Get the most from your database applications through clever SQL programming Joe Celko shares his most useful tips and tricks for advanced SQL programming to help the working programmer gain performance and work around system deficiencies. Addressing real problems that people building real applications face, Joe provides new and creative solutions. A noted consultant, lecturer, and columnist for DBMS and Database Programming & Design magazines, Joe uses entertaining anecdotes and war stories to provide real-world insight into SQL programming and warn about potential problems. Become an expert programmer This is the first advanced SQL book available that provides a comprehensive presentation of the techniques necessary to help you progress from a casual user of SQL to an expert programmer. Joe uses an informal, conversational writing style to explain why a particular trick works, so the working programmer can apply it directly to his or her own programming needs. Relying primarily on the SQL-89 features that are now supported by commercial RDBMSs, he also includes an extensive discussion of SQL-92, with information on how it's being implemented in current and future database products. The tips and techniques presented here are not product specific, so they allow programmers to maximize any system's performance.