Customer Reviews

Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been looking around for a book that covers the full & released version of SQL Server 2005 and this is the only one I've found so far. All of the other books appear to be based on beta versions. Something to keep in mind.

The author tackles the subject of the book in a detailed yet concise manner and this makes for an interesting read. I would definitely recommend this to people migrating to SQL Server, people new to the system, and people upgrading to the latest version.

As with any book, there are the odd few flaws in the book and some of the code can be hard to understand, but these are only small issues and certainly wouldn't devalue the book in my opinion.

With the first chapter, you will learn details and techniques how to install and configure SQL Server 2005 for different editions. The second chapter inroduces the new client tools to interact with SQL Server 2005.
To understand the concept and techniques of databases, the author walk you through a real world example to apply these concepts. This is a perfect way to relate what you lean to a practical complete project.
The book ends with the advanced features that were added to SQL Server 2005 compared to SQL 2000. There is also a detailed chapters about security configuration for the installation and post installation phases.
I will recommend this book for beginners and professional users as well.

This book is great for beginners to databases and to SQL Server 2005. It does a great job of introducing not only the main features of SQL Server 2005, but also the main concepts of database development and design.

The book includes information on all of the things a beginner needs to get start creating and using their own databases, including system requirements, installation tips, database design concepts and how to actually implement them using the tools found in SQL Server 2005.

Once a beginner has gotten over the install and set up of a database, this book also has great info on how to use the database. It's got good coverage of all the essentials, T-SQL, stored procedures, back up and restore, indexes, views, and it even has a section on Advanced T-SQL. There's even a chapter on Reporting Services that's nice, too. The only thing that may be considered missing is more information in SQL Server Integration Services, but then that could be considered an "advanced" topic.

Overall, this book does a great job of introducing SQL Server 2005 to its intended audience.

Professionals with limited knowledge about databases or SQL will still be able to work with both thanks to the expert advice by SQL author Robin Dewson in BEGINNING SQL SERVER 2005 FOR DEVELOPERS FROM NOVICE TO PROFESSIONAL. Terms are defined and fully explained each step of the way, the basics of data manipulation and SQL Server language are revealed, and chapters for developers and database administrator alike cover all the basics; from creating indexes and structuring a database to working with the data. Highly recommended for any who wish to make database management part of their repertoire.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced developer using SQL server, you will definitely find something, which will enrich your knowledge on SQL Server concepts. Robin Dewson, in his book (BEGINNING SQL SERVER 2005 FOR DEVELOPERS FROM NOVICE TO PROFESSIONAL), has made a genuine attempt to keep things simple; language is lucid which helps in grabbing the concepts easily. I can say with confidence that this book will be a good starting point for beginners and a good reference book for those familiar with SQL server concepts. Database normalisation has been explained with suitable examples to reinforce the concepts. Pity the reader who does not benefit from this book.

Having worked for years in software development, I have a lot of background in programming languages, but I have never had much of a need or opportunity to learn database interfaces. When I picked up this book, I was looking for a title that would teach me the basics of creating and configuring databases in SQL Server 2005, but I was also looking for a reference that would give me quick tips on how to interface with SQL Server databases in my program code. I thought this book would fit the bill, because its title (Beginning SQL Server 2005 *for Developers*) seemed to indicate that it would contain this type of information. I have been disappointed with it, however. Here are some of the main reasons:

1. Misrepresentation of content -- As I mentioned above, the book's title led me to believe that it would contain useful information for software developers regarding programmatic interfaces to SQL Server databases. After reading most of the book, however, I haven't found a bit of content that would fit into this category. Instead, the book seems like a manual for novice DBAs trying to get up to speed on good administration principles in SQL Server. That's a worthy goal, but if it's truly the book's aim, then there's no justification for referencing "developers" in the title.

2. Poor ordering and redundancy of content -- To some degree, this is a matter of personal opinion, but the book seems to present topics in a rather illogical ordering. For example, it covers in gory detail principles of database permissions, indexing, and maintenance before readers have even created any working tables or queries. To a person who has little or no background in database concepts (or even to a person like myself who has basic background but is simply looking to hit the ground running in a new area of technical expertise), this ordering of material can delay readers' progress at best and utterly confuse them at worst. Furthermore, the book insists on presenting basically every concept twice: one time demonstrating an action within the SQL Server Management Studio GUI, and again using nothing but Transact-SQL. While both of these are important, I feel that they are best separated to avoid frustrating readers who only want one and who can find reference materials for the other one on their own if necessary.

3. Quality of writing -- Having read a lot of computer reference books and other forms of technical writing, I am somewhat less than impressed with the clarity of the writing in this book. It comes across as spoken language, which is not bad in and of itself, but which does not assist readers' comprehension in a book like this.

Overall, the book is not horrible -- it has taught me a lot of the basic things that I wanted to learn about SQL Server 2005, albeit in an inordinately roundabout way -- but I just haven't found it to be satisfying for either reading or reference. This is the first Apress book that I've used, and if the rest of the company's offerings are like this one, I'm probably going to stick with O'Reilly, MS Press, Sam's, and some of the other publishers that have consistently produced higher-quality materials.

WOW! I picked this book up with hopes of learning SQL and databases in general. I read Microsoft MCDBA book and also half of Microsoft 2000 SQL Server Unleashed Second Edition. I still wasn't clear about certain things. This book simply is amazing. I couldn't put it down and first day, I stayed up until 3am reading it. I am on page 200 right now and so far, I understand every topic written so far. The author does excellent job in explaining everything in VERY simple form. He tells you things that you need to know. The book starts off with introduction, then it moves on to Installation of SQL 2005 server. While you read the book, you are building database for financial company/bank from scratch, so this is really nice because you gain experience in doing it if you don't have a chance to work with it at your job. While you are creating database/tables/etc. the author shows up two ways of doing it. One with SQL Management Studio and then he shows you how to do it with T-SQL. The cool thing about the approach is that author goes over T-SQL code line by line explaining VERY clearly what it does. This is very nice for someone like me who doesn't have any programming experience and becomes confused the second I see code. I would strongly recommend this book to new people who just want to learn SQL and how things work. It's great. I am very happy with it. I read many technical books, with my favorite author being Mark Minasi. This book is written in same simple, easy to understand language.

Get this book, setup virtual machine with server 2003 on your computer, download 120 days evaluation version of SQL 2005 from Microsoft website and you are on your way to go. I assure you, you will learn something and you will have fun doing it!

Great job Mr. Dewson. I will search around and purchaser more books written by you!

Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers: From Novice to Professional

This book did an excellent job of walking through all the basics required to get a beginner up and running with SQL Server 2005. I worked through the entire book and completed most of the sample exercises. The layout of the book made it easy to decipher between textual content and the steps the reader can try out.

Before reading this book I had some hit and miss knowledge of SQL Server. Having read this book, I feel that some of the gaps in my knowledge of the subject have been filled in and now I'm ready to move on to more advanced SQL Server 2005 topics.

I would definitely recommend this book for the individual who is new to SQL Server or SQL Server 2005!

This book was assigned reading for a SQL Server 2005 certification course that I am taking. It is well-written with a clear and concise database example that is followed through the entire text. The code that was given was not only good for teaching but I was also able to implement it in project work. It also has a pretty good beginner tutorial on Reporting Services and this book also goes into the basics of T-SQL.

A deficiency that I found was there was discussion on triggers and sprocs but nothing at all regarding functions. Also, I think there should have been more time spent on indexes. I had to use a different reference to gain a proper understanding of the differences between clustered and non-clustered indexes. I also think that there should have been a few pages devoted to XML since it was mentioned in the book in quite a few places without proper introduction.

All in all, this book is worth the buy if you are a beginner using SQL Server 2005 functionality.

'Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers: From Novice to Professional' by Robin Dewson is a nice guide for someone new to working with SQL Server. While the content within is alright, I feel there are better books out there on the market for introducing this concept to developers. The title of this book says 'SQL Server 2005' but I don't find a lot of specific examples within, the chapter breakup is odd at times (chapter 8 is HUGE compared to all the others -- 14 in total), and I just don't care for the layout or writing that much.

It's not a bad book, but it's not great either. Pick this up if you like Apress books, else look elsewhere.

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