[GLLUG] Learning SQL

[Nicholas Kwiatkowski]

You may want to check out businessgrade.com...  They are a new store front opening off okemos and Hamilton.  They even offer pretty nice user group discounts...

-Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: "Caleb Cushing" <xenoterracide at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:39:37 
To:frank.dolinar at comcast.net, "Linux User" <linux-user at egr.msu.edu>
Subject: Re: [GLLUG] Learning SQL

Barnes & Noble has it listed as $45 member price, and I'm a member ;-) (if anyone wants to use my discount sometime just ask), that doesn't seem bad considering I have to pay $100+ for crappy text books I don't want or need, and when they are computer books the examples only work 50% of the time and that's probably an optimistic evaluation. So a really good $45 dollar book seems like a deal to me. Books are expensive but often well worth the price I pay. Like right now I'm following LPI tutorials in IBM developerworks and reading LPI Linux certification in a nutshell. The compliment each other well although I have had some problems with some examples :-( . I hate text streams and filters... I've yet to find a really good use for them on my system. sort and uniq are the only ones I can forsee a use for, maybe I just need more than a single user system to see it. 


On 3/27/06, Frank Dolinar <frank.dolinar at comcast.net: <mailto:frank.dolinar at comcast.net> > wrote: 
 Hi, everyone,
     I'm going to add my voice to recommending SQL for Smarties.
     I've been reading Joe Celko's columns since I first encountered them, years ago in DBMS magaxine (now folded into Intelligent Enterprise).
     SQL for Smarties will help you learn everything you need to know about SQL, what it is, where it came from, how it works, and eventually how to construct queries that do exactly what you need them to do.  However, be advised.  The book is not cheap.  Nor is it an easy to read pamphlet that promises to teach you everything you ever needed to know about SQL in 20 minutes.  It's going to take work.  But it will be worth it.
     I agree with Clay.  I've had the book for years and still find myself looking things up regularly.  I've been working with SQL (principally SQL Server, but also Sybase, and some MySQL) for about 5 years.  About once a month I encounter a problem or a bit of someone else's code that shows me something new about SQL.  And when I look it up in the book to understand what's going on, the answers have (so far) always been there.
     Worse, Mr. Celko has recently written a revised version of the book which is about 50% thicker and which I'm probably going to buy despite its cost.
     He's probably the next best thing to reading Dr. Codd's original papers on relational databases in terms of the quality, accuracy, and depth of the content -- and he's a hell of a lot easier to understand.
 
 -- Frank

 
 
 Clay Dowling wrote: Andy Lee said:
 I concur with the others that books are not really necessary for learning
SQL, but if you need a book, SQL for Smarties is the best learn SQL from
scratch book I've seen. That said, start with googling SQL tutorials to 
see how it looks. You'll likely be amazed at how simple SQL is, at least
to get off the ground with what most people do.
 SQL for Smarties is indeed an excellent investment, whether you're just
learning SQL or you've been using it for years but want to improve your
capabilities. I started using databases in 1996 and I still refer to this 
book. I discusses how to handle a lot of complex things that aren't
immediately obvious unless you're an absolute guru. I'm not, so this book
saves me.

Clay
 
 

*================================================================*
* Frank Dolinar 
frank.dolinar at comcast.net: <mailto:frank.dolinar at comcast.net>  *
* PO Box 886 517.351.1899 *
* East Lansing, MI 48826-0886 *
*----------------------------------------------------------------* 
* Dream big, aim high, & learn everything you can along the way. *
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