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Summary: How Do I Get There From Here?
Review: I'm a programmer with just enough Transact-SQL experience to have bad habits. I spent ages searching for a book that could fill the holes in my basic understanding while providing more complex, useable examples of how experts squeeze the best out of SQL Server. Ken Henderson's "The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL" fits the profile exactly.This book has provided a workable, easily-understood common standard amongst all the programmers in our shop. Henderson's techniques are consistent, clear and as free of jargon as possible with such a complex subject. I wish we'd started with this book, rather than finding it along the way by accident, because it would have saved us even more time and money. We have seen quite startling improvements in the performance of our SQL Server code since adopting the "Henderson Method" of writing T-SQL. In our view, there are many experts, but only One Guru. Well done!
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Summary: My favorite SQL Server book
Review: I have just about every SQL Server book out there. This one is my favorite. It is not a long book but it is more concentrated than probably any technical book I own. If you get this book not only will you learn about Transact-SQL you will also learn a lot about SQL Server in general. And you will learn how a master teacher teaches. I read this through when I first got it, then read it again. It seems like everytime I pick it up I learn something new. That alone makes it my favorite and I think it will be yours to.
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Summary: Very tight treatise on a wonderful language
Review: I learned about things from this book that I could do with Transact-Sql that I never dreamed of before I read it. The SELECT chapter is worth the price of the book alone. So many great examples and great code. This chapter alone gave me a whole new perspective on Transact-Sql. I also loved the full text search chapter. This part of Sql Server has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Now I understand it well enough to use proficiently. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Administrative Transact-Sql chapter. Every script in this chapter belongs in your toolbox if you manage Sql Servers of any kind.
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Summary: Crazy code
Review: What I found here was a catalog of T-SQL code like I have never seen before. The chapters on sets, statistics, trees, and arrays are worth the cost of the book alone. The same is true of the Undocumented T-SQL chapter. There is a whole new world there that I had no idea existed. Highly, highly recommended.
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Summary: Simply the best
Review: I have all the other SQL programming books, and this one if by far the best. It combines a cookbook of solutions to tough T-SQL problems with great explanations and insight into how the server works. There are few books with real staying power, the kind you keep within arm's reach and the kind you flip through everytime you have a problem you can't solve at first sight. This one has that type of lasting value. My copy was falling apart so I got on here and ordered another. You will have to look far and wide for a more valuable book to real, practical SQL development.
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Summary: A great one for DBA's and developers too
Review: This book is unique. It doesn't read like all the other Sql Server books I have. Its totally different and fresh. The expert discussions of statistical functions in the language is like nothing else I've ever read. The full-text discussion, the Ole Automation discussion, and the undocumented chapter are all first rate. I loved the null values chapter and the DML/DDL chapters. They are also first rate. I can't think of a better value for the money than this book. It's very tight, and every page has some new tidbit that you'll be glad you read.
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Summary: Written by a guru programmer for programmers
Review: This book is a work of brilliance. I felt like I had an expert coder sitting there with me teaching me. So many things I liked - too many to mention. I came into this book thinking of tsql as a weak language. I left it feeling like tsql was stronger than pl/sql, the language I learned when I was an oracle dba.
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Summary: Taught by a pro
Review: This book is beyond fantastic. Its great for DBA's and developers alike. It reminds me a lot of Joe Celko's book. Theres a certain genius to it. The missing values chapter, the DDL and DML chapters, the statistics chapters, and the undocumented chapter are my favorites. What I really like is that Henderson teaches the Transact-SQL like a real programming language. You get to learn at the feet of a master programmer.
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Summary: Great book for developers
Review: Book is obviously written by an expert developer just for developers. You learn tsql just like you would any other language. The author takes you inside it and teaches you everything you need to know to build high performance, scalable sql server applications. Once he does that he shows you all the secrets so you can move from being a good tsql developer to being a great developer.
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Summary: Good Book for DBA's
Review: This is a good book for DBA's.
Developers however, will need to find other texts related more specifically to developing applications with T-SQL, the difference can be quite pronounced.
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