Customer Reviews

Professional Data Warehousing with SQL Server 7.0 and OLAP Services

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While WROX Press usually covers programming topics well, this title is an exception. I've read all three books on MS OLAP. Many of the MDX examples are incorrect in syntax (no quotes where required, or CREATE SET SESSION instead of CREATE SESSION SET). It also blithely talks about syntax that MS OLAP doesn't support (like sets in the WHERE clause) without letting you know you're wasting your time trying it. Some errors, like multiple descriptions of and references to the non-existent CREATE SET GLOBAL, or stating that drill-down functions don't work on tuples when they do, state clearly that the author doesn't really know Microsoft's MDX. The author makes other odd claims, for example that virtual dimensions are useful for security (how?)

I found it really interesting that area after area (discussions of preparing a database, discussions of MDX, database optimization, many of the diagrams, the discussion of NULL values and invalid member references, a large number of small asides) follow the outline, diagrams, examples and occasionally unique terminology of "Microsoft OLAP Solutions" fairly closely, including idiosyncrasies such as the attention to dealing with irregular hierarchies in more depth than leveled hierarchies early on, and yet goes into far less depth. It strains belief that the author didn't study this prior work and borrow heavily.

It also disappoints in the areas where it could have offered some unique insights. Unlike the other two books, it devotes a small chapter to types of data mining, and offers in chapter introduction that it will discuss whether OLAP Services supports data mining. At the very end of the chapter, he only says that "Microsoft has yet to come up with a ... product that performs such tasks and handles gigabytes of data" and that "Excel is the best representative of Microsoft products in this regard". Huh? Meanwhile, possible application of OLAP Services' statistical functions to forecasting is completely unmentioned, although the same statistical functions (correlation, regression) are mentioned as data mining components. Yes, you can too do forecasting with MS OLAP!

Data warehousing with SQL 7 is very thin. If you have "The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit," "90 Days to the Data Mart", and any SQL Server reference, you'll be way ahead. Stay away! Buy "Microsoft OLAP Solutions" and get a deeper treatment of OLAP Services features and MDX, and buy "Microsoft OLAP Unleashed" and get a ton of DTS and client ADO programming.

I'll give this one star instead of zero, as it at least has some information in it.

The writing in this book is very incoherent. It is really hard to read and the author rambles on and on about useless obvious things. The examples provided are erroneous. What the author calls a very complex sql query is actually a very basic sql query and on top of that is incorrect. Example: in trying to count the num of transactions, the author made the mistake of sum(tran_id) instead of count(tran_id). If he cannot write a simple select statement how could he provide input on data warehousing. I got more information from SQL OLAP Tutorial in the books online than from reading the 1st 4 chapters. Also the author does not provide any solid examples drawn from his experience. It appears as though he is summarizing the books online and another great data warehousing book, "The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit" by Ralph Kimball.

Save your money and look for another book.

A better title maybe "Professional Data Warehousing with OLAP Services in SQLServer 7.0". As a designer and developer of a data warehouse back-end, I thought I had found a great book to enlighten me as to SQLServer7 specific data warehousing techniques, but in reality the author rarely deviates from discussing OLAP in SQLServer and data cubes. If you're looking for information on creating and optimizing a data warehouse as a back-end system, I would highly suggest looking elsewhere. Although there is basically no discussion of data warehousing, the book "Transact-SQL Programming" offers a much more well rounded approach to the awsome capabilities of SQLServer.

This is the best and most comprehensive book I read or reviewed about MS OLAP and data warehousing. It has it all. It discusses MDX, DTS, Multidimensional data modling, data warehouse design, maintenance, and even a brief discussion of decision support objects in an appendix. The only thing I think it lacks is a discussion of ADO-MD and examples of how it can be used to access OLAP data from client apps. I hope the next edition will cover these topics along with the new topics in SQL 2000 OLAP Services. If you are out looking for a good book on MS OLAP, you found your wish with this book.

I found this book to be the best among several book I reviewed about SQL Server data warehousing and OLAP. It handles most topics in a way that sets you on the right path to knowing what you need to know to do the job. It did help me, as a beginner, to smoothly start my first MS OLAP project. Of course, no one book can equally cover aspects of data warehousing. Therefore, this book will serve more as an intro, and in some cases, more than an intro to the world of MS DW.

I was hesitant to buy this book at first when I read some of the reviews online. However, when I started to look at it in the book store I found that it is the book that the book was very nicely written and structured. It is written for someone who does not have a background in data warehousing and OLAP, but yet, provides a great deal of knowledge by the time you finish reading it. I found that the book satisfies my needs. I have been using this book as a reference for Microsfot OLAP Services for the last three months and it helped me with a couple of projects already. For those who do not like the book, please keep in mind that if it does not satisfy your particular need, it does not mean that it is not a good book that can help others.

I know WROX books and until this one they were very good or excellent. This one is no help to anybody. Author touches a lot of subjects not giving you anything on any of them. Almost anything you can also find in Books OnLine (bad as they are).
If you need serious book, look for E. Thomsen titles.

My company had a project that requires using MS SQL Server 7.0 OLAP Services. We did not have anyone on staff who is familiar with the topic, so I bought the Wrox book and started reading it. I found the book to be great and extremely helpful. It addresses all kinds of issues, the simple ones as well as the more difficult ones. It is easy to read and comprehensive. Although it focuses one OLAP and how OLAP is used in SQL Server 7.0, it also gives great information about building a data warehouse, administering it, and managing it. What is also so great about this book, is that when we needed some help, I sent an email to the author, who was very responsive. Mr. Youness responded to my email questions with enough detail to get us going when we got stuck with one of the issues. I do recommend this book to anyone who wants to use MS OLAP and MS data warehousing.

This was a great tool. It really helped to get my OLAP services up and running quickly. There are several other books on the market but we found this one to be easy to understand and use. There is a new version of Crystal Reports coming for SQL 7 OLAP, a reporting tool. I hope this book will be updated to cover that functionality! Great book!

This is an overall good book on OLAP and data warehousing. It would have been better with more examples on DTS. The coverage of MDX, data cubes, and other topics is excellent.