132 of 147 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The SQL book I couldn't put down., December 31, 2000
Rob Vieira's work is the one of the most enjoyable technical references in my collection. Read the author's comments, also posted on Amazon.com, for a sample of his writing style. This book is worth every penny of the retail price.
Rob does an excellent job explaining highly technical processes without losing the reader or skipping important details. The author covers many of SQL's features that are not well-documented by Microsoft, and he ties them in when important. At some point in the book I remember him explaining why BLOBs are so much slower when stored within a database than the computer's file system, and ways to handle the performance issue. He also gives the reader a heads up on how much overhead alternative processes use and saves us from some trial-and-error.
Below is a summary of the book's TOC. I hope I didn't butcher any information here. (number of pages in each chapter is approximate):
1) Particulars and History - N-Tier architecture, Certification, .NET (Now Visual Studio compiled to an interpreted language, like Java. Is Linux in Microsoft's future?)
2) RDBMS Basics: What makes up a SQL Server database?
3) Tools of the trade -- No, not your boss! Explains the usefulness of Books Online, Client/Server utils. Enterprise Mgr, Query Analyzer, etc.
4) The Foundation Statements or T-SQL -- 38 pages of the basics, starting with SELECT Statements and progressing through INSERT and DELETE statements
5) Joining Tables -- (~30 pages) INNER and OUTER JOINs, UNION, FULL and CROSS JOINs
6) Creating and Altering Tables -- explains both the SQL syntax and how to do it using the GUI tools
7) Constraints -- (~30 pages)
8) Normalization and Other Basic Design Issues -- (~50 pages) Reviews normal form, basic relationships, diagramming, Data types, and de-normalization
9) SQL Server Storage and index Structures -- (~40 pages) SQL's evolution. Indexes, B-Trees, WHEN and HOW to use indexes to improve performance, maintenance
10) Views (~30 pages) -- Creating views, using views to change data (Updating multi-table views are covered in ch. 15), Schema binding and Index Views.
11) Writing Scripts and Batches -- Starts with the basics; covers some of the @@ functions (It's most important that you understand these to efficiently use MSSQL Server).
12) Stored Procedures -- (~75 pages) This chapter is a monster. Covers SQL 2000's debugger as well as anything you can think of for stored procedures, including recursive use. Explains the importance of WITH RECOMPILE, among other things
13) User Defined Functions -- (~20 pages) UDFs, UDFs that return tables, Determinism, Creating "System" Functions.
14) Transactions and Locks -- (~35 pages) Covers fundamental database design issues for multi-user, complex-transaction environments
15) Triggers -- (~50 pages) Excellent chapter. Covers new Trigger features of SQL 2000 like Firing Order and INSTEAD OF Triggers for multi-table View changes.
16) Advanced Queries -- (~26 pages) Nested Subqueries, Correlated Subqueries, Derived Tables, Performance Considerations
17) Distributed Queries and Transactions -- (~30 pages) cross-server transactions
18) SQL Cursors -- (~36 pages) Why I bought this book. Covers a cursor's lifetime, scope, types of, performance considerations, et cetera. Must-know information.
19) A Brief XML Primer -- (~22 pages) I haven't yet read this chapter; hopefully it's as easy-to-follow as the rest. Covers XML Basics, Namespaces, Valid vs. Well-formed DTDs and Schemas, Transformations XSLT
20) Integration of XML in SQL Server -- (~70 pages) The FOR XML Clause, HTTP Access, Streaming XML
21) The Bulk Copy Program (bcp)
22) Introduction to Data Transformation Services -- (~50 pages) DTS Package Editor, Import/Export Wizard, Creating a simple transformation package, using DTS in place of bcp
23) Replication -- (~75 pages)
24) Advanced Design -- (~25 pages) Here Rob goes back to database design and arms us with the idea that you can bend the rules a little bit, and even tells us when it might be a good idea. He also goes into a little more detail on database diagramming.
25) Analysis Services -- (~50 pages) OLAP, OLTP, Data Mining, and which to use. Dimensional Databases, OLAP Storage Types, Data Warehouse concepts, DTS (Validation, Scrubbing, Migration, Validation), meta-data and teh Repository, Data Mining, Analysis Manager
26) Full-Text Search -- (~25 pages)
27) English Query -- (~55 pages)
28) Security -- (~40 pages)
29) Performance Tuning -- (~35 pages)
30) Administration Overview -- (~40 pages)
31) Advanced DTS -- (~35 pages) DTS Object Model, The Package Object, Dynamic Properties Task, The MultiPhase Data Pump, Optimizing Data Loads in DTS
32) Scripting Administrative Functions with WMI -- (~50 pages) I've only briefly gone through this chapter, but from my experience in working with WMI, it's a bear to teach yourself. WMI is one of the most powerful features of Windows. It has its own Query Language, WQL, similar to SQL, which programmers can use to remotely draw information and automate core features and settings within windows as well as administer an SQL server. The syntax of WMI scripts is similar to that of ADO/SQL, only with a more complex object model and deeper hierarchy than ADO.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I also passed MCP exam 70-229 with this book., December 2, 2002
By A Customer
This book is great if you want to learn how USE SQL Server 2000. Be prepared to read, though. It's not really meant to be a reference. If you don't like to read, you'll hate it. (I use it as a reference, but only because I've read it cover to cover and I know where to look for answers). This book was really all I needed to pass the MCP exam. When I took the exam, I was right out of college with no IT experience other than computer science coursework. I think that says a lot about this book (I'm not sure what that says about the MCP exam).
Here are some things to remember about SQL Server 2000:
1) Your best REFERENCE manual is Books Online... hands down.
Another reviewer complained that if, for example, you wanted to
find out the order of the arguments for a SQL Server function, this book does not allow you to do that quickly. That's true, but so what... use Books Online.
2) Your best bet for learning SQL Server 2000 as a whole is to
read this book cover to cover.
3) Don't expect to learn advanced topics from a book that provides an overview (like this one). If you want to learn DTS, buy a book on DTS... same with XML... same with WMI.
Also in this book is a great chapter on Stored Procedures and examples of how to most effectively use what little error handling options you have in T-SQL.
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