Do you view database applications as military campaigns?
Do you see data as row upon row upon row of enemy columns to be winnowed down and slashed away?
SQL veteran Stéphane Faroult does.
In The Art of SQL, Stéphane deals with SQL performance through the lens of Sun Tzu's venerable treatise, The Art of War. Database design is preparation for a military campaign, program design is strategy, and each database access is a tactical engagement of the enemy.
Stéphane's way of looking at SQL performance may be unconventional and unique, but he's dead serious about writing good SQL and using SQL well. In The Art of SQL, you'll find many examples from the trenches of real life, as Stéphane shows the importance of:
• Incorporating design for performance into your database and application from the very beginning. "The single largest contributory factor to poor performance is a design that is wrong."
• Thinking beyond individual SQL statements. "Focus on the overall task to be achieved. Good SQL can't save a poor process."
• Understanding what you are indexing and why you are indexing it. "Too many indexes is the mark of an uncertain design.”
Stéphane also provides concrete advice to help you cement your position. His discussion of the nine common query scenarios and their performance implications will soon have you slashing through your own enemy columns. The chapter on trees will help you see head and shoulders over enemy hierarchies. And when you find yourself surrounded by a database not of your own design, the chapter on stratagems will help you punch through the enemy lines to a solution.
Stéphane Faroult operates the database consultancy RoughSea Ltd. and has a passion for helping clients get the most performance from their database investment. His experience with SQL goes back to 1983. He wrote Oracle France's very first performance and tuning course in 1987.
