Rating: 
Summary: a MUST HAVE for Transact SQL developers...
Review: I had a tight deadline on a job that required heavy transact SQL programming, and after buying this book with no knowledge of stored procedures or transact SQL, I was coding what I needed to have done withing a couple days of picking it up.Not only does it teach you fully about T-SQL coding, but also has includes a great SQL reference, how to use indexes properly, teaches you about transactions, how to wor**with cursors, how to handle erorrs, temporary objects (tables), triggers, views... you name it, this book has it. This book has saved my life on this particular job, and I want to thank O'Reilly for writing another KICK ASS book that has become my T-SQL (and overall SQL Server) bible. I highly recommend this book to anyone that needs to learn about T-SQL
Rating: 
Summary: 3 for reference But 5.5 for learning
Review: Its not the type of book I look up things in when Im working, however as a book for learning I have not read any better (in this field), it is funny and interresting to read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Transact-SQL programming guide and reference
Review: Transact-SQL Programming, by Kevin Kline, et al., is a very good SQL book, and an excellent Transact-SQL book. It covers Microsoft SQL Server 6.5/7.0 and Sybase Adaptive Server 11.5. (The changes in Transact-SQL from SQL Server 6.5 to 7.0 , by the way, are really not significant.) This book is strongly oriented towards database programming, not administration. It's not for beginners. It's not a setup and configuration guide, nor is it a "cool features" book. And it's definitely not about how to hook up Visual Basic to SQL Server and call it database programming. In order to get much from this book, the reader should be able to perform basic queries, inserts, updates and deletes using SQL. However, while some familiarity with SQL is presumed, the book has several chapters on "standard" SQL that is some of the best I've ever read for novice to intermediate SQL programming. (If you're entirely new to SQL programming get Joe Celko's Instant SQL book, or something like it.) There are a few glaring typos throughout the book. I didn't perceive them to be any more frequent than in most recent computer books. Personally, I'd rather have the information in the book available a couple of weeks earlier than to wait for another proofread to shake out a couple of dozen typos. And furthermore, if the typos, in this book at least, are really throwing you, it's because you aren't understanding the material. Go back and re-read more carefully. Once again, this is a Transact-SQL programming book. It is not a Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 book. If you don't understand the difference, you're probably not ready for this book. But if you want to learn how to use Transact-SQL to write professional, commercial database applications for either SQL Server 6.5/7.0 or Sybase Adaptive Server, this book provides everything you need to know.
Rating:
Summary: Great resource for any level of experience
Review: I have read majority of this text and I think it's a great resource for anyone who wants to use it for SQL 6.5. Hate to disagree, but I don't quite see the point two previous reviewers are trying to make. Preface clearly states that this book is mainly geared towards SQL 6.5 rather than 7.0. Still, it contains very useful (although probably not complete) chapter regarding the differences between the two. It'd be great to have one complete reference that would provide everything you'd ever need, but I don't believe this book was intended to be that type of a reference. These days many companies have to use developers with limited dba experience, mainly due to the lack of this type of professionals. I'm sure all of those DBAs could use some real world advise and especially code samples provided in Transact SQL by Kevin Kline et al.
Rating:
Summary: best book yet on T-SQL
Review: After looking for somthing more useful than books-online, i found this book lately. Granted there are a few typos, but any developer worth his 2 cents can get around them. The main point is that I found this book VERY helpful explaing stored procedures, joins and triggers as well as some of the newer features of MS SQL Server 7. If your looking for a good SQL reference on joins, triggers and stored procedures, this book definately fits the bill. Your typical SQL Server books or "teach yourself in 21 days..." I found just didnt have what i was looking for. Another good book from Oreilly, I have quite a few of their books now.
Rating: 
Summary: Already obsolete!
Review: I'm very disappointed with this book. I'm a great fan of O'Reilly books, but this one was a bad surprise ... I received my copy only yesterday and have read just one chapter (chapter 15 with only 14 pages) but have found so many errors that I'm not sure about the quality of the rest. On page 490, the syntax for the "Create Trigger" doesn't mention there is a DELETE trigger (I'm sure the authors are aware of it, but it's misleading to a novice). What is even worse: it doesn't mention the "not for replication", the "with append" and the "columns_updated". On page 491, it says there can only be 1 (one) trigger specified for each action, but SQL Server 7.0 supports many triggers. On page 495, the author explain a "ROLLBACK TRIGGER" that simply doesn't exist in SQL Server. On page 498, the author state that there are 16 levels of triggers, when actually there are 32 on SQL Server 7.0. On page 501, the author says that BCP doesn't take constraints into consideration, but there is a "CHECK CONSTRAINTS" option to make it happen. Well, I don't have much space here, but the point is that the author didn't take the time to read the "Books Online" on the CD that is part of the book! My conclusion it that, contrary to what appears on the cover of the book, SQL Server 7.0 isn't treated properly. Now, in every page, I feel the need to check the correctness of what is written. Shame on you, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Shame on you Kevin Kline, et al.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it
Review: This is a comprehensive book.
Full of practical advice. The author(s) apparently has a lot of experience as a developer.
It is not at all dull as some reviews claim.
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Summary: Great Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server reference
Review: I've owned this book for over two years and I still go back to it as a reference. It covers Sybase SQL Server 11.5 and Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 (with limitted coverage of 7.0) so it is now a bit dated for Microsoft, but is still viable for Sybase use. I would love to see an updated version of this book for the Microsoft side. But this book is an excellent reference for determining the difference between the Transact-SQL languages in Microsoft vs. Sybase. The Microsoft and Sybase T-SQL languages were similar when this book was written, but have probably diverted even more since MS bought the license for SQL Server from Sybase. As much as I would love to see an updated version of this book, the new version would probably be more difficult to write. It's still a great reference for Transact SQL and I can't knock the book for age when it's a classic.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Door Stop!
Review: Compared to the other T-SQL books on the market, this book makes a good reference for programmers concerned with writing compliant SQL for Microsoft and Sybase databases. Everytime I go to use this book, another developer seems to be borrowing it. That statement alone proves to me that this book is worthy of being in any technical library. Although the book is bit outdated (only goes up to Sybase 11.5), it does have a number of good examples. The book does a nice job of telling you what T-SQL statements apply to MS-SQL and Sybase-SQL. My only critique: Mr. Kline should have expanded the section on error handling.
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