Comments about oreilly The Art of SQL:

This book's intended audience is developers with SQL experience

and significant database components, and their managers. The object is to

enable you to increase your ability to improve SQL performance. Although

the cover says "/THEORY/IN/PRACTICE," I was disappointed that the

practice did not include details for major RDBMSes - A few

specific examples were given, usually Oracle.

The back cover describes how the author deals with SQL performance

with an "Art of War" metaphor (Sun Tzu's well-known book). Often he does,

but almost as often, the metaphor theme is inconsistent. What struck me is

that this book does not (normally) use the typical grade 8 language you

would find with most technical books, these days, but even that was a bit

inconsistent at times. The use of higher level language was refreshing, on

one had, yet slowed my comprehension, on the other - I think I've been

effectively dumbed down due to a lack of use of some of the language used!

As much as I do not like "writing down," I also know that for what I write

to reach more readers, it's something I have to do.

What I do like about the book, though, is that it is a gold mine

of both general and specific techniques to help you deal with the bloat

that SQL really is (IMHO). Back in my early days, it was necessary to

understand the impact of what you did on the system and other users and

other jobs. Today, you can use some very powerful languages (SQL among

them), that trade a lot of that power for the performance you might

actually need. This book will lead you through these considerations so

that you may not have to call in an SQL tuning guru, because you've

designed your database and application properly, to begin with. And if

not, maybe you'll learn how to better deal with taking over a poorly

designed database, application, or just some bad queries.

So, although I would have really appreciated seeing examples

specific to (in my case) MySQL, there is enough presented that I can use

directly, or know what to look for, elsewhere. I'm happy to have this on

my bookshelf.

Reviewed by ELUG. (http://elug.ca/reviews/art_of_sql_review2.shtml)

Comments about oreilly The Art of SQL:

This book review was submitted by a Roanoke Valley SQL Server Users Group member as part of the Book Review Program.

Reviewed by Jerry Ellis

The Art of SQL does not fall into the trap of becoming "just another reference" for SQL users. It tackles real world problems with the point of view that you know how to write SQL code, but may need help in the proper tactics to most effectively handle them. What is refreshing is that it does not say here is a piece of code that will do this,it says, that may work, but here is a better way and why.

This is the book to have if you want to discover better practices for your SQL.

Jerry Ellis