Mastering Microsoft SQL Server 2005 [With CDROM]

Microsoft realeased a free version of SQL Server to compete with mySQL and it's actually quite excellent, especially given its price tag. This book makes the book claim to have you 'mastering' SQL Server, but of course no single book could do that. Instead, it provides a very comprehensive tour-de-force of all the features, bells and whistles, and relies on you - dear, Internet-connected reader - to research areas of particular interest to you. The biggest flaw is that there's not enough information to get you up and running in the first place. Literally, the installation instructions for SQL Server Express are esoteric, and there's a couple of missing pieces of information, without which you're going nowhere. But a little digging around on the Net will have you running fairly quickly. Overall, a great little book for the price.

I give this book five stars not because the entire book is great, but because chances are there will be a few parts that 'serve' you well - which is most likely why you buy this book. One or two of these gems (such as adding Encryption to a connection string to automatically encrypt all data moving from sql server onto the network) will be worth the price of the book many times. The intro on things like normalizing is weak and chances are you will not learn anything here (if you do not know the basics about normalizing a database schema, then chances are some tutorials on the internet will help you better). Sections on backups, locks, internal workings of sql server, smo objects for custom management apps, logs, etc are all well written and helpful. A few performance metrics for various typical approaches would have been appreciated, the type of things you have to dig through white papers for.

Before I had got this book I had been reading tutorials on the internet. I wanted a single source of information so I started looking for a book. I'm just starting to get into SQL Server and I'm going to convert an Access DB into SQL Server 2005 Express. My experience with Access was learn as you go because I needed to get the app finished asap. By the time I was done I wanted to redo the whole app again using the knowledge I'd gained through the whole process. Now I do not have time constraints and like I said I'm going to redo the Access DB in SQL Server 2005 Express, but I didn't want to make the mistake of jumping in right away and learning as I go. So I decided to read up as much as I could before starting. After reading this book I feel I have a solid understanding of most the aspects of SQL Server 2005 Express. What I wanted most was to learn about backups and security which this book does a good job of covering. I think the strongest attribute of the book is it reads easy and fast, but has good information. The chapters are kept short so it is easy to finish each in one sitting. I gave it four stars because to me it is a comprehensive book, but after reading it I don't believe I have "mastered" SQL Server 2005 Express. I don't think anyone could with one book. I think it gives the reader a good base knowledge on most aspects but to master them you'd have to research further.

I found this book essential for setting up and configuring SQL Server 2005 in a development environment. Confusing topics like permissions vs. roles are covered clearly and the index is good. I would read the other reviews for cautions if you are going to a production environment, but to get started this book is very useful.

For me, this book provides a very good balance between giving me enough information and not flooding me with unnecessary details. It gives a good overview of databases in general without spending half the book on it and is very easy to skim through and get the information I am looking for. IMO, it gives just the right amount of information to help one become very productive with sql server 2005. One last thing. Not that this is a big thing but the book is very large but paper and binding that were used for this book are fairly light weight and make it easy, even with the large size of the book, to read it.