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Summary: Great book for beginner to advanced level SQL
Review: This book is a must for any developer whether you are writing queries, stored procedures as a programmer or tuning as a DBA. The book is filled with code examples and the accompanying disk has a ton of examples that you can use. It's easy to follow and having the real world examples helps to clarify important points. Ken has written a superb technical book that is a must for anyone that is serious about taking their programming to the next level and become a TSQL guru. Thanks Ken!!!!!!!!
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Summary: One great book
Review: This book helped me a lot. I liked the conversational approach and the lucid explanations. I'm excited about all I've learned to do in Transact SQL. If you're trying to get your arms around SQL Server and Transact SQL, this is the book for you.
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Summary: Another great book from Ken Henderson
Review: Another great book from Ken Henderson. I have some of his other books, so this is no surprise to me. I learned more from this book in 2 hours than I've learned from others in 2 weeks. I found his insights on cursors particularly enlightening. I see these alot in my work - now I feel I finally understand them and when it's best to use/not use them. The statistics chapter is also a great one. Had no idea you could solve positional problems without a cursor. Henderson has done it again here, and you owe it yourself to check it out.
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Summary: Just what I needed
Review: I've been looking for a book like this for about five years. I wanted something that went beyond the Microsoft documentation. Something that told me all the little details they usually left out. Well I finally found it. This book gives it all. Its loaded with good examples. It doesn't just tell you how to do something. It shows you. I couldn't believe you could do all the stuff you can do with just Transact SQL. I guess it comes down to knowing what your doing. One more thing: I learned more from the tuning chapter than I have in some whole books on the subject. It was great. This is the best SQL book around.
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Summary: Simply the very best
Review: This is the best T-SQL book around. I have them all. Everything you'd want in a T-SQL book is here. The book is very concentrated, so don't be surprised if you have to work through an example to really understand sometimes, but have no fear, it will eventually make sense. The things I like the most about this book are: 1. It uses the standard "demo" databases that ship with SQL Server (no need to create your own) 2. There's a boatload of sample code (several hundred SQL scripts) 3. The sample scripts are self-contained (you don't have to go back three chapters and create a table so that you can test a query). I'm glad I found this book. It was exactly what I was looking for.
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Summary: Everything you need to know about advanced T-SQL
Review: Here's a book that finally gets it right. It doesn't dwell on info already in the online docs, but it doesn't take shortcuts, either. It's lean, yet thorough. The stuff on transactions is typical of the whole book - it covers everything you need to know in depth, with real examples at every turn. There are lots of sections like this in the book. Frankly, I couldn't imagine programming in Transact-SQL without this book. It's definitely a winner.
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Summary: You'll be a guru yourself when you finish this one
Review: I loved this book. I loved the fact that there's no filler material. I loved all the technical info. I loved Henderson's conversational style of writing. Clearly, he has worked in the trenches for a while. He goes into every nitch of the language and draws out things you'd never think of. The Statistics chapter was especially good. So was the Full-text Searching chapter. The Automation chapter was great too. The book is simply chalk full of useful info. Can't give it a higher recommendation.
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Summary: My new favorite computer book
Review: The quality of the writing, the deep coverage, and lots of other things have combined to make this my new favorite computer book. Last month, I changed jobs and took on the responsibility of doing the administration for 11 SQL Servers. I had to ramp up my SQL Server knowledge very quickly. I bought this book (along with Delaney's Inside SQL Server), and between the two of them, got up to speed VERY fast. This book is a cut above most of the other computer books I own, both in terms of the level of the prose, as well as the technical detail. It redefines the term "How-to" -- giving in-depth, specific instructions that go above and beyond what most other books of this type provide. I thought all the chapters were outstanding, but the Cursors chapter and the Transanctions chapter probably helped me the most. The examples they contain are superb, and the narrative is lucid and to the point, much like the rest of the book. I was also struck by the quotes that begin each chapter. The one about politicians vs. engineers hit very close to home -- I work with a person who can't decide whether he's a politician or an engineer, and the quote reminded me much of him. Also, the quote on intolerance near the end of the book is right on point. We need more books like this.
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Summary: A great book
Review: This is the best DBA resource I've found in a long time. Everything SQL Server can do can be done via Transact-SQL, so you can't call yourself an expert SQL Server DBA unless you're a Transact-SQL expert. This book helps you get there. I learned trick after trick from it that I'd never seen before. In particular, the Administrative T-SQL and Undocumented T-SQL chapters have been quite useful to me. If you want to become an expert T-SQL DBA or just sharpen your T-SQL skills, be sure to read this book.
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Summary: One word: Brilliant
Review: I do not normally give five star reviews. For one thing, most books, regardless of genre, don't deserve them. For another, computer books are especially prone to being thrown together, barely publishable hacks. Not this one, though. It's easily the best database book I've ever read and one of the best computer books I've ever seen. It it a compendium of tips, insights, and deep technical knowledge that only an expert would have. Get your copy and get it today.
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