Re: Reviews of Dan Tow's "SQL Tuning"?
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:47:40 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <62448335-9141-4cac-89a8-07530daea723_at_p2g2000prn.googlegroups.com>
On Jan 12, 7:49 am, Steve Howard <stevedhow..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> My apologies if this should have gone in CDOM, but it seemed relevant
> here.
>
> I have seen several posts that mention this book as part of a reply,
> but I wanted to get a separate thread for it in case anyone has a
> string opinion on it one way or the other.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Tuning-Dan-Tow/dp/0596005733/ref=pd_sim_b_6
>
> It seems pretty generic, so I wonder if it has value for an oracle
> specific user? It was printed in 2003, so is the methodology still
> relevant, especially for Oracle?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve
I have not personally read this particular book, but have read several
other books on SQL and SQL tuning. The Amazon reviews indicate that
this is a well written book. Most of the contents are visible through
a Google book search:
http://books.google.com/books?id=MW0RI-I5W4oC&printsec=frontcover
It appears that the book attempts to cover Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2, all in about 300 pages. Based on a scan of the book contents through Google Books, there is no mention in the book about using 10046 traces nor DBMS Xplans nor 10053 traces, nor exploiting analytical functions to assist with SQL performance tuning. Chances are, considering the copyright date, that the book does not cover differences which may be present in different Oracle releases, especially for Oracle 10g R1 and above. However, it looks like the general concepts presented in the book would be very helpful to a typical developer.
I suggest that you take a look at "Troubleshooting Oracle Performance", which is an Oracle specific book which covers 10046 traces, 10053 traces, DBMS Xplans, and several other useful topics that are relevant to Oracle versions 9i R2 and above: http://www.amazon.com/Troubleshooting-Oracle-Performance-Christian-Antognini/dp/1590599179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
You will find a review that I wrote describing that book in the above link, and I am preparing to write a review of "Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus".
Charles Hooper
IT Manager/Oracle DBA
K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc.
Received on Mon Jan 12 2009 - 07:47:40 CST