Rating: 
Summary: I Wish I could give it 10 stars
Review: I have been looking for a book like this for a long time. Thank you very much for it. It's the first SQL Server programming book I've seen that doesn't treat you like an idiot. Mr. Henderson assumes you know what you're doing and simply want to get better at it. I consider myself somewhere between a beginner and an middle-level stored procedure builder and this book fit me just fine. I learn something practically every time I pick the book up. This is not your father's computer book. In fact I'll bet you will have trouble putting it down. For once a fresh approach has been taken to teaching this very complex subject. In the hands of a capable teacher such as Mr. Henderson, you will learn more than you could ever have hoped to from other books. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely well-written
Review: As an English major, I'm often very critical of the way in which technical books are written. Many times, the authors simply aren't very good writers. They may know their technical stuff, but they don't write very well. This book is a noteworthy exception. It is written in a clear, lucid style that flows naturally and keeps you engaged all along the way. Henderson actually makes stored procedure programming exciting and fun, which is no small feat considering the subject matter. I found that while the book isn't for dummies, it proceeds logically and systematically through the topics it broaches. I especially appreciated the discussion of design patterns. I don't know why someone didn't think of it before, but, in hindsight, applying common software design patterns to Transact-SQL makes perfect sense, and I commend Henderson for coming up with the idea and for his sagely advice on how to go about it. Also, the XML instruction is simply wonderful. From the XML language tutorial to all the SQL Server-specific information to the discussion of .NET, I found Henderson's teaching insightful and thorough. This section alone is worth the purchase price of the book. Lastly, I loved the essays. Showing that he is more than just a technical scribe, Henderson spreads his wings a bit and provides us some wonderful bits that would be at home in virtually any magazine, technical or not. As I said before, this author is also a writer in the true sense of the word. Very, very enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: By far the best stored proc book on the market
Review: I don't know how it happened, but somehow I worked in the SQL Server world for several years before I came across this book. I wish I'd had it two years ago when I started writing stored procedures pretty much full time. Like Mr. Soukup says in the Foreword, that would have saved me a lot of time. The book is by far the best stored proc book I have found. Before I found this book, I had about half a dozen topics that I was really struggling with in my work as a stored proc developer. An example would be error handling. I had discovered that trying to handle errors in my Transact-Sql code was difficult and didn't seem to work like I expected, but I didn't know why or what to do about it. It seemed there were certain errors that I simply couldn't detect or handle in my code, which left my bosses unhappy with me. Having read this book, I now understand completely where all the problems are and what to do about them. For that alone, the cost of the book was worth it. Another thing I struggled with was how to manage my source code logically. I coded for years in VB and dutifully checked my work in and out of Visual Source Safe, but had no clue as to how to do that with my stored proc source code with any mechanism even approaching efficiency. The instructions in this book on how to do this and how to avoid common pitfalls were a godsend. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's all clear to me now. I have read all the others and pick this one as the best stored proc book money can buy. It opened my eyes to whole new ways of coding and working.
Rating:
Summary: My new xmas present
Review: Wife got me this one for xmas. Have to say - I love it. Great great writing. Henderson has a knack for teaching. And I agree that t-SQL should be approached as a "real" language. That is the best part of the book, IMHO. That and the fact that it does not treat you like an idiot or repeat what you already know (or should know). Good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I hadn't listened to the other reviews
Review: I don't see it ... what the other reviewers exaulted about, must be friends.
I read a lot of books, this one and another I purchased by this author are at most lead weights. Sparse, sketchy and cryptic. I read to learn not because I already know. If you really want to try this book BUY mine, 2 weeks old / half price.
Ken - remember the English 101 chocolate chip cookie paper, write to convey.
Rating:
Summary: Expert SQLXML book
Review: I bought this to get familiar with the XML features in SQL SERVER. I was not disappointed. I especially liked the starter chapter on the XML language. I was already pretty good with XML before I read this book but I still learned several things about the language itself that I didn't know. Beyond this the SQLXML chapters are simply great. Each one tackles a different part of SQL SERVER'S XML features and takes the discussion from very basic stuff to advanced features. You learn gradually and systematically. I felt like I had my own personal SQLXML tutor. It's the best instruction I have seen in a computer book in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Great sample code
Review: The CD is loaded with over 600 samples of well-written, well-documented code. Innovative approaches and advanced techniques are everywhere. You combine this with the thorough explanations of the code in the text itself, and you have everything you need to master stored proc programming. I've been building Sql Svr stored procs for over 5 years now and I still learned lots of things I didn't know. Great code and clear explanations makes for one heckuva book
Rating:
Summary: A true "Guru's Guide" in every sense
Review: I own several of the author's other books, and this one carries on the fine "Guru's Guide" tradition quite well. As with his other books, the author doesn't bother getting into topics you can find information on in the product documentation or in other readily available books. Instead, the book covers the things those sources leave out, and it does so in spectacular detail with prose that is lucid and adroitly written. I have always enjoyed Ken Henderson's writing, and this book is no exception. I think I would enjoy reading through it even if the technical depth wasn't there. But, as it is, the technical information is there in abundance, as is a really distinct, enjoyable writing style. It strikes me that, in striving to avoid recovering what has already been covered over and over by other books, the author had a really difficult task with this book because he also had to avoid recovering what he himself has covered in other books. His previous book, The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL, is all most people would need to become proficient stored procedure coders, so it naturally begs the question: How do you improve on this? How do you keep from repeating yourself? What do you do for an encore to a very successful book on essentially the same subject? Well, rest easy: This book does all that and more. Beyond the nuances of the T-SQL language, this book covers stored procedure development from the standpoint of traditional software development. It talks about subjects typically associated with more formal software development: coding conventions, testing, refactoring, source code management and version control, design patterns, etc. All of these are crucial areas for development with other languages, so the implicit question asked by this book is: Why are they not also important to Transact-SQL stored procedure development? Ken Henderson opines that they should be, and spends the entire book making his case as only a true guru could. I own several of the other Guru's Guide books and was proud to add this one to my collection. There's nary a SQL Server or T-SQL problem I can't find an answer to in at least one of them.
Rating:
Summary: Words of wisdom from a master teacher
Review: There is a great deal to like about this book and almost nothing not to like. In the Preface, the author says that his intent is not to retread ground already plowed well by others. You see this philosophy at work throughout the book. Again and again, he goes to great lengths to avoid repeating the Books Online and other books already in print. What you get here is fresh material that picks up where the other books leave off. It takes you to the next level as a SQL Server practitioner because it does not waste your time repeating what you already know or what you could easily find elsewhere. Because of this, the coverage is necessarily not for beginners. Henderson does not take you from knowing nothing about stored procedure development to knowing everything about it in one book, nor could he or any other author. Instead, he says upfront that there are probably better books than his if you are a beginner and just now starting with stored procedure development. He aims a little higher than that -- he aims for the intermediate to advanced developer and covers things that only someone who has spent considerable time actually building SQL Server applications would know about. Examples of this abound. For example, you won't find coverage of the syntax for many commands in this book, but you will find detailed coverage of T-SQL coding conventions and how to integrate Query Analyzer and Visual SourceSafe. Henderson obviously assumes that you will read up on syntax when you need to in the BOL. You won't find much on justifying the use of stored procedures over ad hoc TSQL (Henderson obviously believes you shouldn't need any convincing about the value of stored procedures, otherwise you wouldn't have bought the book), but you will find detailed coverage of T-SQL design patterns, database design and normalization, and the quirks of T-SQL error handling. Time and again, Henderson focuses his energies on covering the real issues real practitioners face when building SQL Server applications using stored procedures. He deftly steps around what you can find in the BOL and elsewhere and leaves the easy stuff to others. Right about where you have exhausted all the other books have to tell you about stored procedure development, you find Henderson waiting to take you to the next level. Besides the general direction and focus of the coverage, another thing I really loved about the book is Henderson's style of writing. He has a gift for explaining difficult concepts in terms practically anyone could understand. He doesn't cut corners: when a complex topic needs further explanation, he goes into it depth. For other, more obvious subjects, he says just enough so that you can follow him without delving into the obvious or insulting your intelligence. The mix of in-depth discussion with summary info on lesser-important, more obvious topics is done just right: I found the discussions downright engaging more often than not. Finding an author with the technical know-how necessary to instruct others at an expert level and the teaching ability to do so successfully is rare indeed in this day and age. Henderson pulls it off masterfully. [...]
Rating: 
Summary: This Guru needs better Guidance
Review: It was an ill-portent when the book opened with a quote on Occam's Razor - and it was misspelled. The author properly posits that good documentation is a requisite for good code yet populates the text with code samples that are repetitious and frequently too lengthy but seldom is suitably documented. The foreward indicates that this book is not for the novice. It expects an audience familiar with SQL, SQL Server, Transact-SQL, and the basics of HTML, whom it will then guide in the proper implementation of these concepts as Stored Procedures within queries as well as calls from within HTML and XML. However, it is inconsistent in it's treatment of SQL; sometimes it explains what should be obvious (to the professional) and at other times it plops in code that is non-standard or obscure without properly referencing it in the text. This defficiency of depth renders it of little use as a reference book. The natural progression from one concept to the next is scarce. Topics seem to arrive in quanta rather than through evolution. This leaves gaps that need filling as well as information accreted in unnatural blocks. It may be an inorganic subject but the objects - aspiring programmers - are organic. As for the code, much of it seems to be the product of a struggle with the concepts of logic and economicy of code. This indiscriminate seeding of the text combined with code that lacks proper documentation as well as good structure (within the context of the paradigm) makes it difficult to properly classify as a programming guide. So, it does not function well as a guidebook or as reference material. It does not appear to stem from a lack of understanding of the subject by Mr. Henderson. It seems that his capabilities with the code exceed his ability to communicate the concepts. A good argument could be made that the book suffers from editorial absence; some other editor may have been a better guide for the guru. Or, perhaps Mr. Henderson could use the help of a ghost writer, as so many tecnical professionals often lack the skill of vivid description. Either way, he seems much more suited to 'Guru' (existentially) than 'Guide' (expository).
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