SQL Books

This book was a pleasant surprise, I was looking for an introduction to SQL Server and this book was exactly that. The chapters were all in manageable sizes with the right amount of detail and exercises (%95+ worked as expected) to reinforce the topic. I don't usually write reviews, but if you are looking like I was for a book provide a basic introduction to SQL Server 2008 I would recommend this one. As a bonus there script which the author says can be used in production to perform backups.

After spent the past few years as developer/DBA for Oracle databases, SQL server is required during my recent projects. I find myself often spending too much time on simple issues such as how to perform a date and/or date time search. Microsoft SQL/T-SQL syntax is a little bit different from Oracle PL/SQL syntax.

This book really saves me time and effort. This format of this book is like a technical how-to manual or cook book. I extremely love this kind of format because I can quickly refer to a particular issue. The topic is usually concise and easy to understand.

This book is for developers not DBAs. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn SQL Server 2008. Of course, basic programming skills are the pre-requisites. In addition, it is very useful as an excellent technical reference book for more experienced programmers.

Without this book, I would still be guessing my way through MySQL.

I would describe myself as more of a 'hands-on' web developer, so reading long, lengthy books would not be my cup of tea. Then here comes this book - and boy, did it make a difference. The way it was formatted - as stated in the title, just for a weekend (which works great because it makes you want to actually finish it in a weekend, like I did!), is great and I had the book to pace my speed for me, which I like so that I know this book won't actually take me a few months to complete like some of these bigger books.

In conclusion, I would suggest that all people to want to learn MySQL (and fast!) should pick this book up.

Optimizing SQL is one of the favorite books in my libarary. It gives you a comprhensive information about SQL especially regarding embedded SQL in other host languages.

DON'T MISS IT !!!

This is an excellent book by one of the best know Oracle gurus. This is not a DBA guide, but is specifically for programmers (C language for example) that will be developing database applications with the Oracle database system. With this book, we completed our first large Oracle application. This book covers Pro*C, Embedded SQL, PL/SQL and more , basically all the options that you have for developing Oracle applications, and it is filled with working code examples. If this is out of print, it is certainly worth the search, perhaps there is a new version in the works for Oracle 8.

This isn't a review. amazon lists this book as having 1200 pages, but the publisher only claims 500 while another vendor says 480.

In over 8 years I've never found a SQL book so thoroughly complete for SQL beginners. While the examples are specific to Oracle version 6.0, the principles are still as pertinent for version 8i. Approximately 90% of the teaching and information from this book can be applied to other dbms's. This is a must have for anyone who is just beginning to learn the Oracle SQL language.

This collection of scripts is a great starter kit for new DBAs because it contains highly useful code for nearly all of the basic administration, tuning and troubleshooting tasks encountered on the job.

What I like is this isn't just a collection of code on a CD ROM, but each script is carefully explained in the text of the book. For someone like myself who is still in OCP training the explanations are almost as valuable as the code. Although the title claims that the scripts are for Oracle 9i, they also work with 8i, and the book covers what modifications (if any) need to be made to use each script in earlier versions of Oracle.

Hysterical!
Insightful!
Chock full of information!
A must read!
Worth every penny-weight!

Distributed application programming has become very popular during last few years. Working with distributed data is one of the greatest challenges for SQL Server developers and administrators. That's why software vendors such as Microsoft provide tools and features that help in developing applications connected to many data sources, where asynchronous data processing and heterogenous database management systems are used.

The book from APress written by .NET expert Klaus Aschenbrenner (awarded twice with Microsoft MVP - C#) describes how Service Oriented Architecture can be implemented using native SQL Server 2008 mechanism - Service Broker. Over 500 pages is full of well organized knowledge on this feature, its capabilities and practical scenarios.

Klaus starts in the first chapters with some basics of SOA and SODA, then walks through the details of Service Broker objects and after that he provides more and more details on practical aspects of SOA implementations with Service Broker. What I like the most in this book is that I can easily find the answers for my questions. The book is really well organized, all chapters are sorted by difficulty level.

First four chapters contain full description of all Service Broker objects. This seems to be a very good approach because Service Broker is quite new and not explored technology in SQL Server. After those chapters the reader has knowledge that allows to step further into the world of SODA.

Then there are some important chapters about transactional processing and distributed applications built with Service Broker. I must admit this part is much more difficult than first chapters but gives you very detailed knowledge on more advanced aspects of building Service Broker based applications.

My favorites are chapter 10 and chapter 12. Chapter 10 contains real-world application scenarios documented with complete code. The author explains each application in details. This chapter is the second after chapter 5 (about transactions) that contains .NET code. It shows real-world scenarios where Service Broker can save much of the development time and is probably the best way to implement the desired functionality. Priceless. In chapter 12 a reader can find solutions for most frequent issues and the ways to monitor and troubleshoot Service Broker processes. Remus Rusanu, a well known Service Broker expert, participated in writing this chapter. I met Remus this year at European PASS Conference and I must say I've never seen anyone so advanced in Service Broker technology. Remus has given some really valuable tips on how to maintain SODA oriented applications in SQL Server 2008. I could easily find answers for most of my questions referring to Service Broker issues and its performance. This is probably most useful chapter for advanced developers and for administrators facing problems with SODA applications connected to their databases.

My final grade for the book is excellent (5/5). This is the book for every SQL Server user who wants to dive deeply into Service Broker internals. I think the book will become the practical guide for many SQL Server developers and DBA.

Also, I have to mention that all code samples are ready and free for download on APress website (http://www.apress.com/).