Customer Reviews

SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sometimes we see books on a new version of software that haven't soaked in the new technology -- you can tell the book was written with a mindset stuck in the old version. Not true here. Joseph Sack goes provides numerous useful examples of how to use the new features of SQL Server 2005. If he missed one I have yet to find it.

Lost in the hoopla of CLR integration for example, is the new feature likely to fundamentally change how we approach SQL application architecture: the Service Broker. Joseph provides 15 separate "how it works" examples of using the service broker including "Enabling Transport Security", "Enabling Dialog Security", "Creating Routes and Remote Service Bindings" and "Event Notifications."

Since Amazon hasn't provided a Table of Contents, I'll give a high level one:
Chapter 1) Select (44 recipes)
Chapter 2) Insert, Update, Delete (14 recipes)
Chapter 3) Transactions, Locking, Blocking and Deadlocking (8 recipes)
Chapter 4) Tables (35 recipes)
Chapter 5) Indexes (16 recipes)
Chapter 6) Full-Text Search (14 recipes)
Chapter 7) Views (11 recipes)
Chapter 8) SQL Server Functions (56 recipes)
Chapter 9) Conditional Processing, Control-of-Flow and Cursors (8 recipes)
Chapter 10) Stored Procedures (12 recipes)
Chapter 11) User-Defined Functions and Types (12 recipes)
Chapter 12) Triggers (14 recipes)
Chapter 13) CLR Integration (10 recipes) (and a section on when and when NOT to use CLR integration assemblies)
Chapter 14) XML (8 recipes)
Chapter 15) Web Services (6 recipes)
Chapter 16) Error Handling (8 recipes)
Chapter 17) Principals (19 recipes - managing users and roles)
Chapter 18) Securables and Permissions (10 recipes)
Chapter 19) Encryption (20 recipes)
Chapter 20) Service Broker (15 recipes)
Chapter 21) Configuring and Viewing SQL Server Options (2 recipes)
Chapter 22) Creating and Configuring Databases (33 recipes)
Chapter 23) Database Integrity and Optimization (8 recipes)
Chapter 24) Maintaining Database Objects and Object Dependencies (4 recipes)
Chapter 25) Database Mirroring (10 recipes)
Chapter 26) Database Snapshots (3 recipes)
Chapter 27) Linked Servers and Distributed Queries (12 recipes)
Chapter 28) Performance Tuning (17 recipes)
Chapter 29) Backup and Recovery (18 recipes)

Highly Recommended.

This book's "recipe" format makes it great for quickly figuring out how to do something. The examples are straight to the point--so don't expect really deep insights. Rather, this is the kind of book you'll want to keep on your desk for those times you might get stuck on a task. Flip to the right page and there you have it.

There's also a "how it works" section for every recipe that briefly describes what's going on. If you're in more of a cover-to-cover reading mode, that should help enhance the book's readability.

See the other review to see what is covered in this book. It is an excellent book and thoroughly covers everything it includes. It covers everything you need to know about the Data Manipulation Language (DML)

The only downside I found was that it doesn't cover the Data Definition Language (DDL) much at all, which was somewhat disappointing.

It's a great book to have by your side.

Sack's book is of unusually high quality for its publisher, Apress, in providing plainspoken and consistently organized descriptions of its topic. Despite limited coverage of SQL Server 2005, it has proven very handy. As of summer, 2006, it really has no competition in providing practical advice about using SQL Server 2005 other than the Books Online documents from Microsoft.

Sack's book has three practical limitations. It covers mainly data manipulation with less attention to data definition. In particular, it does not explain how to use the SQL Server Management Studio or the similar services imbedded in Visual Studio 2005, which have become the primary tools for data definition in many shops.

The book does not provide concise but full descriptions of many elements of T-SQL syntax. Instead it concentrates on "basic" or "simplified" syntax. For full descriptions one must often wade into Microsoft's Books Online documents.

Sack's book does not explain how to use ADO.NET classes to execute SQL Server commands. Today they have become the primary interface for many software applications, and they can present complex issues of their own.

This book is a very good book for updating skills from sql server 2000 to 2005. There is a lot of information in this book
and it is incredible that the author makes it so easy to go through unlike some of the other books. This should be
everyones first sql server 2005 since it tackles alot of
new features with working examples. There is very little
bad I can say about this and probably a while before another good book like this will come out.
This book covers not only tsql but new features as well as
the major sql server 2005administrative techniques.
It also coveres some reporting.
You still need a book for ssis, sql assembiles ,udf, reporting, olap.

This book has a lot of useful stuff in it for beginning t-sql authors. I paid full price for it when it came out, and I feel like I got my money's worth, which is pretty rare. I tend to hit this book more than my other tsql books at work, even though its billed as a recipie book instead of a reference book. Very good job.

This book review was submitted by a Roanoke Valley SQL Server Users Group member as part of the Book Review Program.

Reviewed by Paul Glassbrenner

I found the book to be an easy read - containing insightful solutions to practical everyday problems that DBA or Developer may encounter. The solutions or recipes, as the author calls them, are well written. He explains, for example, what each SQL Server function will do and how and why it works. The author also goes into detail on Indexing, Triggers, and Stored Procedures, and frankly after reading this book, it has improved my usage of them. This is a book that will make a great reference book for anyone just beginning or with advanced experience in Microsoft SQL Server 2005. I would give this book two thumbs up!

Paul Glassbrenner

Background: Professional developer with 20 years experience of application programming and embedded development who is recently learning SQL / SQL Server.

I was looking for a solution to a problem and found it in the online text included in this book. The solution saved me about 2 hours of research, so I went ahead and bought the book since it had already paid for itself.

It has since paid for itself many times over.

This is a great book to keep at arms length. It has many great examples of the T-SQL commands and syntax. I use it most oftern when I find myself asking the question, "How do you use that command?". Subject matter is complete and includes the XML extensions to T-SQL.

I picked this book to refresh my T-SQL after spending a year on an Oracle project. It is incredibly annoying at how little differences in PL\SQL and T-SQL can mess up a script! However, this book is indexed very well with good explanations of the results as well as the syntax. I generally find what I need a lot faster than with on-line help. Between this book and the Red-Gate SQL tools, getting back up to speed on SQL Server 2005 was a breeze.