---
product_id: 1704252
title: "Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL -- A Learner's Guide"
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---

# Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL -- A Learner's Guide

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Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL - A Learner's Guide [Beighley, Lynn] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL - A Learner's Guide

Review: SQL for all - I like this book on just about every level. First of all, I'm not a Head First fan boy: they've laid a few eggs in some of their language/computing titles, and while I generally like the approach to learning they take, the content varies. That said, I am a big fan of this book. It provides a solid introduction to SQL from beginning to advanced concepts. I happen to use it with PHP, but it would fit equally well with SQL in other languages like ASP.NET/C# and PERL. SQL is not very big as languages go, but there's more than meets the eye to this language. Most importantly, Lynn Beighley takes the time to go through some key table-building concepts such as 'atomic data' and 'normal tables.' Further, she goes into great detail about creating and using relational data bases from setting up FOREIGN keys to using JOINs in data queries. She spends plenty of time with the CREATE statement in different contexts. Most SQL books, act as though you use tools like Visual Studio or MyPHPAdmin for creating tables, and so they do not 'waste time' with the CREATE statement for different types of tables. There's a problem in not visiting and revisiting CREATE when dealing with relational database management systems (RDBMS)--you don't understand the data and data types and hooks quite as well. Also, using CREATE, you can go from one tool to another without having to learn the protocol for each tool in the same or different language context. Her material on queries and sub-queries is in depth and the examples are sensible for the materials. While it's important to have some fun with the database examples in the HF series, it's also important to have examples that make sense, and hers do both. Likewise, her materials on ALTER are complete and helpful. Through all of these, she provides several SELECT examples and the many clauses (statements) that can be used with SELECT. Her chapter on security is quite good as well for an introduction to SQL capabilities in that area. I found only a couple of things I'd like to see changed. First, after some introductory INSERT examples, she seems to drop them as relevant further on in the book. Further INSERT examples would be quite helpful in the chapters on ALTER and with multiple tables. The multiple CREATE examples are golden, and if she'd do that with INSERT, it'd be most helpful. Second, at the very end of the book, she includes a 2-minute example of using PHP with MySQL. Yikes; she uses mysql instead of mysqli. Since at least 2004 when PHP 4.1.3 came out, the recommended PHP statement for MySQL work has been mysqli; not mysql -- the 'i' makes a big difference. Among other things, you can use a single statement to handle the connect information--url, username, password AND database name. Further, new terms like SERIAL are available in mysqli. Those two items would knock it down from a 5-star to a 4.5 star review, but I'd round up on this book any day.
Review: Good beginner / intermediate guide to SQL - In typical Head First style, this book is a hip trip down SQL lane, gently imparting concepts and techniques that stick to your brain. The book elegantly mixes the core concepts of writing SQL with solid principles of database design (with more than a dash of good humor). There are tons of exercises and examples, which help you to not only understand the language concepts being taught, but you get a good sense of good (and bad) database design at the same time. The author reasons that we often times are called upon to work with or fix bad a database design, so the book teaches you just that. And of course, you learn how to create a good design at the same time. What it is not: A comprehensive SQL reference. It is based mostly on MySQL as a database (the recommended tool to use for completing exercises for this book), and the book teaches techniques that might not work in other databases. I used Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for my exercises, and I spent a lot of time looking up how to get some functions to work; in some cases MS has a slightly different structure, but in some cases there is no comparable function in MS SQL (of course, the opposite can be said about MySQL as well - MySQL can't do everything some other databases can). However, in the end, this aided in my learning about SQL, as well as learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the various databases. If you are a seasoned DBA or a SQL guru, stay away...you are there already. But if you just starting out, you can't go wrong with this book.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #269,314 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #5 in Other Databases #14 in MySQL Guides #38 in SQL |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 342 Reviews |

## Images

![Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL -- A Learner's Guide - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71sSFiBHNoL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SQL for all
*by B***Z on October 9, 2011*

I like this book on just about every level. First of all, I'm not a Head First fan boy: they've laid a few eggs in some of their language/computing titles, and while I generally like the approach to learning they take, the content varies. That said, I am a big fan of this book. It provides a solid introduction to SQL from beginning to advanced concepts. I happen to use it with PHP, but it would fit equally well with SQL in other languages like ASP.NET/C# and PERL. SQL is not very big as languages go, but there's more than meets the eye to this language. Most importantly, Lynn Beighley takes the time to go through some key table-building concepts such as 'atomic data' and 'normal tables.' Further, she goes into great detail about creating and using relational data bases from setting up FOREIGN keys to using JOINs in data queries. She spends plenty of time with the CREATE statement in different contexts. Most SQL books, act as though you use tools like Visual Studio or MyPHPAdmin for creating tables, and so they do not 'waste time' with the CREATE statement for different types of tables. There's a problem in not visiting and revisiting CREATE when dealing with relational database management systems (RDBMS)--you don't understand the data and data types and hooks quite as well. Also, using CREATE, you can go from one tool to another without having to learn the protocol for each tool in the same or different language context. Her material on queries and sub-queries is in depth and the examples are sensible for the materials. While it's important to have some fun with the database examples in the HF series, it's also important to have examples that make sense, and hers do both. Likewise, her materials on ALTER are complete and helpful. Through all of these, she provides several SELECT examples and the many clauses (statements) that can be used with SELECT. Her chapter on security is quite good as well for an introduction to SQL capabilities in that area. I found only a couple of things I'd like to see changed. First, after some introductory INSERT examples, she seems to drop them as relevant further on in the book. Further INSERT examples would be quite helpful in the chapters on ALTER and with multiple tables. The multiple CREATE examples are golden, and if she'd do that with INSERT, it'd be most helpful. Second, at the very end of the book, she includes a 2-minute example of using PHP with MySQL. Yikes; she uses mysql instead of mysqli. Since at least 2004 when PHP 4.1.3 came out, the recommended PHP statement for MySQL work has been mysqli; not mysql -- the 'i' makes a big difference. Among other things, you can use a single statement to handle the connect information--url, username, password AND database name. Further, new terms like SERIAL are available in mysqli. Those two items would knock it down from a 5-star to a 4.5 star review, but I'd round up on this book any day.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good beginner / intermediate guide to SQL
*by S***Y on February 14, 2008*

In typical Head First style, this book is a hip trip down SQL lane, gently imparting concepts and techniques that stick to your brain. The book elegantly mixes the core concepts of writing SQL with solid principles of database design (with more than a dash of good humor). There are tons of exercises and examples, which help you to not only understand the language concepts being taught, but you get a good sense of good (and bad) database design at the same time. The author reasons that we often times are called upon to work with or fix bad a database design, so the book teaches you just that. And of course, you learn how to create a good design at the same time. What it is not: A comprehensive SQL reference. It is based mostly on MySQL as a database (the recommended tool to use for completing exercises for this book), and the book teaches techniques that might not work in other databases. I used Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for my exercises, and I spent a lot of time looking up how to get some functions to work; in some cases MS has a slightly different structure, but in some cases there is no comparable function in MS SQL (of course, the opposite can be said about MySQL as well - MySQL can't do everything some other databases can). However, in the end, this aided in my learning about SQL, as well as learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the various databases. If you are a seasoned DBA or a SQL guru, stay away...you are there already. But if you just starting out, you can't go wrong with this book.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great Book for Basic SQL concepts
*by A***V on April 2, 2008*

If there is one book in head first that deserves attention (apart from Servlets book) it is this. All the programming books are great anyways (Exception is Head First Design patterns, PLEASE DONT BUY that one!). SQL Head first helps in visually knowing what is going to happen, especially when running mutltiple OUTER JOINs and writing subqueries etc. Thanks to this book (and a combination of SQL Cookbook and SQL Tuning (for more advanced people)). Here are some of positives of this book : 1.) Starts out at very basic level (this can be annoying for some folks, who already know much of the stuff, but then this book is not for you then, try SQL Cookbook or SQL Tuning). I would still say this book can be kept as a good reference, as even seasoned people can be helped from visually organized "notes" in there. 2.) Advanced Select section is awesome, JOINS and subqueries and Associations are explained very well. (In this case diagrams help in better visualizing things and helped me understand and recall the concepts really well, After a long time i am not trying to "remember" what the syntax of a clause is in SQL, instead i just visualize things (an example of this would be a sum(xxx) and a group by ... and how the diagram illustrates it very neatly, if i want to use a complex JOIN query or a multiple group by, i don't have to google anymore). Cons : 1.) Some of topics could have been covered in a better way, example tuning etc. 2.) is @ medium level, for advanced topics i still refer to SQL cookbook or tuning book (by Dan). All in all it was a great buy for me. Regards Vyas, Anirudh

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*Last updated: 2026-03-12*