Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional) (Paperback)

by Robin Dewson (Author)
Key Phrases: report server, table designer, query execution, Query Editor, Server Management Studio, Cancel Figure (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

SQL Server 2008 is a first–rate database management system. It offers more capability than any previous release of SQL Server. More than just a classic relational database management system, SQL Server 2008 includes exciting and powerful features that make it useful for everything from large corporate data warehouses to ad hoc departmental databases. You’ll find enhanced support for XML, new support for spatial data, transparent data encryption, a policy–based management system, and more.

Author and developer Robin Dewson will show you the way from beginner to SQL Server 2008 professional. Learn to install SQL Server 2008 and navigate around Management Studio before getting right to the heart of mastering fundamental SQL Server 2008 tasks: creating tables, storing data, securing data, and retrieving it again. Dewson ensures you’ll be fully prepared to use all the basics and create a solid foundation for your own projects.

Don’t forget about backups! Your database will house important data, so backing up is essential to protect yourself from inevitable hardware failure. Dewson walks you through SQL Server 2008’s easy–to–use backup and recovery feature set, giving you the grounding that you need in order to set up a reliable plan for recovery in your own environment.

Learn to use Transact–SQL, a full–blown procedural language that is built right into the database system. Transact–SQL is the key to unlocking everything that SQL Server 2008 has to offer. Using Transact–SQL, you can write centrally encapsulated business logic through the use of stored procedures, automatically trigger processing through the use of triggers, and manipulate data within the server without having to move data back and forth across the network.

Finally, you’ll learn a bit about SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, a powerful tool that allows enterprise reporting. Reporting Services enables you to develop and serve reports across your organization and even to business partners outside your company. Reporting Services also gives end users the ability to create their own reports, helping them transform business data into valuable, usable information to guide their day–to–day decisions.

What you’ll learn

• Install and manage SQL Server on your system.
• Create and secure tables.
• Store and query data; use indexes to improve query performance.
• “Sleep when the wind blows,” because you have a solid backup and recovery process.
• Run procedural code inside your database in the form of Transact–SQL procedures and triggers.
• Serve up business reports to in–house users and outside business partners via SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services.

Who is this book for?

Developers new to SQL Server 2008. If you are just beginning to develop software using SQL Server 2008, or if you are planning to do so in the near future, this book will set you on the road to success.

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to knowbut without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!

About the Author
Robin Dewson has been hooked on programming ever since he bought his first computer, a Sinclair ZX80, in 1980. He has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5 and Visual Basic since version 5. Robin is a consultant mainly in the city of London, where he has been for nearly eight years. He also has been developing a rugby–related website as well as maintaining his own site at www.fat-belly.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Apress (May 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590599586
• ISBN-13: 978-1590599587
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,973 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, easy to follow, practical, and concise, January 4, 2009

By	Tim Mathews - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is appropriate for someone who is completely new to SQL Server, it can likely be understood by someone completely new to database programming, and even an intermediate could probably learn from it. My only experience prior to this book was what I learned through trial and error in MS Access (only the basics) and very limited, crude experimentation with SQL Server 2005. I found this book very easy to read and understand, and the information was presented in a way that made it easy to retain and to put it all together into the big picture.

The first two chapters are a thorough walk-through of the installation process and explanations for the various setup options. This alone is worth the price of the book. If you have not yet installed SQL Server 2008, then wait until you have this book to guide you through it. (Also, make sure you install VS 2008 and SP1 before doing so, as well).

Chapters 3 through 7 cover basic concepts such as tables, relationships, and indexes, but dedicate significant space to topics such as design, security, optimizing performance, and proper maintenance and administration. The end result is that you have a solid foundation of knowledge about the lifecycle of a database as you create it, rather than creating a database and then later realizing that your design is sloppy, your database is slower than death, and you don't have any system of securing or backing up your data. If you have some familiarity with databases, such as MS Access, then you may be tempted to skip over chapters 3 through 7 because you may assume that they are just about tables and indexes. Don't skip these chapters! This is important material that goes well beyond the basics and is of equal value to the novice or intermediate developer. One caveat to that: if you are not running Vista Business or Vista Ultimate, then you cannot do all of the security tasks in chapter 4. However, I would recommend at least skimming over it. It is good information to know.

Chapter 8 starts in with what most people likely want to learn - data manipulation; and the rest of the book covers important and useful topics such as stored procedures, views, and more tips on T-SQL code.

The format of the book is to show you how to do something graphically (i.e. without using any code) and then shows you how to do the same task using code. If your intent is to eventually learn how to create user interfaces for a database or to create data-driven websites, then this book's methodology is great because it lays the foundation for you to understand how to accomplish all of your tasks with code. But, if you have no need or intention of doing so, that's fine, too because it teaches you how to do it graphically as well.

The material in this book is very concise. The amount of information in the 450 pages of this book would have taken most authors at least 800 pages to convey, but the author does not sacrifice clarity for brevity. The book is written in a manner that assumes you know very little about databases and SQL Server, but that you intend to become a serious developer and administrator. Most books explain what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. This book dedicates significant space to also explaining why to do certain things and when you might deviate from them. This is a very good introduction to SQL Server that will give you a solid foundation to build on if you choose to learn more and gives you enough information to start basic projects right away.

I have included what I believe to be errors in the book in the comment section of this review.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reference Book for Beginners, November 19, 2008

By	Todd Haehn (Maple Grove, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have several books on SQL Server Development and this one has been the one that has had the answers that I needed in it (as a beginner writing stored procedures and triggers). While other books that I own spend a lot of time talking about complex areas or give broad overviews, this one shows you how to do very simple things like creating conditional statement in T-SQL or checking the value of a passed parameter to see that is is not null. There is also a very nice section on setting up SQL Server 2008 that takes you through all the options and explains what they are for and offers some suggestion on how to set them. I wish I had the book before setting up SQL Server 2008.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not really for developers... but still a good intro, January 14, 2009

By	default_character (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book was a great introduction to MS SQL Server, but I honestly don't think it would be as helpful to new developers as it would be for new DBAs, for the following reasons:
1) No real relational database theory review
2) SQL not really introduced till over halfway through the book
3) Some terms randomly mentioned, then never explained (such
as "computed columns")
4) IIs and other pre-2008 server references
5) Cursors not mentioned... also wish there had been some text on
accessing the database via different languages.

Not all of the examples worked. I eventually figured out everything, but had a really difficult time understanding the descriptions of some of the concepts; some were too wordy and some too terse. The last chapter on Reporting Services was almost completely useless because he didn't show you how to deploy the reports... this would have been pretty easy (I found it in another book). Because of this, I can't recommend this for beginning developers either.

HOWEVER, having said all that, there are several reasons why you should get the book:
1) Covers quite a bit of material which I don't think the other texts
will, such as security, back-ups, recovery, system databases, etc.
2) Walks you through a complete installation and set-up of SQL Server.
3) Every chapter has relevant exercises, so if you have trouble getting
through the text, there is at least an example.
4) Filled with a lot of helpful "gotchas" that I could tell were
learned the hard way.
5) His writing style is friendly and unpretentious. This is a BIG plus;
I have plenty of dusty books written by 5 or more pompous people
that make no sense that are really just trying to impress you with
how smart they are instead of teaching you something.

I have finally come to the conclusion that you probably need several books on any given technical subject to overcome the shortcomings of the other. This particular book is a good one to start with, I think.