Beginning SQL Server 2005 Programming (Programmer to Programmer)

Product Details

Author : Robert Vieira
Paperback: 688 pages
Publisher: Wrox (February 27, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0764584332
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches




Book Description :

After a quick primer on database design basics and the SQL query language (for those programmers who may be building their first database application), this book provides an overview of SQL Server itself, which has been dramatically redesigned with the 2005 release Once readers have grasped the fundamentals of database design and SQL concepts, they will then learn how to implement those concepts with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Addresses creating and changing tables, managing keys, database normalization, writing scripts, working with stored procedures, programming with XML, and using SQL Server reporting and data transformation services The companion Web site provides all of the code found in the book

Spotlight Reviews :

Reviewer: Thomas Phelan (New Jersey)
I purchased this book for 2 reasons. First, I'm in IT and my organization uses quite a few professionally created small/medium SQL Server databases. While I'm familiar with the essentials of SQL Server administration, I wanted to know more about the data side to help me think through problems that arise as well has to help me leverage the data by using it as a source for other applications and custom build databases. I also just started creating small ASP sites and want to use SQL Server 2005 as the back end.

This book is fantastic. Because of the nature of my job I've read a large technical book (500+ pages) every couple of months for years now and this is the best written book I can remember since reading Mark Minasi's "Master Windows 2000 Server" 5 years ago.

This is a beginning book and thus if you have programming and/or SQL Server experience you will probably find more detail than you need--I'd rather have more than less! However, I think it is misleading to think of it merely as a beginning book. After reading it there was little I found in my organization's professionally developed small to medium databases that I do not now understand. I'm sure there is much more to learn when dealing with highly distributed massive databases, but if you're at that level you're certainly not reading this review! After reading this book, I'm now able to create my own custom built databases which read data from our professionally developed databases. For example, I've created custom databases which use our SQL Server based personnel database as the source for basic employee info, thus my custom database does not have to deal with replicating employee information as this information is pulled directly from the source database. I also now know everything I need on the SQL Server side for the small ASP applications I'm creating.

It's hard to put my finger on what I most like about the book. The best term I can come up with is balance. It provides a great balance between background theory and discussion of practical examples. Vieira has a great sense for knowing when discussing theory is the best way to explain something versus knowing when to jump right into an example. The other thing I really like about the book is that his real-world experience is apparent on every page. This book is not just a dry "this is how this function works" book. The book is filled with best practices and small gray boxes which warn of possible pitfalls. He is also not afraid to give his own opinion about possibly controversial issues, but he does so in italics to make it clear he is giving his opinion and he also very clearly states his reasons for his opinion.

In one sentence, I like this book because reading it felt like I was having a private tutoring session with an experienced SQL programmer.

Reviewer: John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV)
Microsoft's SQL Server is a big massive system. Yes, at the core is a database engine that talks in SQL. But beyond that there is a tremendous number of ancillary things that you can and should know. This includes such things as data types, stored procedures, user-defined functions and much, much more.

This book is on beginning to use SQL Server 2005, and it gives a pretty good introduction to programming in T-SQL (the particular variation of SQL that SQL Server understands). But it also spends a lot of time on the other aspects of the SQL Server package so that you see illustrations in the book os the On-Line Books screen, the Server Network Configuration tree, the View Builder, and so on.

The same publisher also puts out a book on Beginning Transact-SQL. I'd recommend that you get both books. The T-SQL language is a fully functional programming language with things like IF statements. If you're serious about working with SQL Server you need all the information you can get. You need this book for its information about the outside programs. You need this book and the T-SQL book because the language is so important. Sometimes looking up the same thing in two books that just simply use different words is important.