Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Technical Reference (Microsoft Technical Reference) [Paperback]

Jake Sturm (Author)

Book Description

Series: Microsoft Technical Reference | Publication Date: March 1, 2000

A book/CD-ROM showing how to take advantage of features of SQL Server 7.0 to design, build, and manage a data warehouse. Introduces basic concepts of data warehousing, then looks at online analytical processing services, data transformation services, advanced query processor and the MDX query language, and SQL Server cubes. The CD-ROM contains sample databases and utilities. For data warehouse administrators and developers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Microsoft SQL Server 7 has its own ways of implementing data warehouses and complex data-analysis tools, and Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Technical Reference helps you get a handle on them. Although it's primarily a reference to Multidimensional Extensions (MDX) and ActiveX Data Objects Multidimensional (ADO MD), this book includes tons of information about the Microsoft way of collecting and managing large quantities of data, looking at complex relationships among the bits of information, and deriving significant business-related meaning from them. Readers will find this book valuable if they've worked with OLAP before in environments other than SQL Server 7, and also if they're totally new to data warehousing and plan to cut their teeth on Microsoft's flagship database system.

The book notes that the line between database software developer and database administrator is blurring further all the time, and it does a good job of explaining this new role. The text is careful to clarify procedures for building and managing cubes (and the reasons behind them), and provides lots of information on how to develop software that interacts with complex data structures. MDX (including MDX expressions) get a tutorial treatment, and Data Warehousing documents the ADO MD objects by fitting them into a Visual Basic application. This book will likely refresh and then build upon existing SQL Server knowledge. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• Data warehousing under SQL Server 7
• Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and other data-analysis mechanisms
• The OLAP Management Console
• The Cube Editor
• Multidimensional Extensions (MDX)
• ActiveX Data Objects Multidimensional (ADO MD)
• Data Transformation Services (DTS)
• General engineering matters

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735608598
• ISBN-13: 978-0735608597
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,328,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not enough depth, June 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Technical Reference (Microsoft Technical Reference) (Paperback)

This book has many useful examples and explanations about OLAP, ADOMD, and MDX. It also explains the basics of MS OLAP. However, the examples have many errors. Besides, if you are looking for depth, you will not find this book very helpful. The book is really designed for beginners who have little knowledge (or none) and want to learn about OLAP and the OLAP tools. These basics can be found in the online help and in the MSDN articles. If you want to learn about the cool functions in MDX and how they can be used to solve some of the drill-down and data presentation problems, this is not the book for you. I will have to give it only 3 stars because of the lack of depth and the errors in the examples.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for anyone working with SQL 7 DW, March 9, 2000

By 

Tom M (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Technical Reference (Microsoft Technical Reference) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. It has three detailed chapters on MDX, good descriptions on how to build data warehouses with SQL 7, a discussion on DTS, and includes an introductory chapter on OLAP for those not familiar with it. Great chapter on optimizing a SQL DW, too. My only negative comment is that I found chapter 9 wasn't that useful, and read it after I read the other chapters. I also skipped the code sample in the appendix. Everything else in the book is good. I highly recommend the book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars You can get the same thing for free, December 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Technical Reference (Microsoft Technical Reference) (Paperback)

I've actually recommended this book on two occaisions to OLAP beginners because it is the only book I know of that covers OLAP from star schemas to DTS to cubes to MDX to ADOMD. That is this book's one redeeming quality. So if you read this, you'll get a good idea of what is going to be involved in an OLAP project. But don't expect to learn much else, however. There is very little in this book that you could not learn from Books Online or MSDN for free. The book is riddled with typos, grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and technical mistakes. I wonder if the editors were paid--they shouldn't have been! Don't be fooled by the "Technical Reference" moniker at all--it is not going to be much help to a technician, especially one who has even basic OLAP knowledge. Bottom line: get this book for a beginner who needs a broad, sweeping overview. Beyond that, skip it and read the free articles in BOL, MSDN, and SQL Server Magazine.