try out the first example in this book. I purchased a few books on Oracle from other publishers(O'Reilly and Osborne) and they all provided appropriate source codes. In another word, you simply cannot do the exercises without already knowing SQL! Omitting the scripts that create a basic database so that all queries can be perfomed is unacceptable! This book deserves a lower rating due to this omission. Thanks for nothing. By the way, I learned how to create the tables for the exercises in this book by reading another book (Oracle 8i DBA Handbook by Kevin looney from Oracle Press).
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