Rating: 
Summary: Average reading
Review: It's a good book but it misses a beat here and there on the more difficult topics. It is worth a try, as all the Oracle books are silly.
Rating: 
Summary: Great techniques for "Oracles"
Review: Must read for SQL and Oracle professionals. Covers in detail, join processing, subqueries with good examples.
Rating: 
Summary: Data missing for the book
Review: One way to learn SQL is to type it in and run it against
the actual data. However the data for this book is not
available in the ora.com website. This sevrely limits the
usefulness of the book. I suggest that the authors make
the data and the scripts available.
Rating:
Summary: not bad
Review: seems pretty good so far very helpful if youve just started out in oracle sql ...
Rating:
Summary: A very good book for SQL users.
Review: This book is really helpful. Lots of examples, tips and techniques. I found some critical examples I was looking for a long time. Beginners as well as advance users will definitely benefit from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Junk
Review: This book only covers basic features in Oracle 8i and there's no example code accompanying the book. PL/SQL is covered in a scant 10 pages and there's no meaningful coverage of large objects or collections.Given O'Reilly's usual high quality, this book is a surprising miss. My advice: buy another book, there are plenty to choose from.
Rating:
Summary: Something for Everyone
Review: This book presents complex stuctures in an easy to follow fashion with practical examples. I was able to apply new Oracle functions to real reporting problems immediately after reading it. If you ever have written a PL/SQL function purely to manipulate data because you didn't think SQL would be able to do it, you need to read this book! The book covers the spectrum from basics to the new 9i analytical functions. As such anyone can benefit from it. The book is written to help the user understand the power of well structured SQL. It does not contain an exhaustive syntactical list (which can be easily found elsewhere) but rather outlines how to acually use SQL to achieve solid results and optimal performance. In my experience, a high percentage of users who think they know how to write good SQL, actually only know a lot of low-level syntax and are in need of the big picture this book provides. The chapter on Dates however, does go into fascinating and exhaustive detail of the date data type structure, both pre-existing and Oracle 9i. This is an absolute must for anyone who works with a database that contains highly time sensative data, or for those who are confused by the data type. The new features in Oracle 9i are clearly outlined such as the reporting functions for grouping at multiple levels. This book presents them in a way that opens the user's mind to endless possiblities, leaving the reader wondering how they every managed without them (or how they will manage without them until their company's next upgrade).
Rating:
Summary: Something for Everyone
Review: This book presents complex stuctures in an easy to follow fashion with practical examples. I was able to apply new Oracle functions to real reporting problems immediately after reading it. If you ever have written a PL/SQL function purely to manipulate data because you didn't think SQL would be able to do it, you need to read this book! The book covers the spectrum from basics to the new 9i analytical functions. As such anyone can benefit from it. The book is written to help the user understand the power of well structured SQL. It does not contain an exhaustive syntactical list (which can be easily found elsewhere) but rather outlines how to acually use SQL to achieve solid results and optimal performance. In my experience, a high percentage of users who think they know how to write good SQL, actually only know a lot of low-level syntax and are in need of the big picture this book provides. The chapter on Dates however, does go into fascinating and exhaustive detail of the date data type structure, both pre-existing and Oracle 9i. This is an absolute must for anyone who works with a database that contains highly time sensative data, or for those who are confused by the data type. The new features in Oracle 9i are clearly outlined such as the reporting functions for grouping at multiple levels. This book presents them in a way that opens the user's mind to endless possiblities, leaving the reader wondering how they every managed without them (or how they will manage without them until their company's next upgrade).
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommend!
Review: This particular book should be read by all Oracle programmers dealing with SQL, experienced and novice alike. Here are the reasons why: (1) New features -
Programming languages used with Oracle (SQL, procedural languages like PL/SQL & Java, and even the Oracle database for that matter) are increasingly overlapping into each other's domain and functionality. Java can be used to perform the role of PL/SQL; PL/SQL & the Oracle database can now deal with objects; SQL can now make procedural programming unnecessary in some instances. Especially for Oracle 8i and above, it is imperative for an Oracle programmer to learn about the new features of SQL, and understand when it makes more sense to use SQL instead of other languages mentioned above. This book is excellent in explaining new features. (2) Clarity of writing - Writing style is lucid, and easy to read and follow. Complex topics are explained quite intuitively. One line seems to clarify what others might take a few paragraphs to explain. Examples are simple enough, but yet relevant enough, to convey the main point across. Too many books submerge the main point in examples that are unnecessarily complex. This book doesn't explain tuning of Oracle SQL statements in exhaustive detail (though it touches on tuning issues throughout).
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommend!
Review: This particular book should be read by all Oracle programmers dealing with SQL, experienced and novice alike. Here are the reasons why: (1) New features -
Programming languages used with Oracle (SQL, procedural languages like PL/SQL & Java, and even the Oracle database for that matter) are increasingly overlapping into each other's domain and functionality. Java can be used to perform the role of PL/SQL; PL/SQL & the Oracle database can now deal with objects; SQL can now make procedural programming unnecessary in some instances. Especially for Oracle 8i and above, it is imperative for an Oracle programmer to learn about the new features of SQL, and understand when it makes more sense to use SQL instead of other languages mentioned above. This book is excellent in explaining new features. (2) Clarity of writing - Writing style is lucid, and easy to read and follow. Complex topics are explained quite intuitively. One line seems to clarify what others might take a few paragraphs to explain. Examples are simple enough, but yet relevant enough, to convey the main point across. Too many books submerge the main point in examples that are unnecessarily complex. This book doesn't explain tuning of Oracle SQL statements in exhaustive detail (though it touches on tuning issues throughout).
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