Please recommend SQL book with excercises

Please recommend SQL book with excercises

am 13.04.2008 16:45:24 von vmnvmcxbv

I have beginner knowledge of SQL (I use MS SQL Server). I recently finished
"SQL for dummies" book and now need something more advanced with a lot of
exercises writing queries.

Can anyone recommend such a book?

Re: Please recommend SQL book with excercises

am 13.04.2008 18:30:14 von Stuart Ainsworth

On Apr 13, 10:45=A0am, "vmnvmcxbv" wrote:
> I have beginner knowledge of SQL (I use MS SQL Server). I recently finishe=
d
> "SQL for dummies" book and now need something more advanced with a lot of
> exercises writing queries.
>
> Can anyone recommend such a book?

When I first started learning SQL, there were two books that I thought
were excellent:

John Patrick's SQL Fundamentals, a workbook with lots of hands-on
exercises. Material was good, but his editor for the first edition
should have been replaced; there were mistakes everywhere, including
an editor's note embedded in the actual text (I believe the second
edition corrected these problems).
http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Fundamentals-John-J-Patrick/dp/013 0960160/ref=3Dcm=
_cr-mr-title

Ben Forta's 10 Minute Guide to SQL is also an excellent guide for
beginners; he really focuses on the language and concepts without
getting too involved in database maintenance issues.
http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-SQL-Minutes/dp/067 2325675/ref=3Dsr=
_1_1?ie=3DUTF8&s=3Dbooks&qid=3D1208104000&sr=3D1-1


HTH,
Stu

Re: Please recommend SQL book with excercises

am 14.04.2008 16:24:07 von Joe Celko

>> Can anyone recommend such a book? <<

Rick van der Lans INTRODUCTION TO SQL has been around for 20+ years
and each chapter has lots of simple SQL exercises with answers.
Warning! He uses some dialect (MySQL mostly) in places, so you have
to be careful.

My SQL PUZZLES & ANSWERS describes itself in the title. You get a
problem, then a set of possible queries with a discussion of each
answer. It just got translated into Japanese and Chinese. I had two
really good editors who fixed minor errors and added some more
solutions of their own. If you read Japanese or Chinese, these are
better versions than the English edition. Warning! A lot of the
puzzles are weird, tricky things that make good puzzles, but are not
the sort of thing you would want to have in production code.

Since you are still a beginner, I would get a copy of SQL FOR SMARTIES
for advanced programming tips. But you might want to start with
THINKING IN SETS; the big problem that newbies have is switching from
file systems and procedural coding to sets and declarative
programming. Remember how hard is was to get your head around
recursion? It is that kind of mindset change.