SQL in 10 Minutes a Day, Sams Teach Yourself

Really good book for practicing your SQL skills. Most programming books give to much theory before introducing you to basic function. This cuts through the noise.

Paper books are much easier to use than electronic copies.With its beautiful and clear printing, I can learn SQL easily. OK, I just need SQL in Access.

The internet has an ocean of free sql tutorials. I tried to start using them, for months, and I couldnt. This book helped me with the exact kind of start I wanted. Never been happier about purchasing a book.

I have bought this book in different editions twice before, but decided that I might as well have the latest one (as of Mar 2021). It's an excellent learning resource and points out the different ways other SQL implementations work, including SQLite. I got stuck at one point so contacted the author when I couldn't get my SQL in SQLite workng. He was really helpful. At first glance it looked like my SQL was correct, but further investigation by Ben found the solution, with an explanation of why my SQL was failing. A solution is helpful, but an explanation invaluable.The books points you towards the web page where you can download the data for the database, to save you having to bash it all in yourself. There is also an errata on the site.SQL has been around for a long time, and will probably be around for a lot longer, so it is worth learning.I am running the SQL on a Mac M1 so have downloaded DB Browser for SQLite, which saves the hassle of a command line interface. A GUI is much better at the learning stage.The author is a prolific writer, and has written on many subjects, including multiple SQL types. Like some computer books, they can be expensive for the learner without corporate funding them, but the mainstream books are very reasonable in price, working out to be excellent value for money.

All in all pretty good beginner’s book, love the way how the author illustrates the key concepts via simple examples and clear/concise writing style.Just unsure why the usage of CASE statements has not been included, this perhaps can be a area of improvement for future editions