Paul A. Hernandez said
If you need great background information about the best way to write queries and stored procedures for SQL server 2005 then this is a great book. Lots of detail on not only how but they why that many books leave out so that you understand why best practices are the way they are.
Joshua Huber said
As a programmer we go through many a book. And many of them read and feel like textbooks. So we skim, read in short bursts, simply would rather avoid the read.
This book is so well written that it can't be put down. And it's packed with REAL WORLD examples. Instead of just defining syntax and using a lame example, this book goes FAR beyond that, and digs deep into real world examples that really shine a light on your work.
I purchased this book almost a year ago, and it's still one of the most referenced books I have. I am constantly pulling it out when I reach a problem in my work, and this book always has great pointers to a solution.
This book will make you a T-SQL junkie, get it.
PS The logic puzzles in the back are great, too!
Daniel C. Kline said
Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying (Solid Quality Learning)
This is a great reference or review text. The content is fairly meaty and will take some chewing. For example, the book starts right off by breaking down the query engine process into it's processing steps and taking the reader through examples of the result sets at each step in the process. It might be overwhelming for someone starting out, but it's a great place to dive into a deeper understanding of the data engine.
Matthew Bryde said
This is the 2nd book of the 4 part "Inside-SQL" series, with each book I imagine, appealing to a different reader. Having a programming background, I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series ("The Storage Engine"), which on it's own is also an excellent book.
As mentioned in other reviews, this book is definitely not for beginners. The authors assumes a basic level of SQL knowledge from the reader as he launches into complex Transact-SQL examples - unlike most books which start the reader with simple SQL examples and progress through to complex ones.
While reading this book, it was easy to compare it's contents with Ken Henderson's popular "A Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL", with the latter book becoming more and more outdated by the improvements in Transact-SQL since it was published. If you're a fan of Henderson, you will quickly become a fan of Itzik.
A benefit of this book is that unlike most SQL 2005 books, this is not an update on SQL 2000 material, but instead starts at the 2005 level. The author focuses on the new syntax introduced in SQL 2005, and then, moves onto older SQL 2000 syntax and compares both the complexity and the performance differences between the two. This itself is invaluable to those of use that code in Transact-SQL and feel more comfortable using the "old ways". This book highlights how the new syntax is in fact simpler and more efficient - we just need to take the time and effort to understand and become familiar with the new language changes.
The book starts by discussing the logical processing of a SELECT statement, which helps the reader to understand the hows and whys of writing a query. I finally understood why I can't use an expression's alias in a WHERE BY or GROUP BY clause (as the SELECT line is one of the last parts of the statement to be processed). Throughout the book, the author often defines a problem and allows the reader to formulate an appropriate solution. He then reveals MULTIPLE solutions and explains why each is good or bad. The book ends with a selection of "logic puzzles" that test the reader's ability to solve logical problems. This was both fun and informative.
After reading this book, I found myself changing the way I constructed SQL queries at work - for the better!
Jaewoo Kim said
The MS SQL books have dramatically risen in quality in a few short years. When SQL 7 and 2000 were released, there were may be 1-3 book which were truly outstanding. For SQL 2005, however, there are at least 5-10 books which are truly worthwhile and this is one of them.
The reason why the quality of books has risen is the expertise of the authors. For this book, the authors are either MS SQL MVP or have been involved with the creation of MS SQL at Microsoft.
Generally speaking, the book has high level expert description of the underlying MS SQL 2005 architecture and T-SQL commands. But it lacks a nice flowing writing style which hempers the understanding to a willing reader. This book is an another example of authors who are inept at explaining the subject matter which they are an expert much like a professor who can't teach.
I also felt some parts of the book were sloppy or not as detailed. For example, the authors state that one of the steps of T-SQL query tuning is the need to correlate wait stats with problematic queries. Yet they never provide an adequate example (other than providing a useless query of SYS.DM_OS_PERFORMANCE_COUNTERS table) of how to connect wait stat with a specific transaction. This is a huge missing link.
PROS:
1)Awesome details on Indexes and Query plans
2)Solid advice on how to improve T-SQL for better performance.
Cons:
1)Not for the beginners. The book goes straight to the harder subjects (PIVOT, APPLY, complex joins etc).
2)Does not cover simple or fundamental subject matters.
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