SQL in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))
SQL in a Nutshellapplies the classic O'Reilly "Nutshell" format  to Structured Query Language (SQL), the elegant descriptive language that's used  to create and manipulate stores of data. This book explains the purpose and  proper syntax of hundreds of SQL statements, as defined in four major SQL  implementations, and details each entry with explanatory text and illustrative  examples. Perhaps best of all, authors Kevin and Daniel Kline feature MySQL in  their coverage, and give it billing that's equal to that of Oracle, Microsoft  SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. Their inclusion of open-source MySQL, which in most  situations carries no license fee, is recognition of its growing popularity and  suitability for serious database applications; also, it improves this book's  appeal to Unix and Linux developers.The majority of this slender book comprises eminently useful syntax  documentation (which is in the style of Unix man pages, with bracketed options  and monospace arguments) and the other information that's specific to individual  statements and functions. Additionally, it includes a relatively small amount of  conceptual information, such as a section on the proper use of NULL values. The  material that's not statement-specific also contrasts data-type implementations  of the four covered platforms--for example, readers learn that a PostgreSQL int2  value is known as a smallint in ANSI standard SQL. This is a particularly handy  reference book, if you use one of the emphasized SQL implementations.--David  WallTopics covered:Structured Query Language (SQL), as implemented in  Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, as well as in ANSI standard  SQL (SQL92 and SQL99). After an introduction to data types and relational  database fundamentals (the latter is not emphasized), the authors document SQL  statements and functions, one by one and alphabetically. They take care to point  out differences among the four implementations.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.