Rating: 
Summary: Ready to use !
Review: As a project manager, I recommand this book to all db practiser. The "atout" of the book is the clear list of function for RDBMS like MySQL, Oracle, PostGreSQL and SQL Server.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty disappointing
Review: Based on the O'Reilly name, I was expecting a pretty good book, but this one really smells. First, it's very sloppy. It looks like it needs another round of proofreading. Second, it skims way too much stuff. The SELECT chapter, for example, is as lame as can be - about 20 pp. if memory serves. Third, it's just not written well. This book definitely isn't up to the standards of the other O'Reilly titles.
Rating:
Summary: A "quick reference" should be quick and complete
Review: Contrary to several reviewers, this book is *not* well-suited to its purpose, especially compared to O'Reilly's usual high standards. You can't find what you need quickly, basic information is often missing, and there are enough glaring typos to make everything in the book suspect. This is particularly true of the book's main claim to fame, the myriad of small differences between database products.Some examples: (1) The book explains that some databases use "!=" instead of the standard SQL not-equal operator, "<>". Which databases? Do they support both operators, or just "!="? The book doesn't say. (2a) The book doesn't tell you that MySQL doesn't support subqueries in SELECT statements -- even though there's a subsection on "MySQL Syntax and Variations" for SELECT statements. (2b) The index has no entries for subqueries under any conceivable heading: queries, nested queries, subqueries, or SELECT. So you can spend quite a long time *trying* to find out which databases support subqueries. (Most do.) (3) The table of contents has a glaring typo, that makes you wonder what else got past the proofreaders and fact-checkers. Chapter 3, "SQL Statements Command Reference" doesn't have sub-headings for individual commands or groups of commands ... except for one: "DROP Statements", which are supposedly discussed for 70 pages, a third of the book. If O'Reilly was in such a rush to get the book out that they didn't notice this, how can you have confidence in the book's accuracy?
Rating: 
Summary: A "quick reference" should be quick and complete
Review: Contrary to several reviewers, this book is *not* well-suited to its purpose, especially compared to O'Reilly's usual high standards. You often can't find things quickly, and the information is often just not there. This is particularly true of the book's main claim to fame, the myriad of small differences between database products. Some examples: (1) The book explains that some databases use "!=" instead of the standard SQL not-equal operator, "<>". Which databases? Do they support both operators, or just "!="? The book doesn't say. (2a) The book doesn't tell you that MySQL doesn't support subqueries in SELECT statements -- even though there's a subsection on "MySQL Syntax and Variations" for SELECT statements. (And yes, I do need to know -- I'm working on a software product that supports every database in the book plus several others.) (2b) The index has no entries for subqueries under any conceivable heading: queries, nested queries, subqueries, or SELECT. So you can spend quite a long time *trying* to find out which databases support subqueries. (Most do.) (3) The table of contents has a glaring typo, that makes you wonder what else got past the proofreaders and fact-checkers. Chapter 3, "SQL Statements Command Reference" doesn't have sub-headings for individual commands or groups of commands ... except for one: "DROP Statements", which are supposedly discussed for 70 pages, a third of the book. If O'Reilly was in such a rush to get the book out that they didn't notice this, how can you have confidence in the book's accuracy?
Rating:
Summary: Useful, but should have been proofread
Review: Definitely a good review of T-SQL, a good intro to Oracle but not too complete. Definitely worth getting if you already know SQL, especially if you are in a Microsoft shop (although I think they should have included Jet SQL, I bet there are a lot more Access users than Postgre SQL users in this book's target audience). And there are a few typos and factual errors, which would be confusing for a neophyte. That being said it really is a very useful book, but it is not an introduction or a teaching manual, it really is what it says, a desktop quick reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Expanded 2nd Edition (more than 3x larger!)
Review: Expanded 2nd Edition (more than 3x larger!)
fyi ... Amazon is including here reviews from both 1st and current 2nd edition. 1st Edition was a "slim" 224 pages (released December 1, 2000 per Amazon). 2nd Edition is 800 pages (released September 27, 2004 per Amazon). From 224 to 800 pages ... hmmm, quite a change!
Per OReilly.com, current 2nd edition covers commercial RDBMS (Oracle, DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server), and open source implementations (PostgreSQL, and MySQL). fyi, 1st edition did not cover DB2.
2nd Edition is updated to use the most current ANSI standard, SQL2003, as the baseline in comparing each of the RDBMS.
Sample chapter available at OReilly.com. Chapter 4, SQL Functions. As PDF, 28 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Not very good
Review: I bought the book because of the O'Reilly Nutshell label. However, I should have realized from the start how thin it was (200 pages). Not only is this book think physically, it's thin in every sense of the word. I was hoping for a very complete reference. Instead, SQL in a Nutshell is woefully shallow. For example, it spends only about 20 small, well-spaced pages on the SELECT statement. 20 pages to cover what is arguably the most important statement in all of SQL. Throughout the book, Kline skimps on the specific quirks of each RDBMS. You'd be much better off reading the doc set for whatever RDBMS you choose.
Rating:
Summary: I like this book
Review: I have always enjoed Klein's books, and this is another fine one from him. It is not product-specific, so if you need that, you will need other books. But the ANSI SQL solutions here are quite good and very useful in many cases. I would think that they would work with most of the DBMS's on the market. The explanations are good and the sample code is quite extensive.
Rating:
Summary: I like this book
Review: I have always enjoed Klein's books, and this is another fine one from him. It is not product-specific, so if you need that, you will need other books. But the ANSI SQL solutions here are quite good and very useful in many cases. I would think that they would work with most of the DBMS's on the market. The explanations are good and the sample code is quite extensive.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference, but tough to find what you're looking for
Review: I have the 2nd Edition, which is 600+ pages.
The amount of information included is incredible. Each description of the individual statements has a "Programming Tips and Gotchas" which can be really helpful. I appreciated the "Rules at a Glance" in each section which give just a quick overview of each statement - the details are described in the section for each database (DB2, Oracle, MySQL, etc).
However, for me personally, the massive amount of quantity also leads to my frustration trying to look up a specific statement. The font is small (or at least appears small) and the text looks crammed together - it's tough to see where one thing starts and another ends. There is a margin indicator marking 400+ pages as the "Statement" section, which is just a big black streak down the edge of the book. I think would have been more helpful had it been alphabetic margin indicator tabs (A, B, C and so on) - this would have made finding statements easier.
So, there's my problem - a great book on content (I wouldn't want to see less), but tough (at least for me) to quickly find what I'm looking for - which is what you want in a desktop reference.
Content = 5 stars
Readability = 3 stars
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