Joe Celko's SQL Programming Style

This book assumes the reader is somewhat knowledgeable about SQL programming and allows them to create their own set of programming standards comforming to their particular work requirements. It is easier to buy the book than to write a company-only formal set of coding standards, which may or may not be used consistently even with the same enterprise. There are a ton of introductory SQL books on the market, which teach the language in the way that a grammar book teaches a foreign language. Most SQL programmers come to the language from a totally different family of programming languages. The result is that they speak SQL with an accent and in a local dialect. The goal of this book is that of a phrase book and audiocassette book, where you learn to really speak the language. The CELKO brand name carries considerable weight in the database community, so anyone using the book will have an appeal to authority that is very comforting.