The vast majority of Oracle SQL books discuss some syntax, provide the barest rudiments of using Oracle SQL, and perhaps include a few simple examples. It might be enough to pass a survey course, or give you some buzz words to drop in conversation with real Oracle DBAs. But if you use Oracle SQL on a regular basis, you want much more. You want to access the full power of SQL to write queries in an Oracle environment. You want a solid understanding of what's possible with Oracle SQL, creative techniques for writing effective and accurate queries, and the practical, hands-on information that leads to true mastery of the language. Simply put, you want useful, expert best practices that can be put to work immediately, not just non-vendor specific overview or theory. Updated to cover the latest version of Oracle, Oracle 10g, this edition of the highly regarded Mastering Oracle SQL has a stronger focus on technique and on Oracle's implementation of SQL than any other book on the market. It covers Oracle s vast library of built-in functions, the full range of Oracle SQL query-writing features, regular expression support, new aggregate and analytic functions, subqueries in the SELECT and WITH clauses, multiset union operators, enhanced support for hierarchical queries: leaf and loop detection, and the CONNECT_BY_ROOT operator, new partitioning methods (some introduced in Oracle9i Release 2), and the native XML datatype, XMLType. Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition fills the gap between the sometimes spotty vendor documentation, and other books on SQL that just don't explore the full depth of what is possible with Oracle-specific SQL. For those who want to harness the untapped (and often overlooked) power of Oracle SQL, this essential guide for putting Oracle SQL to work will prove invaluable.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 12 Ratings

For the Intermediate Oracle Developer - 2007-05-20
Reviewer Rating:
The goal of the authors is to explain how to write good readable SQL queries in Oracle 10g. The book starts with how to construct SELECT statements to group, filter and format result sets for dates, reports and data analysis. Then it proceeds to cover Oracle-specific queries and functions for hierarchies (data in tree structures), object-oriented types, XML documents, regular expressions and models (spreadsheet-like objects). Where relevant, there are notes about the differences between SQL for Oracle 10, Oracle 9 and the ANSI standard.

As expected from the title, the chapters using declarative programming (i.e. SQL queries) for relational data, hierarchical data and reports are the most comprehensive. Chapters on interfacing Oracle SQL with other technologies such as scripting (Oracle's PL/SQL), object-oriented types, XML and regular expressions, or on optimization, are brief but sufficient to get you started, especially if you have a existing background in those technologies.

This is the 2nd edition, so it's not surprising that the scope of the book is well-defined and that the writing is easy to read and polished. The example data and queries are just complex enough to demonstrate the issues without obscuring the main points. Minor annoyance about Chapter 15, "SQL Best Practices", which does not explain how to use the query analyzer and bind variables.

I was already familiar with basic Oracle SQL but didn't really understand the language; this book blew away many of the fuzzy concepts in my mind and provided me the framework to tackle more complex problems.

Kam-Hung Soh, 21 May 2007.
[...]

Quite good - 2008-06-07
Reviewer Rating:
It's the only Oracle book I seem to need. Great explanations. Includes new Oracle features. One of the best descriptions on inner, outer, left, right joins. Saved my tail a couple of times. It includes just the right amount of information.

Waste of money.. - 2009-10-20
Reviewer Rating:
If you are of the type who would like to look at an oracle query example, run it against a database and watch the results - do yourself a favor. Stay away from this book.

But if you like reading oracle queries like a fiction novel - by all means get this book. The book talks about a parts distributor database the scripts for which Mr. DB Administrator Sanjay Mishra has decided to lock in his closet.

I am fuming with anger at the uselessness of this book. This book has good content which goes down the drain because of the ZERO PRACTICAL test. I am giving it a rating 2 coz the content covers what it intents to cover - basics of SQL. Barring that fact, this book is worth only a rating of .5

A great book with missed opportunities - 2009-06-28
Reviewer Rating:
The book has some great insights but it isn't well organized in some places. I think the authors missed a number of opportunities. Alan's Learning SQL is well organized, and I'd hoped this one would share that vision of simplicity first, organization second, and content third.

The book is unfortunately more content than organization driven. This can make it hard for a beginner but if you've used Oracle for a while it's a great book. While not a 5 because of organization, it IS currently the best SQL book targeted to the Oracle SQL dialect. However, beginners should start with the 2nd Edition of Learning SQL.

Best Chapter: Chapter 14 on Advanced Aggregation :-)
Worst Chapter: Chapter 16 on XML :-(
Missed Opportunity: Chapter 15 on "Best Practices" (not quite)

My suggestions to the authors for the 3rd Edition:

1. There was a tremendous opportunity to pull concepts together in Chapter 15 but you didn't pull it off. I think you went too short on tuning and use cases, and you could have gone a bit longer to make your points clear. Also, you should consider making it the last chapter.
2. Rewrite Chapter 16 with the clarity of Chapter 14 but make it Chapter 15.
3. Rework Chapter 6 because it is a very bumpy read.
4. Overall, smooth out the style, like Alan's Learning SQL.

Great in depth book - 2008-10-09
Reviewer Rating:
I haven't got to go deep into the book yet but what I saw was pretty good content but it's not a beginner book.

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