SQL Books

I bought this book hoping it would supplement the PeopleSoft SQR class and in general was not disappointed, given my expectations. I knew it wouldn't include anything on PeopleSoft 8; thus the illustrations in the "SQR and PeopleSoft" section are dated. However, the examples in the section on working with effective-dated tables were very useful and apply to all releases. I haven't read the "Advanced Features" section of the book yet, because I was discouraged a bit when I had trouble grasping a few of the concepts in the SQR Basics section. I was pleased that their sample database, on which the reports are based, is modeled on the HRMS JOB, EMPLOYMENT, and PERSDATA tables; however, including sample output with each of their exercise/illustrations would have been helpful.

In summary, if you are a pretty experienced functional person (I am a consultant), are motivated enough to invest the time to learn SQR, and have access to the tool, this may be a good choice. Certainly more information (understandably) than you can get from a five-day SQR class.

You need this book if you are going to write SQR(s). However, you won't use it much with PS 8. You'll use App Engine.

I was working on a problem a couple of years ago and took the suggestion of a co-worker to buy this book. For the last two years I have been using it as a reference. I spent a few months off and came back and embaressed myself puting a report in process scheduler. So I sat down and read the book front to back. I wish I had done this a couple of years ago.

I have been working with SQR for five years. I have used examples and the SQR manuals to accomplish what I wanted. This work provided me with a lot of knowledge that I had never taken the time to pick up. Now even if I take the time off and need a refresher the sections are highlighted.

I have found this book very useful as both a reference and a knoweldge builder. Also, the writing style was good enough that rereading the portions that I was alread aware of was not too irksome. Interestingly, I could swear some of the interview questions I have been asked came right out of this book.

Aside from the fact that there is no other book that teaches SQR, this book is unique and valuable for following reasons:

- It teaches good programming practices. Anyone who has developed in any procedural language (including scripting and query languages) can quickly learn SQR. Therein lies a problem that this book overcomes: the excellent advice given about program development and structure can offset bad habits picked up in other languages.

- It's a definitive resource for SQR developers. Although SQR is relatively easy to learn, it's also rich with features missing from most other languages, such as complete control over printed and screen output, built-in constructs for graphs and charts, and multiple output file formats. Using many of these features not easy for beginners or programmers more used to other languages, but this book shows by example how to exploit every feature SQR has to offer.

- It dispels the common notion that SQR is a PeopleSoft-only tool. In fact, PeopleSoft doesn't own the language, and SQR will work in any database environment. More important, the book shows how to develop application and database independent programs that will work in any environment. This is an awakening for those who are going down proprietary paths, such as standardizing on Oracle's PL/SQL. While PL/SQL itself a powerful language, but is limited to Oracle - migrating from Oracle to, say, DB2 requires that all PL/SQL programs be scrapped. Had the applications and reports been developed in SQR the only changes would be to tables referenced.

In addition to the above, this book also provides good practices for forming SQL queries and understanding how a poorly formed join can make the difference between a resource hog and an unintrusive application. Since SQL, like SQR, is easy to learn many developers take the path of least resistance and develop queries with no thought on their effect on production systems. This book gives sound advice for avoiding that mistake.

The section on PeopleSoft, while out of date with respect to version 8, still contains valuable information for the majority of SQR developers whose exposure to SQR is via PeopleSoft.

There is something for everyone in this book - beginners can learn SQR the right way, and seasoned developers will have a ready reference that covers almost every facet of SQR in practical terms. If your job is primarily SQR development I also recommend that you also get a copy of "SQR Programmer Reference" by Don Mellen (ISBN 0967773008) as a quick reference to the features and nuances of SQR.

Expert systems designer and programmer Vlad Landres and PeopleSoft specialist Galina Landres have completely revised and updated this second edition of SQR In PeopleSoft And Other Applications. Covering the fundamentals of the SQR version 6, and how to integrate SQR programs with PeopleSoft version 8, SQR In PeopleSoft And Other Applications is packed from cover to cover with reusable code examples, warnings of pitfalls, efficient methods, effective-dated tables, complete SQR syntax reference, and so much more. There is no shortage of solid advice and demonstrations in this straightforward and strongly recommended "hands-on" guide.

Very good book, lots of useful info that goes beyond the normal documentation.

The content reveals a lot of details of RS. However, I had a hard time to make the samples running.

I found this book to have lots of information, but if you learn best by hands on examples, this is not the book for you. The author shows you a report already done and gives a quick explanation of how he got there. It is not a step-by-step type of book. As a lot of the examples shown do not have a how-to to go with it, I found this book not a good place to start. There are others that are more hands-on and step-by-step which are easier to learn from.

Having said that, if you've had some Reporting Services experience and are just looking to brush up on techniques and/or learn additional techniques, then this book will probably save you the tediousness of having to go through a step-by-step example that you have already done in the past.

Being a Microsoft trainer, and needing to get up to speed in a hurry, I found this book - luckily. This book was able to give me the answers to the "how do I do..." questions I had, and then enabled me to explain these concepts to my students.

Teo's style is easy to read, and he makes it easy to see how you can apply his examples to your reporting needs.

If you need to get up to speed on Reporting Services in a hurry, and need a book you can refer to in the future, this is the one.

The project: create a secure, distributed, Internet-facing, interactive ASP.Net reporting application for a Very Large Customer. The schedule: short. The budget: low. Amazingly, we got it done, and I credit Teo and this book with helping us meet our requirements.

The Microsoft Reporting Services 1.0 documentation is not very useful to the newcomer, and with 7 months' experience now, I can also say it's not very useful to the rising journeyman. The product is quirky, with surprising gaps and baroque security features. Without expert guidance from someone who has worked with the RS dev team I don't see how anybody would get much done with Reporting Services 1.0.

Teo Lachev worked intensively with the Microsoft dev team and the book shows it. Perhaps one of the reasons other reviews here gripe about the examples is that the most useful examples are the non-trivial ones in the second half of the book. Report authoring is the easy part! Delivering your reports to your users in the ways they demand is the hard part, and in my opinion this is where Teo's book shines.

It is no exaggeration to state that without Teo's book, and in particular his discussion of custom security extensions for Reporting Services, we would have failed to deliver the goods. But we succeeded... thanks Teo.

Groovy brings advanced language features such as closures, dynamic typing, and the meta object protocol to the Java platform, and at the same time makes your codebase smaller and more concise. By concise I don't mean so compact that nobody can understand it. Groovy builds on your existing experience and familiarity with the Java platform and allows you to pick and choose when to use particular tools and when to combine Groovy and Java.

The book begins by introducing you to what you will need to compile and run Groovy as far as jar files and tools. Part one of the book is entirely dedicated to the language basics: syntax, grammar, and typical idioms. The language is presented via a combination of examples and discussion. The descriptions are detailed but are not overly academic. Chapter two is most important here, because that is where many of the examples lie that you will need to come back to later in the book.

Part 2, "Around the Groovy Library", explores how Groovy extends the Java Runtime Environment. Part one of the book demonstrated how Groovy makes commonly performed tasks easier. The second part shows how the same principle is applied in Groovy's libraries, using many of the advanced language features available to let you do more work with less code. Chapter 8 introduces the builder concept, which is one of Groovy's distinctive capabilities, because it can only be implemented in a general library class with a truly dynamic language. There are builders that come as part of the Groovy distribution, and you are also shown how to create your own builders. Chapter 9 covers the object/method pure GDK library capabilities. Chapter 10 goes covers Groovy's library support for dealing with relational database systems, providing great flexibility when necessary, and significant shortcuts when simple solutions will do. Chapter 11 presents various methods of making Java applications more dynamic by integrating them with Groovy. I found this to be one of the book's most useful chapters, but you need the first 10 for chapter 11 to make sense.

Part 3 supplies guidance on how to best apply your new Groovy knowledge to practical tasks. Chapter 13 reveals tricks of the trade - how to avoid common errors, using snippet collections, and command-line and automation support. Chapter 14 is about unit testing. I just skimmed this part since the subject doesn't appeal to me. Chapter 15 takes Java and Groovy to the Windows platform. It shows how to put Groovy's expressiveness into action for the automation of Windows controls and applications. Finally, chapter 16 looks at Grails and shows how it leverages J2EE, Hibernate, Spring, and Groovy to allow rapid application development.

This book is a great introduction to Groovy, and even at its rather advanced age for a programming book it is still the best of the Groovy introductory texts. However, I am a person who needs an extreme amount of examples to really get something. For that reason I also highly recommend Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java (Pragmatic Programmers). What this book lacks in examples that book has. What that book lacks in detailed explanation, this book has. Thus they go hand in hand extremely well.

Highly recommend the book to those starting to learn Groovy and as a reference for those that are somewhat familiar with it.

I feel like Groovy is like a programming language "Eintopf", it aggregates some best characteristics of a variety of programming languages. No matter which programming style you prefer - procedural, functional, object-oriented, meta-programming, static typed, dynamic typed... - Groovy has much to offer. The most beautiful thing is, you can easily combine different programming styles in one language and write most concise and self-explanatory code to solve your problem. With Groovy, you suddenly have so much mind-freedom, you have the choice of expressing your algorithms as close to the nature of the problems as possible.

There are languages having very concise syntax but the code is not easy for human to read. There are languages and APIs require more strikings on keyboard than thinking. Groovy is different. You have all kinds of syntax sugar while the code still tells a literal story in your problem domain.

The only fields I think Groovy might not be suitable are the machine-level infrastructures and image/audio/video processing. C and assembly languages are not replaceable by Groovy. In most other application fields, using Groovy can dramatically boost programmers' productivity and reduce programming errors.

I started off by simply renaming all .java files in my test packages to .groovy files. Worked. Then tried out it's closures and curry calls. For me there are a lot more to explore. Haskel fans will like Groovy. Smalltalk fans will like Groovy. Python fans will like Groovy. Lisp fans maybe too. Java folks? I for one, have already been conquered. If you program at all, by all means do yourself a favour and have a look at Groovy.

Groovy in Action is an excellent book on Groovy and programming. Get this book and get the insight, you'll be glad you do.

For those of you who haven't heard of Groovy, Groovy is a scripting language that is built on top of Java. Since it is written on top of Java, a Java developer can pick up pick Groovy in a snap.

I first heard about Groovy In Action (also known as GINA) during a Groovy presentation almost a year ago, the presenter was referring to Groovy In Action as one of the best references out at the time, After reading GINA, I was not disappointed. The roadmap given at the beginning of the book is a great guide to see how the book is organized out. As an added bonus, the book includes some great reference information at the end of the book. It contains Groovy Language information, a GDK API quick reference, and several great cheat sheets for items such as closures, lists, etc.

The book is full of great examples that you can use (some of the examples illustrate some of the finer points of the language).

In fact someone recently asked about where to find a complete specification of the Groovy Language. Guillaume Laforge, Groovy Program Manager and co-author of Groovy In Action, responded that the most current information can be found in Groovy In Action (source user@groovy.codehaus.org mailing list 3/16/2008).

Groovy in Action is one of the Groovy books that is a must have for anyone looking to get into Groovy Development.

This book is totally awesome. The book makes it very easy to jump around and come back to previous chapters. The book's online forum is great too. The author(s) respond very quickly. It is well worth the money. Order it now and you will be programming in Groovy very quickly.

I looked in several books regarding this subject and think this is the best book about PHP/Mysql. I just read the first chapter because I am presently too busy with adobe Actionscript. Hope have time soon to continue it.

This is a fairly long book at 858 pages. It is well worth your time. It's well written and therefore, easy to read. Each section gives a detailed explanation, followed by a well commented code example. The index is extensive so it will serve as a good PHP and MySQL reference. The books layout also makes for easy reading. Each chapter, 33 in all, is just long enough to be read in a day, and covers its topic extensively.

I would call this an intermediate level PHP book. It goes beyond your beginning PHP books. Yes, it covers PHP and MySQL basics in the first two sections. And then, it gets into the meat of why your learning PHP and MySQL with major sections on "Planning Web Applications", "Implementing you Web Application, and three "Sample Projects."

What I thought this book added that the basic PHP books do not cover was a constant attention to web security. If security could be a problem in each section of the book, the security issue was explained, and the example showed you how to protect your application from the potential security problem. It also covered areas that are usually glossed over in beginning books, such as cookies & sessions, secure (encryped) layer, user authentication, error handling, form validation, and regular expressions.

You can hardly go wrong with this book, it will give you a solid foundation for whatever you want to do in web development. I highly recommend it.

As an experience programmer from ASP.Net, I can say that this is a good book for getting into PHP. The book paces pretty well, making sure you get the necessary basics but not bore you with overstuffed material.

The only thing that annoys me, is the amount of typos on the samples and sample codes. If you are a seasoned programmer like me, you will pick them up with no problem before testing them. But for the novice, it could give them extra time debugging.

Still I recommend this book.

I don't write reviews unless I feel very strongly about the book. This is indeed the first time I wrote in amazon.com.
I feel this is the one book you must have for web application development using PHP and mySQL, although frankly there are many good ones around too. I have seen many books and I strongly recommend this.
It has a comprehensive coverage. Many reviews have mentioned it so I am not going to repeat. I find that I learned something not covered in other books - about building robust, secured, and efficient codes. I have not seen people write that kind of codes for PHP. Marc has been most generous in shraring these with the readers. The 3 last projects were superb. It is well suited for the techie.

I have had bad luck with the core series of books in the past, they are in desperate need of both a copywriter/spellchecker, and technical fact checker. However this was a very pleasant surprise - it suffered from neither of the above mentioned problems . the author covered topics most other books cover i.e., Unicode handling, Security, and his explanation of OOP in PHP is the best I have ever read.

I would recommend this book to anyone planning to write PHP.

I had always had problems with trying to figure out how to use Sub Selects. Now I feel silly for not "getting it" quicker. This book has been a big help in me learning about the capabilities of MySQL in general.

Money very well spent.

This is also a great book for those just wanting to learn SQL. The examples are great.

If MySQL will suite your needs then this book is for you. I read the book cover-to-cover in my downtime at work over a few days and walked away with a solid understanding of MySQL.
Unfortunately MySQL isn't the most mature database solution, but if it's good enough for your project, then this is a great resource.

If you are considering MySQL you may not know how, but you are not a dummy. This book is not for dummys in that it doesn't patronize nor take you into convoluted scenarios, this book is for the reasonably intelligent who want to do stuff. What a blessing.

I was familiar with databases having worked with MS Access, but I had never worked with SQL. This book hit the spot in showing me what I needed to know to get going. I am now using MySQL successfully with a Java/Struts front end. While I found a few small gaps in this book, it has helped tremendously in my learning journey in that it gets to the point with minimum emotional overhead and verbosity, unlike MySQL (4th Edition) (Developer's Library) which I have found to be pretty useless and weighty after reading Forta's book.

This book has clear, short, well labeled chapters to find what you need. Highly recommended.

As others have said, this is a great book for beginners, whether in MySQL or in databases in general. Because I have a lot of database experience, I went throught it very quickly.

When I started to apply some of the techniques I learned to existing applications, I found out VERY quickly that this is insufficient as a reference. Each topic has enough hands-on examples to give you a start, but not nearly enough depth to use for looking things up.

I thought that Appendix B on creating the sample tables might have been a little abbreviated for the novice user. It refers to Chapter 2 to create a new datasource, but I think it was a little confusing jumping back and forth between the appendix and the chapter. This might be better as an exercise right in the chapter.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a starting point.

If you are fairly familiar with the concept of a database, this book could very well be all you need to get going. My issue with it is that it skimps on some of the very basic stuff. For example, it never goes over the syntax of the create call for creating a database, doesn't explain calling mysql at the command prompt as a particular user, gives you 11 chapters on manipulating data before showing you how to create a table, waits for chapter 28 to mention administering users, and puts datatypes in the appendix. These are the first things I wanted to learn. By the time I was done googling these concepts, I got pretty good at mySql and knew where to find better resources. At that point, the book became a very light reference.

Got the equavalent of what it cost me after about 5 minutes. Great reference and have just recently started at chapter 3 for in-depth how to instructions.

Well written.

This book is fairly comprehensive. There were just a few topics I would have liked to have seen more on. All in all, it really helped me get the job done.

This book was just what I needed. I'm an RPG programmer who has to learn SQL for a new application we're developing. Found most of what I needed here.

I had a vendor in the day this came to work. He asked me if I had a good SQL book and I replied, "Let's find out" and opened the box. It was perfect for what we needed. I have used it several times and it is easy to read. Being new at SQL on the 400, I am a little frustrated with the index. I was trying to figure out how to substring and couldn't find a reference anywhere. Twice I have had to forego the book and ask another person.
It is a great learning tool and I'm very glad I bought it.

SQL the standard for data access is now presented in a AS400/iSeries user format. The differences that exist for the DB2/400 user are minor but significant enough to warrant 500 pages plus.

Conte and Cravitz flood the text with real working examples that hit homeruns with the IBM midrange user. Yet, minus the sprinkling of RPG/ILE & Cobol code any DB2 user would find the text extremely helpful.

Keep this book at the ready since it's a "quick grab" when questions come up regarding triggers, UDF's or Database Modeling and design.

The Book is a great starting point for the AS400/iSeries guru looking to open their database to the outside world. With a solid SQL footing the JDBC mountain is a much easier climb.

Conte & Cravitz keep up the great work!

If you're a moderately skilled programmer, a self-learner, and you want to get beyond just "getting started" deploying and using Sql Server 2000 Reporting Services, this is the book for you.

I especially found the chapters on customized set up extremely helpful. The installation wizard doesn't offer a whole lot of options, and most of teh time you don't know fully how you want to configure it until you've tried it out. You'll get some good starters on rconfiguring your installation here.

You'll get enough basics to be ready to dive in, and then some tricks well enough beyond that to give you well on your way to devleoping customized solutions.

For a total beginner (which I definately was) this is a FANTASTIC introduction to Reporting Services. Three months after starting my first job as a programmer straight out of University, and now I'm the main person in the firm with Reporting Services knowledge - and it's all thanks to this book.

The writing style is actually excellent for beginners, as I was terrified by the prospect of reading such a mammoth. But these guys make it fun and interesting to read (right down to the jokes and sidenotes) and really do touch on everything you need in a useful manner without boring you.

And excellent resource that now never leaves my desk. I can only hope these guys do a SQL Sever 2005 one. I cannot recommend this book enough for those starting on Reporting Services. It really is the book to read.

And if you are looking for a book on SQL Reportin 2005 - I would still recommend this book to give you the basics and introduction which is unbeatable thus far.

I really the beginning part on the setup and installation of the reporting services themselves. At my firm we needed to set up a seperate server for this purpose and the IT group was swamped with another project and this helped a great deal. I still am workign on development but the book has been very usefula and easy to understand.

Now that all the friends and family have promoted the book...

In order to understand something new, we all must relate that which we're learning to that which we already know.
Pete and Bill have a difficult time transitioning from campy comedians to thoughtful educators. To this extent, their writing style lacks any useful analogies whatsoever which might bridge the gap between the known and the unknown.

The book is full of droll and distracting fantasy references which are completely irrelevant to the subject matter, and are prone to taking the unsuspecting reader off task.

The potential purchaser should also be forewarned that the authors tend towards another immature trait of attempting to impress the reader with their linguistic abilities. Yet, to be effective at teaching they should have remembered to never use a complicated word where a simple one will do.

Many examples are rambling and inconcise, where step-by-step quickly degrades into an ambiguous and vague path.

Not every developer can obtain DOMAIN Authority in order to issue SSL certificates and it's too bad that the authors don't allow for this type of scenario, especially when a reporting system is on a VPN.

All of the content is there, but it's up to the reader to filter and translate most of it from the pitfalls aforementioned into something more to the center of the bell curve.

This book has been written from a VB programmers point of view. If you want to just start creating reports or if you're not a VB programmer (ie DBA etc) you may find this hard work.As another reviewer mentioned, you may find the authors' jokes and writing style to be a hit and miss affair.

Nevertheless, there is some depth on Reporting Services not to be found elsewhere that is quite handy.

Real World Microsoft Access Database Protection and Security
I found it to be a good rescouce of the various stages of MSAccess DB developing protection for a data base. The end user would also benefit by having a reliable data base.
Braxton Foist

This was a great find. I just wish I had read it sooner. There are things in here that every Access developer should read. Lots of good advice, techniques, and code samples. Very well-written and easy to follow. Right to the point. I especially appreciate the humility that Garry shows in his writing. He obviously knows more than most about Access, yet he gives credit where it is due and provides lots of links for the reader to go out and get the background themselves.

I have read some of the other (excellent in their own right) big books on MS Access, and there were a couple of "non-security" things in here that I did not find elsewhere (not to mention the security issues that were new to me). I highly recommend this book for anyone who may be creating a multi-user database.

Gary Robinson is a master at Access security and this book proves it! This is one of the books that stays on the shelf close to me when I am developing. It has great resources for setting up different types of security and he provides forms and code to help you develop security based on your needs. I highly recommend this for developers, especially those who are just designing more complex databases and need a good background on security. He is such a great resource that I subscribe to his newsletter now! I can only hope that he writes another book soon! A+

All of the other reviews pretty much say it all, but I wanted to place a more recent review in the list. Although I have just started using some of the basics Gary clearly discusses, I am anxious to get to the rest. Being able to secure Access has always been in the back of my mind. Now I know I can tackle the issue and get it done in a consistent manner that I can carry into all my Access projects. Thanks for the good work Garry.

A good book will find the reader. I would like to thank Mr. Robinson for a well written read. Besides all the other things I have in my life to do I was able to finish his work in about two weeks. I have read all the other reviews; there is nothing I can add. I can however tell you that if you are into Access database (and you know if you are) then this book is an imperative. I have had many books on Access database pass my way, nothing compares with Mr. Robinsons' book on security and protection.

Mr. Robinsons' is the first technical book on Access I have ever read from cover to cover with a never ending want to turn the page to see what Mr. Robinson was going to teach me next. I'm going to begin a reread of his work and this time I'm going to use the examples with both Northwind and my own database to incorporate his methods; especially enjoying combining the OS and workgroup security to provide my data a secure base from my clients, friends and enemies.

His book provided me ample margin to take copious notes along with my read, it will prove helpful in preparing for deployment. Mr. Robinson is a professional database administrator and this book is written as from such, you will think like he does at the end of this read and be the better for it. Mr. Robinson is a wonderful dbase admin, author, and now teacher. Again many thanks for his efforts and a heartfelt appreciation for my newly gained knowledge. Should Mr. Robinson ever have a worldwide tour on the subject, sign me up.

All of the reviews are positive, I suggest a review of Mr. Robinsons' Table of Contents and more important, the wonderful Index. A review of these documents will give you better insight into the level of Access database security Mr. Robinson clearly and distinctly explains. Mr. Robinson has the world's attention on this security subject and rightfully deserves it.

The Table of Contents and Index may be found at:

View the table of contents (http://www.vb123.com/get/AccessSecurityBook_TOC.pdf)in PDF format.
View the index file (http://www.vb123.com/get/mapindex.pdf) in PDF format.

Tom Pickett
May 9, 2006
Berea, South Carolina USA

This book is a MAINSTAY in my reference library. Though I do only limited back-end development in the applications I work on, this is the first book I look for when I need to be pointed in the right direction. I highly recommend it!

I bought this book as a complete Oracle novice, transitioning from Microsoft T-SQL to PL/SQL. I was worried about the transition being difficult until I read this book.

It is one of those very rare books that presents advanced concepts in a context understandable by users of all experience levels. The author often throws in tips about Oracle PL/SQL quirks to watch out for, as well as some very applicable information about how Oracle works internally.

I've since become more comfortable with PL/SQL, and the book also serves as a great reference. I highly encourage you to read this book straight through.

I recommend this well-written book to anybody wanting to learn PL/SQL, as well as anyone needing a great reference.

Although the information was accurate and useful, I think the strength of this book was it's clear and logical presentation. It is easy to read and very helpful. For example, I needed to know how to dynamically build the "where" clause for select statements and his chapter on DBMS_SQL gave me the tools to accomplish my task at work.

This is definitely an excellent book. No one should rank it less than 5 stars just because it was published in 1996. Please do some research before talk. Actually, Scott Urman has wrote a book, "Oracle8 PL/SQL Programming", which was published in 1997. Buy this one if you want to learn PL/SQL 8.0.

Oracle 8 is out and in this book it only covers to Oracle 7. It is a very well written book. It is a valuable reference however it was published in 1996. Still looking for Oracle SQL Plus 8.0 AND the PL/SQL Programming. I hope the author steps up to the plate and updates his work.

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!!!.

It's very good Books with good Price and (Wrox Press)

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.

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.

This is an excellent introduction to SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic 6.0 developers. I used this book and Robert Vieira's Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming (Also by Wrox) to study for the Designing and Implementing Databases using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 exam (70-229). The 2 chapters on XML were especially good. Thearon does his best work when he works solo and this book is one of his best. I have his SQL Server 7 book and both books are well-written. I really like the "Hardware Tracking" tutorial that he follows for most of the book. This tutorial will also help with your Visual Basic skills. I have learned several new VB tricks just by following along. I hope that Thearon writes a Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic.Net Developers.