Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques [Paperback]

David Rozenshtein (Author), Anatoly Abramovich (Author), Eugene Birger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

Encoded characteristic functions (ECF) is a new, innovative SQL programming methodology which allows programmers to encode conditional logic as scalar expressions within certain clauses. These extremely powerful techniques are presented by the authors of ECF in "Optimizing Transact-SQL".

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Sql Forum Pr (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964981203
• ISBN-13: 978-0964981201
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,968,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Techniques to Master, September 30, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Silicon Valley, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques (Paperback)

This book provides the definitive approach for the cross-tabulation/row positioning problem. The techniques presented in this book will stimulate new and innovative approaches to improve performance. This is not a How-To Cookbook. Every time I re-read this book, I find ideas and inspiration to help me solve today's programming challenge. If you develop stored procedures, you must have this book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A different take on SQL, June 27, 2000

By 

"dshastri" (Bridgewater, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques (Paperback)

I have been developing SQL for quite a long time but never had looked at the "Characteristc" functions from the angle as this book depicts. The book is not for faint hearted, and even though it looks a very small book, it takes a lot longer to read and digest. Almost all the pivoting technics in the book are now made kinda obsolete because of the support of "CASE" statements, but still it's worth reading as it uses the normal functions like index to do something which you didn't expect. This is not a beginners book nor does it teach you how to optimize by tweaking SQLServer. The title of the book is not right as it talks about Transact-SQL, the technics are applicable in any RDBMS (I am using Teradata for instance).

Give this book more than one try to understand what it is saying, then only you will appreciate it's value.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anything Rozenshtein Writes I'll Read, July 7, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques (Paperback)

Read all the reviews. I've read all of the public articles that Rozenshtein wrote. Those of you who read the book and did not value the content, I wonder about you. "Impossible" "Skip this one" "Esoterica" Did you miss the most important point of the book? Think differently and you just might find a simple elegant solution to your data access problem.

I can hear the groanings now, "cross table joins, elegant"? What you do not know is that when Rozenshtein proposed the solutions you read about, the companies he worked with set down expectations under which Rozenshtein worked. He was to find a one-pass method of solving the data access problems of a company who had poorly designed very large databases and a limited time to assemble the data needed for daily reporting. Rozenshtein only had enough time to make one-pass through all the databases at once to collect the data for these daily reports.

What you read in this book is about brilliant problem solving that produces results businesses value. Rozenshtein is a mathmatician sought out by large companies to solve data access problems that their staff could not solve.

This book is about data access problem solving to produce results. I believe most everyone could stand to improve their results.