Rating: 
Summary: For Advanced SQL Programmers Only
Review: After reading the rave reviews, I bought this book and quickly found that it is written for already-seasoned T-SQL programmers only. Those of you who already understand SQL and RDBMS basic, but need to gain some initial skills with Programming SQL Server 2000 and T-SQL will get a lot out of "SQL Server 2000 Programming By Example" by Guerrero and Rojas, an excellent, although not completely sufficient prep for Microsoft's SQL Server Design exam. Those of you who are intermediate T-SQL types will get tons out of BoB Vieira's excellent "SQL Server 2000 Programming" which goes nicely beyond certification-level content into DTS, OLAP and other key areas. Why only three stars? The book does not clearly warn the purchaser of it's required skill level, er... except in it's name, of course.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book. But is it useful for Sybase users?
Review: As a long standing Sybase Adaptive Server and Tools specialist and trainer, I bought this book hoping to extend my skills to Microsoft SQL Server. I also intended to use this book as a reference. The two products have the same roots after all, and both use a flavour of Transact-SQL.The Guru's Guide is basically structured around SQL syntax. It starts with introductory chapters on Transact-SQL, both DDL and DML. Chapters 6 onwards cover SQL in more detail. Many examples accompany the text. And the further you get into the book, the beefier it gets. Advance topics like cursors and transactions are covered well. Stored Procedures and Triggers are only glanced over in this book - these topics are left for the more advanced Guru's Guide to Stored Procedures. But some administrative issues are covered, and covered well. System procedures are discussed, and you can find code for the useful ones that are NOT supplied by the vendors. Talking about which, another topic of interest is the undocumented features T-SQL. The things that are there, but the vendors did not want you to know about it. Database design and performance tuning are topics sorely needed by many application programmers, in my experience, and I recommend these chapters to anyone who needs grounding in these areas. Other programming issues like full-text searching is covered, and there is a neat replacement procedure for Soundex to be found. Many bits and pieces make a good reading of the book worthwhile. All the code are included on a CD-ROM. If you are a Sybase user, do not expect the bonus SQL editor (on the CD-ROM) to work for you. You'll get a message saying "this demo version can only connect to MS SQL Server". Should you visit the website to look for the non-demo version, you'll find a version tied even closer to Microsoft. It won't even install without MS SQL Server present. I thought that this was unfortunate. This book covers so much that I find it hard to summarise it in a few paragraphs. It is obviously recommended for MS SQL server professionals - there are enough glowing reviews on this page. Do I recommend it for Sybase users? Well yes, maybe. If you accept that MS SQL Server and Sybase Adaptive Server have grown apart over the years and that there are many incompatibilities between the two. So while you can use the Guru's guide for ideas, hints and tips and techniques, it will not serve as an exact reference manual. But I think you'll find much of value. This is one of the better database and SQL books I have seen. I have also purchased the follow up Guru SQL book, which is more advanced than the present book. What would also be nice is a book on SQL algorithms or patterns. Maybe Ken Henderson can do a follow-up that provides sample solutions to common SQL problems. And how about a book that covers the differences between to MS SQL Server and Sybase Adaptive Server?
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Book for all T-SQL Programmers.
Review: The author writes in a very refined style, making it easy for anyone to grasp the concepts. Even though the book is intended for people with prior programming experience, the author makes it easy for novice and student programmers to follow. I read it even on a plane and it was just like cruising through a novel. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: This one is GREAT for anyone who wants to master T-SQL
Review: From the moment I opened this book, I knew I was going to more about Transact-SQL than I ever thought possible. It goes throught the basics of the language, which is terrific for beginners and good for experienced SQL users. Then the advanced topics of cursors, transactions, and performance tuning is just terrific. This should have been the FIRST book I bought, not the most recent. I would have become a better SQL developer quicker.
Rating:
Summary: Super book
Review: I buy a lot of books, but none are quite like this. This book perfectly mixes theory and practical application. You get great code and examples, as well as in-depth explanations and commentary. It's good stuff. What I really like is how the author "writes the way that people speak" as he says in the Preface. That's a good commonsense Mark Twain kind of approach that you don't see very often in Tech books. The book is a must-have for anyone wanting to master the language. And get his new one, too. It's even better.
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Summary: One for the Mensa crowd
Review: If you love mathematics or statistics, you will find this book a wonderful companion for learning advanced Transact-SQL. Just about everything you can do with the language is shown here, with detailed examples and tutorial for each language feature. Henderson successfully shows how to use Transact-SQL as an advanced set algebra language along the lines of pure mathematics languages. You learn to code up statistical functions that are not only accurate and functional, but also fast. Henderson shows how to turn SQL Server into a data-enabled statistical computation engine, something I've not seen anyone else do. Some of the code presented will cause you to bend your mind a bit as you begin to view Transact-SQL in a different light. But it's worth the struggle because, when you're finished, you'll be a guru yourself.
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Summary: This is the one
Review: The book is very deserving of all the hype. It's the best book on SQL Server I've found. There's nothing in the other t-sql books that it doesn't have and lots of stuff it has that they don't. My favorite chapter is the Admin Stored Procs chapter. We're using a couple of these as I write this. It's rare to find a book that no only contains excellent teaching material, but also includes code that you can put to use immediately. That alone is worth the price of admission.
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Summary: To put it simply, Henderson is the best
Review: To put it simply, Henderson is the best. I own two of his books, and this one is his best one yet. It's very deserving of all the praise and accolades. I'll buy any book he puts out.
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Summary: If you want to know the Undocumented parts of T-SQL...
Review: ...get this book. I couldn't believe all the hidden undocumented features, commands, functions, variables, and stored procs there are. This book tells you about all of them, how to use them and how not to use them, and what to watch out for. This alone was worth the price of the book because you get to look under the hood as it were and see how the server really works.
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Summary: A coder's book
Review: This book is unusual in that it delivers more example code than you usually see in tech books. I'm accustomed to seeing lots of sample code, but not this much. This is the most I've ever seen in a programming book of any kind. However, that alone would not be reason enough to give the book five stars. What really sets it apart from the other Transact SQL books is its in-depth explanations and commentary on these samples. I can grab example code from lots of places, including the 'Net, but without explanations as to what it does, it's a lot less valuable. Not only are the explanations of the sample code well done, but the general instructional material in the book is also par excellence. The chapters on Transactions and Cursors, for example, are among the best I've seen on their respective topics. Ditto for several of the other chapters. Henderson explains things from the perspective of an expert programmer who not only wrote all the code you see in the book, but also understands how it works well enough to convey that to the reader in practical terms. I don't know about other readers, but I found the prose friendly and easy-going without being fluffy or getting off on to tangents. So, I'm giving this one five stars because it deserves it. I've never seen a book that combined so much great code with expert-level commentary and instruction. It is exactly what coders like myself look for in a tech book.
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