Rating: 
Summary: Great book for those not knowing SQL Server 2000
Review: Bought this book as I know nothing about SQL Server 2000, or any database. Found it was written at an easy pace but great attention to detail which made everything real clear.Found I was up and running in hours and enough in the book to get me far enough so I could do what I needed to do, quickly. However, dont be fooled. It didnt treat me as stupid! It also gave me a lot of info which makes me no longer a beginner. Also cool that it had an evaluation copy of SQL Server. I dont normally like Wrox (too big!) but this might change my mind and swap over to them. Recommend it to those who know databases or not. Well done!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: Coming from Access I needed to move to SQL Server and this is the second book I bought on the subject. By far this is the better of the 2. Brilliant style of writing and I got up to speed very quickly. I also bought the Pro SQL Server book, which is not for beginners but there are areas now two months on within that book that it too is now becoming useful. Buying the 2 books together is the right move. However for beginners this is the book to get rather than the Professional.
Well done Wrox and well done to the author for a useful compendium.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT AS HE SAYS
Review: i got this book from 15 days ago and i read the first 13 chapter and i didn't like any of it,because it's not informative and he's explain the sql as a program not like an RDBMS and he's telling you about the 10% of anything,i don't think that any beginner want to begin with this book,bad databse example and i advice you to get the professional SQL 2000 programming if you are a programmer want to learn SQL,but if you are a beginner get first the by example for SQL 2000,
Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Beneficial
Review: I read this book cover to cover only because I was required to for a graduate level class. Let's be clear about the type of book this is: one of those hand-holding exercises that walk you through every screen of the product, including a fifty-page chapter on installation, and manages to get at least two plugs per chapter in for another book by the same publisher. If you're looking for that sort of thing, it is fairly thorough and well thought-out and does include a significant amount of information on pitfalls to avoid. However, I personally found little here that I couldn't have found myself simply by installing the product and reading the online help. The pitfall warnings could have been condensed into a single chapter (and would have been much more useful than this 700-page tome). If you're looking for database theory, look elsewhere. Those kinds of issues are given short-shrift - normalization, for example, is glossed over in two pages that don't really explain it well, even though this is a key database management concept. I realized something was wrong when by chapter 12 (of 20) I was still reading statements like, "Don't worry too much about the SQL syntax shown here". Really? By the end of the book I was still wondering when we would become concerned. Mr. Dewson is obviously a knowledgeable database developer, and from his picture on the cover appears to be a nice person, but he is not a professional writer, and unfortunately it shows.
Rating:
Summary: Not Very Beneficial
Review: I read this book cover to cover only because I was required to for a graduate level class. Let's be clear about the type of book this is: one of those hand-holding exercises that walk you through every screen of the product, including a fifty-page chapter on installation, and manages to get at least two plugs per chapter in for another book by the same publisher. If you're looking for that sort of thing, it is fairly thorough and well thought-out and does include a significant amount of information on pitfalls to avoid. However, I personally found little here that I couldn't have found myself simply by installing the product and reading the online help. The pitfall warnings could have been condensed into a single chapter (and would have been much more useful than this 700-page tome). If you're looking for database theory, look elsewhere. Those kinds of issues are given short-shrift - normalization, for example, is glossed over in two pages that don't really explain it well, even though this is a key database management concept. I realized something was wrong when by chapter 12 (of 20) I was still reading statements like, "Don't worry too much about the SQL syntax shown here". Really? By the end of the book I was still wondering when we would become concerned. Mr. Dewson is obviously a knowledgeable database developer, and from his picture on the cover appears to be a nice person, but he is not a professional writer, and unfortunately it shows.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Learning SQL Server 2000
Review: I went through three books (Learning SQL Server in 21 Days, SQL Server Programming by Microsoft, SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers) before I got to this one. This book beats all those others hands down. This is definitely the best book to get on learning SQL Server for beginners. It touches on all the areas you need to know to become proficient in managing your databases. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Learning SQL Server 2000
Review: I went through three books (Learning SQL Server in 21 Days, SQL Server Programming by Microsoft, SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers) before I got to this one. This book beats all those others hands down. This is definitely the best book to get on learning SQL Server for beginners. It touches on all the areas you need to know to become proficient in managing your databases. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: I'm really torn between giving this book 3 stars or 4 stars. I decided to give it 3 because it did not live up to the expectations of the other Wrox Beginning titles that I have read. The good stuff is that it shows a tremendous amount on using Enterprise Manager to do stuff more easily. It also provides a decent overview of all things related to SQL Server. I really liked the chapter on creating a database maintenance plan. The bad stuff is that it covers everything in minimalist detail. The book has a repetitive them, which is "You will learn a lot more by reading Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming". I decided that since I already knew the small amount of detail that was presented in the book, I would jump ahead and read Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming to just save time. I have just started that book today, but it looks to be much more promising. Another thing that really bothered me about this book was that it didn't follow the Wrox Beginning formula. The book started out the right way, saying we would build a database application for a golf league, but we never really completed the application. I think a better format for the book would be to get all of the business rules, complete the application in its entirety and add sample data. Enforcing business rules by using SQL Server technologies along the way would be a great way to develop a real application and give a good introduction to SQL Server programming. The book was pretty light on programming as well, mostly just introducing concepts but not doing much implementation. To summarize, if you want a good general overview of SQL Server 2000 with minimal coverage of programming (just the highlights) then this book could be a good fit for you. Based on the small amount of information I have read in Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming, I would recommend that you just jump into that book instead, especially if you already have some SQL Server experience.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: I'm really torn between giving this book 3 stars or 4 stars. I decided to give it 3 because it did not live up to the expectations of the other Wrox Beginning titles that I have read. The good stuff is that it shows a tremendous amount on using Enterprise Manager to do stuff more easily. It also provides a decent overview of all things related to SQL Server. I really liked the chapter on creating a database maintenance plan. The bad stuff is that it covers everything in minimalist detail. The book has a repetitive them, which is "You will learn a lot more by reading Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming". I decided that since I already knew the small amount of detail that was presented in the book, I would jump ahead and read Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming to just save time. I have just started that book today, but it looks to be much more promising. Another thing that really bothered me about this book was that it didn't follow the Wrox Beginning formula. The book started out the right way, saying we would build a database application for a golf league, but we never really completed the application. I think a better format for the book would be to get all of the business rules, complete the application in its entirety and add sample data. Enforcing business rules by using SQL Server technologies along the way would be a great way to develop a real application and give a good introduction to SQL Server programming. The book was pretty light on programming as well, mostly just introducing concepts but not doing much implementation. To summarize, if you want a good general overview of SQL Server 2000 with minimal coverage of programming (just the highlights) then this book could be a good fit for you. Based on the small amount of information I have read in Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming, I would recommend that you just jump into that book instead, especially if you already have some SQL Server experience.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't know SQL, then this is it!
Review: If you are a beginner, then this is for you! This book take you from the SQL installation to data manipulation in a professional style. Once you finish it, you can really claimed that you know SQL 2000. In addition, this book provide you a lot of useful resources, such as other books and websites, for you to extend the SQL knowledge.
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