SQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Who Should Read This Book?

SQL in a Nutshell, Second Edition, benefits several groups of users. It is useful for programmers who require a concise and handy SQL reference tool. It is useful for developers who need to migrate from one SQL dialect to another. Finally, it is useful for database administrators (DBAs) who need to both execute a myriad of SQL statements to keep their enterprise databases up and running, and create and manage objects such as tables, indexes, and views.

This book is a reference work, not a tutorial. The writing is not expository. For example, we won’t explain the concept of an elementary loop. Experienced developers already know such things. You want the meat. So we will explain, for example, the detailed workings of an ANSI standard cursor, how it works on each of the database platforms we cover, the special capabilities of cursors on each database platform, and the various pitfalls of cursors and how to get around them.

While we don’t intend for SQL in a Nutshell, Second Edition, to be a tutorial on SQL or a handbook for database design, we do provide some brief coverage of those topics, and we hope you find that helpful. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 provide a concise introduction to SQL, covering the general origins, essential structure, and basic operation of the language. If you’re new to SQL, the introductions in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 will help you to get started.