Hemingway said
..but let down by some poor editing, and the fact that content, pointed out as being 'online' in the book, doesnt actually exist. Not sure why they couldnt just put the articles on the CD.
Also some of the 'steps' are incomplete..Google came to rescue on the odd occasion. This book needs a companion web site, with an errata list.
Also the book is 500 pages (approx.) not 800 as Amazon indicates.
I would probably supplement this with the 'Pro' book from Wrox.
default_character said
I just completed a different MS SQL Server 2008 book, and am now wishing that I would have read this first, basically because the author, Hotek, is so much more concise and is defining terms as he goes, and is clearer when describing database concepts. So now I am forced to read this book too, just to clear up what was confusing in the first book!
What this book has that the *other* didn't is a really organized approach to MS SQL Server, including a description of all the tools that come with it and a meaty section on Business Intelligence with chapters on SQL Server Integration, Reporting and Analysis Services, which is the reason I bought this book originally.
As a side note, Mr. Hotek also obviously has a lot of experience and is sane... in Chapter 5, he gives an opinion on database design that I have secretly thought for years and I can't believe he said this:
"...Lost in all of this material is the simple fact that tables have to be created to support an application and the people creating the tables have more important things to worry about than which normal form a database is in or if they remembered to build a logical model and render a physical model from the logical model."
That totally floored me and impressed me. I have read many books where the author is so freaked out about 1st, 2nd and 3rd normal form, that it made me completely cross-eyed. It is the application and the basic design of the database, and what the users need that is what's important... not worrying about conforming to some theoretical utopia. I'm not saying we should build tables full of redundant data - obviously not - but let's stay focused on the task at hand.
Anyway, I would say this is not a book for beginning programmers, but it is a great book for beginning MS SQL server developers.
I recommended in my review of the *other* MS SQL Server 2008 book that you should get more than one book on any technical subject to help fill in the gaps, and hopefully one book can explain concepts that the other can't... I still stand by that.
Stephen Vaillancourt said
This book was a pleasant surprise, I was looking for an introduction to SQL Server and this book was exactly that. The chapters were all in manageable sizes with the right amount of detail and exercises (%95+ worked as expected) to reinforce the topic. I don't usually write reviews, but if you are looking like I was for a book provide a basic introduction to SQL Server 2008 I would recommend this one. As a bonus there script which the author says can be used in production to perform backups.
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