E-Books: Beginning SQL
Paul Wilton and John W. Colby
Paul Wilton and John W. Colby
Data, data, data! Data is where it’s at as far as computers go, whether processing millions of calculations or keeping a record of your Aunt Maude’s birthday. When it comes to storing data, the database is the king. In almost eight years of professional programming, every single project I’ve worked on has involved databases somewhere along the line—that’s how essential they are to most business applications and projects. Admittedly, some areas, such as computer games, don’t make the same use of databases. My guess is that “Mega Doom 99: The Final Bloody Massacre” isn’t running an Oracle database in the background!
However, I have a confession! Around 10 years ago, when I first started learning about databases, I initially found them very confusing. I’d been programming in my spare time for a few years and was used to using text files to store information. I decided to leap right in and start creating databases and writing SQL, and I got very confused and odd results. Databases, their design, and their underlying concepts are very different from storing data in simple files, and the Structured Query Language (SQL) used to access and manipulate data in databases is very different from any procedural language. One of my first aims with this book is to soften the blow of new concepts and ways of doing things. To that end, I explain all the underlying concepts and theory you’ll need to get started with databases and in programming with SQL. How to get the answers you want from a database and all the results you get will be fully explained, as SQL can throw up some surprises if you’re not forewarned.
Another of my aims in writing this book is to get you quickly and effectively to the point where you’re able to go off on your own and design your own databases and write your own SQL code in a practical environment. Personally, I dislike books that waffle on about every small detail and eventuality so that it takes months to be able to stand on your own feet and create your own work.
I stick with the stuff that you’ll find is used in most database applications, keeping the fine details and more advanced stuff for the later chapters. The first few chapters’ aim is to get you up and running in SQL quickly, but they do not skimp on essential concepts, code, and techniques, which are all thoroughly discussed and backed up with lots of practical examples.
Finally, I’m a hands-on, practical person, and those are the sort of computer books I like to read, rather than books that contain lots of theory. This book reflects my “put it into action” nature and is full of examples and places where you can get hands-on experience. I do introduce and explain theory where it’s necessary to build a foundation of understanding, but I do this only with the eventual aim of putting theory into practice. I use databases and SQL most days in my programming, and I hope to bring that real-world experience to this book.
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