The author imparts a wealth of knowledge on the reader in a mere 445 pages. His style is direct, clear and doesn't waste any pages on trying to get you up to speed. He gives you just what you need and nothing else. I wish they were all like this.

By providing actual performance testing Adam Machanic doesn't just make expert claims for his methods. In fact, my favorite quote from the book: "The hallmark of a truly great developer, and what allows these qualities to shine through, is a thorough understanding of the importance of testing."

Having never worked with spatial data before, I found the coverage of the topic fascinating. Also, entire books have been written on tree's, hierarchies and graphs. Adam provides enough information in a single chapter for the developer to choose a strategy that works.

5 stars - easy

The author imparts a wealth of knowledge on the reader in a mere 445 pages. His style is direct, clear and doesn't waste any pages on trying to get you up to speed. He gives you just what you need and nothing else. I wish they were all like this.

By providing actual performance testing Adam Machanic doesn't just make expert claims for his methods. In fact, my favorite quote from the book: "The hallmark of a truly great developer, and what allows these qualities to shine through, is a thorough understanding of the importance of testing."

Having never worked with spatial data before, I found the coverage of the topic fascinating. Also, entire books have been written on tree's, hierarchies and graphs. Adam provides enough information in a single chapter for the developer to choose a strategy that works.

5 stars - easy

I have read (well, ok, read through or I would post more reviews) quite a few technical books about SQL Server. Where many books follow a very rigid path through a subject, quite often in a very feature driven manner (Here is this command, and you can do this. Next, this command) or process driven manner (First we do this, then we do this...).

This book is very different from that. The title includes the word "Expert" for good reason. This is a book that doesn't assume you know nothing and start from scratch, nor does it try to teach you every knob and switch on all of the SQL commands. It it more about going to the next level and becoming the expert at programming with SQL Server by covering several deep dive subjects that every person needs to make the transition from "Pro" to "Expert".

It has eleven chapters, each of them about a distinct facet of programming SQL Server, from the common stuff you need to do or use right (testing, errors, privilege, CLR, encryption, dynamic SQL and concurrency) to three chapters on really deep applied stuff (spatial data, temporal data, and graphs/trees). Each chapter has some very deep information, and a lot of code that could make you dizzy if you try to ingest it too fast. It is all explained nicely though, and if you take the time to understand the code you will be far better off for it.

I would not suggest this as a book for the casual "I would like to know a bit more about SQL" reader. It is more for the reader who is already good and wants to become a solid professional/expert SQL programmer who know the right way to do things. For that reader it should be on your required reading list.

This is really a great book. It covers specific topics really extensively and it is very easy to read. I was impressed because I was able to find great information about topics such as Encryption or Hierarchies that cannot be found very easily in other books. The examples are very descriptive but the most important thing is that the author will show you all possible solutions and will prove why the one he selected is the best. It is not a beginner's book but it is a fantastic book for advanced DBAs/Developers.

Frankly, I was expecting a very SQL Server 2005 specific book. Instead, what we have is a good general RDBMS book that happens to be using SQL Server 2005. Encryption, access control, testing, basic software engineering and exception handling are never touched in SQL programming books -- including my own! The spatial chapters were new to me. The little asides were also worth looking up. Good clean style, great job.

The book presents real-life SQL Server problems and shows you how to solve them. It is written in a friendly and story-like fashion. The amount of detail presented is just right - detailed enough to understand the topics yet simple enough not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information presented.

In the first chapter, the author reviews coupling, cohesion, encapsulation and database role in the application development cycle.

Chapter 2 is extremely useful for testing and tuning queries. It teaches you all you need to know about SQL Profiler. Other topics include unit and functional testing and performance counters. The chapter also introduces the SQLQueryStress Performance Tool which is a free query performance and load testing tool designed by the author.

Chapter 3 covers the different types of errors and exceptions and also shows you how to write error handling code using new error-handling construct added in SQL Server 2005.

The chapter on Dynamic SQL, chapter 7, is a must read for every database developer as it teaches you how and when to use dynamic SQL to make your application both efficient and secure.

Other advanced topics covered in the book are encryption, SQLCLR security and designing systems for application concurrency.

Recommended for SQL Server professionals of all levels.

Adam Mechanic has the rare ability to convey a vast store of knowledge in an organized and easily understood manner. His writing is crisp, clear and direct, and this is an immensely useful book. A must for every programmer's book shelf .

There is an old story about three men imprisoned in a dark dungeon. Each day they were given a bowl of food and a spoon to eat with. The darkness eventually drove one of the men mad, and he was no longer able to eat his meal. In the darkness, he had forgotten how to eat with his spoon. Every day, one of the two remaining men patiently taught the madman how to use his spoon to eat his meal. The madman, however, would forget what he'd learned on a daily basis, and would have to be taught anew each day by this fellow prisoner. One day, the prisoner became frustrated with the third man for his complete lack of assistance, and began to lash out at him asking, "Why don't you ever help me?" The third man replied, with an aire of conviction, "I am busy trying to bring light into the dungeon so that we can all see."

Too many books in the technical field just teach us the basics; they help us with our daily lives. In this unique book, Adam (one of the brightest lights in the SQL Server world) teaches us to see the light, to understand SQL Server programming, and revolutionize the way we do our work. In this exceptionally well written book, he consistently explains difficult topics with original explanations and great clarity. At first, I felt that some of his examples (like the ones on concurrency) were incorrect, but over time, I have grown in understanding of just how fitting, appropriate, and accurate they actually are. I find I can no longer speak about concurrency without using Adam's examples. He also presents the definitive arguments on some of the more hotly debated topics in the SQL Server world today: stored procedure use over ad hoc SQL, for example.

Each topic is presented with clear code samples that illustrate his points perfectly.

I truly admire Adam's rhetorical style. Somewhat akin to peeling back layers of an onion, he will present a topic and then, just when you have digested it and added it to your toolbox, he will show you its shortcomings and offer an alternative, more powerful technique. Once you have grasped this new technique, he will present to you a third.

Although this volume is somewhat slim, it is a book that should be read and digested slowly, and continually pondered. My understanding of SQL Server 2005 has been transformed from having read this book; read it and let it transform yours as well!

If you are an advanced or intermediate SQL Server developer then this is the book for you. Adam understands real world scenarios and understands that databases are part of a bigger group in the business world. The database is usually the most important asset in an organization. All your data is in the database, you need to secure it, this is where encryption, privilege and authorization comes in. The ratio of web servers to database servers is usually many to one, it is easy to scale out with web servers however with database servers this is not so easy. This is a reason why your code needs to be optimized and designed for application concurrency.

I recommend this book to any intermediate or advanced SQL Server developer. This book is not a book that is like the other book you have but 2 chapters are different. NO, this book contains a lot of good info which is not available in other books. I learned a lot from reading this book and you will too. Here is the breakdown of what is covered in the chapters.

Chapter 1 Software Development Methodologies for the Database World
Adam explains what Cohesion, Coupling and Encapsulation is, where the business logic should live and the balance between maintainability, performance, security and more.

Chapter 2 Testing Database Routines
This chapter is worth the price of the book by itself. You will learn how to unit test your procedures, evaluate performance counters and this chapter introduces the SQLQueryStress Performance Tool (see picture below) which will be used in other chapters. This is a very useful tool if you have to tune a query. How many times do you set statistics time and statistics IO on and off to see the reads and CPU time? This tool does it all for you, paste in your query or proc call, specify how many times you want to run it that is it. This tool will save you many stressful (pun intended) hours

Chapter 3 Errors and Exceptions
This chapter explains the different type of exceptions and how to do error handling. You will also find out what a `doomed transaction' is, this is the one where you get this user friendly message: "The current transaction cannot be commited and cannot support operations that write to the log file. Roll back the transaction."

Chapter 4 Privilege and Authorization
This chapter explains what impersonation and ownership chaining is. Also covered is how to use EXECUTE AS and how to sign procedures.

Chapter 5 Encryption
This chapter will explain encryption to you in a clear and concise matter. You will learn how to improve performance by using Message Authentication Code. The difference between symmetric and asymmetric key encryption is covered as well as all the terminology that is needed to really understand encryption.

Chapter 6 SQLCLR: Architecture and Design Considerations
What this chapter covers is SQLCLR security, why to use SQLCLR and how to enhance Service Broker Scale-Out with SQLCLR

Chapter 7 Dynamic T-SQL
You want to protect your data? Then this is something you have to read. You will learn how to deal with sql injection, why sp_executesql is much better than exec and the performance implications of parameterization and caching.

Chapter 8 Designing Systems for Application Concurrency
If you are running an OLTP system and you are suffering from blocking/locking then this is the chapter for you. Isolation levels and how they affect concurrency is explained. This chapter uses the SQLQueryStress Performance Tool to show you the difference it makes in performance when you slightly change your proc.

Chapter 9 Working with Spatial Data
Spatial data, this is what a lot of people are storing these dates, unfortunately calculating the distance between 2 points is not as easy as it seems (the earth is not flat you know ;-( ) This chapter covers a couple of ways to represent Geospatial Data.


Chapter 10 Working with Temporal Data
Dates are everywhere in the database but unfortunately a lot of people do not know how dates are stored internally and how to write efficient queries which will cause an index seek instead of a scan. Calendar tables, time zones and intervals are all covered in this chapter

Chapter 11 Trees, Hierarchies, and Graphs
The difference between Nested Set Model, Persisting Materialized Paths and Adjacency list Hierarchies are explained. There is code included that shows you how to traverse up or down the hierarchy, insert new nodes and much more.

Although this book has "expert" in the title, I think readers of all skill levels will benefit from it. It earns the title by talking about the art and science of database design and architecture and by covering the intricacies of various topics. The first few chapters are worth the price of admission alone. Most SQL Server professionals have varying degrees of application design experience, and Adam does an excellent job describing concepts like coupling, cohesion, encapsulation, object-oriented systems, unit testing, and functional testing. Adam espouses the virtue of treating the database as software - which of course it is. Too often is SQL Server treated like a toy or side effect in the development cycle, but then is expected to perform under enterprise class conditions.

By chapter 3, we start moving into SQL Server functional areas. SQL Server books usually fall into two areas - references and narratives. Adam mixes both narrative and reference quite well, detailing real life methods for handling errors and exceptions, understanding proxies, ownership chaining, and encryption methodologies. In the Encryption chapter, be sure to check out the "Securing Data from the DBA" and "Searching Encrypted Data" sections - both very timely topics given the data breach issues with retail companies lately.

This book doesn't tread down the beaten path. Other advanced topics detail SQL CLR architecture and design considerations, SQL CLR security and reliability, dynamic T-SQL versus Ad Hoc, SQL injection, application concurrency considerations, geospatial data by latitude and longitude, working with time zones, and querying hierarchies. The later chapters have the quality of stand-alone white papers. Recommended for SQL Server professionals and architects alike.