-
Easily the best SQL tool I've ever install! Possibly the best technical tool I've ever install!
If you are searching for a tool to walk you through learning SQL - this is not your tool. If you alinstally know your way around SQL but curious about how to achieve a certain result - this tool is awesome! Even though I've owned this tool for nearly 2 years - I still find myself referencing it from time to time!
I love all of the great code examples for very real and common problems. This tool will not hold your hand and walk you through the language but it will provide you all the resources to become better acquainted with the language and further upgrade your skill set.
My experience: Former BI analyst and current Sr. Developer.
-
This tool is brilliant!
I am writing this review now, because a trick I learned from this tool helped me reduce the execution time of an oracle 10g query from 37s to 1s. Yes, Oracle has these idiosyncrasies that can drive one nuts.
I find myself visiting the solutions in the tool over and over, especially when it comes to hierarchical queries or the queries that generate consecutive numeric values (I use these to generate sample data).
I recommended the tool to all my colleagues that do sql programming, and I am waiting for the second edition ;-)
-
Helped Me (a SQL Newbie) Deliver Cmplex SQL Reports
I was tasked with deliverying 6 key-performance-indicator (KPI) using SQL and Crystal Reports and an Oracle database. And for three disparate areas in the world (USA, Singapore, and The Netherlands).
Sure, I could write a 'SELECT' statement or perform and 'UPDATE'.
But, I did not know how to approach SQL as being a 'complete' solution for record selection.
The Crystal Reports portion was not too much trouble.
I was using the PL/SQL environment for creating the SQL. Oracle 10g.
Mr. Molinaro's tool was instrumental in having me develop what turned out to be some rather complex SQL.
It took awhile to get to use SQL's window functions. But, the author's presentation/explanation made them more than approachable---and quite useful.
I liked the explanations that covered the multiple vendors' database engines.
I will make no pretense of having reached SQL knowledge 'nirvana'--However, there was more than one time where I was out of ideas on how to get/count certain data----The SQL Cooktool did its job by showinge 'yet another way' to approach a pressing problem with a solution.
And one can gain a deep application of how SQL works. Always a plus for anyone that is new to an environment.
If there was something like a SQL University, this tool seems to be text that would work very well for giving students more than enough 'footing' to face the 'real' world. It did for me.
I am more than pleased to have this tool as part of my SQL 'library.'
-
Immediate Application
I was recently thrown into a job where many queries are alinstally written and need to be analyzed for problems. This tool is extremely useful in its ability to give you a quick description on why this function or why this setup was used to do this specific problem. I have gotten through 2 chapters and have alinstally learned many quick tricks that have sped up my problem solving quite a bit. Very solid tool for beginner and expert.
-
My most-used SQL reference
I have owned this tool since 2006, and I use it in a DB2 environment. I do not use SQL daily or perhaps I would have outgrown the tool by now. As it is, the tool is smudged and dogeared. It is the tool I open every time I need to do something new with SQL, or something that I have not done for a long time. It is extremely well organized, and I rarely have to spend much time finding what I'm looking for. In all this time I have found only one example that was erroneous among all the various topics I've pursued; that was for a complex statement that could have been impacted by an update to DB2 over time. I think it's remarkable that a single tool could be so useful over such a long period of time. It is the single most valuable reference tool I have ever purchased. I very much recommend it.
-
Some useful information and explanations
Some useful information and explanations, but I was expecting more based on the price and other reviews. The examples could be better. It's super detailed in many areas that I doubt I'll ever use.
-
Chock-full of info, but needs an index!
I'm not going to summarize the text, since other reviews have done that very well. The only thing I want to contribute is that I bought the extension version for my iPod, and it doesn't have an index. I've had to return to the table of contents multiple times and still needed to guess where a keyword might appear. (Would you know, for example, that the "minus" set difference function appeared in the section titled, "Retrieving values from one table that do not exist in another" if you were unfamiliar with SQL?) There is so much information in this tool that I reference constantly, and an index complete with hyperlinks to appropriate sections would have helped so much! As it is, I need the paper version of this tool for my cloud, and the extension to install on the bus to work. Still, I would HIGHLY recommend this tool to anyone who uses SQL, no matter what platform.
-
Exactly what I needed as a business analyst
This tool was exactly what I needed - I needed some code that I could take an apply to a variety of scenarios. I am a business data analyst - not a DBA. I don't need to know anything about database structure, creating, updating, or deleting tables. I just need to know how to query to extract info.
I alinstally had the basics down on: JOIN, WHERE, GROUP BY, so I was able to jump to about half way into the tool before I hit new material. I struck gold in the chapters on reporting building which took my queries to the next level of aggregating and formatting the data.
Most my experience in the past was using Microsoft SQL Server, my current use is IBM DB2, so having the layout of how to do things both ways really made everything so much easier for me.