Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

SQL Pocket Guide

Rate this book
SQL is the language of databases. It's used to create and maintain database objects, place data into those objects, query the data, modify the data, and, finally, delete data that is no longer needed. Databases lie at the heart of many, if not most business applications. Chances are very good that if you're involved with software development, you're using SQL to some degree. And if you're using SQL, you should own a good reference or two. Now available in an updated second edition, our very popular SQL Pocket Guide is a major help to programmers, database administrators, and everyone who uses SQL in their day-to-day work. The SQL Pocket Guide is a concise reference to frequently used SQL statements and commonly used SQL functions. Not just an endless collection of syntax diagrams, this portable guide addresses the language's complexity head on and leads by example. The information in this edition has been updated to reflect the latest versions of the most commonly used SQL variants including:

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

80 people are currently reading
373 people want to read

About the author

Jonathan Gennick

22Ìýbooks2Ìýfollowers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
113 (35%)
4 stars
114 (35%)
3 stars
70 (22%)
2 stars
15 (4%)
1 star
6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Thomas Harning.
8 reviews
June 7, 2011


The complexity of developing database queries with SQL is a challenge often requiring frequent documentation searches. The "SQL Pocket Guide" by Jonathan Gennick is a great converged reference for many common database implementation.



The best feature of this guide is its breadth of detail offered. It provides a high-level view of database structures and provides useful details for taking strategies available in one implementation and possibly using it in another database engine. An example of this are the references from custom database function naming of Oracle's "analytic functions" and DB2's "OLAP functions" to the standard's name of "windowing functions". This allows you to take the naming you are familiar with, have been taught, or overheard and refer to it using that name and finding an appropriate redirection.



If you find that you are working with many different databases or want a quick reference to see if a given structure is available in a given database implementation, this guide is for you. Need a list of common data types for a category of data type: this guide has it. Need the details on dealing with times and dates: this guide has a good 20 pages on it. Even if it may not have all the tiny details you may need on a given topic, it can be a compass for finding your way through detailed documentation to what you want to find out.

Profile Image for Andrew Breza.
475 reviews30 followers
January 7, 2024
An excellent guide for people who are already proficient in SQL who want to learn new approaches to solving specific kinds of problems or who work with multiple types of databases. I use MySQL almost every day and found the book especially helpful for translating what I know to a project that uses sqlite.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for John R.
4 reviews
August 6, 2024
A pretty thorough introduction to SQL for beginners, but also a good resource for reference and reinforcing concepts for more advanced users. The fact that it shows examples in all the major RDBMSs makes it particularly useful if you are working with multiple different database.
21 reviews1 follower
August 6, 2023
"SQL - kurz und gut" von Alice Zhao ist zweifellos ein unverzichtbares Nachschlagewerk für alle, die regelmäßig mit SQL arbeiten. Mit ihrer klaren und präzisen Darstellung bietet die Autorin eine verlässliche Informationsquelle, die sich perfekt als Begleiter am Schreibtisch eignet.
Meine hauptsächliche Arbeit bezieht sich jedoch auf die, eines Datascientist, weswegen meine SQL Anforderungen eher gering sind. Datenbankadminstratoren arbeiten sicherlich deutlich umfangreicher mit SQL, wodurch die Anforderungen an ein Nachschlagwerk auch variieren können. Doch gerade für den gelegentlichen SQL-Gebrauch eignet sich dieses Buch besonders, um die Sprache und Anwendung sich erneut in das Gedächtnis zu rufen oder simple Operatoren nachzuschlagen.
Als Entwickler ist es von entscheidender Bedeutung, schnell auf relevante Informationen zugreifen zu können. Genau hier zeigt sich die Stärke dieses Buches. Die kluge Struktur und das übersichtliche Inhaltsverzeichnis ermöglichen es dem Leser, rasch zu den benötigten Informationen zu gelangen, ohne sich durch überflüssigen Ballast kämpfen zu müssen.
Ein herausragendes Merkmal dieses Nachschlagewerkes ist die Konzentration auf das Wesentliche. Alice Zhao verzichtet auf unnötige Erklärungen und geht direkt auf die SQL-Kernkonzepte ein. Dadurch kann der Leser sich auf das konzentrieren, was er gerade benötigt, und bekommt schnell Antworten auf seine Fragen. Dies ist besonders in hektischen Arbeitsumgebungen von unschätzbarem Wert, da Zeitersparnis und Effizienz gefördert werden.
Das Buch ist so aufgebaut, dass sowohl Anfänger als auch erfahrene SQL-Nutzer davon profitieren können. Der Wert liegt hierbei in dem Buch als Nachschlagwerk. Für Anfänger, welche die Sprache lernen wollen, würde ich hierbei eher ein anderes Buch nahelegen.
Ein weiterer Vorteil dieses Buches ist die Aktualität der Informationen. Da SQL eine lebendige Sprache ist und sich im Laufe der Zeit weiterentwickeln kann, ist es wichtig, ein Buch zu haben, das mit den neuesten Entwicklungen Schritt hält. Alice Zhao ist bekannt für ihre Kompetenz im Bereich SQL, und sie sorgt dafür, dass dieses Buch auf dem aktuellen Stand bleibt.
Zusammenfassend ist "SQL - kurz und gut" von Alice Zhao ein unverzichtbares Buch für jeden, der mit SQL arbeitet. Es ist ein praktisches Nachschlagewerk, das mit klaren Erklärungen, kurzen Erläuterungen und einer übersichtlichen Struktur glänzt. Egal, ob Sie Anfänger oder Experte sind, dieses Buch wird Ihnen helfen, Ihre SQL-Kenntnisse zu erweitern und Ihre Produktivität am Schreibtisch zu steigern. Es sollte in keiner SQL-Bibliothek fehlen.
Profile Image for Mathew Whitney.
113 reviews3 followers
April 25, 2015
When I started my first job as a web developer, this book quickly became the most important book on my shelf (and moved to my desk drawer, where it was easier to get to). While searching the web for answers is usually the easiest way to find the latest reference material for web/software development, sometimes a well-indexed small-format paper reference goes a long way.

Despite moving to development frameworks that make it easier to abstract the SQL away, this is still one of a handful of paper reference books I keep on hand at work. It's still a life-saver when I need to work with SQL, especially given that I've worked with MS SQL, Oracle SQL, and MySQL over the years.
Profile Image for Tania.
1,406 reviews35 followers
June 22, 2016
This is a great little reference book - clear, concise and well organized, it's a great portable reference for anyone who needs to get their fingers on sql code fast. Both the statements and the explanations for them are included for key functions such as conversions, case expressions, grouping and summarization, math functions, inserting, deleting, and updating data, and more. The Table of Contents at the beginning is a good roadmap for this guide, and the index at the end lets you quickly get where you need to go when you are in a hurry.
Profile Image for Kim.
17 reviews
June 16, 2014
The point of a physical reference is to be easier to flip through than a website. This book, while full of useful technical information, did not bother going through the process of being typeset by someone accustomed to formatting information in print. The end result was a book where it took me five minutes to find the page for the 'update' statement. Still useful, but quite disappointing for purely typesetting related reasons.
Profile Image for Senaps.
4 reviews
June 10, 2022
nice and quick dive into SQL. transfers good amount of SQL knowledge in no time! includes examples of all different/widely used RDBMS which makes it awesome.
Profile Image for to'c.
599 reviews9 followers
January 31, 2013
This book is always in an easy to reach spot on my desk. An invaluable reference.
Profile Image for Brian Garber.
39 reviews
Read
June 25, 2018
Read this one in college for the database courses that I took. Really good reference material.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.