The Best Way to Learn

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The Best Way to Learn

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004414 More actions · Answer 1

I love good books on SQL Server. Unfortunately, I've only seen one really good book to get folks started with programming in T-SQL and it went out of print back before I had any gray hair.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Peter Maloof SSCommitted Points: 1733 More actions · Answer 2

Jeff Moden (5/4/2012)
I love good books on SQL Server. Unfortunately, I've only seen one really good book to get folks started with programming in T-SQL and it went out of print back before I had any gray hair.

Hi Jeff,

Don't keep us in suspense - what was the book? Out of print doesn't necessarily mean unavailable.

Thanks,

Peter

Peter MaloofServing Data

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004414 More actions · Answer 3

Ah... sorry. My bad. I was being lazy.

The book title is "MCSE Training Guide / SQL Server 6.5 Design & Implementation. It was written to cover the old exam 70-27. It was published by New Riders Publishing and has a copyright of 1997. ISBN is 1-56205-830-4.

The book says its "target audience" is for advanced users but I've found it to be an excellent book for learning all of the basics of T_SQL, indexes, tables, data modeling, etc, etc. If you lookup some of the things that they're talking about in BOL, you have a very powerful teaching combination. What's really neat is, not only do they have review questions with the answers, they also have some nice, simple exercises at the end of each chapter.

My favorite paragraph in the whole books reads as follows (from the chapter on "Programmability")...

"As a rule, SQL Server can minipulate an arbitrarily large set of data as a set faster than it can respond to an interative series of commands. Because most iterative solutions can be expressed as set operations with little work, cursors should generally be avoided. Thinking in terms of whole sets of data instead of individual rows is what makes the SQL language so different from other traditional programming languages. Looking for set-oriented solutions to problems is, however, an important transition to make."

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Peter Maloof SSCommitted Points: 1733 More actions · Answer 4

Jeff Moden (5/5/2012)
The book title is "MCSE Training Guide / SQL Server 6.5 Design & Implementation. It was written to cover the old exam 70-27. It was published by New Riders Publishing and has a copyright of 1997. ISBN is 1-56205-830-4.

Just FYI, it's available for $4-5 on both Amazon and eBay.

My favorite paragraph in the whole books reads as follows (from the chapter on "Programmability")...
"As a rule, SQL Server can minipulate an arbitrarily large set of data as a set faster than it can respond to an interative series of commands. Because most iterative solutions can be expressed as set operations with little work, cursors should generally be avoided. Thinking in terms of whole sets of data instead of individual rows is what makes the SQL language so different from other traditional programming languages. Looking for set-oriented solutions to problems is, however, an important transition to make."

Now why am I not surprised that's your favorite paragraph?

Thanks for sharing.

Peter

Peter MaloofServing Data

Peter Maloof SSCommitted Points: 1733 More actions · Answer 5

TravisDBA (5/4/2012)
You've got to use what you read. Otherwise, the information tends to fade quick for most people.

+1

Peter MaloofServing Data

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004414 More actions · Answer 6

Peter Maloof (5/5/2012)
Jeff Moden (5/5/2012)
The book title is "MCSE Training Guide / SQL Server 6.5 Design & Implementation. It was written to cover the old exam 70-27. It was published by New Riders Publishing and has a copyright of 1997. ISBN is 1-56205-830-4.
Just FYI, it's available for $4-5 on both Amazon and eBay.
My favorite paragraph in the whole books reads as follows (from the chapter on "Programmability")...
"As a rule, SQL Server can minipulate an arbitrarily large set of data as a set faster than it can respond to an interative series of commands. Because most iterative solutions can be expressed as set operations with little work, cursors should generally be avoided. Thinking in terms of whole sets of data instead of individual rows is what makes the SQL language so different from other traditional programming languages. Looking for set-oriented solutions to problems is, however, an important transition to make."
Now why am I not surprised that's your favorite paragraph?
Thanks for sharing.
Peter

Sorry for the late feedback but thanks, Peter. I got a good chuckle from your response and it was just what I needed after a pretty tough week.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Peter Maloof SSCommitted Points: 1733 More actions · Answer 7

Jeff Moden (5/25/2012)
Sorry for the late feedback but thanks, Peter. I got a good chuckle from your response and it was just what I needed after a pretty tough week.

Hi Jeff,

Hope you had a nice long weekend to recuperate from your tough week.

Peter MaloofServing Data

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004414 More actions · Answer 8

Peter Maloof (5/29/2012)
Jeff Moden (5/25/2012)
Sorry for the late feedback but thanks, Peter. I got a good chuckle from your response and it was just what I needed after a pretty tough week.
Hi Jeff,
Hope you had a nice long weekend to recuperate from your tough week.

I did indeed. Unlike T-SQL, I could suffer a few more iterations of a 3 day weekend like the one I just had.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)