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Summary: Essential if you want to use XML with Sql Server
Review: I have over ten years of experience in the database profession. I bought all three of Henderson's books a few months ago and have been studying them ever since. This book was the third book I have bought to try to learn how to use XML with Sql Server. The other two are Malcom's book and Viera's general Sql Server programming book. Neither of those other two books covers Sql-Xml in the depth that this book does. Neither provides the kind of expert advice I have come to expect in these Guru Guides. And neither provides solutions to common problems you run into when building production Sql-Xml applications. This book gives you all of that and more. What I really like about the book is the way it covers everything from start to finish on XML. It starts off wtih a chapter on the XML language itself. For those who don't already know the language, this is a great start. I haven't seen a more concise intro to the language itself. The next chapters cover all of the Sql-Xml pieces one by one. There must be hundreds of sample XML documents and Sql-Xml queries. Every feature - FOR XML, sp_xmlpreparedocument, templates, XML bulk load, HTTP queries, style sheets, etc., is covered in detail. Approximately a third of the book is dedicated to covering these subjects. The chapters on Sql-Xml in this book are worth their weight in gold. I also like how the book builds on the first Guru Guide for Transact-Sql. Take the Undocumented features chapter... It adds to the wealth of undocumented features discussed in the Transact-Sql book. Rather than merely repeating this info, I found a whole host of new undocumented features and tools discussed. Worth the cost alone. Couldn't give this a higher recommendation. If you need to learn what the experts know about Sql-Xml in Sql Server this is the right book.
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Summary: Be Aware, SAME material as in book one of series
Review: Except for minimal coverage of XML that is common knowledge at this point, maybe 20 to 40 pages, this is the same set of procs from book one that show up in magazines as tricks etc. The command line mindset still pervades this book.
No professional programming tools or techniques are mentioned let alone talked about in any detail.
Pros no longer use command line mentality in the real IT environments of today. [...] Even the best programmers of all time find problems with their own work let alone someone else's. I'd be very leery of these multitude of perfect scores. I own the book and can say with certainty it's not perfect in any ways mentioned and lacks any visual cues or talk of modern concerns such as security and other up to date topics. This is very outdated compared to how relational database programming is really done by the US's best programming pros.
Do yourself a favor, think it over if you wnat a book with nothing but text, no visual cues, missing explanations and example code that has no bearing on a real project in any sense. And all of it in a command line format. If you are like me you will be disappointed in how superannuated this book is.
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Summary: What? No arrays in SQL? Not anymore :-)
Review: Finally a book that gives you, in the same chapter, a way to do arrays in SQL, and an excellent example of how to use extended stored procedures, and system functions. When I search for a good book, I look at a lot of books on the shelves, and often notice that many books just duplicate information readily available at "Books on line" or MSDN. This one doesn't do that. It explores a lot of topics that, although they do not appear immediatly useful, sooner or later will save you a lot of time. And that's what I look for when I buy a book! This extra wealth of information that makes a difference when you have to program something of higher complexity that usual.
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Summary: The only SQL book I regularly use
Review: I have a lot of different SQL books. This is the only one I regularly turn to. It is chalk full of useful info, and you should read if you want to program professionally with Sql Server.
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Summary: For professional developers and DBA's
Review: I found a kindred spirit when I read this book. It approached T-SQL as a professional developer would, just as I always have. The book steers people away from amateurish practices like dropping in the latest coding trick you've read about in a magazine and instead teaches an engineering-based approach to developing and maintaining Sql Server applications. Examples of this run throughout the book: 1. The Testing chapter - every type of testing is discussed, including enlightening discussions of refactoring existing code (ala Martin Fowler), Xtreme Programming (ala Kent Beck), unit testing, functional testing, and the entire test cycle. This is a great chapter that everyone creating or maintaining Sql Server-based systems should read and follow. 2. The Design Patterns chapter - this chapter shows how to apply software design patterns to stored procedure and T-SQL script development in the same way that Erich Gamma and company have been doing for years with other languages. A novel and invaluable way of looking at the problem of design in Sql Server applications. 3. The Data Volumes chapter - the one covers how to create large volumes of data for testing your applications and how to best deal with moving large volumes of data around in real applications. The data doubling technique alone is worth the price of admission. 4. The Extended Procedures chapter - no other book that I know of covers how to write these. Until we get CLR-based procedures, these are the only way to solve certain types of problems. Bravo to Henderson for including a chapter that teaches how to build them from soup-to-nuts. 5. The Views chapter - this chapter has proven invaluable to me, especially the section on partioned views and the many problems you can run into if they're not set up right or are misused. 6. The Triggers chapter - I wondered how an entire chapter could be dedicated to triggers, but, having read it, I understand why it is. This is another one that every DBA or Sql Server developer should read. 7. The Undocumented T-SQL chapter - this chapter catalogues literally hundreds of undocumented features in Sql Server that I would not have known about without having read it. Many are quite useful in the real world and you have to wonder why they aren't documented. Henderson says you shouldn't use them, and I'm being very cautious, but just knowing about them helps me better understand how Sql Server works. I can't give this book a higher recommendation. It will literally change the way you think about designing Sql Server applications and solving the tough problems that arise when you build complex systems.
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Summary: SQLXML at its best
Review: This book took me from being someone who couldn't even spell XML to a guy who has just finished his third major SQLXML application. I'm not an expert yet, but the author of this book is, and if you work with SQLXML, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Ironically I was originally recommended this book based on it's stored proc content. That was also excellent, but the real prize here are the chapters on SQLXML. The first chapter, the XML introduction chapter, is simply genius. The example start off easy and build on each other. By the time I finished this chapter, I was creating complex documents and using style sheets and schemas to manipulate them. The SQLXML chapters take each of the Sql Server SQLXML topics and explore them in depth. The templates coverage is particularly excellent. I loved the discussion of how templates make use of RPC - something I'd never have guessed but that makes a huge performance difference in one of my systems. The section on working around SQLXML limitations is also excellent. sp_run_xml_proc is literally worth the price of the book all by itself. I was really disappointed when I found that I couldn't insert the results of a FOR XML query directly into a variable or table. With this proc, I can.
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Summary: The best books available on SQL SERVER
Review: The Guru Guide books are the best books available for SQL SERVER. I have all three and never ceased to be impressed with how much I learn each time I read one of them. Each book requires and rewards careful rereading. There is always more there than you glean the first time. I am still reading the first one nearly four years after I originally bought it. I never cease to find some new nuggest when I research a solution to my latest SQL SERVER challenge. I also like the non-technical writing in each book. The personal anecdotes, the essays, the quotes at the head of each chapter: they all give you the impression that you are being taught by, as Ron Soukup says, a veteran developer who knows what he is talking about because he has lived it
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Summary: Stored procs for experts
Review: A better title for this book would be "Stored Procedures for Experts." It is that good. If you are already an expert and want to take your game to the next level or want to become a stored proc expert, you need this book. Each chapter gets progressively more complex and in-depth. Henderson starts off with a primer on stored proc development, then gradually raises the bar until you are up in the clouds. The best chapters are the xprocs chapter and the design patterns chapter. Each of these is with the price of the book alone. I also loved the essays at the end of the book, especially the one on the necessity of testing. Henderson writes in a fluid, even style that I think most will find quite engaging.
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Summary: Worth every penny
Review: I have purchased every major Sql Server book over the last seven years. I have them all. I have read about Sql Server voraciously since getting out of school, and there can be only one word to describe Henderson's Guru's Guide books: indespensible. They are head and shoulders above all of the other books out there. The reasons for this are many. I will list but a few: - Extremely well-written. Henderson has a penchant for explaining subjects in ways that no one else seems to be able to. Passages sometimes require more than one read because they are so deep, but the time is always well spent. - Loaded, absolutely loaded, with code. If you manage Sql Server machines for a living you will find that you can drop much of the code into place on your production machines without modificaton. Sp_find_root_blocker, sp_diffdb, sp_generate_script... these are all wonderful pieces of code that make the books worth the price for the code alone. - Extremely deep. One subject after another is covered in excruciating detail. Henderson's books are deeper and more extensive than any other class of technical books I have read. - Wide-ranging. Henderson doesn't stick to just a narrow part of the product, but covers subjects that real DBA's and developers would need: Full-text search, DTS, replication, query performance optimation, XML, etc. If you get and read all three of the Guru's Guide books, you will have as good of coverage of the entire product as exists. There are few authors who are as passionate about great technical writing as we DBA's and developers are about building and maintaining software systems. Ken Henderson is obviously one of them.
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Summary: Treats T-Sql like a real language
Review: I don't know why no one else ever thought of it before but this is the only book I know of that treats T-Sql like a real language. It teaches that you have to work at it to master it and follow a disciplined engineering approach to it to be really good with it. For example, the chapter on design patterns takes the patterns made famous by Grady Booch and co. and applies them to T-Sql. It seems obvious now, but I never thought of this before and haven't read any other books that cover this. The Visual Source Safe integration is simply excellent. The book shows how to hook up Query Analzyer with VSS and even provides a tool to help manage your source code. I know a lot of shops that don't have any real management of their T-Sql code that would do themselves a favor to read an follow this chapter to the letter. The Undocumented stuff is also really good. I had no idea half of these undocumented stored procedures, extended procedures, functions and DBCC commands were even in there. A couple of come in really handy, but mostly they just provide some insight into how the server really works which, like most of the book, is invaluable.
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