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SQL, Second Edition Review by J. Fernandez
Excellent tutorial AND reference
Generally technology books attempt to either provide a tutorial or a reference, rarely both. This book succeeds fantastically well in both categories. All aspects of SQL are covered: data types, statement creation, joins, operators and functions, subqueries, tables, indexes, views, and a brief section on transactions. This may not sound interesting yet, but the author does two things which make this book outstanding.
The first is there is enough information under each topic and sub-topic that the index is eminently usable. When reading cover to cover it may get old to see some of the same footnotes repeated over and over again, but I realized that whenever I had to look up a topic, every shred of information I needed (or a reference to it) would be in that very same section.
Secondly, for every topic, the author covers differences found within every major DBMS: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft Access and SQL Server, DB2, and Oracle. Syntax changes are noted, alternate functions or operators... everything! This is extremely handy if you ever change environments and need to know how something is done in the new platform.
There is also a sample database to download and a ton of examples for every topic. You can work through this book like a workbook if you wanted to.
There is very little information on database design or optimization, but as this is an SQL book and not a database book, I won't hold that against the author. This is a very user-friendly book and well worth the investment.