Contents of This Book | The Art of SQL

I found the parallel between war and SQL so strong that I mostly followed Sun Tzu's outlineand kept most of his titles.^[*] This book is divided into twelve chapters, each containing a number of principles or maxims. I have tried to explain and illustrate these principles through examples, preferably from real-life cases.

^[*] A few titles were borrowed from Clausewitz's On War.

Chapter 1, Laying Plans: Examines how to design databases for performance
Chapter 2, Waging War: Explains how programs must be designed to access databases efficiently
Chapter 3, Tactical Dispositions: Tells why and how to index
Chapter 4, Maneuvering: Explains how to envision SQL statements
Chapter 5, Terrain: Shows how physical implementation impacts performance
Chapter 6, The Nine Situations: Covers classic SQL patterns and how to approach them
Chapter 7, Variations in Tactics: Explains how to deal with hierarchical data
Chapter 8, Weaknesses and Strengths: Provides indications about how to recognize and handle some difficult cases
Chapter 9, Multiple Fronts: Describes how to face concurrency
Chapter 10, Assembly of Forces: Addresses how to cope with large volumes of data
Chapter 11, Stratagems: Offers a few tricks that will help you survive rotten database designs
Chapter 12, Employment of Spies: Concludes the book by explaining how to define and monitor performance