July 30, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I was looking at getting The Guru's Guide to Transact SQL but it's from 2000 and probably a little out of date, as we're using SS 2005 🙂
Can anyone recommend any really good book that will take a keen newby up to Fairly Competent level, or possibly even up to the dizzying heights of "He Knows His Stuff!"..?
thanks
July 30, 2008 at 1:19 pm
That book will get you the basics. Any of the Inside SQL Server 2005 books (4 in the series) are good. It really depends on what aspect of SQL Server you want to know about.
Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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July 30, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Art of SQL by Stephane Faroult.
This book helped me form queries in my head before I started clicking & typing. It also helped me ask better questions when people asked me for data so as to refine what they were asking me for.
July 31, 2008 at 2:35 am
a648 (7/30/2008)
I was looking at getting The Guru's Guide to Transact SQL but it's from 2000 and probably a little out of date, as we're using SS 2005 🙂
All three of Ken's Guru's guide books are good, even though they are a little dated. My copy of the Guru's guide to SQL Architecture is the most heavily used book I have.
I will strongly second the recommendation of the Internals series. All four books are very well written.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
July 31, 2008 at 2:39 am
Thanks...
Jack Corbett (7/30/2008)
It really depends on what aspect of SQL Server you want to know about.
It's the tSQL language rather than the SS application that I'm interested in - so that I can be entirely comfortable with almost any query I'm expected to produce... and tSQL as a programming language so that I can deliver the goods with the stored procedures that we're moving towards... I need an introduction to the possibilities from whatever functionality SS provides. Once I know roughly what's possible and how it all fits together, and have a reference list to refer to, I can figure out most of the rest myself.
I'm willing to work my way towards being the inhouse tSQL guru (!) if that's possible (we have other folks for the admin side of things), and books are so much easier to flick through than any online resource.
Cheers... any extra recommendations anyone...?
🙂
July 31, 2008 at 2:52 am
If u want to know about new functionalities in sql 2005 BOL is a good place to start.
"Keep Trying"
July 31, 2008 at 3:57 am
Professional SQL Server 2005 Programming By Robert Vieira
Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming
byItzik Ben-Gan, Dejan SarkaandRoger Wolter
Microsoft Press 2006 (532 pages)
BOL, MSDN, and Alot more...
Atif Sheikh
August 2, 2008 at 11:22 am
Well I don't even know what BOL is, guessing it's Books OnLine by any chance? 😀
But as with MSDN... I did say I prefer real dead trees for flicking through.
Thanks for all the suggestions - appreciated.
August 4, 2008 at 12:16 pm
SQL Server 2005 Bible by Paul Nielsen is great.
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August 9, 2008 at 3:32 pm
GSquared (8/4/2008)
SQL Server 2005 Bible by Paul Nielsen is great.
The videos tutorial of Paul Nielsen on TSQL (SQL Server 2005) is great! I believe it is from Total Training. If you have a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/), you can get hold of lots of SQL Server experts. And watch out for User Groups around your area. Here in our area, we have a SQL Server Group. You can also check the .NET User Groups in your area. They usually include SQL Server development in their meeting agenda.
-Marlon Ribunal
SQL Server Database Administrator
August 10, 2008 at 11:40 am
I've found that most of the books are simply a slightly longer, more expensive regurgitation of Books Online. Most of the books I've read don't explain things like the Tally or Numbers Table to any great extent even if they do mention how to build one (they even do that incorrectly). Most don't explain things like how to do running totals or how to make a decent Calendar table, either. Almost none of them show a decent method for making a million rows of test data... they always use some form of RBAR whether it's a While loop or some form of Recursion.
Some of the ones that do explain things like "Nested Set" theory for hierarchies have errors in the code that aren't apparent until you find out on your own that the right most node is actually missing from the hierarchy. Then there are the ones that say things like you don't have to make any changes to the initial size or growth pattern of the MDF or LDF files because SQL Server will take care of it... they never explain that the default setup will cause 73 fragments just to grow to the first Gig of storage.
Sure, lot's of these books are good for ideas, but so is Books Online and so are the many of the articles and answers to the daily threads that appear on forums like SQLServerCentral.com.
Even if you do find a good book, you have to practice, practice, practice. And, you shouldn't always take an author's word for anything... you need to test the code and find different ways and test them, as well. Buying "good" books is no better than finding "good" entries on the web... except that the books aren't searchable unless they come with a CD.
I just bought two of the "Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005" series of books to see what all of the hub-bub about them is. Now, granted, I've not read every bloody page yet, but so far, I'm disappointed especially in the area of using Tally/Number tables and in the fact that the authors spend a large amount of time justifying the use of Cursors to do a simple running total and other special aggregations because they all think that the use of "Triangular" Joins is somehow "set based.
Caveat emptor! 😉
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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