Rating: 
Summary: Defining Advanced
Review: When I picked this book up, I thought I knew TSQL. And, as Moreau and Ben-Gan presented the TSQL, I realized that I had barely scratched the surface. Many of their examples begin with the same solution that I would have thought up on my own but they then take that solution and show a better way to accomplish the same task. Not only do they show you the better way but they explain why it works in a manner that is concise and understandable. I often recommend this book to programmers who are learning TSQL because it helps them gain the knowledge they need to be able to use TSQL far more effectively than you get from the isolated examples in Books On Line (BOL).
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I hadn't bought this book
Review: I guess I have a different definition of the word "advanced" than the author of this book. He apparently thinks it means "about the same as the BOL." I think it means "beyond the BOL, WAY beyond." I think an advanced book should feature things I haven't seen elsewhere and that teach me techniques beginner books don't. But that's not the case. IMHO, this is strictly a beginner's book, and not a very good one at that.
Rating:
Summary: A true disappointment
Review: When I heard that a couple of the guys that surf the SQL newsgroups were writing a book I thought "this will be great." I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a terrible book. There are so many errors that the code is nigh useless. It's also full of bad advice and things that should never be in a book. My respect for these two has gone down a couple of notches - I'll have to watch their advice on the newsgroups a little more closely.
Rating:
Summary: Advanced? Hah!
Review: This is just a reheated version of the Books Online. Some of the tables and explanations come directly from the BOL. Not impressed at all. Returning mine for my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth reading
Review: The book is a haphazard collection of bad advise and poorly written code. Obviously, neither of these guys has actually ever been a production level DBA. The book reads like a newsgroup message -- very amateurish and not advanced in the slightest.
Rating:
Summary: A very useful piece of work and set to become a classic
Review: I discovered this book when I was in the middle of writing a Sales Order Processing application using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Visual Basic 6. I scanned through the wealth of material in this book and I was able to adapt many of the techniques to the Sales Order application. The book applies to SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000. It is aimed primarily at developers as opposed to those performing solely administrative tasks. It contains 20 chapters in just over 800 pages dealing with programming issues like Referential Integrity with Cascading Actions, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Partitioning data using Views, Cursors etc. This book is not a rehash of the SQL Server Books OnLine. There are also 7 appendices in the book. One deals with Analyzing Query Performance, another with 'Dynamically Creating Triggers for Cascade Actions' and a 'References' appendix that is littered with good places to obtain more information about SQL Server. There are a number of extra useful facilities. For example many chapters have a 'From the Trenches' section that provide snippets of information about situations taken from real-world projects. There are also a number of 'Best Practices' sections where the authors make usage statements based on their knowledge of SQL Server. I benefited specifically from the 'Tips and Tricks' chapter made up of submissions by people solving specific real-world problems. I certainly didn't know that it was possible to use a Case statement as part of a Join in the way it is used in one of the examples. The book also contains a number of puzzles at the end of each chapter. I was deeply involved with the Sales Order Processing Application project and felt I was 'too busy' to study them. But that was a mistake for me. I took some time off work and during that time found that the puzzle solutions offered me the opportunity to apply T-SQL to my application as opposed to just learning/reading the mechanics of T-SQL. If you want to broaden your horizons read and attempt the solutions to these puzzles. The actual solutions to the puzzles are provided in a separate chapter. Some of these puzzles require mental gymnastics but then that is why the book has the word 'Advanced' in its title!
Rating:
Summary: Not my cup o' tea
Review: It's difficult to put into words what exactly is wrong with this book. I sat down to read it one weekend, and ended up having to force myself to finish it over the next couple of months. I finally gave up on it about 50 pages from the end. Overall, it's just not a very good book. There are lots and lots of errors. That's the first thing you notice. Half the code doesn't run. The next problem is the fact that the book doesn't begin to be advanced. It's barely beginner level, let alone advanced. I would say it's about as high-end as the Books Online. The next (and worst) problem is the awfulness of the writing. There appear to be problems with English as a language as well as just generally poor phrasing and expressiveness. I'll bet most college graduates could do better. The book reads like one very long email or newsgroup posting, complete with emoticons. The fact that something makes a decent newsgroup posting doesn't mean that it will play well in a book. This book proves that beyond dispute. J.
Rating:
Summary: One word: lightweight
Review: Based on the physical size of this book, I thought it would be a comprehensive treatment of the TSQL language. Boy, was I wrong. I guess size isn't everything :-) The TSQL included w/the book isn't very advanced, despite the title. It's about the same level as the Books ONline -- not advanced at all. I haven't yet found a trick I didn't already know about, and I don't consider myself a TSQL expert. A far better book is Henderson's Guru's Guide book. It's an expert-level book written by an expert for those who want to become experts themselves. This one is just another sad tribute to dead trees.
Rating:
Summary: Amateurish little hack of a book
Review: The best thing I can say about this book is that some of the code works. For the most part, it doesn't work. Worse yet, the book recommends techniques that Microsoft has deprecated (old style joins, for example) for some time now. There are lots of typos and coding bugs - enough that I wonder if the book was really edited. Definitely not my cup of tea. It's another one of those weighty door stops.
Rating:
Summary: Got some language problems
Review: This book definitely has some language problems, and I don't mean English. Yes, it's obvious that neither of the authors are particularly fluent in English, but the biggest language deficiency is in Transact-SQL. These guys should not be writing books about Transact-SQL, they should be reading them. Lots of them. The code here is neither advanced nor specific to SQL Server 2000. It's beginner level code that's rife with errors in style, errors in formatting, errors in logic, and just plain errors. A real disappointment.
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