SQL For Dummies®, 7th Edition

Introduction

Welcome to database development using SQL, the industry-standard database query language. Many database management system (DBMS) tools run on a variety of hardware platforms. The differences among the tools can be great, but all serious products have one thing in common: They support SQL data access and manipulation. If you know SQL, you can build relational databases and get useful information out of them.

About This Book

Relational database management systems are vital to many organizations. People often think that creating and maintaining these systems must be extremely complex activities — the domain of database gurus who possess enlightenment beyond that of mere mortals. This book sweeps away the database mystique. In this book, you

• Get to the roots of databases.

• Find out how a DBMS is structured.

• Discover the major functional components of SQL.

• Build a database.

• Protect a database from harm.

• Operate on database data.

• Determine how to get the information you want out of a database.

The purpose of this book is to help you build relational databases and get valuable information out of them by using SQL. SQL is the international standard language used to create and maintain relational databases. This edition covers the latest version of the standard, SQL:2008.

This book doesn't tell you how to design a database (I do that in Database Development For Dummies, also published by Wiley). Here I assume that you or somebody else has already created a valid design. I then illustrate ...