Sybase Books

I use this for reference while working on Sybase 11.9.2. It's an excellent in-depth book. Includes basic SQL through procs and cursors to detailed tuning information. Only the index could use some improvement.

This is the bible for Sybase developer. I actually never finished reading this book cover to cover(tried few times but failed and gave up eventually) due to its rather dry writing style. But, now that I have an odd job of being moribund Sybase developer, I found myself referencing this book time after time. I also have the printout of the official Sybase documentation on Transact-SQL but the examples in this book are much better.

Only complaint I have is, they don't start talking about Stored Procs until later in the book. And, I think most developer learn Transct-SQL language so that they can write the Stored Procedures so the order of the presentation seemed little odd.

Although there aren't too many Sybase databases anymore, quite a few firms (esp. in Finance) have them and if you find yourself working with Sybase I strongly recommend this book. It's been a great. The sections on Error handling (Ch.9), transactions and locking (Ch.11) and built-in Functions (Ch.12) have been invaluable over the years.
A really good book for someone who knows standard SQL (SQL-92) quite well and just needs to know the ins-and-outs of Sybase despite the fact that the books is a number of years old.

Judging from the other reviews here, people either love this book or they hate it. I love it. This book has proved invaluable to me over the years, and I still reference it on occassion. Whenever I have a question about something, the answer is easy to find. It *is* out of date, as other reviewers have noted, but the majority of information contained within is still valid.

If you're new to T-SQL, I recommend starting with this book.

I purchased my copy back in 1999 and it is one of my favorite SQL books. I find the information very accurate and relevant to the MS SQL versions (6.5 & 7.0) printed on the cover of the book. I think it was the best SQL book for many years. Since 1999, many books for newer versions of database servers have been published.

For some reason, many people who wrote bad reviews about this book were looking for MS SQL 2000 information -the cover states the versions covered in the book.

There are many newer books that cover MS SQL 2000. One of my favorites is SQL Server 2000 Programming from Robert Vieira.

I am a certified DBA for other systems & servers. I haven't worked with Sybase servers for several years. This book was just what I needed to jog my memory and compare programs & procedures with other database systems that I am more familiar with. If you are experienced with other database servers this book is the handy reference book that explains how Sybase interprets the basics of database programming and development. If you are a beginner - then I would use this book as a suppliment to other materials. It is a great "quick-reference" book with a Sybase perspective on database development & programming.

I have been a DBA for the past 5 years, but using other database systems. I am now working with Sybase, of which I have been the primary admin at my shop for the past year. Just what this book is useful for I have yet to encounter. Every time I have run into a hard problem requiring urgent attention, this book has been useless and sometimes doesn't even address my particular problem, let alone offer a solution. I used to pull it down and look for a solution when I got into trouble. Now I don't bother - it's just gathering dust.

Pretty neat book ...with lot of helpful tips. Definitely for an advanced user only!! Good desktop reference to own. Don't get daunted by the small print of the book ( in comparison to some other Sybase books!! ) Takes reader through all the concepts of Database Administration and also servers as a ready reckoner.

* Bad index, so I can not use it as a reference book.

* Chapters 1, 2 and 3, whom are they geared to? Not that much useful.

* It is always hard to find answers to simple and basic questions, if exists in the book at all.

* It may be useful to an expert database programmer that is Sybase beginner, as a book to get snippets of information about Sybase. That is on the bases of something better than nothing.

I really liked the book. Most of the Sybase books you see are written for DBA's. This is an excellent guide for the everyday programmer. The author does a great job coving stored procedures and triggers. Very easy to understand and informative. I would give this book 4.8 stars. My only knock on the book is the index. It's a little too small. Overall an excellent book.

I got this book before I attended the Sybase Replication Server course and I found it hard to understand the concepts and explanations in the book. I re-read this book after I have attended the Sybase course and found that it is easier to understand. It's a good book to have if you are still using Replication Server 11.0. Things are slightly different in versions 11.5 and above. If you want another book to suppliment the Sybase manuals, this is a reasonably good book (not that you have many choices).

The level of detail is wrong from start to finish. It's too detailed to give you a good introduction to replication architecture. It's too general to be useful for hands-on work. There's a market out there for a real replication primer; too bad this isn't it.

I wanted a book on sybase replication server and bought this book since this was the only one available.

I found the Sybase supplied manuals to be easier than this book. teh course which sybase offers is also good.

I regret buying this book

If you are looking for a detailed, comprehensive book on rep srvr, are in the middle of implementing a complex rep environment, or don't have time to take the classes, this book is an EXCELLENT resource. Mr. Clifford's target audience is those already reasonably versed in Rep (I am a former Sybase Prof. Services consultant & Sybase Education instructor). Sybase's manuals are generalized to some degree whereas Mr. Clifford's book provides the level of detail necessary to understand this complex topic without being excessively verbose. The writing style is clear and to the point. Keep in mind that this was written in 1995 and ASE and RS have changed since then. What are the chances for a 2nd edition for RS 12.0?

I bought this "primer" book because I thought it can help me to understand the Sybase Replication Server better. But this book is difficult to read and understand. You can learn much more from the Sybase manuals that come with the Replication Server. Sadly, this is the only Sybase Replication Server book which is available commercially. But it will get you no where. Save your money.

Look closely at the complete title, "Expert Series".
As beginner to Sybase I was looking for a basic Admin guide, this is not it.
It does appear to be well laid out but is geared toward someone with vastly more experience than I presently possess.

I was very disappointed when I tried to install this book onto my PC and failed many times ! Seems something wrong with this CD-ROM and it can not be recognized by Win-95 ! If anyone out there has any idea how to install it or get a refund on the CD (not the book itself, since I still need it) from Amazon, please let me know. Many thanks in advance !

Got to the index, and it is for ver 5.0. Very disappointed

A history of the company is all well and good, but a "developer's guide" should say something about referential integrity, "triggers", and "GRANT"s. It doesn't.
Also, the references to "locks" and transactional "COMMIT"s is skimpy.
Be wary of any book that rambles without concrete examples.
This one does. What a rip-off!

Let me open with this handbook's positives. It has reasonably useful BNF-like syntaxes for SQL and statements useful to the administration and tuning of SYBASE installations. The author also does a good job detailing the history of SYBASE's growth and development, and the differences between products on the market. Several chapters offer fair introductions to a variety of topics. For a DBA's handbook, I might give this a mediocre two stars.

Stop here if you're a Developer, though, and look for a Developer's Handbook elsewhere, because this book falls short of what it actually claims to be. There's nothing on Transact-SQL, all the add-on statements that SYBASE supports like dateadd(), etc. The programming APIs most developers are likely to use such as OpenClient, is given a cursory example chapter which does little to explain OpenClient's intricacies. Instead, the example (whose C code is in double-spaced Courier type which fills space by having approximately fifteen lines of code per page of code listings) is heavily lifted from SYBASE's own OpenClient example program (only the SQL statement being performed programmatically appears to differ).

Lastly, there's absolutely nothing about Python integration in this book, if that matters to you. But even if it doesn't, the poor typography, numerous typos and grammatical errors, and general lack of new or useful information to anyone already acquainted with SYBASE should be taken as strong signs to spend your documentation dollars elsewhere for a developer's handbook for this RDBMS.

This book seems to be aimed at 'beginer' level users. Even for beginers, as it is based on version 10, it is pretty outdated now.... I would not go out and buy it.

I have read his other books as well...like the "Rep server admin", but that is a much better book in comparison.

This book was terribly written, contained few examples and was pretty useless as a dba handbook.