Rating: 
Summary: This book is great
Review: After working on mainframe applications for the last 17 years, I was put into a new group and expected to write an application in VB and SQL Server. I was completely lost! With this book, I felt like the author was sitting next to me answering all the questions I had about how to make my stuff work. In just a week, I went from knowing virtually nothing to being able to finish the first part of the project I'm working on. The other books I had looked at either were too advanced (come on - I've been working in '70's technology!) or were for beginning programmers. It was well-written, easy to follow, and answered all my questions. I would recommend this book for programmers new to SQL Server.
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Summary: Excellent SQL Server 2000 Learning Tool
Review: I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Trainer (MCSE/MCT). I've been teaching SQL Server administration and Visual Basic programming for quite some time. I recently took a look at this new book from WROX and am very impressed. Thearon Willis does a great job of taking your through a learning adventure in SQL Server 2000. Very well written. Great exercises. Keeps your interest all the way through!
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Summary: Taught me everything I needed to know...
Review: I had to learn SQL programming with Visual Basic 6 in about a month's time for a project. This book taught me everything I needed to know to deliver the application. Everytime I came across a stumbling block in my code or in SQL Server 2000 I found the answer in this book.This book will make you feel that you not only know how to make Visual Basic talk to SQL Server, it will make you feel you know more than the basics of SQL Server itself. Previous to reading this book I had no idea what a stored procedure was, or how a query works in SQL Server (I had worked extensively with Microsoft Access, and these skills were not necessarily transferable to SQL Server, though many of the concepts are similar). Now I know my way around SQL Server 2000. This book fulfilled a dual purpose. There are chapters on Database design, SQL Server installation, SQL Server security, Querying, Stored Procedures, the SQL language, IIS, and XML. Most of the book is taken up with what developers do everyday: the storage and manipulation of data. Over 300 pages of the book is dedicated to data in general, and how to get the most out of it using VB and SQL Server. If you need to create a VB6 (there is no discussion of VB.NET since the book predates it) database application using SQL Server, this is the book to start with. Its bulk pays off.
Rating:
Summary: Information Promise - Information delivered
Review: I have just finished Thearon Willis's book and I feel that my money was well spent. I am a Visual Basic programmer that has been working with Oracle for the last 5 years and I felt the need to get up to speed with SQL Server 2000. Per the title of the book I am a BEGINNER with SQL Server and this book met my needs exactly. I actually read the book and manually coded all the examples to build the test projects. Kudos to Mr. Willis for actually testing the code that he put in the book. All examples except one (for the stored procedure for temporary tables, you have to add SET NOCOUNT ON to the script), worked as they were supposed to. The book went into great detail on the logic and function of code used. Every line of code was explained clearly and concisely. I believe the section on XML was superb. I have struggled through a couple of short courses on XML and was left confused and discouraged. This book helped all the pieces fall into place and gave me the confidence and knowledge to actually create XML projects for the real world. Sample code is available for download from Wrox and they do respond to requests for help (the SET NOCOUNT ON issue) in a few days.
Rating:
Summary: Information Promise - Information delivered
Review: I have just finished Thearon Willis's book and I feel that my money was well spent. I am a Visual Basic programmer that has been working with Oracle for the last 5 years and I felt the need to get up to speed with SQL Server 2000. Per the title of the book I am a BEGINNER with SQL Server and this book met my needs exactly. I actually read the book and manually coded all the examples to build the test projects. Kudos to Mr. Willis for actually testing the code that he put in the book. All examples except one (for the stored procedure for temporary tables, you have to add SET NOCOUNT ON to the script), worked as they were supposed to. The book went into great detail on the logic and function of code used. Every line of code was explained clearly and concisely. I believe the section on XML was superb. I have struggled through a couple of short courses on XML and was left confused and discouraged. This book helped all the pieces fall into place and gave me the confidence and knowledge to actually create XML projects for the real world. Sample code is available for download from Wrox and they do respond to requests for help (the SET NOCOUNT ON issue) in a few days.
Rating:
Summary: The book has been marvelous!!!
Review: I have used this book and it has proven to be a highly resourceful Visual Basic and SQL Server book, that I am anxiously waiting for the release of Beginning VB.NET Databases by the same author!!!.
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Summary: Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers
Review: It's very good Books with good Price and (Wrox Press)
Rating: 
Summary: Coding by the Numbers
Review: Not a bad book if you want to be led by the hand through rudimentry coding. It will get you there. It is a bit dry but fairly comprehensive. It will take you through the steps of setting up a connection, performing select queries, updates, deletes. There are a couple of nice chapters on using stored procedures to access SQL Server quickly. This book is also nice in that has lot of hand holding for getting around SQL Server itself, but this book is definitely for beginners. Even for me coming from an Access background and no experience with SQL server found it a little too basic and dry. I don't regret getting it though, I find it's not the book I find my self turning to. But it does spell it out if you're willing to wade through it. I would not get this book as a reference work. Only get it if you want a tutorial.
Rating: 
Summary: OK for starters, but 33 percent irrelevant
Review: OK for beginners who want to know some of the innards of SQL server, but there are two major faults. One is that newbies to networkable machines will find themselves crushed under the weight of networking and communications jargon that the author never explains, and Win98 machines can't handle half of the book. Second, the last third of the book for some 200 pages has nothing to do with VB: the samples are written entirely in XML, DHTML, and a mere snippet of VBScript. There are better VB tools for creating Web apps that can handle big datasets and ActiveX, whereas XML has enfuriatingly slow performance and an unattractive and inflexible interface that looks like something pounded out on a typewriter (remember those?). 5 stars for the first two-thirds, zilch for the remainder.
Rating:
Summary: OK for starters, but 33 percent irrelevant
Review: OK for beginners who want to know some of the innards of SQL server, but there are two major faults. One is that newbies to networkable machines will find themselves crushed under the weight of networking and communications jargon that the author never explains, and Win98 machines can't handle half of the book. Second, the last third of the book for some 200 pages has nothing to do with VB: the samples are written entirely in XML, DHTML, and a mere snippet of VBScript. There are better VB tools for creating Web apps that can handle big datasets and ActiveX, whereas XML has enfuriatingly slow performance and an unattractive and inflexible interface that looks like something pounded out on a typewriter (remember those?). 5 stars for the first two-thirds, zilch for the remainder.
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