Re: SQL Book Recommendation

On Jul 6, 8:28 am, Mark D Powell <Mark.Pow..._at_eds.com> wrote:
> On Jul 5, 5:46 pm, hpuxrac <johnbhur..._at_sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
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> > On Jul 5, 3:30 pm, J <jdfer..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
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> > > Hi Everyone,
>
> > > I've done some searching on the forum/group here and I'm having a hard
> > > time trying to find a book that suits my needs. I'm looking for a
> > > book that I can use/reference to find how to use all of the various
> > > SQL commands in Oracle. I've had prior experience in Transact-SQL in
> > > my last job writing against a MS SQL Server. The book that I found
> > > and love is "The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL" by Ken Henderson. This
> > > book, IMHO, is the best, definite guide on how to query a database.
>
> > > Link here:http://www.amazon.com/Gurus-Guide-Transact-SQL-Ken-Henderson/dp/02016...
>
> > > I'm trying to find this same book for Oracle, but I'm not sure if one
> > > exists. What I'm not looking for is a book that teaches you the
> > > administrative side of an Oracle server/db, database tuning, etc. I'm
> > > looking for a book that teaches all of the SQL commands (select,
> > > insert, pivot tables, subquerying, etc), how they work, and what the
> > > syntax is.
>
> > > Is there anything out there that has this?
>
> > > Thanks
>
> > > Jeff
>
> > My recommendation to you is to start with Tom Kyte's new book "Expert
> > Oracle Database Architecture".
>
> > I think you will be selling yourself short and not using oracle as it
> > is designed to be used if you only concentrate on syntax and don't
> > begin at square one.
>
> > Learn the architecture and how to develop and design scalable systems
> > first. Take a look at syntax for sql and plsql once you have read
> > Tom's book cover to cover a couple of times.
>
> > There are several followup books but that is the place to start.
>
> > All of the syntax is covered pretty well in the free oracle
> > documentation fromhttp://tahiti.oracle.com...
>
> > An alternative but not as highly recommended ( from me anyhow ) is to
> > start with the oracle concepts manual.
>
> > Get familiar with Tom's sitehttp://asktom.oracle.comandthe
> > questions and answers in it.
>
> > There's a fairly steep learning curve with oracle if you want to do
> > things well. Don't underestimate how much learning needs to be done.- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Since the OP is concerned about writing SQL I suspect the OP is more
> of a developer than a DBA and as such I would suggest starting with
> the Oracle Application Developers Guide - Fundamentals instead of
> Concepts. This manual covers many of the topics found in Concepts and
> DBA Administration but with more emphasis on using rather than
> managing the objects.

Good point Mark. I'd still emphasize reading in the Concepts manual about concurrency, consistency and locking, since those are likely to be things where a t-sql person would have to unlearn inappropriate habits.

>
> Tom's Book is very good but I think Tom expects you to be familiar
> with Oracle and PL/SQL since it is not a primer on SQL or PL/SQL so I
> would suggest reviewing the first few chapters of the SQL manual which
> cover the Oracle provided functions like to_date, to_char, upper(_),
> etc... and then reading the PL/SQL manual before reading a book.

It's not a primer, but it does explain in detail the subjects I mentioned above, for all the leading rdbms's, so it's likely to give a t-sql person something to latch onto - and he may even learn why he used to do things that he thought were just the way things were done. And of course, being able to follow along worked examples may be better than a primer for an experienced person.

Whatever works for the OP, anyhow. I'm sure iterating through all the suggestions would be best. I have mixed feelings about cookbooks - I've found them very helpful at times, yet I can understand they might foster bad habits. Haven't seen the one batso mentioned.

jg

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