Inside Microsoft SQL Server(tm) 2005: T-SQL Querying

I strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting a better understanding of SQL server 2005. I have read several books in this series, they are all good, but this is the best by far. It starts by discussing the logical processing of query, which is very important for understand how to write effective queries. It then discusses how to evaluate your queries, it discusses indexes in extensive detail - to the point that you will understand how to they work and how to make effective indexes. It explains many of the new T-SQL features, and how to use them in real life scenarios. However, note that this is not a T-SQL reference guide. Books online serves that purpose. This is a MUST HAVE for my team.

This will be a standard book on most DBA's desktops. Itzik Ben-Gan of Solid Quality Learning has taken the Advanced T-SQL course that he teaches and turned it into a fantastic book. The first two chapters cover the logic of query processing and what physically occurs when you run a query. Very early on Itzik establishes a practice of defining a problem or a question about T-SQL and then spends time working through the solution. This approach carries through the entire book. This not only allows the user to see the problem solving approach in action, but enables the user in pursuing the solutions themselves. Itzik takes the time to lay out a very detailed methodology for identifying and tuning problem queries from the server, through the database, down to the query that's causing the problems. From these foundation chapters he explores topics such as Subqueries and Table Expressions, Joins and Set Operations, Aggregating and Pivoting Data, Top and Apply, Data Modification and finally Graphs, Hierarchies and Recursive Queries. The greatest thing about the book is that Itzik really explores his solutions. He walks the user into a mind set that accepts only set based operations as the norm for data access. He shows multiple solutions to many of the problems and outlines where and how those solutions differ. This book acts as a good mechanism for actually learning the details of how to use T-SQL withing SQL Server 2005. He also points out where there are differences from 2000 and supplies 2000 only solutions to a lot of the problems, which can help those that need to maintain two code bases. He regularly uses and addresses 2005 functionality so there is zero indications of this being a 2000 book warmed over for re-publication. Make no mistakes here. This is a high-end book. If you're just getting started in T-SQL, you may want to start out somewhere else. If, after getting down the concepts of SELECT.. FROM... WHERE... GROUP BY... ORDER BY, etc., then come back here and learn what happens and the right reasons to do the right things with the scripts that you write. I work primarily as a database developer, doing database design from logical models and business requirements and then developing stored procedures, etc., for accessing data from those databases. This kind of information is absolutely vital to doing the best job I can. I think I was predisposed to like this work, but I've actually been picking it up during the day to refer back to points that were unclear to me or that I want to better communicate to others, especially from the first two chapters.

As someone quite familiar with Itzik Ben-Gan's work, I expected this to be a really good book. But since I've been reading about and working with SQL Server 2005 since early betas, I didn't expect to learn much. I was, as it turned out, wrong on both counts. This book surpassed all of my expectations. It's more than just a really good book -- it's a great book -- and I learned quite a bit from reading it. Itzik and his co-authors have a knack for explaining every idea, down to the minute details that you might miss in other books or documentation. The examples are clear and precise, and the author team has done a great job of making even complex topics crystal clear. This is certainly not a book for beginners; intermediate and advanced practitioners will want to use this book to help get more out of SQL Server. Learn the basics of T-SQL and SQL Server before tackling this one if you want to take full advantage of what it has to offer.

More so than any other language I can think of SQL is so approachable because it is so logical. Most people can grasp the basics within hours if not minutes. Unfortunately this approachability is often confused with simplicity. Learning SQL may be easy but becoming proficient takes time and guidance. Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: TSQL Querying, part 1 of the 2 part series (Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: TSQL Programming) is so much more than examples of what to do and what not to do. Itzik Ben-Gan takes you behind the editor and inside the engine to teach you the how's and why's. I recently had the good fortune to attend a course given by Itzik Ben-Gan who is a passionate instructor and a recognized expert. Whether it is listening to him speak, reading his articles in SQL Server magazine or reading this fantastic book there is no one more capable to help you hone your SQL skills.

I was searching for a book that would fully cover both old and new (2005) features of T-SQL. This is the only one in the market that is actually doing so. But, more then that, the first chapter alone that explains how SQL works logically in human coherent language is worth the price of the whole book. And the other chapters are of same excelent quality. This is the best book about the subject in the market and I am sure to buy the sequel (about T-SQL programming.) ZA