Reviews for Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)

1. Celko: Top man!

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   OK, so 2nd Ed. is somewhat out of date, but more than adequate for my needs (as an all-round smarty-pants rather than a SQL expert), especially for the asking price.
   
   Don't bother with it if you're looking for a DBA installation/configuration guide (there are other texts more suitable). This is exactly what it says on the cover: a PROGRAMMING guide. If you're a half-way competent SQL programmer now, you will indeed be a smartie after a few chapters of this book.
   
   Celko's conversational, plain-English style makes him a lot more readable (and easier to understand) than your average textbook, and I loved that way he summed up normalization in one sentence: "A man who wears two watches can never be sure of the time".

2. Very good advice for advanced, standard compliant SQL

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2007

   If you like writing massive stored procedures, using cursors and other non-relational and non standard features of your database then this book probably won't appeal to you much.
   
   Joe Celko puts a lot of effort into showing how you can write high performance and standard SQL without resorting to proprietary hacks. He clearly has a very strong understanding of the underlying theory behind relational databases and uses plenty of examples to explain his points.
   
   I would recommend this book as a very good read to generally improve your overall knowledge of SQL and SQL best practices.

3. Useful yet opinionated.

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2006

   Large parts of this book are undoubtedly excellent as the author is intelligent. However, there are many parts where the author expresses opinion without understanding that life in the professional/commercial field is not like in academia. Statements likening sequence generation to drug habits seem extreme to me, and you would be well advised to question the views of the author. Nevertheless there is a lot of valuable information in this book and I do not regret for one moment purchasing it.

4. Makes you think...

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2006

   I bought this book as it was mentioned on a couple of SQL users' websites/mailing lists.

   I am relatively new to SQL (2yrs experience) and I found the book quite thought provoking and very positive because some of the techniques outlined by Joe Celko are new to me. However it was very positive to see that some things I had already tried were in the book.

   Well presented, logical in approach and quite an entertaining read considering SQL is such a dry subject.

5. Impractical, but interesting tricks.

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 1999

   These are interesting techniques in SQL, that can be fun in the office. The problem is that in the real world manufacturers don't implement standard SQL and if you want Advanced SQL then it needs to be specialised. His SQL tricks book is more fun.