SQL (Structured Query Language) is the heart of a relational database management system. It's the language used to query the database, to create new tables in the database, to update and delete database fields, and to set privileges in the database. Oracle SQL: The Essential Reference is for everyone who needs to access an Oracle database using SQL--developers, DBAs, designers, and managers. SQL is based on research dating back to the late 1960s, but its first commercial release was in the RDBMS announced by the fledgling Oracle Corporation in 1979. Since that time, every other database vendor has adopted SQL, and ANSI and the ISO have made it a standard. Although vendors diverge in their extensions to SQL, the core language is standard across vendor boundaries. Despite SQL's long history and relative simplicity, few developers and database administrators are truly masters of SQL. The constant stream of vendor enhancements, the hard-won experience in tuning SQL for best performance, and the requirements of particular operational environments mean that there is always more to learn about SQL. Oracle SQL: The Essential Reference delivers all the information needed to keep ahead of the learning curve on standard SQL and Oracle's extensions to it. This single, concise reference volume will hold its own against a stack of Oracle manuals and even yield insights and examples not available in those manuals. There are chapters on basic SQL elements (naming requirements, column types, pseudo-types, data conversion rules, operators); Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML); common language elements (constraints, storage clause, predicates); SQL functions; PL/SQL (including procedures, functions, and packages); SQL*Plus, and Oracle SQL optimization and tuning. The book covers Oracle 8i, release 8.1.6.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Shame! Shame! Shame! - 2001-09-12
Reviewer Rating:
I was a programmer/analyst having used SQL and Oracle for some time, who was very much interested in adding a good SQL text to my IT reference library. My primary SQL reference at that time was the "Oracle Complete Reference" from Oracle Press. I had excellent success with O'reilly Oracle books in the past and thus purchased Oracle SQL.
I cant believe some of the basic SQL concepts that are omitted from this book!! The concept of a table alias, the Oracle DUAL table, SQL statements that accept a single value vs a list - not even mentioned in this book!! An entire text book on the single subject of SQL should be thorough! By thorough I mean cover in good detail the introductory concepts as well as the advanced.
O'reilly has excellent books published on the subjects of PL/SQL and SQL*Plus. Why does this author skimp on SQL concepts and waste chapters on these subjects that I'm not interested in!!! I usually find the O'reilly books preferable to the one's from Oracle Press. Not in the case of SQL!

It's a SQL REFERENCE, dummy! - 2002-04-11
Reviewer Rating:
I have found this book to be an invaluable reference to SQL, PL/SQL, and SQL*Plus syntax and usage. The previous review by Kevin McCormick seems to entirely miss the point of an Essential Reference - it is not intended to teach SQL concepts, and the introduction clearly states this. The book is well organized with exactly the information needed to write a particular statement. The examples are simple and to the point - I don't need a complex example; just something to show me what the statement should look like (for example, to show me that an argument should be a string and not a number). I bought two copies: one for the office and one for home. The book is as close to indispensible as you can get. I only hope the author is planning an update to Oracle 9!

It's not a "reference" -- it's an "overview" or a "tour" - 2004-06-20
Reviewer Rating:
This book gives a great overview of Oracle's flavor of SQL, and if you already know some other brand's SQL, you'll breeze right through, and have a very good idea of what's new and different in Oracle. You'll be able to sit right down and get to work.

(If, on the other hand, you're a SQL beginner, stop right here. This is not a book for SQL newbies. There is not a chapter with 100 examples of different types of SELECT statements, for example. It is not a tutorial!)

Each chapter covers a different area. For example, chapter 5 is about "SQL Functions". It goes through all the functions, giving you the syntax, a paragraph saying what it does, and then an actual example. Many of the examples are pretty trivial, just a couple of lines, but the ones in the PL/SQL chapter have some meaningful code to illustrate things like the LOOP statement, which is nice.

But. When you come back after the weekend and want to look something up, you'll be banging your head against the wall, because the index on this thing is sorely lacking. Just now I spent ten minutes trying to look up %TYPE, and had to leaf through the book before finding it on page 266. Very annoying. O'Reilly should know better: an "essential" part of any "reference" book is a kick-ass index.

I give it five stars for content and one star for lack of meaningful index, for an overall rating of three stars. Maybe in the next release they'll get it right. (Speaking of which: this book is (c)2000 and covers up to Oracle 8i.)

Overrated - 2001-08-22
Reviewer Rating:

I have to disagree with the other reviewers and say that this book is overrated. It's one of those books where it's often hard to find the information and you end up looking elsewhere.

To start off with, the index is not the greatest. Try looking up "ORDER BY". It's only mentioned in the index as one item in an EXPLAIN PLAN command. In general, I found the examples they use to be only bare bones examples. It would be nice to see some more complex SQL.

On the plus side, the book seems fairly free of errors and a lot of information is packed into the pages. There's not a whole lot of writing but you shouldn't be expecting that given that it's an "essential reference".

This isn't a bad book per se. However, it's been on my desk for nearly a year and I just don't find myself using it much.

Pretty good reference, with some minor issues - 2005-08-24
Reviewer Rating:
likes:
pretty complete on sql statements and functions

dislikes:
why organize it into "data definition" and "data manipulation" sections? Why not just put all the statements in one alphabetically organized section?

missing section on operator precedence (at least, accding to the index. maybe it's in there somewhere)

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