Customer Reviews

SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is among the finest works on SQL Server which I've ever read. Joseph Sack has a well-deserved reputation for quality writing, yet I'm frankly more impressed than I expected to be. I've read many of his articles & the previous edition of this book has long been one of my favorites.

This latest-&-greatest edition, SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL Recipes, has lots of new material & is his best yet. Joe's writing style is clear, concise, & comprehensive. The approach is unique, the chapter sections flow logically from one to anothter, yet they are written in independent vignettes for byte-sized consumption. His examples allow us to play along at home. They are accompanied by lucid explanations. The book doesn't stoop to copying code, but instead relies on unique examples followed by my favorite feature of all: "How It Works" in which the concepts are characterized in plain English. You'll enjoy it, too.

If it can be done in Transact-SQL, Joe teaches us not merely how it's done, but how it's done right. Topics run the gamut from fundamental concepts such as interrogating tables, creating views, defining indexes, & writing stored procedures, triggers, & functions, to more complex topics such as error handling & principals to newer constructions such as XML, Service Broker, CLR, spatial data, encryption, & auditing--& much more.

I used the book as my primary resource to study successfully for 70-441 & 70-442 (MCITP: DB Dev). I recommend it to all my customers. If you're a SQL Server DBA or a developer, I recommend this book is for you as well.


Jimmy May
Microsoft Sr. Performance Consultant: SQL Server
SQL Server Pros, Founder & Visionary-in-Chief
Indianapolis Professional Association for SQL Server, Founder & Executive Committee

I read and review lot of SQL Server books. Almost every other book on SQL Server has something new or explaining same features in a different way. I ordered this book being drawn to the title of this book. This book is written by one of the SQL Premier Field Support Engineers from Microsoft. It is nicely laid out and definitely different from other books in explaining SQL Server features. The best thing about this book is "How it Works" sections. For most of the part, the author has done a good job for these sections in describing the internals of each of the features. However, I did find the explanation to some extent short for some important features such as Service Broker, Encryption, Database Snapshots and Query Hints. Especially, I was looking for some internal information on Service Broker.
It is definitely worthwhile to spend some time in reading this book. I would rate this book a 4 star.

A very good book to become an efficient DB developer. The book begins by refreshing your basic SQL knowledge with all various day to day scripts such as select, creating Table, creating Index, and views. Then in the later chapters, the author explains about conditional processing which helped me a lot to write conditional scripts or use conditional flows in my scripts.

Another good think I like about this book is the Chapter 14 which explains how to use XML in Database like Creating, Validating and Indexing XML data. the explanation is so simple and clear. In later chapters, the details on Error handling and service brokers are good but not very detailed. But there is good enough information to understand what they are and how they work.

At the end there are some good information for a DB developer might need to know such as Linked servers, Mirroring, little performance tuning and snapshot and full backup and recovery. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. not just enjoyed, I learned a lot from this book. Thanks to the author. I would recommend this book to all my friends and DB learners. 5 star...

This book as a great general reference for SQL Server functionality and I'd definitely recommend buying it for this purpose. The descriptions and examples are straight forward and easy to understand.

If you are a C# programmer working sometimes on SQL Server related projects and you apply for a job that also lists SQL Server in the requirements after reading this book there is no way you would not pass the technical SQL Server T-SQL interview.
The book deals with topics that are evenly dispersed over the whole T-SQL area giving even a novice a simple and clear explanation of every major functionality.
This is not a book for an expert to learn SQL Server 2008 specifics because experts usually work with the whole database which includes Integration, Reporting and Analysis Services which this book knows nothing about but where also substantial changes occurred with SQL Server 2008.
The book is written very well and is easily readable and so even if you are an expert SQL Server user and have a long flight to take, this book will give you a good reading experience as you will certainly find several chapters that refresh your memory and enhance it by SQL Server 2008 flavor.

Joseph Sack's book is full of information on how to write T-SQL code. That's all it does and all it is. The name is just about perfect. He focuses on the language and structure of Transact SQL and delivers a great set of examples and explanations that will communicate the concepts, simple and complex, necessary for you to go to work on your own system. It really is a set of recipes for dealing with T-SQL.

The chapters break down into broad concepts like Select or Indexes or Linked Servers. These concepts are then broken down into the component parts so that, for example, in the Backup chapter, you get broad sub-topics on Creating a Backup and Recovery Plan, Making Backups and Restoring a Database. These are then broken down even further into specifics such as Viewing Database Space Usage. These specific topics then show the syntax, similar to Books Online, but laid out a little differently with immediate explanation of the parameters followed by the true strength of the book, examples. He finally sums up the section with a "How It Works" description.

This is not a "learn how to use SQL Server" book. It is exactly what it says, a set of recipes that will help you work with T-SQL. Actually, when you look at all the examples in the book, that's where you're getting your money's worth and then some. These are good examples, original and well thought out. It shows how to use the code, and, more importantly, how to use it right.

I'd recommend this to DBA's for sure, but I think it's a must for developers too. Here's a handy resource to help you get better T-SQL code the first time.

I bought this thinking it was the typical recipe type book for T-SQL from this publisher and it is. It also covers a number of things regarding managing SQL Server that a developer should know and understand. This won't make you a dba but after reading this you are on your way. Well organized in presentation explainations of code samples are good. I found the writing itself enjoyable. You should have an understanding of basic SQL to get the full benefit here but I think a beginner to the subject would not be lost here. As I say in the title of my review buy or steal this book if you need a T-SQL guide.

I Highly Recommend this book to anyone using Sql Server... Dont let the 2008 fool you, he points out where the T-SQL code differs from previous enviroments...full of great information

This is an excellent T-SQL book for SQL Server 2008. You have to have some T-SQL coding experiences to enjoy the use of it.

No, I would not recommend this book to you if you're looking for a book that deals with nuts and bolts of SQL server 2008. I don't think that section 'How it works' would be useful for those who have a substantial SQL programming skills. I do not think the title of this book is accurate.
Use it to learn SQL programming or use it as reference is perfectly fine.