Reviews

Book Review: Inside SQL Server 2005: THE STORAGE ENGINE

Mladen Prajdic — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:30:30 GMT

This book authored by Kalen Delaney whose Inside SQL Server books are compulsory reading for every DBA

hits the nail on the head with this one too.

The book goes into hardcore details of how the storage engine itself works.

Let's review what is covered in each chapter:

Chapter 1: Installing and Upgrading to SQL Server 2005

An overview of things to consider when migrating/upgrading to SQL Server 2005

Chapter 2: SQL Server 2005 Architecture

Hardcore stuff begins. talks about components of the engine and it's memory management.

Chapter 3: SQL Server 2005 Configuration

Covers Configuration Manager and general System Configuration

Chapter 4: Databases and Database Files

Covers pretty much everything you need to know about database structure, manupulation, moving,

space allocation, options, security, etc...

Chapter 5: Logging and Recovery

Going from simple backup to complex maintainance. Very informative.

Chapter 6: Tables

How tables work, their internal storage, creating, altering, etc...

Chapter 7: Index Internals and Management

This chapter blew my mind. Indexes being one of the most important parts of a good database are explaind in every little detail.

From structure to reindexing and internal data modifications. This should be known by every DBA.

Chapter 8: Locking and Concurency

Covers locking, concurrency transaction processing, row versionsing, etc...

With "only" 8 hard read chapters this book is meant for DBA's. It has such in-depth internal workings information that knowing it makes you very good at your job.

Personally I only needed in-depth information in chapters 6, 7 and 8 but that's only because i'm not really into hardcore DBA stuff. :)

Amazon link here.

Book Review: Inside SQL Server 2005: T-SQL PROGRAMMING

Mladen Prajdic — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:03:19 GMT

This book is a sequel to T-SQL Querying. And it stands completly side by side it.

I can only recommend that you get it. The amount of new stuff to learn is amazing.

So lets see what each chapter covers:

Chapter 1: DataType Related problems, XML and CLR UDTs

Talks about DateTime problems, patterns matching , conversions, large objects, CLR and of course XML which is the biggest part of the chapter.

Chapter 2: Temporary tables and Table variables

A great explanation of how, why and what in the world of Temp.

Chapter 3: Cursors

Shows that although dreaded by many, they have their rightfull place. Small but usefull place :)

Chapter 4: Dynamic SQL

Another dreaded part of SQL Server. And also very handy at times. I like the part about SQL Injection.

Chapter 5: Views

Well... pretty much everything you need to know about views.

Chapter 6: User-Defined functions

I did NOT know that you can update, insert or delete to a table valued function. With as side dish of SCHEAMBINDING of course.

Chapter 7: Stored Procedures

Loved by many, underused by many. Learn them. Use them. Love them.

SQL server 2005 has a per statement recompile, while SQL Server 2000 has a per procedure recompile.

Chapter 8: Triggers

Quick, brief and simple to understand.

Chapter 9: Transactions

Now it gets interesting. With 2 new isolation levels there's a whole bunch of stuff to learn here.

Chapter 10: Exception Handling.

Completly rewritten in SQL Server 2005 it offers a LOT of new functionallty compared to previous versions.

IMO the most important chapter in the book. You can never have enough of that :)

Chapter 11: Service broker

This is probably the least used component of SQL Server today. Unrightfully so, because it's async processing abilities can

open up new worlds in sql server and reliable communication.

Each chapter also covers the analogous CLR functionality. CLR Triggers, sprocs, datatypes, etc...

The book follows the T-SQL Querying with the same ammount of new info and also as a great reference.

If you have T-SQL Querying... get this one too.

Amazon link here.

Book Review: Inside SQL Server 2005: T-SQL QUERYING

Mladen Prajdic — Fri, 11 May 2007 09:27:56 GMT

This is an AWSOME book!

Written by Itzik Ben-Gan and coauthored by Lubor Kolar and Dejan Sarka it's definitly worth it's money.

It starts with the chapter on logical query processing in which it explaines the basics of the full select statement and the order of processing it.

Just basic stuff.

Chapter 2 covers the phyisical query processing. Explaines what parsing, algebratization and executions plans are and how it's all tied together.

Chapter 3 covers the query tuning methodology and tools to use for it. In my opinion This chapter is one of the best in the book.

Chapter 4 introduces us to subqueries, CTE's and Rank functions.

Chapter 5 talks about joins and set operations like INTERSECT, EXCEPT and UNION.

Chapter 6 is about Aggregation and Pivoting. This is one of the 3 best chapters in the book.

Chapter 7 covers Top and Apply operators.

Chapter 8 talks about data modification: Insert, delete and update statements.

Chapter 9 brings us Graphs, Trees, Hierarchies and Recursion. It's all covered in great detail and uses new SQL Server features to accomplish the goals.

This one is also in the Top 3 chapters in the book along side Chapters 3 and 6.

There's also an appendix that holds interesting logic puzzles whic can be a lot of fun to play with.

For me reading this book was a very special experience. Why? Because i learned at least 1 new thing per 5-10 pages.

And in my opinion THAT makes a book GREAT!

I recommend this one to every sql developer out there. Simply because it's handy and a great reference to have.

And if for nothing else just for chapters 3, 6 and 9. Simply awsome.

Amazon link here.

Book Review: MCTS 70-431 Exam Cram: Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Mladen Prajdic — Thu, 10 May 2007 20:09:11 GMT

Well in my knowledge brush up for 70-431 Exam I used this book backed up by BOL.

If you have previous SQL Server experience this book and BOL is all you really need to pass the Exam.

If you're a newbie who is just getting it's feet wet then first get some experience and comfortability with SQL server first.

The book is a very easy read and although it has some errors they're not huge so i didn't need errata (fixed errors) for it.

It nicly summarizes the topics that you need to know about and the chapters are just long enough.

Content fits very nicly with the exam itself. It doesn't get too techical if it doesn't need to be.

I liked the "Note" and "Exam alert" paragraphs throughout the book that warn you about what you need to study more in depth.

Each chapter ends with practice questions and their answers with full explanation of why it's a correct one and where to look in the book for more info.

Very usefull.

The book also contains 2 practice exams with 40 questions each that are on the same level as those on the exam.

All in all i can't really say anything negative about the book. It serves it's purpose well. And that's it.

You can't really keep it as a reference or anything like that because it's to general.

Amazon link here.