Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.
Sorry I haven´t updated for a while. I am sick at the moment, so all my reading, for the time being, is done from bed. Thank God for WLAN and laptops :-)
The plan now is to read chapter 8 and 9 before friday.
Today I had a small session with Michael Möller. We went through chapter 6 and 7 and finished of with a small intro of Redo & Undo. After the session, I went back home to bed.
By the way, the new setup; small sessions with Michael Möller, before and after reading a chapter, is working very well. I can ask questions or ask him to go through pages or examples in the book. It gives me a lot.
My biggest problem remains to be the SQL. So I have decided to focus a lot on that in the next couple of weekends. I have gotten to the point where I, very slowly, can work my way through small and mid-size examples. But I don´t have it 'under the skin' yet, meaning that, if I am to do even the easiest little exercise on my own (without a specific To Do list), I feel like 'Bambi trying to skate on Ice'.
So any comments in how to achieve working skills in SQL in 'no time' and how to approach learning it, are more than welcome. :-)
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I would suggest you kick-start your SQL learning by reading some basic theory on mathematical sets. That helped me a lot when I started learning SQL (for Interbase 5.0 :-) ). A good starting point could be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set
If you would like we can go through it next I see you.
Best Regards
CP
you are reading very fast...nearly 1 or 2 days one chapter, how did you do that? You use your spare time to read it? how many hours yo spent on each chapter average?
Hi CP
I would like to go through it with you next time we see each other. Thank You, buddy:-)
Dan: I use alot of my spare time. I spend about a day per chapter, depending how big the chapter is.
After reading the chapter from start to end, I go through the notes that I have done, while reading it. Afterwards I read the hard parts again, maybe seek additional info on the web.
Jan
I would recommend that you start with _A Visual Introduction to SQL_ by Chappel et. al. This is the best introduction to SQL I have ever encountered. The only problem is that in my opinion the first edition is better-written and more understandable, but it does not cover subqueries and outer joins. The 2nd edition does cover those topics but the added material is not as good as the work of the original authors.
Creating and managing the example tables for that text in Oracle should also give you experience with DDL and DBA tasks.
I would then proceed to Celko's _SQL for Smarties_, which contains a lot of interesting SQL puzzles. Solving these puzzles helps develop more complex SQL skills. Celko doesn't always agree with Kyte on SQL best practices, but the contrast between the two is a good thing.
Unfortunately, the best approach is to have some real problems to solve along the way - that is how most of the people who contribute to these forums learned. In my case I was suddenly faced with being responsible for an Oracle database as the manager, DBA, and developer. I worked interactively through the books under discussion here with the added pressure of needing to find solutions so that my family could continue eating ;-) The combination of research and application is difficult for a student to duplicate.
sPh
I would recommend that you start with _A Visual Introduction to SQL_ by Chappel et. al. This is the best introduction to SQL I have ever encountered. The only problem is that in my opinion the first edition is better-written and more understandable, but it does not cover subqueries and outer joins. The 2nd edition does cover those topics but the added material is not as good as the work of the original authors.
Creating and managing the example tables for that text in Oracle should also give you experience with DDL and DBA tasks.
I would then proceed to Celko's _SQL for Smarties_, which contains a lot of interesting SQL puzzles. Solving these puzzles helps develop more complex SQL skills. Celko doesn't always agree with Kyte on SQL best practices, but the contrast between the two is a good thing.
Unfortunately, the best approach is to have some real problems to solve along the way - that is how most of the people who contribute to these forums learned. In my case I was suddenly faced with being responsible for an Oracle database as the manager, DBA, and developer. I worked interactively through the books under discussion here with the added pressure of needing to find solutions so that my family could continue eating ;-) The combination of research and application is difficult for a student to duplicate.
sPh
Not sure what that comment duplicated - sorry.
sPh
Jan,
Great journey you are on. :-)
when I started, programming and databases didn't make much sense to me. As a monkey I could learn how to do it. But the why, what is it all about was missing. Why use a DMBS, and a relational one to boot. What has sql to do with it?
It sounds to me like you are also missing the what and why of the 'how to do' you are learning.
Chris date's introduction to database systems is still the foundation of my thinking in databases and sql. Get an older release en flip thru the first few chapters. Someone around you should have an antiquated edition in his bookcase. (Or know a better book)
Luck
Maarten
To-do list ?
Try guessing, before executing, the following statements:
select * from dual where 1=1;
select * from dual where 1=0;
select * from dual where 1=null;
select * from dual where 1=null or 1=0;
select * from dual where 1=null or 1=1;
If you master that, you have 90% mastered NULLs (aka tri-valued logic), which is the most difficult part to understand in SQL ;)
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