SQL Pocket Guide:

The SQL Pocket Guide: 2nd Edition "is an attempt to cram the most useful information about SQL into a pocket-size guide." That's the first sentence of the introduction and is the best description I can imagine for this helpful little book. The following platforms are included in this 2nd edition: Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (including Oracle Express Edition,) IBM DB2 Universal Database Release 8.2, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, MySQL 5.0, and PostgreSQL 8.1. I'm not a full-time DBA. I'm an application developer and I frequently interact with various flavors of relational databases. I confess, I don't have all the syntax memorized. That's why this little book is so helpful. The book has good coverage of DML, common SQL functions and other related topics (e.g. NULLs, CASE expressions, datatype conversions, etc.) And, each topic is covered for each of the platforms mentioned above. It makes for an interesting comparison. The table of contents is organized nicely to allow the reader to quickly locate content by subject and there is also a detailed index in the back. The 2nd edition of this book was published in April 2006. When you read reviews of the SQL Pocket Guide, make sure you are reading a review of the current edition. The 2nd edition has been updated for more current database releases. And, CREATE TABLE coverage and window functions have been added. Many of the changes were in direct response to feedback from the first edition. As mentioned in other reviews, this book is not going to teach you SQL. It wasn't intended to. However, if you find that you're frequently (or even occasionally) looking up SQL syntax and if you need to create SQL statements that work with one or more of the platforms covered in this book, I highly recommend that you give this little helper a place in your bag.

I keep this book with me going from home to work and use it on a regular basis. It's is perfect for answering those "How does that work again?" questions. The clarity with which differences between SQL Server, MySQL, and Oracle do things is a huge help in answering platform specific questions. It has enabled me to hand write SQL queries I never would have attempted before.

This is an excellent LITTLE book. With books from O'Reilly or Wiley, you can usually rest assured that it is worth your money. This one certainly is. I bought two -- one for work and one for home. I also bought "SQL in a Nutshell" which is more extensive but much larger (but not a tome). For those quick now-how-do-I-write-that-stupid-little-sql-statement moments, this is the ticket.

This book has been a lifesaver on many occasions. It gives you a syntax comparison between the major database vendors, and really, it would save you what can possibly be many hours of searching for an equivalent function when using a database you are not familiar with. The content page is nicely grouped by SQL functionality; e.g. Literals, Joining Tables, Datatype Conversion etc. It was quite easy for me to look for the information I wanted. It's also good for users who are learning databases in general; it gives quite a good overview of SQL functionalities. Even if you're not working with multiple databases from multiple vendors, it makes a great SQL reference book.

Most people that work in SQL daily, don't need reminders of how to write join, correlate or update queries. But the other 10% of the work you do is where you run into trouble. You know you can do something, you just need to know the syntax. This little gem fills that bill nicely. Concise, clear and with a good index, SQL Pocket Guide gives you what you need. Complex functions are explained and it covers DB2, Oracle, SQL Server and MySQL with good depth. Indispensible.