Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying (Solid Quality Learning)

The reviewers before me elaborated enough about this amazing book, so I don't have much to add. This book deserves nothing but 5 stars and I don't understand reviewers giving it less than 5... If one codes in SQL (level is not relevant) he must have this book right next to him all the time (forgive my sexism). Some solutions in this book (like aggregations using XPATH) are screamingly elegant and effective. I very much admire the organization of the book: from problem definition to solution, in easy to follow format. This book totally turns you away from google's search bar and makes you praise every penny you spent on it. Great job, Itzik!

Take a detailed look at the internal architecture of T-SQL—and unveil the power of set-based querying—with comprehensive reference and advice from the experts. Database developers and administrators get best practices, sample databases, and code to master the intricacies of the programming language—solving complex problems with real-world solutions.

Discover how to:

• Understand logical and physical query processing
• Apply a methodology to optimize query tuning
• Solve relational division problems
• Use CTEs and ranking functions to simplify and optimize solutions
• Aggregate data with various techniques, including tiebreakers, pivoting, histograms, and grouping factors
• Use the TOP option in a query to modify data
• Query specialized data structures with recursive logic, materialized path, or nested sets solutions
• PLUS—Improve your logic and get to the heart of querying problems with logic puzzles

Get code and database samples on the Web

This thorough, hands-on reference for database developers and administrators delivers expert guidance on sophisticated uses of Transact-SQL (T-SQL) - one of the most familiar and powerful programming languages for SQL Server. Written by a T-SQL guru, this guide focuses on advanced querying techniques and how queries are interpreted and processed by the SQL Server execution engine. You'll get in-depth coverage of the sophisticated uses of T-SQL, including the differences between logical and physical processing, nesting of queries, and much more. The book explains and compares solutions to database-development problems in both SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005, discussing the new T-SQL programming features added to SQL Server 2005 in detail. Includes extensive code samples, table examples, and logic puzzles to help database developers and administrators understand the intricacies and help promote mastery of T-SQL "Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: t-SQL Querying" deals with computers/software.