1 comments about SQL in Easy Steps (In Easy Steps).

1. This book explains SQL well. In no time, I was able to understand exactly what SQL was, and what its commands were. I highly recommend this book for learning SQL. My one qualm with the book is that it assumes you are using an interface directly to the database server - I would like to write software that interfaces with the database server. I will need to find another source to accomplish this. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about SQL Anywhere Studio 9 Developer's Guide (Wordware Applications Library).

1. I started using Sybase SQL Anywhere before Sybase owned it--when it was called The "Watcom" Database Engine. "SQL Anywhere Studio 9 Developer's Guide" is an outstanding reference. The book was written by someone who obviously has a great deal of experience using SQL Anywhere Studio to build real-world software solutions. Highly recommended.



2. This book is simply a must-to-have for db-developers; it presents a complete and compact reference for experienced developers as well as it offers a comprehensive immersion in SQL Anywhere to beginners and less experienced ones.
   
   If I had to use only one word to express my opinion about this book I would just say: RELIEF. Relief of not getting drowned again in hundred of pages of irrelevant topics, misleading information, decorative pictures and tools descriptions.
   
   I highly recommend this book to application programmers, as myself, accustomed to flirting with different db-engines but still seeking a solid understanding relational db paradigms.



3. Some of the documentation in this book is included no were else besides Sybase official docs. Given that "official docs" have such a dry reputation, I was happy to find this book. Indeed it is much easier to read, and contains lots of important information for configuring and programming in your SQL environment.
   
   This book is packed with pertinant, in-depth info. The author does not have an overly-wordy style, so there is no inflated page-count.



4. In a word: Awesome! This is the definitive book on Sybase SQL Anywhere 9. If you use this at work, especially in a replicated environment, then you MUST have this on your shelf.
   
   This is a down-to-earth, no-holds barred approach to dealing with the good/bad/indifferent aspects of SQL Anywhere Studio 9. I am a data architect for a company that manages over 4,600 remote databases and this book has single-handedly helped me solve issues we have been having for months.
   
   The author, Breck Carter, is a man who has been in the trenches with "the rest of us" to solve some of the most vexing data management problems. The solutions are as simple as they are elegant.
   
   Written in a "real-world" tone, this book gets to the nitty-gritty of 99% of problems. The chapter on Mobilink replication is worth the price of the book alone as it goes into extreme detail on the how/whens/whys of moving data around and how to best utilize this impressive feature.
   
   Highly Recommend!



5. It is one of the best books on SQL I have read. This is a good book not only for those who want to use SQL Anywhere but for all SQL Afficianodos. It is both comprehensive and compact. I found this book useful while trying to understand Mobilink. I recommend this book without any hesitation to anyone who wants to understand how everything works in SQL Anywhere.

5 comments about Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook.

1. This book is like a SQL SERVER 2000 bible for me. It has the most wonderful information in it, clear and easy to understand. I needed to interview for a job and I looked to this book for clarity and knowledge and boy was I enlightened. A must read for a beginner DBA like myself!!!!!



2. This is the best book ever written on performance tuning. Excellent text and very well written too. Thanks a lot.



3. I am a SQL Server performance consultant to many large corporations and government agencies. I have read and re-read this book so many times I should know it by heart. Still, I carry it with me on consulting engagements everywhere I go. There is almost always someone at my client's site who wants to improve their performance tuning skills. I show them the book and tell them this is where you start.
   
   I don't know if there will be a version specifically for 2005, but it really doesn't matter much. The central concepts of the book have not changed for SQL Server 2005.
   
   Ken England's writing style is clean and lucid. He can explain complex issues in a remarkably understandable way. His explanation of indexes and strategies of indexing is a great example of readable technical writing. He also has a good understanding of what is important and what is not.
   
   This book is accessible to anyone who has some experience with SQL Server or any relational database. Someone with little experience may not get it all in one pass, but they will be much better prepared for real-world SQL Server performance tuning.



4. I have been working with SQL for several years and always felt a bit weak in my understanding of best practices. I have only absorbed a few chapters so far on index structure and execution plans but already I feel like I have fast tracked into the clever peoples class. The layout is excellent and the language unambigous.



5. I have been a DBA for a bunch of small sites for many years. Recently I committed to a job w/ a large, online OLTP retailer and needed to fine tune my knowledge of the SQL Server engine.
   
   I was shocked at just how flawed/lacking my knowledge was after reading this book.
   
   Let me first state this sucker isn't for people looking to get by using the Enterprise Manger GUI. This book dissects the inner most workings of the db engine and it's under lying theory. Their is a lot of TSQL. I found myself limited to reading only a small number of pages at a time and then needing a break. The book is that intense and I have a Masters of Science degree as well as MCDBA and MCITP certifications.
   
   Probably my favorite feature of the book is its small size, under 400 pages from tip to tail. I'd suggest this book to anyone wanting an understanding of what they are actually doing in SQL Server when they issue commands from EM. This book should be a requirement for any DBA or DB Designer in my opinion.

5 comments about ASP in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition.

1. Be warned, if like I did, you think that this is the only book you'll need to be able to build ASP scripts; you're very much mistaken. Whenever I recommend this book, I always recommend it alongside VBScript in a Nutshell as you really need knowledge of an ASP supported scripting language before you can use ASP in a Nutshell to it's full potential!

   This is yet another reference book that I've owned both editions of because I thought it was useful enough to update; but then, my site is developed using ASP, so I'm probably biased in this respect. Ok, so I got the 1st Edition late on in the game and was a little reluctant to part with cash for the new edition - but as IIS 5 started to become standard for Windows hosting, and I had access to it after getting Windows XP Pro... I thought it was about time I updated it.

   ASP in a Nutshell is my first point of reference when I'm looking up the properties of a particular ASP object. I've also found it an invaluable guide for connecting and manipulating ASP scripts that used ADO for data storage and manipulation. For a while it was the only book I owned that covered the issue of connecting ASP scripts to databases.

   Most of the installable components I'd never heard of before getting the book, just as well really because few are of much use - even if they aren't available on your system, a lot can be easily reproduced. The areas I find myself most frequently refering to are the main set of ASP objects, the FileSystem Object and the ActiveX Data Objects. These go into enough detail to keep all but the experienced programmers happy.

   For those new to the Windows scene, there is a brief but detailed guide to setting up ASP to work with your IIS server; but it's hardly rocket science since a clean install of IIS will set up most (if not all) of what you need anyway! If you use ASP regularly, or you intend to, then ASP in a Nutshell should be on your desktop... but please remember it won't fulfill all your ASP development needs without another book to fill in the language gaps. What book you choose to accompany it depends on your language and experience... I personally like VBScript in a Nutshell.




2. I was an ASP programmer several years ago after which I moved to a different technology. Now, I need to come to speed on .NET, but unfortunately all the ASP.NET books make innumerous references to the old ASP which I have almost forgotten.

   The book helped me *VERY* quickly go through ASP 3.0 and now I feel very comfortable reading the .NET books and can now truly appreciate ASP.NET.

   A GREAT reference book!




3. Somewhat in a rush and while trying to learn ASP I purchased this book. I thought it was aweful and it collected dust for nearly 6 months while I searched elsehwere to boot myself up on ASP. However, now that I'm fairly proficient at ASP, this book has been helpful as a reference. No so much for the actual reference value but becasue the sample code helps put things in perspective.



4. As a student in college, I want to learn some advanced web programming language. I found this book is very helpful for beginner. I also get a discount from couponsky.com when buying this book. This book is not only useful for beginner's studying, you also can take it as reference after you finish the studying. I recommend this book to the beginners in ASP.



5. This is an excellent companion book to 'Professional Active Server Pages'. Like most O'Reilly Nutshell texts, this book is designed more as a reference aid, rather than a learning text. If you buy both the Professional ASP tome, and this reference guide, you've bought everything you need for ASP.

1 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: RELOADED, Advanced.

1. I am a systems development manager with 30 years programming experience. An acquaintance is taking a beginning VB programming course, using this text, and has asked me to review some of his assignments. I was dismayed to see an example of a Circle Class presented in this book in which a Radius property has public getters and setters and the abstract parent class has a public Area property getter. In the constructor for the Circle class, radius is a required argument. On instantiation, Area is immediately calculated and stored as part of the class instance. The Circle class also allows the radius to be modified but area is only calculated on instantiation. Therefore, a consumer of this class, without prior knowledge of this very odd design, could easily change the radius then ask for the area. They would receive the area based on the radius at initial instantiation, not the correct area based on the modified radius!
   
   With all due respect to the authors, this is terrible programming and has no place in a textbook. It teaches bad programming to students that will eventually enter the workforce. It does them and their eventual employers a disservice.
   
   It would have been valuable for the authors to follow up this example code with a critique and point out its flaws to readers; however, I saw no such follow-up. I would not recommend this text for a programming class.

5 comments about Querying XML, : XQuery, XPath, and SQL/XML in context (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems).

1. I've been an XQuery developer for an academic press for a number of years, and I read this book cover to cover. It sets out to describe methods for querying and does so,
   in an almost scholarly fashion, for many common but different contexts. I found it provided cohesion to the diverse world of XML, from broad subjects to the details of spec grammars--a very welcome contribution to a technical library.



2. My only complaint with this book is that it emphasizes DTD over Schema a bit too much. For this and other reasons, I felt the treatment of XML seemed a little dated, and also a bit shallow.



3. The authors are XQuery standardization committee members with long tenures at Oracle, thus possessing an unique grounding in that 'other' query language, SQL. As a result, the book is balanced with respect to what SQL/XML and XQuery can respectively do. A number of examples are provided, to illustrate where XQuery is useful and where other query mechanisms might work.



4. If you need to learn XQuery or XPath fast, this is not the book, or you need to skip the first 8 chapters. XQuery and XPath are hardly even mentioned until Chapter 9. The first 8 chapters discuss everything except what is in the title. XML is a pretty boring topic, and excess verbage doesn't help.



5. I have had this book for almost a month now. This book is painful to get through. I can usually get through a technical book within a week and try some examples. I started reading this book front to back and did not skip any sections.
   
   I am not a NOOB when it comes to XML so I found this surprising. I am a certified XML developer (from before XQuery), an experienced programming engineer of 8 years, an MCAD.Net, and I have even written a paper on XQuery for a Master's Program and I simply have become unmotivated and am struggling to get through this book. As others have stated in reviews, this book takes a long time to get to the point. I like to get my money's worth when I buy a book though.
   
   I kept asking myself chapter after chapter "when do we start programming some examples?" The first 10 chapters are filled with everything but XQuery. The author covers the background of XML and why we would use XQuery in detail. I see the argument for why this book may be beneficial to some but if you wish to get up and running on XQuery this is not the book for you.
   
   I may update this as I finish off the book. I am getting more into actual XQuery syntax and grammar as of chapter 11. A flip through the TOC shows that the author covers some implementation info. My goal was to have a better understanding of how to actually implement XQuery and learn some of the more detailed points of it versus just FLWOR that the numerous online tutorials offer. I have purchased another book by O'Reilly instead.
   
   Update: I received the O'Reilly book right after writing this review. I flipped through the TOC and first few pages of XQuery by O'Reilly for a comparison. Wow! These two books could not be any different. I am on chapter 5 of the O'Reilly XQuery book just in a few hours of off and on reading at work. It appears thus far to be the better choice. Luckily, work is paying for these books so I was only cheated out of time buying "Querying XML".

5 comments about Understanding SQL.

1. I repeat, this book saved my job. I'm now in DBA training



2. I've owned this book for only 48 hours and have read it from cover to cover and I am starting with it all over again!

   The Author covers ANSI SQL clearly and in-depth with good examples!

   I would recommend this for anyone who wants to learn SQL and have an accurate reference.

   It's for beginner to advanced SQL folks!

   As a professional Visual Basic, SQL, and Pascal developer, I really needed a reference manual like this one! You know, for those times when you're in the middle of writing some SQL code and ask yourself a question like: "Now how do I format that 'Select' statement?"

   I've tried a couple of the "SQL For Dummies" books and returned each of them! I really did not think that a book like this existed, but here it is!

   Get this book!




3. This book offers the basics to the first part of advanced. It is great in that all of the explinations are followed by many examples on a working database (downloadable). It is quite an amazing and very much worth while book for both reference and beginning SQL



4. As a full-time student, I was after a book to compliment course notes that I recieve and get a better understanding of more advanced SQL. The other customer reviews swayed my decision to choose this book and it was everything and more than I expected. Keep those reviews coming.



5. I'm a newbie to SQL, and borrowed a copy of this book from a coworker a few weeks ago. I was hooked from chapter 1. I'm already creating and dropping tables and manipulating data, and understanding everything! This book is wonderful, and I urge anyone who wants a good solid understanding of SQL to get a copy and just sit down and start reading. The examples are easy to follow but not patronizingly so, and there are short quizzes at the end of each chapter to reinforce the main concepts. This is going to be an invaluable resource for me as I continue down this path. Five stars aren't enough!

4 comments about Administrator's Guide to SYBASE ASE 12.5 (Jeffrey Garbus' Official Sybase Ase 12.5 Library).

1. The book is good for starters/beginners who want to learn about sybase administartion, but it doesnt hightlight the new features or even explain/elaborate in detail the enhanced features on sybase 12.5 admin. For e.g., Configuration parameters are just listed and not explained. I had expected a lot from this long awaited book. Only wish the P&T book be good.



2. The problem with Sybase is you have to wait 5 or 6 years before a book is released unlike Oracle which releases books every month or so. After years of waiting we get this worthless book

   There is nothing meaty in this book. The author did a much better job in the Sybase 11 book.

   Read the Sybase manuals since that's your only source unfortunately because no publisher is excited about Sybase :-(




3. Unlike the other reviews I have read, I found the book to be useful and informative. Some of the newer features (eg, dbccdb) are covered in some detail while others are not. To be fair, the book isn't supposed to be just about brand new 12.5 features, rather an administration guide to 12.5. The difference may appear small, but it is large enough to commend the authors on a job well done.

   The book does cover database administration of Sybase very well. My one complaint is that some of the formatting of figures is off, which might lead a newer DBA to be confused over some of the results. Nevertheless, I have found it an excellent reference manual, as well as a teaching tool, having discovered some things about ASE that I was not aware of. While online manuals are good, there's nothing better than having a book in front of you to read from cover to cover.




4. As an Oracle DBA, I simply want to find something to start, like Oracle's online Concept book or handful of other books out there. But there isn't anything in Sybase documentations nor many choices of books: DBA guide written like ref manual, replication guide however is OK to start. This book at least can get me started as one piece, more systematically, not one bit here and the other bit there. Although it is skin deep and probably should call Sybase Administrator 202, I still find it very useful to start with. Output and query results really helps me sit and read through the book, focuing, not having to type while you read

5 comments about Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming by Example (By Example).

1. I've been teaching college database classes for years, and although I prefer to teach MySQL, it's important for serious IT students to get some experience on a full-blown enterprise database server, and for that I use MS SQL Server.
   
   This is the only usable text I've found for developers who need to learn the fundamentals for constraints, triggers, stored procedures, etc. Most SQL Server books are about administration, and barely touch upon programming topics. Many of those targeting developers rely upon some custom database dreamed up by the author that pales beside the standard samples of pubs and Northwind included with the SQL Server product. The worst books trot out database basics that might be best learned using MS Access.
   
   The authors walk through every operation with standalone examples using either pubs or Northwind, with dozens of code listings for each chapter. You might need to complete a few consecutive listings, but there are no long-running dependencies where the authors want you to follow their development project from start to finish. You can dive in and out of this book at any point with no set up required.
   
   The tone is straighforward with clear explanations, definitions, and tips. No chitchat or bull gets in the way. There are some illustrative figures, but no page after page of useless screenshots. Like the Que series claims, you learn By Example--cranking out the listings yourself to see things work.
   
   A relly nice book for students or professionals from beginning to intermediate levels. Oh yeah...the price is right.



2. I have been using and reading this book for my database course for a year, I have no choice, however, I am not quite satisfied with this book as the layout is plain and difficult to understand the codes.
   It has all the statements in one go, and then it print out the results after the codes with few explanations of the codes. The codes section may extend up to 3 pages and followed by the results, it is hard to read and understand, you need to flip over and over again.
   I just give up after reading half of the book at about page 367, that is the triggers chapter.



3. It should noted that you won't be able to print any of the pages of this book. Also, that unless you register with Adobe and give them you name and email address you won't be able to backup the pdf file or use it on another computer inadditon getting it registered took over 1/2 hour. Finally I had to let them download files to my computer that I know nothing about. So stay away from the PDF version !



4. This book reads more like an online help book. There are no explanations of the logic of using the syntax. This book will put you to sleep. I don't recommend getting this book at all.



5. Excellent book for anyone, from developer to DBA to learn SQL Server basics. Also an excellent tool for passing Microsoft exam 70-229. It goes over all the topics that are covered by the Microsoft exam:
   
   
   Developing Logical Data Model
   Implementing a physical database
   Creating and altering database objects
   Review of constraints
   Indexing
   Database replication and partitioning
   Retrieving and modifying data
   Programming business logic
   Tuning and optimizing data acess
   Database security
   
   The book includes very good explanations as well as examples.
   
   I looked at several books that would help me to pass microsoft exam but could not find any book that would cover all the topics I needed until I came across this book. Combined with a sample test from [...] it's all you need to pass the test

5 comments about Oracle High-Performance SQL Tuning.

1. I bought a copy of this book in hopes of tuning the SQL in my Oracle8i database and I was not disappointed. When using the techniques in the book, I was able to quickly identify and tune the most resource intensive SQL statements in my system. The book is clear and easy to understand.



2. I have a very complex system with lots of subqueries, and I was unable to find good tuning information until I tried the techniques in this book.

   The book is simple to understand and explains the internals of complex Oracle SQL operations.

   I have been very heppy with the results from my tuning, and I am thankful to find this textbook.




3. It is a good book for those interested in the internals of sql. The knowledge of the author about the matter is excellent, and his writing style is clear, simple, and funny.



4. I'm sure that this was a great book in it's day, but it is 5 years old and useful only for firewood. The rule optimizer is not even there anymore. [...]



5. Still working my way through it, but have already gleaned several insights from it. This gives me information I had not yet found in Oracle manuals. (I'm an application developer, trying to work productively with database administrators and system administrators.)