Sams Teach Yourself (4th Edition) - SQL in 10 Minutes

Found this book to be excellent source of gaining some basic understanding and as a quick reference once my understanding of SQL advanced. The author produces some of the best material I've read (I wish he did more books on other languages I was needing something for). He is presents the material in a manner to be not too in-depth that it goes over your head, yet still remains to give a thorough enough explanation. The examples are simple, relevant, and error free. The most useful feature I found was how he clearly indicates when there is a difference in how a statement is coded between different manufactures software (i.e. listing the differences between how concatenation syntax is performed on different DBMS). I highly recommend this book if you are considering the purchase of it.

SQL is a new technology which expands quickly and more people want to know it. This book offers a quick understanding of the way to use SQL in querrying databases. Great for IT persons and GIS specialists or students in these fields, manily.

After my company moved off the mainframe, all data warehouse files were in SQL tables. The only way to mine this vast storehouse of data is to use SQL. This book was an easy to follow and very helpful tutorial to all the basic SQL commands. Recommend it for beginners like myself.

A great book that provides an overview of many database management systems/DBMSs. Does not particularly go specific in one DBMS;
however, i enjoyed reading this book for it is informative and touch on variations on different DBMSs.

Company sent book quickly. It was almost new. Nice condition. Plus the book material is exactly what I was hoping to get; compartmentalized, simple chapters that can either be used as a standalone reference or read it like a story.

This book is must for anyone wanting to learn SQL from scratch. It introduces every element of SQL language in a logical sequence and in simple terms so that beginners don't get overwhelmed with too much detail. The book's website provides sample code to create tables that help in testing the queries the book teaches. After completing this book, one can try more advanced books and not get lost.

Most technical books I've read are mired in useless history lessons, poor attempts at humor, unnecessary knowledge, and missing pieces between chapters. Not this book. It gets right to the lessons of writing SQL code and builds on itself through every chapter. Clearly written and broken down into digestible chunks, this book was exactly what I needed to get started writing SQL code to get to the data that I need in my job. If you need to administer databases then pick up another book. But if you need to learn the basics of writing SQL statements then this is the book for you. I really wish all the past technical books I've purchased could be this easy to read and apply.

The title of the book should have been "get started with SQL in 10 minutes". The book was clearly written and well organized. Using it for three days, I was able to write my first complete and successful query. The query also helped me to understand how SQL DBMS stores data. Now I am going on to studying Microsoft Server 2008 R2.

I appreciate Ben's approach, all too often authors start out explaining all platforms but then settle on on specific (usually where they shine). His approach is easy to follow and understandable to novice developers.

I purchased this book to supplement my dbase course. I have never used SQL and thought I would benefit by having an extra book to reference. I highly recommend this book to anyone just getting started with SQL. The author starts with basic statements and builds on them making it easy to understand from the very beginning.

SQL in 10 minutes?? ......I thought this guy was kidding. He wasn't. The main reason why I couldn't get a job was because I didn't know SQL, within one hour I read the book, tried all the examples, wrote SQL on my resume, applied for a job and got the job the next day requiring SQL experience :)

This language is so easy to learn, it feels more like an application than a programming language. It seems as though the whole language is really just 3 words, select, from & where, although I'm still new and theres probably a tonne more but I didn't need to know that to get the job.

Compare it to learning c,c++, Fortran and other languages for the first time where you learn to define variables, learn the functions, test cases, inputs, outputs, etc, etc. SQL you pretty much type in the inputs and you receive the outputs...its a really intuitive language, anyone can start learning within minutes. Highly recommend this book, its also probably the best quick reference out there if you need to solve a particular problem.

This is 'just the facts' book. Great for beginners just wanting get accilmated to SQL without all the nitty gritty. Once you get through this you will be ready to move on to the more indepth manuals.

Some programming is just a set of arbitrary rules.
There is nothing aesthetic.
SQL is this.

This title is enough to operate and no peripheral asides.
I wish all texts were as straightforward.

I really helped me to understand the database concept. In my current work, I have to pull data to create some reports and this book really helped me to understand the concept and the relation between different tables.

After creating a database for a software product. I wanted to understand how the database was used by developers. The book helped me understand the rules in managing a database in SQL. The book is an easy read and I actually feel I could pull reports based upon information learned in reading the manual.

I'm enjoying this book for its explanations and instruction. It's not confusing me with too much detail like some books. Has the beginning SQL user in mind. I like the focus on query vs creating and updating tables. Easy to skip directly to what you need.

I think the other reviewers have said what needs to be said. It's a shorter book focused around 10-15 minute concept lessons. Don't expect to come out of it a champion of SQL, but seems like it put me on a good start for when I get into more advanced books.

This is a phenomenal resource that can be used as a quick resource or to learn SQL from scratch. The examples are easy to understand and then apply to the real world. It is not a resource for SQL guru's and doesn't address everything SQL is capable of. It does, however, reflect 80% of the features that are used 95% of the time.

If you're looking for a book focused on introducing you, the beginner, to SQL, then this book is for you. I bought this book with zero programming experience, and it did a swell job of getting me to write queries in almost no time at all. Of the querying that I do at work, 99% of that knowledge came from this book. The other 1% came from internet searches for problems on very specific SQL syntax.

Keep in mind this book will not turn you into an expert, but then, you may not need to be an expert. I'm still a beginner and I'm getting by just fine so far. Soon I'll be venturing into more advanced books.

The content if organized very logically for you learning convenience. If you're a beginner looking to learn SQL, you won't regret buying this book.