Reviews for Inside Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005: T-SQL Querying (Solid Quality Learning)

1. Superb and detailed SQL Server quering book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2009

   This book covers ground in SQL that I was unfamiliar with and explains it all very competently.
   
   The topics I found interesting where those regarding: aggregating and pivoting data - the OVER clause, and the CUBE and ROLLUP clauses. He also covers TOP and APPLY in detail.
   
   A very good chapter on Graphs, Trees, Hierarchies and Recursive Queries.
   
   I found some of the content quite challenging, and had to go over a few times before I 'got' it.
   
   The Logic puzzles in the Appendix are very entertaining and quite relevant too.
   
   I am looking forward to the 2008 version of this book, which I understand is even better than this one!
   
   Highly recommended. If you want to take your SQL knowledge a notch higher as a developer, you can't go wrong with this book. I would also recommend "The SQL Cookbook" in the O'Reilly Series.

2. Very good book regarding SQL

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2008

   This is a fair thick volume containing a wealth of knowledge regarding SQL server. Much of the work and example are specific to MS SQL Server 2005, but where this is the case it is clearly pointed out, often with examples to achieve the same effect in previous version given. That said much of the theory (specifically in the initial chapters of the book) are more general and can be applied across all major relational database implementing SQL.
   
   The author is clearly an expert in the field.
   
   The book does contain a chapter on Optimising SQL queries, however it is fairly sparse and should not be used as much more than an introduction and "a few pointers" on what to look for when one begins optimisation.
   I look forward to reading "Inside Microsoft® SQL Server(tm) 2005: Query Tuning and Optimization" (another book in the series) but have not done so yet.
   
   The book continues to fairly indepth and advance search techniques, covering subjects such as pivot queries, recursion, and grouping with options like ROLLUP and CUBE.
   
   I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who has some previous experience in database development and is looking to improve their skills in the field.
   
   UPDATE: Roughly 1 year after buying this book, I am upgrading my review to 5 stars. It has become my defacto reference guide for SQL.

3. An excellent well written book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2008

   I looked through the reviews of the books with SQL in the title and opted for this one as is had the highest number of 5 star reviews.
   
   Having read 5 chapters in the last day my conclusion is that this is one of the best technical computer books I have ever read, and I have quite a few. The progress through the book is well paced with good thought provoking examples. An acceptable number of times I have had to re-read sections to fully understand the concepts and this has noticably improved by understanding of the SQL language.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone with equivalent experience, which is a few months of SQL table design/querying such that you have the basics already in hand. This moves you on from the basics.
   
   Get this book if you are looking to improve SQL querying. Do not get this book if you are looking to program data access in .Net or something else, get a C# book then.

4. Thorough explanation of SQL language & much more

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, September 12st, 2007

   This book is mainly aimed at programmers, but I purchased it along with a number of other books to better understand what SQL is, and how it can help me to write better queries in an ACCESS database, rather than to write programes. This book is authored by some of the worlds experts on the S.Q.L language and of coarse on the dialect T-SQL. I can't say how useful it will be to programmers, but anyone who is in a scientific or technology design job, will find the subject fascinating and will very quickly begin to understand how a server application works. If you don't understand mathematical logic, then I would strongly recommend your finding a book on it first before attempting to read this book, but any design engineer or scientist should be competent enough not to need to read up on the subject. If all you want to do is write better queries for ACCESS databases though you will be better purchasing "Microsoft Access 2003 Forms, Reports, and Queries", which I purchased from Amazon a while ago. If you want to understand the SQL language behind Access purchase this book also.

5. Fantastic stuff

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2007

   I have used SQL for about 20 years and TSQL for about 10 and, although I did not finish the book yet, I am delighted with what I have read so far.
   Superb and very clearly explained.
   A "must by".