Great book for someone who knows nothing about databases

WOW! I picked this book up with hopes of learning SQL and databases in general. I read Microsoft MCDBA book and also half of Microsoft 2000 SQL Server Unleashed Second Edition. I still wasn't clear about certain things. This book simply is amazing. I couldn't put it down and first day, I stayed up until 3am reading it. I am on page 200 right now and so far, I understand every topic written so far. The author does excellent job in explaining everything in VERY simple form. He tells you things that you need to know. The book starts off with introduction, then it moves on to Installation of SQL 2005 server. While you read the book, you are building database for financial company/bank from scratch, so this is really nice because you gain experience in doing it if you don't have a chance to work with it at your job. While you are creating database/tables/etc. the author shows up two ways of doing it. One with SQL Management Studio and then he shows you how to do it with T-SQL. The cool thing about the approach is that author goes over T-SQL code line by line explaining VERY clearly what it does. This is very nice for someone like me who doesn't have any programming experience and becomes confused the second I see code. I would strongly recommend this book to new people who just want to learn SQL and how things work. It's great. I am very happy with it. I read many technical books, with my favorite author being Mark Minasi. This book is written in same simple, easy to understand language.

Get this book, setup virtual machine with server 2003 on your computer, download 120 days evaluation version of SQL 2005 from Microsoft website and you are on your way to go. I assure you, you will learn something and you will have fun doing it!

Great job Mr. Dewson. I will search around and purchaser more books written by you!

Other Reviews

• Terrible!
• Great Overview for Beginners
• Beginning SQL Server Book
• Great book for someone who knows nothing about databases