Customer Reviews

Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation (Expert's Voice in SQL Server)

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

 

 

Good database design is extremely important if you want to have a database that performs well and is easily modifiable.
How many times did you have to go back and change countless lines of code because your database was not normalized and it was not easy to add another payment type to the existing database?

This is where Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation comes in; in the first couple of chapters you are taught how to design a database in a normal form. Most books that deal with database design are dry and boring; you need to read a chapter several times to digest the information leaving you with a headache. Not this book, Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation makes this almost fun, the author goes through the phases of database design in a fun way which is understandable to the common man

After the design is done and you have your database you will be shown how you can protect the integrity of your data. Remember nothing in the database is as important as to make sure the data is correct, if you have bad data then you might as well have no data at all. This book will show you how to protect the integrity of your data by using constraints and triggers

There is a whole chapter of some good tips and tricks, patterns and query techniques. I think that you will find out you can solve a whole lot of business problems with a numbers table much faster than if you had to do it without

Security is a big topic these days, look on the internet, ever week you here horror stories how some data was stolen or otherwise compromised. Fear not there one whole chapter about securing access to your valuable data

Table structure and indexing is also covered, how are tables stored internally, the differences between clustered and non clustered indexes. These are very important concepts to understand; there are plenty of stories of people who designed a database and it worked flawless when they tested it. Once they loaded it up with real data in the real world it became painfully slow, by then they had to spend countless hours trying to refactor that mess. This book will prevent these kind of things

Coding for concurrency is also covered. This is also a very important concept. Explained are the different isolation levels, the difference between optimistic and pessimistic locking and best practices

Each chapter has a summary and a best practices chapter. This is very handy because you can quickly get an overview of the whole chapter in a page or two.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn or get better at designing databases. Having a bad database design is like building a house on a weak foundation; sooner or later you will pay for it and you will have to tear parts down to fix that faulty foundation.

When it comes to database design and SQL Server I have no doubt in my mind that this is the book to get. This is the third version of the book I have read and I am pleased to see that every edition is a little better than the previous one.

As I thought with the 2005 version of this book, I find Louis' book extremely well written, extremely informative, and down to earth. You get the impression that you're just discussing things with the author. Another thing that I love is that Louis' actually presents a point of view rather than spitting out what's already in books online, or just online itself. Not just facts, guidance. We need more writing like this, and more authors like Louis.

I don't know what Patric's problem is (and how could I? He wasn't specific at all). This book is simply great from start to finish. I have been heavily involved in SQL Server 2008 since the very early betas, so felt pretty comfortable in my "new" knowledge, but I found lots of new information peppered throughout this book. And where Louis is not teaching me something new, he's explaining a concept in a different way, and I can turn around and use that when I try to explain the same concept to a colleague or client. No book is perfect, but this is definitely something quite opposite of a "waste of time."

Pro SQL Server 2008

The title sounded very interesting to me & I was excited to learn a lot about SQL Server 2008. A large part of the book is about relational database design, which fair enough, hasn't really changed much and is mostly database independant. Hence the first part of the book has nothing much todo with SQL Server 2008.

For me, who's been working with database for a few years & I really wanted to improve my knowledge using this book. Whilst reading the book very carefully, what frustrated me the most, were the many many mistakes. Typos, content not making sense, incomplete updates from the previous edition, examples not working. Just so many mistakes on almost every page. If I received $10 for each mistake I found, I would make a small fortune.

A large part of the book is just full of references to other books to learn more about topics. There is truly very little SQL Server 2008 specific. Maybe nothing much changed or maybe the other was just too lazy to create new examples. Also, the sentences are often written in a way, which requires reading them 3 times before you understand what he means.

For such an expensive book & simple update from the last book --- very disappointing. Lots of room for improvement.

I purchased this book because I am teaching a college-level course that requires it. I have been in software development for 20 years, 10 of that as a data architect. Although literature is not always perfectly consistent, there is a pretty clear distinction between Conceptual, Logical, and Physical modeling on almost every web site.

In Chapter 1 Mr. Davidson does a good job summarizing the three, but he mysteriously adds a phase called "Implementation", which he attempts to use to mean the Physical Modeling, which is what EVERYONE else calls it. He then identifies a "Physical" phase as the tuning of an implemented model. Again, I cannot find ANY examples of this terminology being used this way. If he would have reversed these two names it would create much less confusion.

Meanwhile, he specifically identifies Conceptual Modeling "...consisting of a set of 'high-level' entities and the interactions between them" and Logical Modeling where "... you fully define the required set of entities, the relationships between them, the attributes of each entity, and the domains of these attributes...". This is consistent with the industry. Again, you identify detailed attributes at the Logical level.

But in Chapter 3, labeled "Conceptual Data Modeling", after going through a detailed example of requirements analysis, Mr. Davidson suddenly dives into attribute definition, all the way down to key structures! This is NOT Conceptual Modeling, and it conflicts with Chapter 1. The end of the chapter even has a section "Finishing the Conceptual Model." Chapter 4 discusses normalization, a step taken DURING Logical Modeling, but there is no mention of the progression from one phase to the next anywhere. By Chapter 5, the term Logical Model is suddenly used without warning. This is very unclear.

I am not convinced that the author understands the distinction between Conceptual and Logical, and his mixed up use of the terms Implementation and Physical are sure to cause confusion. I happen to have his 2000 SQL Server book, where he makes no mention of Conceptual or Implementation models. He appears to have bolted on newer content without revising later sections to be consistent. I would not recommend this book until this is corrected.

Overall, there are many excellent sections in the book, although like most books, it jumps too quickly into physical implementation. There are a lot of established techniques for translating requirements into LOGICAL structures that go way beyond this book. For more details, I suggest checking out [...]. Steve Hoberman has much devoted much more attention to the LOGICAL side of design.

I had not read a book covering database design since Uni, so this was a really good refresher. This was not a dull read - with a very good balance between technical detail and real world scenarios.
The author's experience comes through very well, lending credibility to the examples in the text. This book builds a conceptual framework for the analysis and design of databases in systems architecture. In particular, he does a great job of describing the normalization process, and its importance to the systems development lifecycle.
There is a lot of SQL Server 2008 content, from TSQL and indexing, through to security and administration features. A very good resource, which has increased the depth of my knowledge in this area.
I highly recommend this book to anyone learning, or expanding their knowledge of designing databases.

I have some experience in database and web desinging as a hobby. As a non professional programmer, I can say this book was a real help guide for me in understanding relational database in general and more specifically on SQL 2008.

Going deep with their normalization view and indexes issues, they could help me in re-designing my database in a different way (better way as I beleive).

I don't know about professional programmers or those who have academic degrees in computer or programming field; for me, it was a great reference for me to use whenever I need to build a new database.

Good point was reflecting their experience in presenting the materials which give you the feeling that you really like the authors; especially Louise.

Bad point from my side as a non professional programmer is some chapters were dificult. However, re-reading could solve this problem for me.

I really like it. Not saying how much it was helpful to me... Buying so much books in the field of programming and we designing, I felt this is a real full-of-information book written by real experts..

I hope the author can publish supplementary matarial to go deeper in some other issues like more deep example especially those related to web desinging

This was the first book I got from SQL Server 2008. It's interesting how all the topics are presented because it takes you from very simple items like database fundamentals to way more complex ones like security and concurrency.

The good thing about it is that it's easy. If you're starting with SQL Server 2008 then this is the book for you. It will even explain the Codd's Rules, amazing.

The bad thing is that is not a book for experts. In any case, if you're an expert, you should be writing a book, not reading it.

In this age of TDD (Test Driven Design) I was interested to see what he would say about testing as it relates to the implementation of database designs. Unfortunately it doesn't even get touched on. Look up "testing" in the index. Not there.

Since nobody publish a review for this book, I would like to say something. I have to say: Don't read it. It just waste your time.