Customer Reviews

Professional SQL Server 2005 Programming

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

 

 

I would highly recommend this book for both someone new to database development and for those who are migrating from earlier versions of SQL Server.

Maybe I'm just a groupie for this author, since I've purchased this same book for SQL Server 7, 2000, and now 2005, but I continue to find his approach easily readable and full of practical advice that is immediately applicable to projects.

Even as an experienced programmer with SQL Server, I'm glad I bought this book, rather than just a "what's new in 2005 version." After a quick scan of the table of contents, I easily found what was new in 2005 and focused on the parts that were relevant to our applications. It's also a great resource to have on the shelf. It has come in handy when our team runs into not-so-common problems. We've been able to crack it open and find exactly what we need.

A bit of the background: I bought this book after reading a number of other excellent books covering the same subject matter, but not the features of the SQL Server 2005 release. My (unfounded) expectations were that this book would focus on what's new in 2005 release.

Dead wrong ... some of the exciting new features like XML indices are skipped (or lost in circular cross-references), the features new to SQL server 2005 are not clearly marked, so it's not obvious on what to focus, and the technical material in the book is heavily interspersed with page-long author's deliberations on why he put a certain topic in a certain place (frankly, I don't care about his book structuring decisions as long as the content is there and presented in a useful fashion).

If you're not focused on the SQL Server 2005 release, you might be better off buying more time-tested books from other authors.

I've never been a fan of the Wrox product line, but purchased this book on the recommendation of a friend.
I couldn't be happier. The author is one of the most knowledgeable, and he writes in an accessible style.
I've heard some gripes about how he discusses the organization of his book a little too much, but the reasons for these passages are to reinforce the importance of the concepts being covered in relation to other concepts.
I'd recommend this book to beginners who are fast learners, or to old hands that want to pick up a new trick or two.

This is an excellent follow to his book on Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming. If you're going to be doing a lot of true SQL server programming, there is no better guide out there.

When working with databases, there's querying, and everything else. A DBA might set up a database; an advanced user might progam stored procedures and triggers, ponder indexing, effectively use cursors, etc. - but if you just want to know how to write a query to accompish a task, this is *not* the right book to help you learn. Check out 'SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach' by Sack.

I found this book extremely helpful in wrapping my brain around some very difficult to grasp concepts. The author writes in a way that's very easy to understand (especially with such a difficult topic such as SQL programming).

For a book that is supposed to be geared to programmers pretty proficient in SQL, it doesn't offer anything new. The examples are very basic and it leaves out some of the new features in 2005, such as Common Table Expressions. This would be better as a beginning SQL programming book.

I own several books from this series. They have been fantastic. This one is no exception.

The second topic I looked up I ran across this problem...

Page 353:

He says there are four different isolation levels you can set - that was in SQL Server 2000 - this book is about SQL Server 2005. Where is SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SNAPSHOT?

Chapter 12, 'Transactions and Locks' is almost a cut and paste from his 'Transactions and Locks' chapter in SQL Server 2000 Programming!

Encryption - Let's see - 2 pages, and 3/4 of a page is a copy of an image from BOL.

His 2000 book is better.