Transact-SQL Programming

Rating:
Summary: Uses old techniques, doesn't cover 7.0
Review: This book needs an update. It uses old techniques like system table queries and *= joins which have been discouraged by Microsoft. Also, the continuity could be much better. Sometimes it feels like three or four separate books rather than one. I give it 2 stars for being so out of date.

Rating:
Summary: Obsolete before it hit shelves
Review: Despite its cover, this book targets 4.2 and 6.5 only. Also, it uses techniques that were discouraged, even on those releases. I wouldn't waste my time with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to the quality of the other Nutshell books
Review: I bought this book because I needed to brush up on my T-SQL for SQL Server 7.0 and have always had good luck with the Nutshell books. I was really bummed when I began working through this book. It's targeted exclusively at 4.2 and 6.5, despite the claim on the cover that its a 7.0 book. Version 7.0 is relegated to an appendix and even that coverage isn't very good and contains numerous errors. Basically, I was really let down by this book. I'm planning to return it later this week.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed -- many examples don't work on 7.0
Review: Despite the cover, this is not a 7.0 book. I believe it was written for 4.2 or 6.5 because many of the source listings use techniques that have been deprecated for years, even by Microsoft (e.g., old-style joins). This thing really needs an update. I found no less than 10 examples that wouldn't work on 7.0.

Rating:
Summary: Disjointed and out of date
Review: My first problem with this book is that it misleads you into believing its a 7.0 book when in fact it's not even specifically an MS SQL book -- it also covers Sybase. None of the example code is for version 7.0 of MS SQL. Some of it won't even work on 7.0. My second problem is that many of the examples fail to tell you whether they're for Microsoft or Sybase. You end up trying code on Microsoft that will never work because it uses Sybase-specific syntax. My last problem is that the book is disjointed. I don't know if its the multiple authors or what, but the topics are all over the place. One minute they're at 30,000 feet, the next minute they're strafing the football field. One minute they're on stuff that's really only meaningful to a DBA, the next minute they're trying to be coder-specific.

Rating:
Summary: Strictly a 4.2 and 6.5 book
Review: Neither the code on the CD nor the source listings in the book are aimed at SQL Server 7.0. In fact, many of the examples don't work on MSSQL 7.0 because they query system tables that no longer exist (such as sysprocedures). The cover of the book says it covers 7.0, but actually 7.0 is covered only in an appendix. I'm giving it 2 stars because the code examples are antiquated and many simply don't work on the current version of the server.

Rating:
Summary: Use it for the REAL work!
Review: Chapter 19, the chapter on tuning, is worth the price of this book alone! Although some of the code on the accompanying CD is written for 6.5, the code in the book is written for 7.0 - and works, according to my experience. If you are a REAL DBA and are looking for some good information regarding 6.5 OR 7.0 (or Sybase), this book is the one you want.

Rating:
Summary: Disjointed and rife with errors/obsoletes
Review: This book is outdated. Many of the examples only work on version 6.5. The book is seems fairly comprehensive, but targets an old version of the server. Much of the sample code seems to be even older -- I suspect much of it was developed for 4.2. Also, the syntactical differences between Sybase and Microsoft Transact-SQL are often blurred. The book should have focused on only one of them -- they are enough different to warrant this.

Rating:
Summary: Broken code
Review: Why do so many of the example queries not work in this book? I installed SQL Server 7.0 when I got this book hoping to work through it over a weekend. I kept running into code that wouldn't run in Query Analyzer. Why? Even after installing SP1, the code still wouldn't work. I liked a lot of the info in this book, I just wish I could actually use it.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of info, much of it outmoded or obsolete
Review: This book really needs an update. Against some of the more recent SQL Server-oriented books, it looks like it needs about a pound of wrinkle cream.

A lot of things changed with 7.0 and this book hasn't kept up with those changes. Much of the sample code doesn't work with 7.0. I sense that the book was written while 7.0 was still in beta, because it's obviously targeted at 6.5. Many of the statements regarding server internals are simply no longer accurate and many of the coding techniques were outmoded even for 6.5. I'm still looking for the ultimate modern T-SQL guide.