Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: As a reference
Comment: I found this book to be very complete. Providing solutions for multiple DBMSs was greately appreciated. I have been in I.T. for a long time and I have read many many books on all types of subjects. I often (too often) am disappointed with books I purchase. However, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised... this is one of those time.
I create numerous queries using all types of tools. As such, I sometimes insert the wrong syntax into a query. This book helps to quickly correct the error. In addition, it has given me some "tricks" that I was unaware of that have helped to simplify some of my queries.
It would be very advantageous to have the info in this book on a searchable site or application
Buy it, read it, and keep it close by to reference to.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It is real cook book
Comment: I am completely satisfied with this book.
Instead of inventing all the time "bicycle" I can use this book in my everyday work and concentrate on more important things in my projects.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: MS SQL Server must be 2005
Comment: This is a great product but some of the advanced features weren't available in SQL Server 2000. I really liked the windowing and hierarchical queries in this book but those features are not available in 2000. For the most part 2000 isn't used that often anymore but if you are one of the unfortunate to have to use it there will be some compatibility problems with the examples in this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mind-expanding
Comment: It doesn't take long to learn the basics of SQL. Once you start to do multi-table joins and you get to sub-selects and outer joins you can almost convince yourself you are an expert. Trust me. You aren't. I've read at least ten books on using SQL. This is the first one to blow my horizons away and open a completely new landscape.
The "recipies" are well explained and almost entirely practical and useful. This book showed me dozens of things I did not ever think of using SQL for, even though I have the BNF for SQL pretty much in my head after more than 18 years of being a practicing programmer.
Before this book I used to recommend "generic" SQL books to students and newbies because such books apply to virtually all SQL databases and it can be harmful for one to use a specific "dialect" (such as Oracle or SQL Server) that won't port to other SQL databases. I would urge people to learn "generic" SQL. You can always add the features of you specific dialect, but it is hard to give up features you assume will be in all dialects.
This book neatly avoids that problem by providing dialect-specific sections when you can or must code differently for a particular database. Even better, they explain the differences and the pros and cons of those differences. So this book can even be an aid to selecting the "right" database for your application.
I happen to be a fan of Open Source and Free Software and I'm pleased to say that this book covers both MySQL and PostgreSQL. Naturally it provides the "big three" of Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM's DB2.
This book really opened my eyes to possibilities in SQL that I really didn't know existed in spite of the fact that I have been using the language (apparently without mastering it) for almost two decades.
I still recommend using a "generic SQL" book to learn the basics, but this should literally be ordered at the same time. It is the best of the "Cookbook" series that I have seen. (And I have used the Java Cookbook, Perl Cookbook, and Python Cookbook).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Too long; get the Sams 10 minute series
Comment: Too long at 600 pages. Sure you'll understand SQL if you go through all 600 pages and understand them well. Heck that's true for any subject, including the Qu'ran. But who'se got the time? Get the Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition - Ben Forta; and in about a day you'll be half way towards mastery. But if you don't value your time, perhaps you're still a student rather than a professional, then by all means read this book.
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