SQL QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner's Guide To SQL

Another technical writer decides to go out on his own and try to write a book for beginners where he happily skips over beginning steps. There is nothing here about how to access databases and assumes right away that SQL comes with databases and you know what they are. I am just learning this and this book provided nothing about the basics. These writers need to learn that not everyone is at their level of programming. Assume the person you are writing for knows nothing, because they don't.

Very easy to understand and learn the basics.However, there were a few typos that caused confusion.Update 3/3/2020Company got in contact and corrected the errors that I found.

Good examples and useful for coding beginners or experienced people who are wanting to learn SQL. 80% of the book is on querying approaches, and the last sections are on views and database record updating. If you type and work all examples and do all challenges, maybe 15-25 hours of work depending on your skill...but a very productive 15-25 hours.

I got the printed version. The e-version is probably just as good. This book enabled me to learn to do basic SQL queries. I'm not a techy person by any means, and I took several online tutorials, but found them confusing. I was unable to do the "homework" except for the most simple problems.After using the book, I was able to query what I needed from my databases at work. I even surpassed the queries that others had done before me by cleaning them up.The reason I give 4 stars instead of 5 is that some of the lessons didn't work in my DB. Some of the functions are different in different versions of SQL.I'd highly recommend this if you're a beginner with queries. Downloading the practice DB is easy. It was also helpful for me to learn a bit of DB background and syntax that the other online lessons didn't address.

Great book! Includes free audio book, sample database, SQL Software download, SQL statement references, and video tutorials.

I've done a fair amount of programming in Java, storing and retrieving data through jdbc and various database vendors. After reading this book, the database, and SQL in particular, have now become far more interesting. It's the way the book is written. The author describes the importance of data in a free and unpretentious language. Explanations are not tedious - they are interesting and useful. So much talk about NoSQL today, but after reading this I'm going to dig into more SQL.

Fantastic beginner reference. Easy to understand and most importantly PRACTICAL with examples and exercises to do. I have had a couple of starts and stops with SQL, but this was easy to stick to...and the best reference for going back to. Thank you!!

My wife will write this review:I have an accounting degree. The one thing I wish my college had focused more on was the software frequently used by accountants/accounts payable employees. After reading this book, I feel as though I could easily use SQL in a work setting. I can put it on my resume to say that am "knowledgeable" in the software. Although I still have no experience, I can get an employers attention by stating that I know how to use the software.I think this is good for someone who needs to know enough to get started. I've never worked with the software before in my life. So it's definitely a good beginners guide. The descriptions are clear and concise. I will probably keep it as a reference guide for any job in which I use this software.It is not overly long so it doesn't take days to sift through complicated material. Overall, a great purchase.

On the positive side, there are good, simple, easy to follow examples of most key "how to get started" SQL questions. So this is a good way to get a clear set of examples including example tables of how queries work etc. However, many examples move in one step from dead simple to pretty complex, and the intermediate steps are not clear.This isn't an easy subject to simplify, and as a basic guide it's OK, but I only gave it 3 stars because of the cheesy sales process related to the so called "online assets" the publishers push you to download.This is really cheeky, as the link simply pushes their training services, and directs you to a Microsoft SQL resources website, to download a readily available microsoft SQL training database. Will never touch their stuff again.

The writing style is easy to understand but the book has plenty of typos, a couple of incorrectly placed diagrams plus the 'free digital assets' that you are encouraged to download features a link to a now defunct Microsoft sample database (for SQL 2000!) which I had to spend nearly an hour trying to find a way to convert into a modern format which SSMS could read. Thank goodness for Google and others who have had the same issue. Come on Clydebank, you can do better than this! Not the greatest start, but once that was sorted I found this a useful introduction into the world of SQL for someone with little or no technical background.

Poorly written, lack of sql content deemed as basic. There is a number of mistakes in the book that will likely confuse and discourage a number of readers who are about to start their db journey. Therefore I cannot recommend this book to anyone, and certainly not at this price.

Simple to follow along and well-written. I work with data every day as part of my job and would say that it's helpful for both beginners and experts looking to brush up on SQL and understanding of relational databases. Well worth the money spent.

Very Very basic, very short. Find something else dont spend your money on this!