SQL Books --- My SQL -fu is lacking

dalecosp

I'm poised to switch to a job that includes more development and less time as a troubleshooter/consultant.

Although I'm not particularly bad with PHP (some might say I'm pretty good), my SQL-fu is pretty miserable. For one thing, I'd love to quit being pwned by bradgrafelman and some other peeps here 😃

I've done some searching here at PHPBuilder, but so far in the first several pages of a couple different queries, no results at all on "book learning" for SQL.

So, how did you get your SQL-fu? What's a good book for this? I've read the first part of "Doorstop IV" (Paul Dubois` "MYSQL 4th Edition") online. Is this as good as it gets? Any recommendations for this book? For a different one?

toma42

It's insulting you'd ask if a MySQL book is as good as it gets. If you want a belt in SQL you'll need to advance as far as SQL for Smarties. You get your belt when you extend any of Joe's ideas in a peer reviewed way that makes them better. I received mine when I added microtimes to his auditing.

ZibingsCoder

I've always had trouble reading. What little knowledge I do have has been obtained through careful selection of overly complicated and uncontrollable projects which I end up never completing.

So there's always that?

dalecosp

10 years of that, roughly, Zibings ... not sure I ever got much past INSERT INTO MYTABLE ... and SELECT FOO FROM BAR. Subqueries, JOINs, etc. I've not encountered in projects I've done. I suppose when I've read things like PHPBB, Joomla, Moodle, etc., I've just not bothered to check much on the SQL; I've always paid more attention to PHP.

ZibingsCoder

Now that I think about it, I learned most of the 'fun' stuff by doing projects in ASP.NET with SQL Server. SQL Server has a lot more functionality than MySQL (as I'm told PostgreSQL does as well, but last I remember it was slow slow slow) and is missing some simple things like LIMIT. It forces you to broaden your horizons a little maybe?

dalecosp

It well may. Part of the new job is going to be converting CF sites to PHP, and the associated MS SQL DB's to MySQL.

FWIW, I went and bought a copy of SQL (3rd Ed. Oppel/Sheldon, McGraw-Hill). I'm devouring it a bit at a time. Maybe I'll revisit the thread with a review in due course.....