Effective SQL brings together the hands-on solutions and practical insights you need to solve a wide range of complex problems with SQL, and to design databases that make it far easier to manage data in the future. Leveraging the proven format of the best-selling Effective series, it focuses on providing clear, practical explanations, expert tips, and plenty of realistic examples -- all in full color. Drawing on their immense experience as consultants and instructors, three world-class database experts identify specific challenges, and distill each solution into five pages or less. Throughout, they provide well-annotated SQL code designed for all leading platforms, as well as code for specific implementations ranging from SQL Server to Oracle and MySQL, wherever these vary or permit you to achieve your goal more efficiently. Going beyond mere syntax, the authors also show how to avoid poor database design that makes it difficult to write effective SQL, how to improve suboptimal designs, and how to work around designs you can't change. You'll also find detailed sections on filtering and finding data, aggregation, subqueries, and metadata, as well as specific solutions for everything from listing products to scheduling events and defining data hierarchies. Simply put, if you already know the basics of SQL, Effective SQL will help you become a world-class SQL problem-solver.

Presents practical solutions and insights for solving complex problems with SQL and designing databases that simplify data management in the future. Brings together advanced best practices and realistic example code for all of these versions of SQL: IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle Database, and PostgreSQL.

The Essential Guide to SQL Statement Optimization Written by Oracle ACE Director and MySQL expert Ronald Bradford, Effective MySQL: Optimizing SQL Statements is filled with detailed explanations and practical examples that can be applied immediately to improve database and application performances. Featuring a step-by-step approach to SQL optimization, this Oracle Press book helps you to analyze and tune problematic SQL statements. Identify the essential analysis commands for gathering and diagnosing issues Learn how different index theories are applied and represented in MySQL Plan and execute informed SQL optimizations Create MySQL indexes to improve query performance Master the MySQL query execution plan Identify key configuration variables that impact SQL execution and performance Apply the SQL optimization lifecycle to capture, identify, confirm, analyze, and optimize SQL statements and verify the results Improve index utilization with covering indexes and partial indexes Learn hidden performance tips for improving index efficiency and simplifying SQL statements

A guide to SQL covers such topics as retrieving records, metadata queries, working with strings, data arithmetic, date manipulation, reporting and warehousing, and hierarchical queries.

The only book you'll ever need on SQL. The authors detail the changes in the new standard and provide a thorough guide to programming with SQL 2 for both newcomers and experienced programmers. The book is one that novice programmers should read cover to cover and experienced DBMS professionals should have as a definitive reference book for the new SQL 2 standard.

Describes Agile Modeling Driven Design (AMDD) and Test-Driven Design (TDD) approaches, database refactoring, database encapsulation strategies, and tools that support evolutionary techniques Agile software developers often use object and relational database (RDB) technology together and as a result must overcome the impedance mismatch The author covers techniques for mapping objects to RDBs and for implementing concurrency control, referential integrity, shared business logic, security access control, reports, and XML An agile foundation describes fundamental skills that all agile software developers require, particularly Agile DBAs Includes object modeling, UML data modeling, data normalization, class normalization, and how to deal with legacy databases Scott W. Ambler is author of Agile Modeling (0471202827), a contributing editor with Software Development (www.sdmagazine.com), and a featured speaker at software conferences worldwide