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Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying (Solid Quality Learning) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Itzik Ben-gan, Lubor Kollar, Dejan Sarka
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Category: Book
List Price: $44.99
Buy New: $22.99
You Save: $22.00 (49%)
New (30) Used (11) from $22.99
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 13060
Media: Paperback
Pages: 632
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.9 x 1.6
ISBN: 0735623139
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.7565
EAN: 9780735623132
Publication Date: April 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New, unread, unused and in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages, may have a remainder mark.
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Product Description
A comprehensive, hands-on reference for database developers and administrators, this book focuses on advanced querying techniques using Transact-SQL (T-SQL), the database programming language built into SQL Server. Includes code and table examples.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Must Have December 20, 2006
Grant Fritchey (MA)
36 out of 39 found this review helpful
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.
An essential read for serious T-SQL developers November 26, 2006
Adam Machanic (Melrose, MA United States)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
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.
Far better than I anticipated - and I expected greatness! April 21, 2006
J. Brown (NC, USA)
19 out of 24 found this review helpful
Having read Itzik Ben-Gan's articles in SQL Server Magazine for several years, I was expecting a well written and technically challenging book. All I can say now that I have been reading it is: "Wow!" It has really exceeded my expectations. I tire of the typical re-hash of the SQL Server Books Online that most authors are fond of doing lately, but this text digs far deeper and points out several items that can help any SQL Server professional build a more solid foundation in the art of T-SQL querying. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a more thorough understanding of how SQL Server 2005 handles query processing.
A Timely Release & A Great Resource September 17, 2007
G. Honhart (San Jose, CA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book fits perfectly between SQL Books Online and the deeper T-SQL Programing books. For me the detailed theory of operation behind how T-SQL runs queries and making note of that flow as it applies to each type of query through out the book makes it all "Click".
If this is your style too and you don't want to just copy and tweak queries THIS is the book for you.
An excellent contribution to the "Inside-SQL" series October 8, 2007
Matthew Bryde (Australia)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the 2nd book of the 4 part "Inside-SQL" series, with each book I imagine, appealing to a different reader. Having a programming background, I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series ("The Storage Engine"), which on it's own is also an excellent book.
As mentioned in other reviews, this book is definitely not for beginners. The authors assumes a basic level of SQL knowledge from the reader as he launches into complex Transact-SQL examples - unlike most books which start the reader with simple SQL examples and progress through to complex ones.
While reading this book, it was easy to compare it's contents with Ken Henderson's popular "A Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL", with the latter book becoming more and more outdated by the improvements in Transact-SQL since it was published. If you're a fan of Henderson, you will quickly become a fan of Itzik.
A benefit of this book is that unlike most SQL 2005 books, this is not an update on SQL 2000 material, but instead starts at the 2005 level. The author focuses on the new syntax introduced in SQL 2005, and then, moves onto older SQL 2000 syntax and compares both the complexity and the performance differences between the two. This itself is invaluable to those of use that code in Transact-SQL and feel more comfortable using the "old ways". This book highlights how the new syntax is in fact simpler and more efficient - we just need to take the time and effort to understand and become familiar with the new language changes.
The book starts by discussing the logical processing of a SELECT statement, which helps the reader to understand the hows and whys of writing a query. I finally understood why I can't use an expression's alias in a WHERE BY or GROUP BY clause (as the SELECT line is one of the last parts of the statement to be processed). Throughout the book, the author often defines a problem and allows the reader to formulate an appropriate solution. He then reveals MULTIPLE solutions and explains why each is good or bad. The book ends with a selection of "logic puzzles" that test the reader's ability to solve logical problems. This was both fun and informative.
After reading this book, I found myself changing the way I constructed SQL queries at work - for the better!
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