Data, data, data! Data is where it’s at as far as computers go, whether processing millions of calculations or keeping a record of your Aunt Maude’s birthday. When it comes to storing data, the database is the king. In almost eight years of professional programming, every single project I’ve worked on has involved databases somewhere along the line—that’s how essential they are to most business applications and projects. Admittedly, some areas, such as computer games, don’t make the same use of databases. My guess is that “Mega Doom 99: The Final Bloody Massacre” isn’t running an Oracle database in the background!. | Programmer to Programmer Beginning SQL Paul Wilton John Colby Updates source code and Wrox technical support at Beginning SQL Paul Wilton and John W. Colby WILEY Wiley Publishing .