Getting Started with SQL

Appendix B. Supplementary Topics

There are some database and SQL tasks that, at the time of writing, did not fit into the mission of this book. The intention was to get your feet wet with SQL and not inundate you with every functionality available. But there are some topics that arguably do not fit into the core mission of this book, yet do not deserve to be omitted either. These are given mention here to help you progress in your proficiency.

APPENDIX B1 – Further Topics of Interest

This is a beginner’s book on SQL. Therefore, the scope and focus is limited to foundational topics. However, if you finished this book and are interested in expanding your database and SQL repertoire, here are some suggested topics you can explore and research:

Topic	Description
UNION and UNION ALL	Append the results of two or more queries into a single result set.
Subqueries	Query off other queries just like they were tables.
Indexes	Improve the SELECT performance of a table with large amounts of data (addressed briefly in “APPENDIX B2 – Improving Performance with Indexes”).
Transactions	Perform multiple UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT statements as one fail-safe batch (addressed briefly in “Appendix B3 – Transactions”).
Triggers	React to UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT statements and perform tasks like logging and advanced data validation.
Regular expressions	Use a universal syntax to match advanced text patterns easily—basically, LIKE wildcards on steroids.
Database administration	Fine-tune production ...