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Learning SQL on SQL Server 2005 Review by Joseph Ruder
Where the beef??
Wow...it is amazing the difference between 2 sites reviews - if you go to O'Reilly's site (yes the publisher) scroed it much lower - you would think you were reading reviews of a different book. This was one of the poorest books I have read in several years - and I really hate saying that as I was *highly* looking forward to this book.
My complaints are:
1. Review questions at the end of each chapter but no answers to the reviews or questions at the end of each chapter - not even online. How do we know if we got them right or not?
2. Huge missing holes of important stuff -- some obvious holes include:
a. Triggers - pretty nice things to know about
b. Procedures
c. Functions (this is about Transact-SQL)
d. Security (at least touch on pre-packaged permission roles)
e. Data locks or anything related to maintaining data integrity
d. error handling
3. Obscure examples that left me scratching my head going "OK, I can see HOW you do this but why would you WANT to?"
4. The phrase "this is beyond the scope of this book" was repeated WAY too many times -- what IS in the scope of the book if not stored procedures and functions, triggers, setting permissions, and other very basic SQL 2005 topics.
There is some good intro to SLQ stuff here well paced and well written -- but it is in NO way money well spent if you are wanting to learn the in's and out's of SQL server 2005.
The back of the book states that it is an "excellent introduction to the SQL language and database concepts" -- but yet the book does not even touch on the subject of database normalization - the very definition of "basic database concept" when talking about RDBS.
I had just finished a "dummies" book that was much more complete and cost half as much.
Just so you know, I don't make a habit of down playing many books -- I love and collect tech books -
I have an extensive library of books (many O'Reilly)
I DID read the entire book cover to cover, while working through the examples in front of my computer
I feel I gave this book a very fair chance and was let down.
Please feel free to correct or address any of my above points if you feel they are in error and I will reconsider this review.
Sorry...but I suggest moving on.
Joe
I only rated it on 1 star instead of two because of the fairly high price. If you can get it cheaper used - go for it...