Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in .NET) Review

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Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in .NET) ReviewThis is an excellent book for learning SQL Server 2005 Express. I started learning MS Access in 2003 when my wife asked me to develop a database for her to use at work. At the time I knew only the words "relational database". Over 99% of what I needed to know to develop that contact and resource management database to its fully featured capability came from multiple books.
The expectations have changed over time and now I need to use SQL Server 2005 Express as a back end with Access as the front end for that database. Knowing nothing about SQL Server 2005, I needed a very good book to help bring me up to speed. I found that in Robin Dewson's "Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express."
From the installation of SQL Server 2005 Express through an explanation of Triggers and Reporting Services, there is a clear and concise explanation of each aspect with the opportunity to Try It Out. I needed to know all of what he presents and I was especially interested in Installation, Security, and Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance. The Installation chapter explains very carefully and clearly authentication mode, service accounts, user instances, etc. The Security chapter clearly explains logins, server roles, database roles, and schemas. The Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance chapter is also clear and carefully written with information on types of backups, detaching and attaching a database, and transaction logs.
The Chapter headings are:
1. SQL Server 2005 Express Overview and Installation
2. SQL Server Management Studio Express
3. Database Design and Creation
4. Security
5. Defining Tables
6. Creating Indexes and Database Diagramming
7. Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance
8. Working with the Data
9. Building a View
10. Stored Procedures
11. T-SQL Essentials
12. Advanced T-SQL
13. Triggers
14. Reporting Services
Robin Dewson is a very good teacher with the gift of knowing how to present a concept and then build concept on concept. He also provides helpful tips on things to do and not to do.
Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in .NET) OverviewSQL Server 2005 Express Edition is a free relational database management system from Microsoft and provides a major subset of full SQL Server 2005 functionality. Many users learn on SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and then move on to SQL Server 2005. Users can also develop significant real-world solutions in SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and then migrate them to the full version. In fact, for small databases and organizations, the Express Edition is often adequate on its own to support business needs. Its user base is rapidly growing.This book is a comprehensive, clear, and gentle introduction to all fundamental aspects of SQL Server 2005 Express and the T-SQL database language. It assumes no prior experience in databases or programming and is ideal for any new SQL Server Express user, whatever their use of SQL Server Express.

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Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice) Review

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Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice) ReviewShort Summary:
Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide book examines SQL Server 2005 T-SQL from a developer's perspective. It covers a wide range of developer-specific topics in SQL Server 2005. This book covers many newly introduced topics in depth. This book is written as a practical and useful guide to help database developers who mainly deals with T-SQL. This book is really hit the spot with appropriate .NET code at few places where needed. This book assumes a basic knowledge of SQL but it is really easy for new beginners developers to understand and advanced developers to enjoy further reading.
Detailed Summary:
One thing I really liked about this book is that it can be either read cover to cover, or it can be used as a reference guide for one particular topic. Index of this book is extremely well organized and aids to find the right topic very quickly. Books is structure is many chapters and each chapter justifies the chapters with good details and proper amount of examples.
Each chapter has excellent advice and knowledge and filled with sample code (available online). The book is targeted specifically at SQL Server 2005 and the innovative ways to code T-SQL, new functions and commands. If is very easy to get started with this book and it immerses in comprehensive reading in no time. This book addresses many details and comparisons with T-SQL in very organized way. The examples are in very accurate and useful as well sufficient to targeted topics. This book addresses many of the real world issues with examples, discussions and solutions.
This book start with providing a brief history of T-SQL and the ANSI SQL standards. SQLCMD and SQL Server Management Studio are new tools to explore SQL Server 2005 and are covered in depth in beginning of the book. Chapters which covers Common Table Expressions (CTEs), new datatypes, operators, keywords, functions, and control of flows are really interesting and with necessary explanation. Readers of my blog are very well aware of my interests in Error handling and debugging. Interesting enough for me there is one whole chapter dedicated to that. The regular T-SQL concepts which I write a lot about Stored Procedure, Triggers and Dynamic SQL each have their own chapter. One thing many T-SQL book does not cover in depth is XML, XQuery and XPath which are properly discussed and their importance is explained properly. Last three chapter of the book which covers SQLCLR, .NET Client Programming and HTTP Endpoints requires the Microsoft .NET FrameWork 2.0, as it contains some code which are written in VB and C#.
One thing which I always liked in any database book is, use of sample database AdventureWorks. I strongly believe that all the example should be independent from previous examples and should use default database. If you have not installed default database AdventureWorks, you can get its latest location by searching in my blog SQLAuthority.com. All the script of examples are available to download online. No book is free from the errors and website for this book have errata list, which is surprisingly very small.
I will list few tips from book which interested me. This will give brief idea how good this book is.
"TABLESAMPLE always returns an approximate number of rows because of the way it samples data. The required percentage is the number of data pages SQL Server retreves in full to fulfill your TABLESAMPLE request. The number of rows returned by TABLESAMPLE will often be slightly less, or greater, than the specified amount."
"Anytime you use dynamic SQL, make sure that you take precautions against SQL injection, that is, malicious SQL Code being inserted into your SQL statements. In this instance we're using the QUOTENAME function to quote the column names being dynamically generated to help avoid SQL injection problems."
Following one example really caught my eyes while reading the book. It seems Author accurately described the situation and put his suggestion regarding syntax.
"The ANSI SQL:2003 standard includes a MERGE statement that performs the same function as the upsert type of SP. The prerelease versions of SQL Server 2005 included the MERGE statement. Though it was well-publicized during the prerelease period, the MERGE statement was unceremoniously dropped from the production version. We can only hope that Microsoft brings it back sometime in the near future."
Good news is Microsoft have included the Authors request in future version of SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 CTP 4 has included MERGE Keyword.
Rating: 4 and 1/2 stars
In Summary, A book for every developer who want to take full advantage of the power of T-SQL on SQL Server 2005.
Pinal Dave
Principal Database Administrator
(blog.sqlauthority.com)Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice) OverviewT-SQL is the fundamental language for database programming in SQL Server 2005. All professional SQL Server users need to know it and, even more important, must understand how to use it well. The language has grown considerably since SQL Server 2000 and even experienced T-SQL programmers have many new features to master. They need a convenient single source of information and advice. This book provides that, clearly and comprehensively.Both database administrators and developers will find this highly readable, detailed description of T-SQL an eye-opening and invaluable reference for as long as they work with SQL Server 2005.

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Portable DBA: SQL Server Review

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Portable DBA: SQL Server ReviewIf there is one book that you are considering for SQL Server Administration, this is the one to buy. Covering all the major topics of administration, this book goes above and beyond other SQL Server books for several reasons. Not only does it live up to the promise of an easy to find guide for everyday tasks, it offers the ability to read up quickly on several advanced topics and gain knowledge rapidly. Taken into consideration, are the three latest versions; SQL Server 2000, 7.0 and 6.5, detailing out differences between versions where applicable. Everything is explained clearly. The authors have done an excellent job of providing a wealth of information in short and concise content. It is very refreshing to see a book that was obviously written to be as brief possible without skimping on important details...clearly no fluff here!!!! This has two benefits to the reader, 1; information is easy to find, no time is wasted reading through frivolous content, 2; the cost is lower than those 1,000 page volumes that contain less valuable information. Hopefully this is the start of a new trend in technical books.
In just a few minutes after flipping through, and reading up on backups, I realized that I'm not backing up my production data properly, and can substantially decrease data loss risk by backing up my transaction logs regularly with the data. Also, some security concepts I had a bit of difficulty fully comprehending became clear to me as well.
Reading through this book, it is obvious the authors have extensive experience with SQL Server, as this book has many insider tips that only experts would know through practice. It is also apparent that the authors worked well together as this book reads as though one person wrote it. Definitely a must buy and well worth the cost. I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars.Portable DBA: SQL Server OverviewThis book is the ultimate field guide for every SQL ServerDBA's laptop bag. Don't go onsite without it! Covers the most commonly used SQL Server database versions. Handy, easy-to-find information includes security, database creation and management, restoration and recovery, automating SQL Server administration, monitoring performance, tuning, and much more.

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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure Programming in T-SQL & .NET Review

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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure Programming in T-SQL & .NET ReviewThis book contains much useful information on SQL Server 2005 T-SQL enhancements, but it regularly employs functions and constructs in its examples that are only explained in later passages. Specifically, when attempting to absorb a new concept by examining a code example, you must also contend with looking up items which have not yet been covered. This is a mild stumbling block but it hurts the flow of the book.
Also, the practice database (Asset5) did not attach properly (on my SQL Server 2005 STD edition install regarding appropriate permissions to modify objects) and the most direct workaround was: (1) To use the included, but unreferenced script to initialize the database and all its objects using a "new name" for the database (2) Attach the original database - Asset5 (3) Use the data import feature to populate the "new name" database tables (4) Drop the attached database Asset5 (5) Rename the "new name" database to Asset5. I did first attempt to modify the permissions associated with the login I was using - unsuccessfully...
By way of comparison I am using Oracle Press' "Oracle 9i The Complete Reference" by Koch and Loney as a standard of clarity and conceptual organization for PL-SQL. It is on this basis that I assign this book 3 stars, but admit that I have yet to discover a better book for advanced T-SQL topics. Please feel free to forward me better titles.
As an aside, Murach's SQL for SQL Server is the best introductory text I have found for T-SQL.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure Programming in T-SQL & .NET Overview
Create and Use Stored Procedures for Optimal Database Performance

Develop complex stored procedures to retrieve, manipulate, update, and delete data. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure Programming in T-SQL & .NET identifies and describes the key concepts, techniques, and best practices you need to master in order to take full advantage of stored procedures using SQL Server's native Transact-SQL and .NET CLR languages. You'll learn to incorporate effective Transact-SQL stored procedures into client or middleware code, and produce CLR methods that will be compiled into CLR stored procedures. This is a must-have resource for all SQL Server 2005 developers.

Essential Skills for Database Professionals
Group and execute T-SQL statements using batches, scripts, and transactionsCreate user-defined, system, extended, temporary, global temporary, and remote stored procedures Develop and manage stored procedures using C# and Visual Basic .NETImplement database access using ADO.NETCreate CLR user-defined functions and triggersImplement reliable debugging and error handling techniques and security measuresManage source code in a repository such as Visual SourceSafeCreate stored procedures for web search enginesUse system and extended stored procedures to interact with the SQL Server environment




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SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes (Books for Professionals by Professionals) Review

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SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes (Books for Professionals by Professionals) ReviewThis book is among the finest works on SQL Server which I've ever read. Joseph Sack has a well-deserved reputation for quality writing, yet I'm frankly more impressed than I expected to be. I've read many of his articles & the previous edition of this book has long been one of my favorites.
This latest-&-greatest edition, SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes, has lots of new material & is his best yet. Joe's writing style is clear, concise, & comprehensive. The approach is unique, the chapter sections flow logically from one to anothter, yet they are written in independent vignettes for byte-sized consumption. His examples allow us to play along at home. They are accompanied by lucid explanations. The book doesn't stoop to copying code, but instead relies on unique examples followed by my favorite feature of all: "How It Works" in which the concepts are characterized in plain English. You'll enjoy it, too.
If it can be done in Transact-SQL, Joe teaches us not merely how it's done, but how it's done right. Topics run the gamut from fundamental concepts such as interrogating tables, creating views, defining indexes, & writing stored procedures, triggers, & functions, to more complex topics such as error handling & principals to newer constructions such as XML, Service Broker, CLR, spatial data, encryption, & auditing--& much more.
I used the book as my primary resource to study successfully for 70-441 & 70-442 (MCITP: DB Dev). I recommend it to all my customers. If you're a SQL Server DBA or a developer, I recommend this book is for you as well.Jimmy May
Microsoft Sr. Performance Consultant: SQL Server
SQL Server Pros, Founder & Visionary-in-Chief
Indianapolis Professional Association for SQL Server, Founder & Executive CommitteeSQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes (Books for Professionals by Professionals) OverviewWithout Transact-SQL, there is nothing. Developers and database administrators using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 are highly-motivated to learn Transact-SQL, because that language enables them to store and retrieve data, to move business logic into the database, and to interface with advanced SQL Server features. The recipe format facilitates just-in-time learning, showing readers immediately how to perform their assigned tasks, and is sure to be a hit with today's busy professional.

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The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL Review

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The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL ReviewAh, where to begin. This book is a masterpiece. It is over the top. It distills, in one volume, all that's worth knowing about advanced Transact-SQL. If you've read the Books Online, this book is a natural next step in your T-SQL education. It took me from a rank amateur to an advanced coder within days. It gave me insights into new ways of coding that I'd never have thought of on my own. It showed me how to work in harmony with T-SQL and SQL Server, rather than try to get them to do things they weren't designed to do.
The best chapters, are, IMHO, these:
- DML Insights
- DDL Insights
- The Mighty SELECT
- Statistical Functions
- Transactions
- Cursors
- Sets
- Arrays
- Stored Procedures and Triggers
- T-SQL Performance Tuning
- Administrative T-SQL
- OLE Automation
- Undocumented T-SQL
There's so much good info in this book, it's hard to pick a list of the "best chapters." To be sure, there's not a weak chapter in the book, and you should read every last one of them.
[...] This book is a must-read for anyone serious about coding in Transact-SQL.The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL OverviewSince its introduction over a decade ago, the Microsoft SQL Server query language, Transact-SQL, has become increasingly popular and more powerful. The current version sports such advanced features as OLE Automation support, cross-platform querying facilities, and full-text search management. This book is the consummate guide to Microsoft Transact-SQL. From data type nuances to complex statistical computations to the bevy of undocumented features in the language, The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL imparts the knowledge you need to become a virtuoso of the language as quickly as possible. In this book, you will find the information, explanations, and advice you need to master Transact-SQL and develop the best possible Transact-SQL code. Some 600 code examples not only illustrate important concepts and best practices, but also provide working Transact-SQL code that can be incorporated into your own real-world DBMS applications. Your journey begins with an introduction explaining language fundamentals such as database and table creation, inserting and updating data, queries, joins, data presentation, and managing transactions. Moving on to more advanced topics, the journey continues with in-depth coverage of: Transact-SQL performance tuning using tools such as Query Analyzer and Performance Monitor Nuances of the various T-SQL data types Complex statistical calculations such as medians, modes, and sliding aggregates Run, sequence, and series identification and interrogation Advanced Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Management Language (DML) techniques Stored procedure and trigger best practices and coding methods Transaction management Optimal cursor use and caveats to look out for Full-text search Hierarchies and arrays Administrative Transact-SQL OLE Automation More than 100 undocumented commands and language features, including numerous unpublished DBCC command verbs, trace flags, stored procedures, and functions Comprehensive, written in understandable terms, and full of practical information and examples, The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL is an indispensable reference for anyone working with this database development language. The accompanying CD-ROM includes the complete set of code examples found in the book as well as a SQL programming environment that will speed the development of your own top-notch Transact-SQL code.

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Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming (Solid Quality Learning) Review

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Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming (Solid Quality Learning) ReviewFirstly, this is not a book for beginners or those new to T-SQL, this is targetted more towards intermediate/advanced programmers. If you're new then look at T-SQL Querying.
The level of knowledge and detail that Itzik, Dejan and Roger have and portray in this book is awesome. Do you want to know how SQL Server 2005 internally stores date/time values and what the pitfalls are that you might run into when programming against date/time values (one of the most common problems facing SQL programmers), this book has the answer.
With chapters on Stores Procedures, Transactions, temporary tables, views, the service broker and more.
Each chapter has excellent advice and knowledge and filled with sample code (available online). The book is targetted specifically at SQL Server 2005 and the new ways it handles things, new functions and commands.
My only concern and a slight one at that is that with the amount of information the authors are trying to portray in 500 pages, sometimes the reading is heavy.
An invaluable book for SQL Server 2005 programmers.Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming (Solid Quality Learning) Overview
Get a detailed look at the internal architecture of T-SQL with this comprehensive programming reference. Database developers and administrators get best practices, expert techniques, and code samples to master the intricacies of the programming language—solving complex problems with real-world solutions.

Discover how to:

Understand when to apply set-based programming techniques
Design and implement date and time-related XML and CLR datatypes
Use temporary objects, including temporary tables, table variables, and table expressions
Work with T-SQL and CLR user-defined functions, stored procedures, and triggers
Support user input-based queries and variable data with dynamic execution
Work with transactions and new exception handling constructs
Apply a concurrency model to support simultaneous users
Use Service Broker for controlled asynchronous processing in database applications This book includes code samples on the Web.


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Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice in SQL Server) Review

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Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice in SQL Server) ReviewShort Summary:
Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide examines SQL Server 2008 T-SQL from a developer's perspective. This information-rich book covers a wide array of developer-specific topics in SQL Server 2008. In addition, it provides in-depth knowledge of various newly introduced topics. This book is written as a practical guide to help database developers who mainly deal with T-SQL. It has really hit the spot with appropriate .NET code at a few places where required. The book assumes a basic knowledge of SQL, but it is very easy to understand for novice developers, while for advanced developers it is a great source to enhance their knowledge.
Detailed Summary:
Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide is a well-written and well-structured book with a good depth and breadth of quality content presented in a reader friendly way. The book is structured into chapters where latest and comprehensive information have been backed with numerous examples to facilitate understanding of all levels of developers. What I really liked about this book is that it can either be read from cover to cover, or can be used as a reference guide for finding information topic-wise. A well-organized index aids in finding the topics very quickly.
Apart from valuable knowledge, each chapter of the book contains excellent advice and is filled with sample code (available online). It primarily revolves around SQL Server 2008 and innovative ways to code T-SQL, new functions and commands. It addresses many details and comparisons with T-SQL in a very organized manner. All the examples have been carefully selected and are accurate, useful and sufficient for the targeted topics. In addition, this book addresses a number of real-world issues with examples, discussions and solutions.
SQLCMD and SQL Server Management Studio are advanced tools to explore SQL Server 2008 that have been covered in depth in the beginning of the book. I would like to discuss Chapter 2 in detail. This chapter dives right into the new features of T-SQL on SQL Server 2008, with discussion on productivity-enhancing features, the new MERGE statement, new data types like geometry and hierarchyid, and grouping sets. Chapter 13 introduces SQL Server 2008 catalog views, which are the preferred tools for retrieving database and database object metadata. This chapter also hashes out dynamic management views and functions, which provide access to server and database state information.
Chapters that cover Common Table Expressions (CTEs), new data types, operators, keywords, functions, and control of flows are very interesting and contain necessary explanation. Readers of my blog are very well aware of my interests in Error handling and Debugging. Interesting enough for me, there is one whole chapter dedicated to these areas. Some of the regular T-SQL concepts such as Stored Procedure, Triggers and Dynamic SQL, which I write a lot about, have also been covered in this book and each have a chapter dedicated to them. The last three chapters of the book on SQLCLR, .NET Client Programming and HTTP Endpoints necessitate Microsoft .NET FrameWork 2.0, as they contain some codes that are written in VB and C#.
One demerit with other run-of-the-mill T-SQL books is that they do not include in-depth information on XML, XQuery and XPath, while these topic have been discussed in good detail in this book, and their importance has been appropriately explained. Yet another attractive feature of this book is that all the chapters contain exercise with Appendix A having answers to all the questions asked. Appendix D comprises quick reference to SQLCMD command-line tool, which I have been using myself.
Some excerpts from the book that demonstrate how complex subjects have been explained in a lucid way and present the visionary attitude of the author.
"How do you pass parameters to triggers? The short answer is you can't. Because they are automatically fired in response to events, SQL Server triggers provide no means to pass in parameters."
"When used with an aggregate function like SUM, COUNT, or AVG, or a user-defined aggregate, the OVER clause can only take a PARTITION BY clause-not an ORDER BY clause. This is a serious shortcoming in the SQL Server implementation of OVER for aggregate functions. ORDER BY in the OVER clause for aggregate functions allows you to easily perform single-statement running sum-type calculations. Running sum calculations without this feature require extensive joins, causing many people to fall back on cursors. ORDER BY for the aggregate OVER clause, and other features related to windowing functions, has been submitted as a feature request to Microsoft. Hopefully, we'll see it implemented at some point in the near future."
One thing that I have always liked in any database book is the use of sample database AdventureWorks. I strongly believe that the all the examples should be independent of the previous examples and should use default database. If you have not installed default database AdventureWorks, you can get its latest location by searching in my blog SQLAuthority.com. All the scripts of examples are easily available and can be downloaded online. No book is free from errors and the website for this book has errata list, which is surprisingly very small.
Rating: 5 Stars
To sum up, Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide is a must-read book for every developer who wants to take full advantage of the power of T-SQL on SQL Server 2008. This book by Author Michel Coles it meant to facilitate developers - they can now spend less time worrying about how things get done and instead think about what they actually want to get done.
Pinal Dave
Founder - (blog.SQLAuthority.com)Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice in SQL Server) OverviewSkill with the Transact-SQL language is key to any developer making use of Microsoft SQL Server. Written especially for developers, the Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide shows developers the full range of what's possible using the language. Readers become fully-grounded in the language, in the key features that SQL Server has to offer, and they are introduced to best-practices that will help ensure their success.

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The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML Review

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The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML ReviewI never thought I'd say this but this book is even better than the first Gurus Guide book! Henderson cuts loose and just writes. It feels like you've got the guru sitting right next to as you read.
As with his first book, Henderson runs a tight ship with this one. There's no fluff or other filler material. Instead, you just get the goods, and you get them by the boatload.
My fav things about this one are:
* Extended Proc coverage. I've always wondered how to build these. The coverage in this book is absolutely excellent. It could be a book unto itself.
* XML coverage. I've never seen a better cut-to-the-chase introduction to XML and the XML features in SQL Server. It's a wonderful, hands-on tutorial written by a master.
* Emphasis on treating transact-sql as a real language. Henderson stresses this over and over and he's right. This book is every bit as good as the high-end programming books that feature languages like C++ and Java.
* Essays on software engineering. These are some of the best technical writing I've ever read.
I don't think you could spend your money on a better SQL Server book.
DjFThe Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML OverviewSQL Server developers worldwide raved about Ken Henderson's The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL: its exceptionally clear, conversational explanations, and its powerfully useful projects and code examples. This book helps SQL Server developers take the next step -- building more powerful, robust applications than ever before. Henderson identifies several key areas of SQL Server development that offer the greatest power -- and then covers each of them in exceptional detail. The book includes especially thorough coverage of Transact-SQL stored procedure programming, including features such as extended procedures, database design, and XML that are often disregarded in competitive books. Henderson introduces a method he has developed to add arrays to T-SQL, something previously thought impossible. He offers an ideal balance of theory and code, gradually building on basic techniques to create increasingly sophisticated solutions, and teaching the philosophy of Transact-SQL programming alongside syntax and technique. An accompanying CD-ROM includes extensive source code, including valuable proprietary code that makes T-SQL queries run faster. For every SQL Server developer.

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Inside Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: T-SQL Programming (Pro-Developer) Review

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Inside Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: T-SQL Programming (Pro-Developer) ReviewBeing primarily a database and web developer, I feel more than experienced enough to review 'Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Programming' by Itzik Ben-Gan and others and I feel more and easily able to give this ***** and highly recommend this text. All the basics are covered in this 800 page book. It's not a teaching book that will give you all the ins and outs of database design and use, but it will show you what the major points of using SQL Server 2008 are, and how to get the most out of them.
Major topics covered are Views, User-Defined Functions, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Transactions & Concurrency, Error Handling, Temporary Tables/Table Variables, Cursors, Dynamic SQL, Date/Time usage, CLR User-Defined Types, Temporal Support, XML & XQuery usage, Spatial Data, Tracking Access and Changes, and finally Service Broker discussion.
The parts of the book that I enjoyed most were the last 6 chapters, as discussion on CLR usage, Spatial Data, and the like are limited in most other SQL Server books. I especially loved the chapter on Spatial data, a very important subject that has much, much greater support than years in the past.
If you are a SQL Server developer or admin, you owe it to yourself to take a hard look at this great book. It is written fantastic and is a great resource that I found useful from the moment I picked it up.
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDInside Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: T-SQL Programming (Pro-Developer) Overview
Get a detailed look at the internal architecture of T-SQL with this comprehensive programming reference. Database developers and administrators get best practices, expert techniques, and code samples to master the intricacies of this programming language—solving complex problems with real-world solutions.

Discover how to:

Work with T-SQL and CLR user-defined functions, stored procedures, and triggers.
Handle transactions, concurrency, and error handling.
Efficiently use temporary objects, including temporary tables, table variables, and table expressions.
Evaluate when to use set-based programming techniques and when to use cursors.
Work with dynamic SQL in an efficient and secure manner.
Treat date- and time-related data in a robust manner.
Develop CLR user-defined types and learn about temporal support in the relational model.
Use XML and XQuery and implement a dynamic schema solution.
Work with spatial data using the new geometry and geography types and spatial indexes.
Track access and changes to data using extended events, SQL Server Audit, change tracking, and change data capture.
Use Service Broker for controlled asynchronous processing in database applications.

All the book's code samples will be available for download from the companion Web site.


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