IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
SQL can be a threatening language for a beginner. Hernandez and Viescas's book provides an easy way to decipher and understand SQL. In particular, their method of converting real life questions into SQL queries is extremely useful and practical. The accompanying CD is extremely helpful. I highly recommend it for those who may be new to the subject and need a good introduction to the subject.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Backup and Recovery
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Anil Desai
Rating: 1/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Backup and Recovery
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Anil Desai
Rating: 1/5
This book is not a SQL server Backup and Recovery book.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Companion (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Marcilina Garcia, Jamie Reding, Edward Whalen, Steve Adrien DeLuca
Rating: 1/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Companion (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Marcilina Garcia, Jamie Reding, Edward Whalen, Steve Adrien DeLuca
Rating: 1/5
This has to be one of the worst books I own. Time and time again I look to it to provide some knowlege in hopes that the purchase may redeem itself. I am always vastly disappointed!If you want general SQL Server information, the Books Online that come with SQL Server provide MUCH more information.There are also many more worthwhile books out there. Keep looking!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL: Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Peter Stephenson, Glenn Hartwig
Rating: 2/5
Title: SQL: Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Peter Stephenson, Glenn Hartwig
Rating: 2/5
I purchased two books for self-study. I gave this book a fair shake (I read up to chapter 8) before going to the second book. In the first four days in the other book (Teach yourself Transact-SQL in 21 days) I learned more than I did in the first 8 chapters of this one. This book would be good background learning for those without a clue on how relational databases work.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php String Handling Handbook
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Matt Wade, Paul Adams, Chris Cornutt, Syed Fahad Gilani, Vikram Vaswani
Rating: 5/5
Title: Php String Handling Handbook
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Matt Wade, Paul Adams, Chris Cornutt, Syed Fahad Gilani, Vikram Vaswani
Rating: 5/5
If you are just getting into PHP and do a lot of work with text formatting in web sites, this book is a very comfortable way to develop an understanding of the potential of PHP for altering, displaying, and receiving input with different types of text issues: forms; guarding against HTML/script/other tags being inserted by your users; searching and organizing in text fields and databases, There's good explanations of the conceptual whys/hows of work with MySQL database, a gentle introduction to the use of "Regular Expresssions" within PHP for even more powerful text modifications, good examples of developing a full application for moderately sophisticated searches, and a good introduction to the use of forms in PHP and how to validate a user's input from a web page. If you've mastered a major tome on PHP you may not need this book at all. Sure - all the information is available elsewhere, but the authors have helpfully collected all this information in a very clear, thorough and beginner-friendly manner. It's getting difficult to find a new copy of this Wrox title, but it's sure worth snatching up one of the great buys on a used copy.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Admin
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Kevin Kline, Christian Gross, Tom Walsh, Dwayne Seiber
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Admin
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Kevin Kline, Christian Gross, Tom Walsh, Dwayne Seiber
Rating: 5/5
Of course there are many books in the market, and this one is not the most updated since SQL 7.0 is right around the corner, but I still think this book is a great tool for SQL developers and admins. The author assumed readers have solid knowledge of T-SQL programming and goes straight to installation. Not too flashy but that leads to datatypes, devices, backups, replication, security, transactions, locks and others, NO FLASH, JUST PLAIN GOOD ADVICES AND EXPLANATION.There are so many good hints and clues throughout the book, and all that should have be highlighted...but if publisher did that then the whole book would be highlighted.I am just hoping that a SQL 7 is in the works by the team of SQL 6.5 admin
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
First: before deciding to buy this book read the comments of all the other readers. Second: don't buy this book in any case. I've used some MCSD Study guides before and believe me when I say that this is the absolute worst I have encountered so far. Just to give an example: if you are so unfortunate to have this book, go to chapter 3 System Databases and Tables and check out pages 87-91 that contain the system catalog and the database catalog. Done? Now go to the helpsql.hlp file that ships with SQL Server and search for: System tables-Database Catalog and System tables-System Catalog. Mr. Hough switched all the tables of the system catalog to the database catalog and vice-versa. Either the help file is wrong or Mr. Hough is wrong. I tend to think that Mr. Hough is wrong. This is not the only blatant mistake I've seen. It would take a 600 pages book to list all the errors I found in this book!! Maybe Mr. Hough is not writing about SQL Server after all. Maybe he is writing about something entirely different and we don't know it!!!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
I was thrown into SQL Server work with no training and no mentors. This book was a great help. When you have to make something happen and there is no one around to ask you can generally find what you need here. I was pleased that the writing is clear and easy to follow even when dealing with obscure subjects.I have used this book to solve problems and to research configuration settings when troubleshooting performance issues. At over 1000 pages I am not sure I could have survived reading it as a study guide and it is really not suited for that. But if you want a resource that goes into pretty good depth on subjects, this is an excellent book to consult.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 5/5
Except for some missing hints (pg. 57-59) and some mixed up hint syntax, I found the book accurate and very enlightening. I've now used it on two from-scratch VLDB projects. Almost every page has something I was able to use to refine SQL statements & PL/SQL server-side code. For example, pg. 206, the section on MAX & MIN statements was the key to my latest project being able to process 20X the number of records we currently do. The section on learning to read tkprof output was helpful. The bibliography was also great (but is probably outdated now). Worth every penny!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 4/5
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 4/5
*IF* you use the book in the way it meant to be used. The book is a sort of a beginner's tutorial/reference hybrid. It is not meant to augment the skills of the PHP coding veteran, but instead, provide the beginner with a fairly good idea about the basics of PHP programming, as it generally assumes little of the reader. It also explains the core functions in a way that is easier to understand for the beginner than the online documentation, which, when I stated out years ago seemed quite daunting at times. The more experienced may find it useful as a reference when the online docs are not available, but the book will not tell you how to solve complex development problems. It is a tutorial and reference of the core language, that is not its job. Buy this book if you are a beginner or need a general reference guide. No book can teach you how to solve every development problem; it can only show you the tools at your disposal so you can solve these problems yourself.
