SQL Server 2005 Bible

I recently started using SQL Server 2005. I have some programming and database experience, but none with SQL Server. I am very pleased with the book. It provided a quick refresher of basics, and a clear description of the Server tools. It has already helped greatly, pointing out some of the places where SQL Server varies from standard SQL, and additional commands/tools I would not have found for a long time. I am happy with the writing style, and find the book easy to follow.

There are really three kinds of database professionals: -Administrators -Architects/Designers -Developers Now, some people play all three roles or two of the three roles. This book is definitely not the best book for people who are strictly developers as is reflected by some of the reviews at this site. Of course, the book is not intended for that class of database professional (in fact, they are really not database professionals if they are strictly developers, but are more developers who have to have a database for their application). For those who play the role of the Administrator only - and there are thousands of you out there because I teach many of you in my classes - or a combination of administrator/designer this is the best single book you will find. (That's right, the author of another book on SQL Server is suggesting that his book is not the best single book... my book helps you specifically in preparing for the 70-431 exam and is not intended to have the breadth of coverage of this book.) Some developers just don't realize that most small businesses with an IT staff of less than twenty do not have dedicated database people and this book is for those people in those businesses. They are not going to write a lot of applications, if any, from the ground up, but they must support SQL Server databases that have been developed by others. They need to understand backups and restorations, data export, data import, data tranformation (ETL), security, performance issues and other administrative tasks. All if this is covered sufficiently in the SQL Server 2005 Bible. I must say that I have not always been a fan of the "Bible" series, but this book has been great since the SQL Server 2000 level when I started recommending it. I hope this helps you make your decision.

I guess I didn't buy this book from the perspective of a programmer, but rather a strict DBA. That is, I don't do much programming... I only manage the database server and help programmers when they need something done on the server. For this reason, I don't have some of the complaints of those who were concerned about lacking information from a developer's perspective. As a DBA, I feel this is one of the best two books written on SQL Server 2005. I also used Tom Carpenter's 70-431 study guide to prepare for that exam and, while it's not as lengthy as this book, it is my other in that pool of two. Certainly, if I could only get one book, it would be this one. There are things in Tom Carpenter's book that are not in this book, but since Mr. Carpenter's book is intended to prepare for an exam, there are also things in Mr. Nielsen's book that are not in the other. Overall, there is more detailed information and lengthy explanations in teh SQL Server 2005 Bible. It and Mr. Carpenter's book sit on my shelf alone in the SQL Server 2005 category. I highly recommend the SQL Server 2005 Bible and hope you wear yours out like I am beginning to do with mine.

I have the author's SQL Server 2000 book and this book, and it is definitely a major upgrade: 350 more pages, 23 more chapters. OBXKites is still in here, and David still gets his drivers license on 11/30/2005, but there are as many new topics as there are new features in 2005. I can imagine that a bible series book is responsible for taking the reader from their "genesis" of being a novice to their "revelation" of advanced topics. This can be a daunting task for one volume, especially when the subject is as vast as SQL Server! To accomplish this, the book has 10 chapters dedicated to variations of the Select Command. [...] Nielsen's chapter introductions give you the feel that you're sitting down with a real person, so you know he's going to explain things instead of listing the syntax. And experienced insight is what I crave when learning a new language. For instance, instead of slogging through all the features of cursors and finding out for myself that they're inefficient, Nielsen explains that while MSDN says "[SQL Server] implements a performance optimization called a fast forward-only cursor", the reality is that SQL Server is a set-based language and cursors should be used as a last-resort. He then shows how to convert a complex cursor to set-based code. The chapter on indexing explains how indexes work and offers sound advice on how to plan effective indexes - probably the most effective way to optimize an application before having to start changing table structures. Business Intelligence is the latest requirement for potential employers, so any book that has a chapter on how to use the BI Suite in 2005 is a must-read. There are 3 chapters on Analysis services (including Data Mining and MDX), 2 on RS, 1 on IS, and even one on BI using Excel.

This book is an excellent SQL Server 2005 Reference. There are millions of Code snippets to be used immediatly. The author refers mainly to AdventureWorks, the sample included at SQL 2005. The style of writing is not too serious and the author takes time to introduce - when needed - some database fundamentals. I personally think that this book is ideal for those who don't need a step-by-step book, but an complete reference with not too specialized topics. Of course - if you are specialized in a specific area, there are obvious books around covers topics much more deeper. But 99.5% of everything you find in this book.