Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Text
Review: I use many computer texts, and this title is one of the best, most clearly written guides/manuals I have seen. It has excellent organization, clear presentation, easy-to-understand examples. If you need SQL this is definitely the book. In a genre where authors often slap together sloppy books in record time (for low pay) this is a standout.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent starter to warm you up to "practical" SQL
Review: In need of some fast SQL-knowledge, I bought this book a year ago and have read it twice since then. It covers both Oracle and Access SQL. Being an Access Developer used to just click queries together (sorry to all you "serious" devs out there), this book opened my eyes and sent me straight back to the bookstore for some more SQL. If you're not into SQL yet and need a mind-snack to get you warmed up to the idea of working in a non-visual environment, this is the book you should read. Unless of course, you're not using Oracle or Access in which case this book is utterly useless to you.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for SQL!
Review: This book carefully describes what you need to know to write SQL statements in either Oracle and Access. I have been very happy with the detailed descriptions for the individual exercises. I would recommend it highly!
Rating:
Summary: Unique
Review: This book has a unique approach by mirroring concepts between Microsoft Access SQL and Oracle SQL so you can understand the differences between them as well as how to adapt your coding to work in both. Because of how involved this can get, it may be more suited to intermediate and advanced programmers rather than beginners. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the code from the book.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT SQL COMPARISON
Review: This book takes you through each sql command in both the Oracle and Access environment. It is an easy read and starts with the most elementary commands and moves to more advanced commands. The only draw back to this book is that John Patrick does not always give complete and detailed explanations for what is happened. The exercises at the end of the chapters are excellent but you do not have the output for all of them. So you have to hope that you have the correct statements. This book appears to have few errors which is a plus. As I have proceeded through this book, my confidence has increased. Would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT SQL COMPARISON
Review: This book takes you through each sql command in both the Oracle and Access environment. It is an easy read and starts with the most elementary commands and moves to more advanced commands. The only draw back to this book is that John Patrick does not always give complete and detailed explanations for what is happened. The exercises at the end of the chapters are excellent but you do not have the output for all of them. So you have to hope that you have the correct statements. This book appears to have few errors which is a plus. As I have proceeded through this book, my confidence has increased. Would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for SQL first timers
Review: This is a *very* useful book. It explains the SQL language in a very clear and concise manner, covering the language in detail and offering excellent explanations. The book is also organized extremely well. The countless diagrams and screen shots are invaluable while working thru the examples.Having come to a point where I needed to learn SQL (and understand it), and fast, I picked this book out of 4 I was considering. I whole-heartedly believe I made the right decision. Not only did I learn SQL, but I understood it too. The book covers both MS Access and Oracle so if you're using either of those, and you need to learn the SQL language, this book is a great start! Heck, even if you won't be using Access or Oracle but have access to them for the purpose of the examples (I used Access for the examples but I needed to learn SQL for use with MySQL and MSSQL), this book should benefit you greatly.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for SQL first timers
Review: This is a *very* useful book. It explains the SQL language in a very clear and concise manner, covering the language in detail and offering excellent explanations. The book is also organized extremely well. The countless diagrams and screen shots are invaluable while working thru the examples. Having come to a point where I needed to learn SQL (and understand it), and fast, I picked this book out of 4 I was considering. I whole-heartedly believe I made the right decision. Not only did I learn SQL, but I understood it too. The book covers both MS Access and Oracle so if you're using either of those, and you need to learn the SQL language, this book is a great start! Heck, even if you won't be using Access or Oracle but have access to them for the purpose of the examples (I used Access for the examples but I needed to learn SQL for use with MySQL and MSSQL), this book should benefit you greatly.
Rating:
Summary: Good writing; terrible editing
Review: This is a fine, fast introduction to SQL. The writing is clear and concise. The book is very well organized focusing on practical SQL and giving examples in SQL's two major dialects. The examples are well thought out; the sample code works. The diagrams showing how data is changed by a command are very helpful. The book might have been a good reference - an Oracle-Access Rosetta stone - but the index suffers from the same careless editing as the rest of the book - e.g., the column or page containing references to the letter "J" is missing. Why the author's preface thanks the publisher is beyond me. His book deserved better treatment than this. Nevertheless, I still recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn SQL in a hurry.
Rating:
Summary: SQL Fundmentals
Review: This is a very well organized and practical hands-on book. It explains what you have to do and then if you follow the exercises in the book, it works. I have tried the examples on ORACLE and they worked. This is one of the few books I bought recently that the CD actually works. The book assumes the readers have no prior knowledge of SQL. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn SQL.
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