SQL Server Books - Page 5

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-442): Designing and Optimizing Data Access by Using Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2005 (Self-Paced Training Kits)

Sara Morgan, Tobias Thernstrom

Amazon Price: $37.79 List Price: $59.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Microsoft Press Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $2.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> Publisher -> Microsoft Press
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> MS SQL Server
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> Office

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Announcing an all-new Self-Paced Training Kit designed to help maximize your performance on 70-442, one of the required exams for the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) Database Developer certification. This 2-in-1 kit includes the official Microsoft study guide, plus practice tests on CD to help you assess your skills. It comes packed with the tools and features exam candidates want most--including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from expert, exam-certified authors; and customizable testing options. It also provides real-world scenarios, case study examples, and troubleshooting labs for skills and expertise that you can apply to the job.

Work at your own pace through the lessons and lab exercises. Focusing on designing and implementing database solutions in a professional job role, this official study guide covers topics such as designing data access technologies, writing and modifying queries, validating input data and handling errors, developing a transaction strategy, and optimizing performance.

Then assess yourself using 200+ practice questions on the CD, featuring multiple, customizable testing options designed to meet your specific needs. Choose timed or untimed testing mode, generate random tests, or focus on discrete objectives or chapters. You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers--including pointers back to the book for further study. You also get an evaluation version of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 software and an exam discount voucher--making this kit an exceptional value and a great career investment.

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Step by Step (Pro - Step-By-Step Developer)

Mike Hotek

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Microsoft Press Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $26.24

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Good Introduction to SQL Server 2008 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

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.

Editorial Review:

Teach yourself SQL Server 2008 - one step at a time. Get the practical guidance you need to build database solutions that solve real-world business problems. Learn to integrate SQL Server data in your applications, write queries, develop reports, and employ powerful business intelligence systems.

Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide (Expert's Voice)

Michael Coles

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $25.40

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A book for every developer working with T-SQL - Review of Database Administrator SQLAuthority.com 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Short Summary:
Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide book examines SQL Server 2005 T-SQL from a developer's perspective. It covers a wide range of developer-specific topics in SQL Server 2005. This book covers many newly introduced topics in depth. This book is written as a practical and useful guide to help database developers who mainly deals with T-SQL. This book is really hit the spot with appropriate .NET code at few places where needed. This book assumes a basic knowledge of SQL but it is really easy for new beginners developers to understand and advanced developers to enjoy further reading.

Detailed Summary:
One thing I really liked about this book is that it can be either read cover to cover, or it can be used as a reference guide for one particular topic. Index of this book is extremely well organized and aids to find the right topic very quickly. Books is structure is many chapters and each chapter justifies the chapters with good details and proper amount of examples.

Each chapter has excellent advice and knowledge and filled with sample code (available online). The book is targeted specifically at SQL Server 2005 and the innovative ways to code T-SQL, new functions and commands. If is very easy to get started with this book and it immerses in comprehensive reading in no time. This book addresses many details and comparisons with T-SQL in very organized way. The examples are in very accurate and useful as well sufficient to targeted topics. This book addresses many of the real world issues with examples, discussions and solutions.

This book start with providing a brief history of T-SQL and the ANSI SQL standards. SQLCMD and SQL Server Management Studio are new tools to explore SQL Server 2005 and are covered in depth in beginning of the book. Chapters which covers Common Table Expressions (CTEs), new datatypes, operators, keywords, functions, and control of flows are really interesting and with necessary explanation. Readers of my blog are very well aware of my interests in Error handling and debugging. Interesting enough for me there is one whole chapter dedicated to that. The regular T-SQL concepts which I write a lot about Stored Procedure, Triggers and Dynamic SQL each have their own chapter. One thing many T-SQL book does not cover in depth is XML, XQuery and XPath which are properly discussed and their importance is explained properly. Last three chapter of the book which covers SQLCLR, .NET Client Programming and HTTP Endpoints requires the Microsoft .NET FrameWork 2.0, as it contains some code which are written in VB and C#.

One thing which I always liked in any database book is, use of sample database AdventureWorks. I strongly believe that all the example should be independent from previous examples and should use default database. If you have not installed default database AdventureWorks, you can get its latest location by searching in my blog SQLAuthority.com. All the script of examples are available to download online. No book is free from the errors and website for this book have errata list, which is surprisingly very small.

I will list few tips from book which interested me. This will give brief idea how good this book is.

"TABLESAMPLE always returns an approximate number of rows because of the way it samples data. The required percentage is the number of data pages SQL Server retreves in full to fulfill your TABLESAMPLE request. The number of rows returned by TABLESAMPLE will often be slightly less, or greater, than the specified amount."

"Anytime you use dynamic SQL, make sure that you take precautions against SQL injection, that is, malicious SQL Code being inserted into your SQL statements. In this instance we're using the QUOTENAME function to quote the column names being dynamically generated to help avoid SQL injection problems."

Following one example really caught my eyes while reading the book. It seems Author accurately described the situation and put his suggestion regarding syntax.
"The ANSI SQL:2003 standard includes a MERGE statement that performs the same function as the upsert type of SP. The prerelease versions of SQL Server 2005 included the MERGE statement. Though it was well-publicized during the prerelease period, the MERGE statement was unceremoniously dropped from the production version. We can only hope that Microsoft brings it back sometime in the near future."
Good news is Microsoft have included the Authors request in future version of SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 CTP 4 has included MERGE Keyword.

Rating: 4 and 1/2 stars

In Summary, A book for every developer who want to take full advantage of the power of T-SQL on SQL Server 2005.

Pinal Dave
Principal Database Administrator
(blog.sqlauthority.com)

Editorial Review:

Pro T-SQL 2005 Programmer's Guide provides comprehensive and detailed coverage of all the major features and facilities of T-SQL for SQL Server 2005. It is designed for all users of T-SQL, database administrators, systems administrators, application developers, and end-users, who want to learn how to exploit the power of T-SQL. Whatever you need to do with T-SQL, you'll find it described clearly here.

Stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions are only part of the story. Dynamic SQL, the new XML data type, and SQLCLR programming are also covered, as well as accessing SQL Server with ADO.NET. Exception handling and performance are fully covered, too. This book is truly a complete programmer's guide to T-SQL and SQL Server 2005.

Beginning T-SQL with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008

Paul Turley, Dan Wood

Amazon Price: $26.39 List Price: $39.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wrox Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $23.04

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Beginning & Introductory
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General

Editorial Review:

If you have never programmed with T-SQL but have some background programming knowledge and experience, Beginning T-SQL with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2006 will provide you with an overview of SQL Server query operations and tools used with T-SQL, Microsoft's implementation of the SQL database query language. Review basic query language commands and syntax, learn how to design and build applications, and understand how to optimize query performance. Improve your skills with the most up-to-date T-SQL guide, which provides hands-on examples and instructions to guide you through the process.

Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer’s Guide

Michael Coles

Amazon Price: $33.38 List Price: $52.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $31.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Discussing new and existing features, SQL Server designer and administrator Michael Coles takes you on an expert guided tour of Transact–SQL functionality in SQL Server 2008 in his book Pro T–SQL 2008 Programmer’s Guide. Fully functioning examples and downloadable source code bring Coles’ technically accurate and engaging treatment of Transact–SQL into your own hands. Step–by–step explanations ensure clarity, and an advocacy of best–practices will steer you down the road to success.

Pro T–SQL 2008 Programmer’s Guide is every developer’s key to making full use of SQL Server 2008’s powerful, built–in Transact–SQL language. Transact–SQL is the language developers and DBAs use to interact with SQL Server. It’s used for everything from querying data, to writing stored procedures, to managing the database. New features in SQL Server 2008 include a spatial data type, SQLCLR integration, the MERGE statement, a dramatically improved and market–leading XML feature set, and support for encryption—all of which are covered in this book

What you’ll learn

• Write stored procedures, functions, and triggers using Transact–SQL
• Apply best–practices when centralizing procedural logic inside your SQL Server database.
• Seamlessly work with XML data using XQuery, XPath, and the XML type.
• Use SQLCLR to write .NET code that runs inside SQL Server.
• Implement full–text search within your database.
• Load data more efficiently using the new MERGE statement.
• Learn about the new geography type for storing spatial data.

Who is this book for?

Pro T–SQL 2008 Programmer’s Guide is written for SQL Server and Transact–SQL developers who want to implement best–practices and take full advantage of all that SQL Server has to offer. .NET programmers will find the book helpful in showing how to run .NET code within SQL Server. Database administrators who need to write triggers and the occasional stored procedure will also benefit from the book.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))

Reed Jacobson, Stacia Misner, Hitachi Consulting

Amazon Price: $26.39 List Price: $39.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Microsoft Press Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $19.30

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Systems Analysis & Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Gives no real insight 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If your goal is to actually learn something about Analysis Services and OLAP cubes / datawarehousing, I wouldn't bother buying this book. Well, the first chapter brought some insight to the topics, but the rest of the book is really a step-by-step - point-and-click tutorial in the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), and the SQL Server Management Studio. The chapter about MDX left me more confused than before.

If your goal is to get a simple datawarehouse and cube up and running, with the least amount of insight, it might do the trick. (But where's the fun in that...)

Editorial Review:

Your hands-on guide to learning Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Microsoft’s customizable analysis solution for business data modeling and interpretation. Analysis Services is a powerful tool for business intelligence, so understanding the essentials—how to create a cube, as well as how to deploy, customize, and extend the basic calculations—is critical to harnessing the full benefits of SQL Server. This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to get started, how to build scalable analytical applications, and how to use and administer advanced features. Interactivity features (enhanced in SQL Server 2005), data translation, and security are also covered in detail. With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through hands-on, learn-by-doing exercises. Whether you’re a beginning programmer or new to this version of the technology, you’ll understand the fundamental techniques for using Analysis Services. A companion CD includes data sets and sample code.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure Programming in T-SQL & .NET

Dejan Sunderic

Amazon Price: $37.79 List Price: $59.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $32.28

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> Publisher -> Osborne-McGraw-Hill
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> MS SQL Server
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Create and Use Stored Procedures for Optimal Database Performance

Develop complex stored procedures to retrieve, manipulate, update, and delete data. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Stored Procedure Programming in T-SQL & .NET identifies and describes the key concepts, techniques, and best practices you need to master in order to take full advantage of stored procedures using SQL Server's native Transact-SQL and .NET CLR languages. You'll learn to incorporate effective Transact-SQL stored procedures into client or middleware code, and produce CLR methods that will be compiled into CLR stored procedures. This is a must-have resource for all SQL Server 2005 developers.

Essential Skills for Database Professionals

• Group and execute T-SQL statements using batches, scripts, and transactions
• Create user-defined, system, extended, temporary, global temporary, and remote stored procedures
• Develop and manage stored procedures using C# and Visual Basic .NET
• Implement database access using ADO.NET
• Create CLR user-defined functions and triggers
• Implement reliable debugging and error handling techniques and security measures
• Manage source code in a repository such as Visual SourceSafe
• Create stored procedures for web search engines
• Use system and extended stored procedures to interact with the SQL Server environment

MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion Essbase

George Spofford, Sivakumar Harinath, Christopher Webb, Dylan Hai Huang, Francesco Civardi

Amazon Price: $54.00 List Price: $60.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $29.14

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Data Warehousing
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

• Serving as both a tutorial and a reference guide to the MDX (Multidimensional Expressions) query language, this book shows data warehouse developers what they need to know to build effective multidimensional data warehouses
• After a brief overview of the MDX language and a look at how it is used to access data in sophisticated, multidimensional databases and data warehousing, the authors move directly to providing practical examples of MDX in use
• New material covers changes in the MDX language itself as well as major changes in its implementation with the latest software releases of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion Essbase
• Also covers more advanced techniques, like aggregation, query templates, and MDX optimization, and shows users what they need to know to access and analyze data to make better business decisions

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 For Dummies

Andrew Watt

Amazon Price: $19.79 List Price: $29.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $7.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> SQL -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Confusing 1 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

This author often forgets who he is talking to. At one point he describes in painful detail on how to join tables and yet in other places he introduces terminology with no explanation. One chapter is devoted to creating a windows application in VS 2005 to display data and the description is incorrect. Is this a book about SQL Server or Visual Studio? I think the publishers of this book would do well to recall this book and rewrite with a particular audience in mind. Is the book an introduction for newbies or a reference for those coming from some other platform or for programmers looking to familiarize themselves with SQL Server? The fact that this is a dummies book would seem to indicate to me that it should be for newbies. I have always been a fan of the Dummies series of books but this one falls flat on its face.

Editorial Review:

• Now updated to reflect the much-anticipated "Yukon" release of SQL Server, this friendly guide shows database developers and administrators as well as those who use database application how to get up to speed fast
• Offers a gentle introduction to relational database design and shows how to build databases, create database applications, and maintain and optimize database performance
• Covers the major new features of the "Yukon" release-including analysis services, reporting services, and notification services

MCITP SQL Server 2005 Database Administration All-in-One Exam Guide (Exams 70-431, 70-443, & 70-444)

Darril Gibson

Amazon Price: $44.09 List Price: $69.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $36.36

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> MIS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> Publisher -> Osborne-McGraw-Hill
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> MS SQL Server

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

All-in-One is All You Need

Get complete coverage of all three Microsoft Certified IT Professional database administration exams for SQL Server 2005 in this comprehensive volume. Written by a SQL Server expert and MCITP, this definitive exam guide features learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, exam tips, practice questions, and in-depth explanations. Detailed and authoritative, the book serves as both a complete certification study guide and an essential on-the-job reference.

Get full details on all exam topics including how to:

• Install and configure SQL Server 2005
• Use Transact-SQL
• Manage server infrastructure design
• Optimize databases
• Secure databases and servers
• Ensure high availability
• Implement backup and recovery strategies
• Maximize the built-in administration tools
• Use Business Intelligence tools, including SSIS and SSRS
• Manage concurrency

The CD-ROM features:

• Six full practice exams--two for each exam: 70-431, 70-443, and 70-444
• Scripts from the step-by-step exercises in the book
• Video training clips from the author
• Complete electronic book