Rating: 
Summary: Henderson takes it to a new level
Review: I never thought I'd say this but this book is even better than the first Gurus Guide book! Henderson cuts loose and just writes. It feels like you've got the guru sitting right next to as you read. As with his first book, Henderson runs a tight ship with this one. There's no fluff or other filler material. Instead, you just get the goods, and you get them by the boatload. My fav things about this one are: * Extended Proc coverage. I've always wondered how to build these. The coverage in this book is absolutely excellent. It could be a book unto itself. * XML coverage. I've never seen a better cut-to-the-chase introduction to XML and the XML features in SQL Server. It's a wonderful, hands-on tutorial written by a master. * Emphasis on treating transact-sql as a real language. Henderson stresses this over and over and he's right. This book is every bit as good as the high-end programming books that feature languages like C++ and Java. * Essays on software engineering. These are some of the best technical writing I've ever read. I don't think you could spend your money on a better SQL Server book. DjF
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Summary: Another great Ken Henderson SQL book
Review: I bought the first Guru's Guide -- The Guru's Guide to Transact SQL -- as a way to fine-tune my SQL skills when I began a new job as a SQL Server Admin / Developer. Nearly two years later, I still find myself reaching for that book for almost every unique SQL problem that I encounter, and I am rarely disappointed. When I saw that Henderson had written another SQL book, I expected another winner. I was not disappointed. The coverage of stored procedures, user-defined functions, and XML was first-rate. And the relatively short chapter on .NET was loaded with reasons why every SQL Server developer should be embracing this new techology. The Essays on Software Engineering were extremely well-written. The intermingling of personal experiences and reflection with the technical details of the topics was done just right. It added a certain amount of relevance to the section that made it feel less like a theoretical lecture and more like the sharing of information by a well-respected colleague. One who has obviously experienced these things and knows what he is talking about. On the surface, these essays may seem a bit out of place in a book about Stored Procedures and XML but, in fact, they fit very well with the overall theme of the book: SQL and Stored Procedure development is "real" software engineering and needs to be treated as such if you are going to be good at it.
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Summary: A good book for xml, stored proc
Review: This is much awaited book for the ones who want to excel in xml, stored procedure. Ken describes excellently and has your total attention.
Rating: 
Summary: weak on everything but advertising
Review: book is weak on ever topic listed in the table of contents. The TITLE mistakenly claims html and xml but the coverage on those topics is as weak as we've seen in any sql book. This contains all of book one verbatim with examples and all without so much as an apology for reprinting it, w/o calling a second edition.
What new material that is added is a very outdated light coverage of any of it. There is golden, childlike reviews on all of it but believe a long term developer with MCSD credentials and experience in some of the largest sql shops in the world, this is novice level material.
Don't buy into the falsely pumped up reviews that if read through you will quickly see a teenage flavor of "this is too cool" type of reviews throughout. Not a professional book nor marketing scheme. Best left for the true beginners who've never touched it before. Even then, the worth is questionable.
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Summary: weak in all areas claimed to be otherwise?
Review: The ads all have this as the best book on everything. They all have helpful votes piled up on them in 10 minutes time.
I think, like others, that is fake.
Read the reviews and you too will see they follow a low intelligence generalized method of marketing.
the book is weak in all areas. nothing in the book is cohesive or would be used to write enterprise code. weak on XML
weak on writing style
absent of reference material
absent of examples
absent of being up to date on the technology
weak on stored procs, they are not tied back to anything.
weak on idioms. very obvious beginner statements. This book is either for junior high students or is poorly written and has a large sales force. One of the force shows under sourceforge.net, a marketing firm that you hire to put in good words on your product. Makes me wonder on this one If you read through the child like reviews you too will see there is a pattern undeniably done by a marketing force.
Rating:
Summary: WEAK on SQLXML, examples and topics not useful
Review: First about me: I employ over 5000 developers working on SQL server solutions for some of the largest companies in the world. Now about the book: It contains zero reference material. There are no quick lookups on anything related to sql server a professional needs at her fingertips. Found that distracting. There is no conclusion to most topics, it's as though the author did not know how to finish, or start for that matter, and each chapter is ALL TEXT with no visual reference points at all. It's like trying to learn to operate an aircraft without ever getting inside it and flying it. That is exactly what it feels like. Also there is no continuity of topics or subject. Very weak in this area The examples never go beyond the type of a few column, a favorite is one column has an identity field the other null or an integer if something really finally happens. Not instructive to my people in the least. None of the entire team will use any of these btw. The ads are too child-like. If you read through them you find "best ever", "grandslam", "wowed me" things you expect to see a child write about their favorite childrens book. They are like that throughout. Also, the ads follow a distinct pattern which others keep addressing but they get talked over with the child like ads. If a woman puts out an opinion on this series that is not great, new reviews show up immediately say how great the book is in the exact areas she found weak. Another child like action that has my team rolling. They always say the writer must have a hundred thousand relatives. The number or helpful votes on new ads show up right away in lots of 30 to 50. We've never seen anything so fake. In one morning in an hours time I was told 50 votes were put on the book in 5 minutes time. That was all 3 books. 50 times the number of reviews of all books!
Again this morning it happen after a few 3 star or maybe 2 star reviews. We don't understand this system of large numbers of childlike people doing this? It sure doesn't sell it to us as we would never buy another volume again after finding how weak they are in all areas. They are very behind the times. No information that is current or relevant. You will be very disappointed. guaranteed.
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Summary: AT LONG LAST ARRAYS IN T-SQL!!
Review: When I first flipped through this and saw an entire chapter dedicated to arrays I wondered what was up. I knew from Henderson's previous book that there are a couple of ways to simulate arrays in T-SQL and that there's not much more to it than that. T-SQL doesn't have arrays built-in, so I wondered why Henderson would have a chapter on it in this book. Now I know. He has actually added real arrays to T-SQL!! The technique he uses is ingenious. He starts with an extended procedure DLL that contains procs such as sp_createarray, sp_destoryarray, sp_setarray, etc. Then he provides user-defined T-SQL functions that call these so that you don't call the DLl directly. So you use fn_createarray or fn_destroyarray rather than an extended procedure call. This alone is worth the cost of the book. You get true arrays for the first time in T-SQL. This makes solving many position and other types of problems so much easier. Great stuff and excellent value for readers.
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Summary: Great blend of stored proc and XML
Review: I imagine that covering stored proc development and XML in the same book was a pretty daunting task. I have several books on each of these subjects individually. I think it works wonderfully in this book. In fact I would say that it is better than separate books on these subjects, much better. The things that make this book stand apart are: * Henderson writes really well. Sadly, that is not something you see that often in technical books. I find his style very readable and almost engaging. I actually enjoy reading it. * Extensive examples. This book teaches by example. Since it is primarily a programming book, much of it is taught via example programs. There must be hundreds (and, yes, they're on the CD, so you don't have to type all of them). * No glossing. This book never glosses over anything that is important. Whether it is the XML chapters or HTML or even something like extended procedures, it always goes into detail when that is called for. So many books gloss over important details and get hung up on trivial things. Not this one. I think the blending of stored proc programming and XML programming was done just right. They really feed off each other: some of the procs feature advanced XML techniques, and some of the XML is very proc-like. I think that is a good thing and a truly innovative approach.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the price for the code alone
Review: Other reviewers have praised this book for its great XML info and how it approaches programming from a professiona perspective. Those are valid but the best thing about this book is all the code. There is a mountain of it, and much of it is useful in the real-world. Some examples: * xp_array.dll - this collection of xprocs adds arrays to Transact-Sql. That's right - honest-to-goodness arrays, not simulated ones. * xp_setpriority - this xproc allows you to lower the priority of a batch job so that other jobs will finish more quickly. * fn_soundex - this function provides a replacement for the T-sql soundex function. * VSSCodeGuru - this application provides source code management integration with Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe. * sp_run_xml_proc - this proc allows you to run FOR XML queries and insert their results back into a table or assign them to a variable, something that is sorely lacking in Sql Server itself. * sp_diffdb - this proc allows you to compare two databases for differences. * sp_generate_script - this proc allows you to generate T-sql scripts for a whole database or a collection of objects and return it as a result set. And this only hits the high points. If you are managing or programming for Sql Server 2000 you will find the code in this book extremely useful.
Rating:
Summary: Got SQLXML? Look no further
Review: This is the consummate reference on SQLXML. Each chapter elaborates on the one before and extends what it teaches. There are literally hundreds of sample documents T-Sql fragments that teach SQLXML by examples from start to finish. The SQLXML coverage starts with a nice tutorial on the XML language itself. This is useful for those just starting out with SQLXML. It then moves on to the SQLXML features in SQL Server, one-by-one. It leaves nothing uncovered and talks about each SQLXML technology in extreme detail. I think I learned something on every page in this section. What's more is that the whole book is extremely well-written. It is the second Guru's Guide I've purchased, and I have been extremely impressed with both of them. I colleague at the office recommended the first one to me, and I've owed him ever since. Another great thing about the book is that it doesn't gloss over anything. It always talks about SQLXML in terms of how to use it in the larger scheme of things. It is one component in SQL Server, it's not the whole deal. This book gives some great advice on when to use SQLXML as well as when not to. And it gives great advice on getting the most out of it when you do use it. This book is a must-read for anyone working with SQLXML. I keep it close at hand for all my work.
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