Overall:
Strengths: Complete and Great Book, easy follow up scripts and excellent examples. Excellent reference source.

Weakness: the cds included (in my case) both of the cd installs but program does not work. I had a hard time installing them. Don't accept password. I needed to uninstall it completely and install Oracle 10g enterprise version to get my work done.

But putting this CD matter away, the book is excellent.

It's an easy book to understand and learn from. It explains SQL statemen clearly with their related examples that help you get the purpose of what you are studying.

The goal of this book is to teach SQL used in Oracle 10g. It's does pretty fair job in reaching it's goal.
What it is and what it is not:

- it is a book on 10g SQL.
It covers most if not all what one can expect to learn from one book on Oracle 10g SQL. It covers: briefly basic of database development theory, Data Control Language, Data Manipulation Language, Data Definition Language. Pretty much every aspect of the Oralce SQL you need from introductory class. It uses handy practical examples throughout the book, based on database created by the author. CD with files included (even though I didn't install any of it. We used college database and SQL Plus)

- it is not a book on database administration.
While it has section on user creation/management, it's prime goal is not how to properly install and backup database. And what's covered is not as extensive as you would expect from DBA text.

- I don't remember finding any bugs, or typos with any examples. That's good.
- Overall pretty good resource. I learned great deal of this book.

This book was the required reading for a database concepts class as part of a master's program. It's a great introduction into not only to SQL, but also Oracle. As someone who has worked with SQL often, but never with Oracle, I found this book to be very informative and helpful. It will serve as a good reference in the future.

This book arrived in relatively short time. It arrived in good condition even after our mail curriers got through with it.