Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL - A Learner's Guide | Date: 06 May 2011, 19:39
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Is your data dragging you down? Are your tables all tangled up? Well we've got the tools to teach you just how to wrangle your databases into submission. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory SQL learning experience, Head First SQL has a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
Maybe you've written some simple SQL queries to interact with databases. But now you want more, you want to really dig into those databases and work with your data. Head First SQL will show you the fundamentals of SQL and how to really take advantage of it. We'll take you on a journey through the language, from basic INSERT statements and SELECT queries to hardcore database manipulation with indices, joins, and transactions. We all know "Data is Power" - but we'll show you how to have "Power over your Data". Expect to have fun, expect to learn, and expect to be querying, normalizing, and joining your data like a pro by the time you're finished reading!
Reviews
Bill Sawyer, ATG Curriculum Manager, Oracle
"There are books you buy and books you keep on your desk... Head First SQL is at the top of my stack."
Andrew Cumming, Author of SQL Hacks, Zoo Keeper at sqlzoo.net
"This is not SQL made easy; this is SQL made challenging, SQL made interesting, SQL made fun."
About the Author
Lynn Beighley is a fiction writer stuck in a technical book writer's body. Upon discovering that technical book writing actually paid real money, she learned to accept and enjoy it.
After going back to school to get a Masters in Computer Science, she worked for the acronyms NRL and LANL. Then she discovered Flash, and wrote her first bestseller.
A victim of bad timing, she moved to Silicon Valley just before the great crash. She spent several years working for Yahoo! and writing other books and training courses. Finally giving in to her creative writing bent, she moved to the New York area to get an MFA in Creative Writing.
Her Head First-style thesis was delivered to a packed room of professors and fellow students. It was extremely well received, and she finished her degree, finished Head First SQL, and can't wait to begin her next book.
Lynn loves traveling, cooking, and making up elaborate background stories about complete strangers. She's a little scared of clowns.
Contents:
Intro; Data and Tables - A Place for Everything; The SELECT Statement - Gifted Data Retrieval; DELETE and UPDATE - A Change Will Do You Good; Smart Table Design - Why Be Normal?; ALTER - Rewriting the Past; Advanced SELECT - Seeing Your Data With New Eyes; Multi-table Database Design - Outgrowing Your Table; Joins and Multi-table Operations - Can't We All Just Get Along?; Subqueries - Queries Within Queries; Outer Joins, Self Joins, and Unions - New Maneuvers; Constraints, Views, and Transactions - Too Many Cooks Spoil The Database; Security - Protecting Your Assets; The Top Ten Topics (We Didn't Cover); Try It Out For Yourself; All Your New SQL Tools
As with all Head First titles, Head First SQL sets out to engage all your senses during the learning process. Unusual diagrams, questions, exercises, and off-beat pictures are just some of the ways that the author works to grab your attention and force you down the path of learning (whether it feels like you're going down that path or not). The mixture of these techniques means that your mind doesn't really have a chance to drift off and start thinking about what you're going to have for dinner. It's this style that makes the Head First series the first one I'll recommend to people setting out to learn a new skill.
For those who are wondering, Head First SQL uses the free MySQL package for all the examples and exercises. It's not necessary to have some expensive relational database system already installed on your PC. So even if your SQL learning efforts are self-funded, the total outlay will pretty much be the cost of the book, and that's it. And given that SQL is a standard query language, much of what you learn will also transfer over to any other relational database system you end up using down the road, like Oracle or DB2.
Since I've done some SQL in the past, I found most of the value for myself located in the later chapters. Working with subqueries and more complex joins aren't things I do on a regular basis, so it's easy for me to forget the concepts. But a quick flip here, and it all starts coming back, much clearer than before.
There's a reason I rarely loan out my Head First titles... they often don't come back. This will be added to that lock-and-key section of my bookshelf that requires DNA samples before they leave the premises.
# Paperback: 607 pages
# Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. (September 1, 2007)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0596526849
PassWord: www.freebookspot.com
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