John P. Cahill said
This book is a good intro to SQL and the SQL Server environment. If you already know SQL, it may be a bit repetitive, but its a good review of the topic nontheless.
Tech Junkie said
This book is a very good way to get started with Microsoft SQL Server 2005. It covers all of the major subjects that an administrator will need to deal with. Myself and another on my staff have used this book to set up and manage SQL Server in a very short time with no formal training. We do not believe that it is the only book or resource that we will need on this very powerful database system, but we each have a copy because it is the best place to start with unfamiliar SQL subjects. We found that it is also a good book just to browse so we each have a copy.
I am giving it five stars because no other book that we have reviewed for this purpose does as well. We are both familiar with other database systems, such as Progress and MySQL, Access, and others, but neither of had used the Microsoft program before.
Steven Kerrick said
I've had a terrible time learning SQL Server programming from this book. I've got lots of Oracle experience, so picking up T-SQL should have been fairly easy.
My main complaint is that the book is horridly edited and organized. For example, at one point I found that the author was using the "GO" command in his scripts, and I didn't remember reading what that meant. I went to the index and found where "GO" was introduced. It was a in a "Tip" box more than 20 pages back -- explained in brief, with no example, completely out of any context, and "GO" didn't appear in any scripts until 20 pages later. Now why would the author do that? This book is full of things like that.
He struggles a bit with English, too. For example, he says a function is "threefold" if it returns one of three possible values. The language doesn't prevent learning from the book, but it makes for a jarring ride.
I've pushed my way through the book and I'm better off than when I started, so I'll give it 2 stars instead of 1. But man, am I frustrated.
Marcelo Budicin said
What I like on this book is that it is very comprehensive.
All components of SQL Server 2005 are described in it. The description of each component is clear. Besides a couple of sentences, I did not have any problems to understand the content of this book. I found some small typographical errors, but as a whole I think that this is a very gook book.
Eric Riggins said
Looking for a book to use as a training guide. First of all, this book was written using a BETA version of SQL Server 2005. Many areas changed from beta to full release of SQL Server 2005, therefore already a big worry about this book. Secondly, for a beginners book to only talk about installing SQL Server in Chapter 16 (part III of the book!!!) is poor and shows a book thrown together in my opinion. It looks as if this is an update of his previous book (?) where there is text clearly about SQL Server 2000 with an "add on" sentence saying how SQL Server 2005 has changed this. For beginners this is confusing. They dont care about SQL Server 2000 or if they did they would buy a SQL Server 20005 Beginners Guide.
Other examples are where the author gets quite technical but then new functionality (such as the APPLY operator) "is outside the scope of this book". However deep security areas that are discsussed are "inside" the scope of this book.
I would recommend you either wait for the rewrite or even better, update of this book that uses the correct version of SQL Server 2005, or look elsewhere. I sent this book straight back. Sorry
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