As a programmer we go through many a book. And many of them read and feel like textbooks. So we skim, read in short bursts, simply would rather avoid the read.
This book is so well written that it can't be put down. And it's packed with REAL WORLD examples. Instead of just defining syntax and using a lame example, this book goes FAR beyond that, and digs deep into real world examples that really shine a light on your work.
I purchased this book almost a year ago, and it's still one of the most referenced books I have. I am constantly pulling it out when I reach a problem in my work, and this book always has great pointers to a solution.
This book will make you a T-SQL junkie, get it.

PS The logic puzzles in the back are great, too!

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

This is a great reference or review text. The content is fairly meaty and will take some chewing. For example, the book starts right off by breaking down the query engine process into it's processing steps and taking the reader through examples of the result sets at each step in the process. It might be overwhelming for someone starting out, but it's a great place to dive into a deeper understanding of the data engine.

This is the 2nd book of the 4 part "Inside-SQL" series, with each book I imagine, appealing to a different reader. Having a programming background, I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series ("The Storage Engine"), which on it's own is also an excellent book.

As mentioned in other reviews, this book is definitely not for beginners. The authors assumes a basic level of SQL knowledge from the reader as he launches into complex Transact-SQL examples - unlike most books which start the reader with simple SQL examples and progress through to complex ones.

While reading this book, it was easy to compare it's contents with Ken Henderson's popular "A Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL", with the latter book becoming more and more outdated by the improvements in Transact-SQL since it was published. If you're a fan of Henderson, you will quickly become a fan of Itzik.

A benefit of this book is that unlike most SQL 2005 books, this is not an update on SQL 2000 material, but instead starts at the 2005 level. The author focuses on the new syntax introduced in SQL 2005, and then, moves onto older SQL 2000 syntax and compares both the complexity and the performance differences between the two. This itself is invaluable to those of use that code in Transact-SQL and feel more comfortable using the "old ways". This book highlights how the new syntax is in fact simpler and more efficient - we just need to take the time and effort to understand and become familiar with the new language changes.

The book starts by discussing the logical processing of a SELECT statement, which helps the reader to understand the hows and whys of writing a query. I finally understood why I can't use an expression's alias in a WHERE BY or GROUP BY clause (as the SELECT line is one of the last parts of the statement to be processed). Throughout the book, the author often defines a problem and allows the reader to formulate an appropriate solution. He then reveals MULTIPLE solutions and explains why each is good or bad. The book ends with a selection of "logic puzzles" that test the reader's ability to solve logical problems. This was both fun and informative.

After reading this book, I found myself changing the way I constructed SQL queries at work - for the better!

Normally I don't write a review but I liked this book enough to do so. I am a programmer not an SQL developer. I knew the basics but not the details and I had to write complex queries in SQL 2005 so I researched books for couple days before I bought this one. I have never heard of CTE, APPLY, ROW_NUMBER or PIVOT to mention few. This book at the beginning gives you the basics to understand how queries are processed internally, the difference between the types of indexes and how to read the execution plans. Then it dives into the language. Each example is well thought. The example goes over the syntax, performance and also optimization. I read all of it and did most of the examples.

The MS SQL books have dramatically risen in quality in a few short years. When SQL 7 and 2000 were released, there were may be 1-3 book which were truly outstanding. For SQL 2005, however, there are at least 5-10 books which are truly worthwhile and this is one of them.

The reason why the quality of books has risen is the expertise of the authors. For this book, the authors are either MS SQL MVP or have been involved with the creation of MS SQL at Microsoft.

Generally speaking, the book has high level expert description of the underlying MS SQL 2005 architecture and T-SQL commands. But it lacks a nice flowing writing style which hempers the understanding to a willing reader. This book is an another example of authors who are inept at explaining the subject matter which they are an expert much like a professor who can't teach.

I also felt some parts of the book were sloppy or not as detailed. For example, the authors state that one of the steps of T-SQL query tuning is the need to correlate wait stats with problematic queries. Yet they never provide an adequate example (other than providing a useless query of SYS.DM_OS_PERFORMANCE_COUNTERS table) of how to connect wait stat with a specific transaction. This is a huge missing link.

PROS:
1)Awesome details on Indexes and Query plans
2)Solid advice on how to improve T-SQL for better performance.

Cons:
1)Not for the beginners. The book goes straight to the harder subjects (PIVOT, APPLY, complex joins etc).
2)Does not cover simple or fundamental subject matters.

Coming from an Oracle shop over to a MSS shop I was looking for a book that would provide me with the features of T-SQL, as well as act as a handy reference. The book is likely good as a teaching resource, albeit the English usage is horrible. As a quick reference, though, it's less handy than navigating the M$ online resources.

A must for every MSS dba's desk? Nah. Not even close. I have a doctorate in MIS and this is exactly the kind of convoluted writing that makes practitioners wince when they see someone with a Ph.D.

This book fits perfectly between SQL Books Online and the deeper T-SQL Programing books. For me the detailed theory of operation behind how T-SQL runs queries and making note of that flow as it applies to each type of query through out the book makes it all "Click".

If this is your style too and you don't want to just copy and tweak queries THIS is the book for you.

Deep inside the way sqlserver compile and compute the tsql
very good for semi - new users

Tal g

If you want to take your basic SQL skills to the next level, this offers great examples of how to do it. I'm mentoring a group of new SQL developers and have loaned this book out for weeks at a time. Makes my job easier!

Real quick:

1. Target reader: someone with a good grasp of the 2000 Server wishing to learn the new stuff that came with the 2005 server (there's a lot: the 2005 product is _much_ better than the previous). This is probably the only thing that's unequivocally good about this book.

2. Content: Mostly about tables (joins, logical operations, physical operations, aggregates, a bit of esoterica -- puzzles, hierarchies, stuff like that, just a bit at the end). No CLR to speak of in this volume (there's a tiny bit in the secton on user-defined aggregates; much more of it in the other volume, Programming). This book _should_ be considered the first volume of the two-volume set. If you get this one, you'll get the other one too; neither tome is self-sufficient; in fact there's a lot of explicit interdependence.

3. Very clean technically: technical editing very good (no typos either).

4. Depth vs breadth: the book is more extensive than deep. Some people here say it's difficult -- and it is true, which unfortunately brings me to the next point:

5. Writing: ABHORRENT. That's why it seems difficult -- and it very much is, except it's not due to any kind of inherent difficulty of the subject matter. It's the authors' complete, laughable inability to use the English language to explain things that makes reading this book such a chore. There is also conceptual muddle (people write as they think).

Now, experience taught me to forgive literary incapacity to a _technical_ author (to a degree; and I do take notice and, if possible, avoid him in the future). In cases like that I put the blame squarely on the publisher, especially if otherwise I know the publisher to be solid. The book's front matter lists Roger Leblanc as the copy editor of this book: Roger Leblanc, you get an F; as a man of honour you gotta kill yourself now. The book is full of unimaginable, fantastic garbage of every possible kind, from a massive amount of grating usage errors to a pervasive lack of unity, coherence, and logical connectedness on the page/paragraph level, to a frequent lack of the overall unity: it's clear that an editor never touched it. When I bought this book and read the first chapter I was so p-off I almost sent it back (I got as far as getting an RMA from Amazon). I did keep it though.

Do I recommend this book? It has been useful to me, so -- with great reservation, and only to the right reader -- yes, kinda. And please check out what else is available (there's tons of books on the 2005 server these days). The Querying book is part of the three-volume update and extension of the server-2000 version by Delaney. Delaney's server-2000 book was extremely useful and quite decently written. I wish they let her write the new version, even though it's now three moderately sized books instead of a single huge one, and it's probably difficult for one person to do it all.

This book is so challenging and abstract that if it were not absolutely gorgeous it would have been gathering dust on my bookshelf by now. I am working a lot right now with accounting problems and have found chapter #9 on hierarchies to be very elegant and helpful. The knowledge density of this book reminds me of K&R or Harbinger and Steele in C programming. This is not a reference book, nor is it a "do" piece. It is a think piece and will, perhaps profoundly, improve your fundamental understanding of how databases and the SQL language work.

Having done a fair amount of embedded SQL programming in C, I always found that transition very difficult as the scales that the two languages work on and their approach to problems is so very different. Itzik articulates the nature of SQL programming, and thinking in that paradigm very precisely, and it was immediately clear what the issues were there. It helped characterize the thinking required for SQL and sets so clearly that it alone was worth the price of the book. This book should be thought of in the same vein as a data structures and algorithms book. You will pull it down off the shelf many times during design and planning phases to affirm your approach is sound and even optimal. This should be one of the ten books you take to a desert island.

There is an amazing wealth of knowledge contained in this book. The authors did a really great job of organizing the information, as well as providing examples that you can use to dive right in. As I've walked around my office and visited other database developers I've noticed this book on many desks along with his other book T-SQL Programming, which I will buy next.

You don't always have the opportunity to learn from masters like Itzik Ben-Gan and the other co-authors...but you WILL learn from the T-SQL masters in this book!

This is an OUSTANDING BOOK and even though I've been acquainted with T-SQL for nearly four years I'm amazed at the insight and depth found in this book.

If there is any "ding" against this book it's that the book is not for absolute beginners...better have at least a clue before cracking these pages.

I also heartily recommend Itzik's T-SQL Programming book...buy these both at the same time!

I've just started reading this book and there may be a five-star item hidden in it. But, just to forewarn the reader here, I'd like to mention that it's extremely confusingly written. Someone says it's clear and fun and blah-blah-blah -- it's nothing of the kind, this review is probably posted by author's friend (or publisher's).

I think the author's main problem is that he's not trying to go gradually from the essense of things to a larger view of the same; instead he dumps everything he knows right there. This results in a very unfocused presentation. The writing also is somewhat incoherent. All in all, the book is hard to understand, that's my immediate impression that I wanted to share here. Do not buy this book sight unseen; make sure to check it out first: go to a bookstore and read a chapter, see if you like it.

I will revisit this review with more detail later, but for now I thought I'd mention what I can, just to bring a bit of balance into the reviewing picture here. Btw, be very skeptical about Amazon reviews in general. It's impossible to avoid the impression that these days most of them are written by publisher personnel in order to enhance sales. That's it for now. (To be continued).
------------
Followup: nope, sorry -- not to be continued. I had to give up. I can't say anything bad about the authors' technical expertise, but the book is atrociously written. My sorry brain refused to go on struggling with the scatterbrained, incoherent, and at times downright ungrammatical muddle filling the pages of this book. Get an editor, maybe team up with a competent technical writer, then issue another edition, then maybe I'll give it another shot. As is, no.

(I'm leaving the three-star rating intact only because I can't see how I can change it when editing a review. But I'd not give it more than two stars now.)

I've just started reading this book and there may be a five-star item hidden in it. But, just to forewarn the reader here, I'd like to mention that it's extremely confusingly written. Someone says it's clear and fun and blah-blah-blah -- it's nothing of the kind, this review is probably posted by author's friend (or publisher's).

I think the author's main problem is that he's not trying to go gradually from the essense of things to a larger view of the same; instead he dumps everything he knows right there. This results in a very unfocused presentation. The writing also is somewhat incoherent. All in all, the book is hard to understand, that's my immediate impression that I wanted to share here. Do not buy this book sight unseen; make sure to check it out first: go to a bookstore and read a chapter, see if you like it.

I will revisit this review with more detail later, but for now I thought I'd mention what I can, just to bring a bit of balance into the reviewing picture here. Btw, be very skeptical about Amazon reviews in general. It's impossible to avoid the impression that these days most of them are written by publisher personnel in order to enhance sales. That's it for now. (To be continued).

I've just started reading this book and there may be a five-star item hidden in it. But, just to forewarn the reader here, I'd like to mention that it's extremely confusingly written. Someone says it's clear and fun and blah-blah-blah -- it's nothing of the kind, this review is probably posted by author's friend (or publisher's).

I think the author's main problem is that he's not trying to go gradually from the essense of things to a larger view of the same; instead he dumps everything he knows right there. This results in a very unfocused presentation. The writing also is somewhat incoherent. All in all, the book is hard to understand, that's my immediate impression that I wanted to share here. Do not buy this book sight unseen; make sure to check it out first: go to a bookstore and read a chapter, see if you like it.

I will revisit this review with more detail later, but for now I thought I'd mention what I can, just to bring a bit of balance into the reviewing picture here. Btw, be very skeptical about Amazon reviews in general. It's impossible to avoid the impression that these days most of them are written by publisher personnel in order to enhance sales. That's it for now. (To be continued).

Well written, concise, clear, and fun all wrapped into one cover. One of the top books on T-SQL I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

This book is having excellent information , but reading it is not fun , its complex , sometime's boring ! , author's writing style prefers complexity not simplicity approaching demonstration of problem solving and tuning examples, also he should reduce statements like `I will show you later' , `will give links at end of chapter' , `in other book will talk about this' , in this chapter will talk about so and so then give summary then give links then ,... and the like , just write and let the reader finds out the info when it arrives .

But still , it has an excellent info - IF - you can digest the meal !

Inside T-SQL was right on track for what I was looking for, namely a better understanding of T-SQL. Overall, a pretty good manual and recommended.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting a better understanding of SQL server 2005. I have read several books in this series, they are all good, but this is the best by far. It starts by discussing the logical processing of query, which is very important for understand how to write effective queries. It then discusses how to evaluate your queries, it discusses indexes in extensive detail - to the point that you will understand how to they work and how to make effective indexes. It explains many of the new T-SQL features, and how to use them in real life scenarios. However, note that this is not a T-SQL reference guide. Books online serves that purpose. This is a MUST HAVE for my team.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting a better understanding of SQL server 2005. I have read several books in this series, they are all good, but this is the best by far. It starts by discussing the logical processing of query, which is very important for understand how to write effective queries. It then discusses how to evaluate your queries, it discusses indexes in extensive detail - to the point that you will understand how to they work and how to make effective indexes. It explains many of the new T-SQL features, and how to use them in real life scenarios. However, note that this is not a T-SQL reference guide. Books online serves that purpose. This is a MUST HAVE for my team.

I found the book "Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying" a very good guide to the in's and out's of SQL querying from the standpoint of a student, but, the way the book is written, it does not "low-brow" anyone more experienced. It is just the sort of book that would appeal and enlighten anyone who is willing to put the print to work and develop bona fide, time-tested expertise in querying Microsoft SQL Server 2005. In other words, it is an investment in knowledge that pays big dividends.

Because I do not want to repeat the other reviews, the only thing I'm going to say is: Professional level.

I think it is a great book to learn T-SQL. You always learn something new on each chapter. I am a software programmer, not a DBA. I have some knowledge of T-SQL, but this book is great. It shows you T-SQL in a very simple way, and the new features added to T-SQL in SQL Server 2005 .

This will be a standard book on most DBA's desktops. Itzik Ben-Gan of Solid Quality Learning has taken the Advanced T-SQL course that he teaches and turned it into a fantastic book.

The first two chapters cover the logic of query processing and what physically occurs when you run a query. Very early on Itzik establishes a practice of defining a problem or a question about T-SQL and then spends time working through the solution. This approach carries through the entire book. This not only allows the user to see the problem solving approach in action, but enables the user in pursuing the solutions themselves. Itzik takes the time to lay out a very detailed methodology for identifying and tuning problem queries from the server, through the database, down to the query that's causing the problems. From these foundation chapters he explores topics such as Subqueries and Table Expressions, Joins and Set Operations, Aggregating and Pivoting Data, Top and Apply, Data Modification and finally Graphs, Hierarchies and Recursive Queries.

The greatest thing about the book is that Itzik really explores his solutions. He walks the user into a mind set that accepts only set based operations as the norm for data access. He shows multiple solutions to many of the problems and outlines where and how those solutions differ. This book acts as a good mechanism for actually learning the details of how to use T-SQL withing SQL Server 2005. He also points out where there are differences from 2000 and supplies 2000 only solutions to a lot of the problems, which can help those that need to maintain two code bases. He regularly uses and addresses 2005 functionality so there is zero indications of this being a 2000 book warmed over for re-publication.

Make no mistakes here. This is a high-end book. If you're just getting started in T-SQL, you may want to start out somewhere else. If, after getting down the concepts of SELECT.. FROM... WHERE... GROUP BY... ORDER BY, etc., then come back here and learn what happens and the right reasons to do the right things with the scripts that you write.

I work primarily as a database developer, doing database design from logical models and business requirements and then developing stored procedures, etc., for accessing data from those databases. This kind of information is absolutely vital to doing the best job I can. I think I was predisposed to like this work, but I've actually been picking it up during the day to refer back to points that were unclear to me or that I want to better communicate to others, especially from the first two chapters.

As someone quite familiar with Itzik Ben-Gan's work, I expected this to be a really good book. But since I've been reading about and working with SQL Server 2005 since early betas, I didn't expect to learn much. I was, as it turned out, wrong on both counts.

This book surpassed all of my expectations. It's more than just a really good book -- it's a great book -- and I learned quite a bit from reading it. Itzik and his co-authors have a knack for explaining every idea, down to the minute details that you might miss in other books or documentation. The examples are clear and precise, and the author team has done a great job of making even complex topics crystal clear.

This is certainly not a book for beginners; intermediate and advanced practitioners will want to use this book to help get more out of SQL Server. Learn the basics of T-SQL and SQL Server before tackling this one if you want to take full advantage of what it has to offer.

How many times in your life you expect something to be great,
and later find out that it is actually even better than what you've expected?
Reading this book, for me, was one of those times.
I think that in order to expertise in something you have to gain strong knowledge of the basics.
Itzik Ben-Gan lays for you the foundations to build your SQL expertise.
From the first chapter in which Itzik describes the Logical Query Processing Phases through the second chapter, in which Lubor Kollar explains about the Physical Query Processing and through the rest of the book where Itzik doesn't just give you SQL code the works in real life (and it works, believe me I tried), but also explains to you why and how you get the results.
Even tough it is not stated on the book cover you also get best solutions for SQL 2000 in addition to best solutions for SQL 2005 for almost every subject that is presented in the book.
Another bonus that I found is a description of the Tuning Methodology that was developed by Solid Quality Learning.
Even tough the explanations are very clear, in my opinion, don't expect everything to be obvious at first read. Some of the things require a deeper thinking.
I think this book is much more than just a help to improve your SQL code.
This book shows the beauty of SQL.

I bought this book because of its positive rating. I was not expecting whole lots of scripting samples. The books has many T-SQL scripts that guide you through some common tasks developers faced. I was able to use Scripting in Cursor to clean the records inside the database which I didn't know how to do it previously. Now I can assign the job(Cursor) which I wrote in SQL Server to clean up my database during off peak hour(2 A.M everyday) using SQL Server Agent's DTS package. The scripting in "Cursor" is expensive and resource intense but useful if you use it properly that's why I assign the job to my SQL Server when it is least demanding. The SQL server is running rock solid and faster now! This book tell you what to do and not to do on SQL server which I am practicing as I learned. I would recommand this book to anyone interested to expanding their SQL Skills and SQL 2005 Server knowledge.

There are occassions when I like to believe that I can write really smart SQL queries. Then I see the stuff that Itzik Ben-Gan and Steve Kass (the Tecknial Rewiwer of this book) come up with, and I crawl back under my rock.

So if you want a book about advanced SQL Server querying and programming, there is little reason to search further. No one knows this topic better than Itzik. (As for T-SQL Programming there is a second book. Itzik and the publishers felt that it was too much for one book. So there are two. Querying is part one, Programming is part two.)

Of course you may ask: "OK, he knows the tecknical stuff, but is he a good author than can explain for the common man?". Being an SQL Server MVP myself, and thus considered an expert myself, this is somewhat difficult to assess. I do get the feeling in some places that he should explain a little more in depth. Not because I don't understand myself, I do. (Except in a few places where I just look and say "what?") But sometimes I suspect that more regular folks would benefit from more detailed explanations. Then again, this means that instead of reading the book once, you will have to read it twice.

Whatever, keep it as a reference. What is really valuable with the book is that you get cookbook recipes for problems that are not entirely trival to handle in SQL: Median, trees and graphs, custom aggregations etc. And you don't get one solution, you get a couple, since depending on the situation, different solutions work best. You will find, though, that you usually end up using the row_number() function. :-)

But as you may guess: this is not a book for beginners. If you are a habitual Oracle or DB2 programmer about to set your foot for the first time in SQL Server land, don't worry. This is the book for you. But if you are new to SQL programming, this is not the book for you, not yet.

This book and its companion "T-SQL Programming" are two great books, they are not for beginners and in some part requires a full immersion, they are not an easy reading... but at the end you you will have a really deep understanding of the topics they covers. I've found really useful to read it two times, the second one I've noticed that a lot of sentences takes a new light after you've a whole overview of all the topics. A definitively must have. Both !

More so than any other language I can think of SQL is so approachable because it is so logical. Most people can grasp the basics within hours if not minutes. Unfortunately this approachability is often confused with simplicity. Learning SQL may be easy but becoming proficient takes time and guidance. Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: TSQL Querying, part 1 of the 2 part series (Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: TSQL Programming) is so much more than examples of what to do and what not to do. Itzik Ben-Gan takes you behind the editor and inside the engine to teach you the how's and why's. I recently had the good fortune to attend a course given by Itzik Ben-Gan who is a passionate instructor and a recognized expert. Whether it is listening to him speak, reading his articles in SQL Server magazine or reading this fantastic book there is no one more capable to help you hone your SQL skills.

I was searching for a book that would fully cover both old and new (2005) features of T-SQL. This is the only one in the market that is actually doing so. But, more then that, the first chapter alone that explains how SQL works logically in human coherent language is worth the price of the whole book. And the other chapters are of same excelent quality. This is the best book about the subject in the market and I am sure to buy the sequel (about T-SQL programming.)
ZA

Having read Itzik Ben-Gan's articles in SQL Server Magazine for several years, I was expecting a well written and technically challenging book. All I can say now that I have been reading it is: "Wow!" It has really exceeded my expectations. I tire of the typical re-hash of the SQL Server Books Online that most authors are fond of doing lately, but this text digs far deeper and points out several items that can help any SQL Server professional build a more solid foundation in the art of T-SQL querying. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a more thorough understanding of how SQL Server 2005 handles query processing.