Introduction

I AM NOT trying to teach you to program in SQL in this book. You might want to read that again. If that is what you wanted, there are better books. This ought to be the second book you buy, not the first.

I assume that you already write SQL at some level and want to get better at it. If you want to learn SQL programming tricks, get a copy of my other book, SQL for Smarties (3rd edition, 2005). I am trying to teach the reader how to work in logical and declarative terms, instead of in a procedural or OO manner—“Query Eye for the Database Guy,” if you will forgive a horrible contemporary pun.

Few, if any, SQL programmers came to SQL before learning and writing for years in a procedural or object-oriented language. They then got one ...

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