Re: Suggest books for beginner, and good as a reference for later use

I find the Complete Reference useful, as it is easier to use than the SQL Reference for remembering how to do those "common" things that I hardly ever do, even though Complete is, as Daniel implied, a misnomer.  Kyte's books are better for finding why things work, and for putting in the effort to learn things by example, to really understand what is going on ( see
http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2006/01/new-questionanswer-site.html#comments and search for "I Suck" for a good explanation why).

But one thing I learned early that has served me well - Follow The Instructions. Even if your professor steers you slightly wrong, you will do best if you do well in his class by his rules. Being able to show how someone is wrong by example within their own mindset is a very useful skill, too. Especially true with difficult people, like many managers you will run across. You need to have a good understanding of what is going on to know when to break the rules. Crank through that Concepts manual!

Also see http://www.dbaoracle.net/readme-cdos.htm

jg

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