Renovation for Dummies
There are guide books out there that help familiarize yourself with the codes, in easy forms. I know that the NEC (Electrical code) sells a handbook that breaks down and pulls out the important bits with pictures and additional information. It can be useful. Then there are also the Mike Holt books on understanding the NEC.

I'll just include this picture here as an example from a Mike Holt book:



To answer your question more clearly; yes, there are ways to learn the code without reading over every little bit of it and trying to cram it in. Then, like Ben said, an inspector would check everything. It's best to know how to do it right the first time though.