Effective SQL: 61 Specific Ways to Write Better SQL, First Edition

Foreword

In the 30 years since the database language SQL was initially adopted as an international standard, the SQL language has been implemented in a multitude of database products. Today, SQL is everywhere. It is in high-performance transaction-processing systems, in smartphone applications, and behind Web interfaces. There is even a whole category of databases called NoSQL whose common feature is (or was) that they don’t use SQL. As the NoSQL databases have added SQL interfaces, “No” is now interpreted as “Not Only” SQL.

Because of SQL’s prevalence, you are likely to encounter SQL in multiple products and environments. One of the (perhaps valid) criticisms of SQL is that while it is similar across products, there are subtle differences. These ...