Head First SQL - SQL Books you recommend

[Mihai Fonoage]

Hi Lynn,

Which books would you recommend for (advanced) topics on SQL?

Thank you,
Mihai Fonoage

[Lynn Beighley]

Of course I have a bias towards O'Reilly books. While I don't know if I'd call it an advanced book, precisely, one that I find especially useful is:
SQL in a Nutshell

Two others that get into theory and are well written:
Database in Depth by C.J. Date
which gets into the fundamentals of what "relational" is
and
The Art of SQL by Stephane Faroult
which approaches controlling your data strategically. Very cool.

I picked up a book that I'm really enjoying the other day,
PHP and MySQL Web Development by Welling and Thomson. It's a great guide to actually using that SQL you just learned with PHP. Goes from simple to fairly complicated. It's a bit thick and dense, but if you are willing to work at it, I think it's worth the effort.

[Mihai Fonoage]

Hi Lynn,

Books that explain how to use SQL with other programming languages like Java, .NET, PHP, etc are indeed useful. Thank you for recommending the PHP one.

I have read "An Introduction to Database Systems" by C.J Date and I enjoy his writing style. The "Database in depth" book that you mentioned probably covers more advanced topics and/or goes more into depth with the fundamental ones like you mentioned.

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Mihai Fonoage