IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL Cookbook (O'Reilly Windows)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ales Spetic, Jonathan Gennick
Rating: 5/5
Title: Transact-SQL Cookbook (O'Reilly Windows)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ales Spetic, Jonathan Gennick
Rating: 5/5
Almost everything in this book can be found in the books on-line. This is like a printed version of them. If you need a printed version of the bol, get this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Transact-SQL in 21 Days (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Lowell Mauer
Rating: 1/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Transact-SQL in 21 Days (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Lowell Mauer
Rating: 1/5
This book has several fundamental flaws. First, it doesn't stay on point. There are all sorts of tangents and asides that totally waste your time. Second, it's written really poorly. The prose is boring and plain. Third, it's inaccurate in many places and leaves out newer commands and important details. I returned this one for a refund.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 2/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 2/5
I must say I was quite disapointed in this book. For a "guru's guide" it is certainly not a power SQL guide, but is strictly for the mid-level user. I read through the first half of the book, and found nothing to interest an advanced developer.I did, however, find plenty of mistakes, omissions, and misleading statements. The section on data types for instance; it doesn't distinguish between bit and bit-null data types. It gives a technically inaccurate definition of the new GUID datatype, lists several shortcomings of it, but not one advantage or example on when or where you'd use it. He gives a multitude of examples on the perils of using NULL types, again with no data or examples on how useful it can be (I'd hate to write a statistically accurate questionaire app without it, for one). Obviously any book has to omit some level of detail, but he found room for several pages of text on improving the SOUNDEX() function -- odd, in the middle of a chapter on datatypes.Moving to "Selects", he talks of flattening EXISTS queries into joins for performance reasons, then gives as example a join that would perform _worse_ than what it replaced. I could give more examples, but you get the point.The last half of the book may be better. Certainly Joe Celko, (who penned the book's forward and who authored one of the finest "Guru" guides of all times) had some nice things to say about it. The real problem is the title-- if you are looking for a decent SQL book somewhat beyond the beginner level, it is fine. If you're looking for a "Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL", this isn't it, regardless of what the cover says.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 1/5
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 1/5
I didn't like this book. I was looking for the be-all, end-all tome on T-SQL and was sorely disappointed. There's no consistently in syntax (e.g., old vs. new join syntax), nor in coding techniques. These guy may know T-SQL, but they don't seem to be seasoned coders.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days (4th Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ron Plew, Ryan Stephens
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days (4th Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ron Plew, Ryan Stephens
Rating: 4/5
I used this book a few years ago when I began learning SQL. The book is pretty good. It helped me learn and understand sql. The book even talks about PL/SQL and Transact-SQL. Read it and pay close attention to the statements and you will get most of it. If you can download an oracle database software for free, install it annd practice what you are learning from the book. Practic helped me a lot to learn quickly.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Such a great wealth of code! I've never seen such a complete example code set in one book.For me, the OLE automation chapter was worth the price of the book all by itself. I've been wondering for some time how to use this poorly documented part of the Transact-SQL language. The book told me everything I needed to know and more and provided numerous high-quality examples. Sp_generate_script, for example, lets me generate a script for any object on the server (it uses SQL's DMO COM objects). I would have paid what I did for the book just to get this example code.The book says in the Preface that it intends to deliver code that people could use in production if they wanted to. I'd say it does this quite well. The book is an extremely good value.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 2/5
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 2/5
Oh Yes, lots of errors. Bad ones too, It sure did switch the system and database catalogs, and lots more. But as one reviewer mentioned, cross check the details with Sql Server books online, then you'll pass with excellent score. The outline and objectives are right on what you need to know to pass. Just dont believe the details in this book however. Let the book guide you through the topics in SQL Server Books Online that you should know and it can be a good value and save you time. It is sad and surprising that so many errors and inaccuracies are allowed to be published and approved. Now we know where bugs come from, right from source material like this. Good intention, bad execution...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Brad Hill
Rating: 5/5
Title: Google for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Brad Hill
Rating: 5/5
Buy this book for your aging parents rather than trying to teach them how to search the Internet. Saved me from so much frustration, I would have paid twice the price. I only wish I'd thought of this before I tried in the first place. I'll never have to research my mother's vacations or mutual funds for her online again.Plus, I consider myself a power searcher, and I even learned quite a bit I didn't know from this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server CE Database Development with the .NET Compact Framework
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Rob Tiffany
Rating: 4/5
Title: SQL Server CE Database Development with the .NET Compact Framework
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Rob Tiffany
Rating: 4/5
I found this book to be a valuable reference and the chapters on replication have saved my hours of banging my head on my desk.
What do you get...
- You get the rundown of SQL CE and its limitations.
- Some reference material on the subset you must work in.
- Numerous examples.
- Complete walkthroughs of RDA and Merge replication, including how to secure the data being transfered.
Overall I am happy with the book.
I hope in the next edition it covers some topics like best practices for design, and performance enhancements.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Pete Cassidy's Cookbook for Oracle SQL*Plus
Publisher: Chef Pierre
Authors: Pete W. Cassidy, Carole B. Cassidy
Rating: 5/5
Title: Pete Cassidy's Cookbook for Oracle SQL*Plus
Publisher: Chef Pierre
Authors: Pete W. Cassidy, Carole B. Cassidy
Rating: 5/5
I'm just getting into SQL scripting, and have found this book to be practical and very useful. Explanations are well-written and concise, with lots of great examples.
