Ah Håkan,
=A man(?) after my own heart! When I was at school (and bored out of my skull) I was
always trying to figure out
where the 'Readers Digest Condensed Edition' of our text books was...
I am new to databases and SQL and find the language rich and interesting.
It seems to me, however, that there are quite a few redundant elements and
that the language is the result of quite a few compromises. There are not
less than 233 keywords in MySQL.
Is there any preferred way to write SQL-statements?
Is there any purist or minimalist view?
=I'm not sure if there is such a view, per-se, but greater minds might know...
=Typically text books will simplify a language and only cover a sub-set. Typically
they will begin with the most
straight-forward/basic/easily understood commands, eg SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and
leave the more 'dangerous'
ones until later, eg DELETE.
=BTW I've just laid out about half of SQL's commands - are you including all the
clause keywords in that 233
count? The utter simplicity of the half-dozen DML (data manipulation language)
commands are one of the most
attractive/mathematically-elegant features of the language.
=Next question: which book. Check out MySQL by Paul DuBois - you can even catch him,
right here on the list!
Also the online manual features a tutorial section.
=Regards,
=dn
-
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