I have to question whether any of the other reviewers even looked at the table of contents before purchasing this book:Chapter 1. SQL, Vendor Implementations, and Some History - a general overview of SQL and where it comes from;
Chapter 2. Foundational Concepts - The general theory behind how a sql works;
Chapter 3. SQL Statements Command Reference - "Quick SQL Command Reference";
Chapter 4. SQL Functions - A standard function reference and vendor extensions;
Chapter 5. Unimplemented SQL99 Commands - commands in the sql standard which aren't implemented by vendors (MS, Oracle);
So as to what it says it covers, it does it quite well. Already being quite familiar with SQl, I still found this book to be useful both as a quick reference to commands as well as for a deeper understanding into how SQL works. This book makes an excellent companion to Transact-SQL Programming, also by Oreilly. If you need a complete SQL reference, get Transact-SQL. If you're looking for a background and introduction to SQL, get this book.
When I first saw this book I was perhaps a little doubtful it would be any good. It certainly is slimline when put on the shelf against my other O'Reilly Nutshell titles. I found it hard to believe that SQL in a Nutshell covers the SQL syntax of no less than 4 databases (Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL), but when you actually see the way that it's been put together, it all makes perfect sense.Rather than having seperate sections for each of the SQL dielects, all statements and functions are listed together with any vendor specific information noted where needed. The main advantage of this style of organisation is that it helps you to identify any problems with portability between the databases you may be having.
As can be expected with any Nutshell book, the history of SQL is discussed along with all the basic ideas and concepts that go with it. Even if you don't use one of the databases talked about in the the book, you are sure to be able to make good use of it as it makes frequent reference to the SQL standard.
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