SQL: A Beginner's Guide, Fourth Edition

Andrew J. (Andy) Oppel is a proud graduate of The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland and of Transylvania University (Lexington, KY) where he earned a BA in computer science in 1974. Since then he has been continuously employed in a wide variety of information technology positions, including programmer, programmer/analyst, systems architect, project manager, senior database administrator, database group manager, consultant, database designer, and data architect. In addition, he has been a part-time instructor with the University of California (Berkeley) Extension for over 20 years, and received the Honored Instructor Award for the year 2000. His teaching work included developing three courses for UC Extension, “Concepts of Database Management Systems”, “Introduction to Relational Database Management Systems”, and "Data Modeling and Database Design." He also earned his Oracle 9i Database Associate certification in 2003. He is currently employed as a senior data modeler for Blue Shield of California. Aside from computer systems, Andy enjoys music (guitar and vocals), amateur radio (Pacific Division Vice Director, American Radio Relay League) and soccer (Referee Instructor, U.S. Soccer). Andy has designed and implemented hundreds of databases for a wide range of applications, including medical research, banking, insurance, apparel manufacturing, telecommunications, wireless communications, and human resources. He is the author of Databases Demystified (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004) and SQL Demystified (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005). His database product experience includes IMS, DB2, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Oracle (versions 7, 8, 8i, 9i, and 10g).

Part I: SQL Databases
Chapter 1. Introduction to Relational Databases and SQL
Chapter 2. Working with the SQL Environment
Chapter 3. Creating and Altering Tables
Chapter 4. Enforcing Data Integrity
Chapter 5. Creating SQL Views
Chapter 6. Managing Database Security
Part II: Data Access and Modification
Chapter 7. Querying Data
Chapter 8. Modifying Data
Chapter 9. Using Predicates
Chapter 10. Working with Functions and Value Expressions
Chapter 11. Accessing Multiple Tables
Chapter 12. Using Subqueries to Access and Modify Data
Chapter 13. Working with Temporal Data
Part III: Creating SQL Invoked Routings
Chapter 14. Creating SQL Invoked Routines
Chapter 15. Creating SQL Triggers
Chapter 16. Using SQL Servers
Chapter 17. Managing SQL Transactions
Chapter 18. Accessing SQL Data from Your Host Program
Chapter 19. Working with XML Data
Part IV: Appendices
Appendix A. Answers to Self Tests
Appendix B. Keywords