Press Release
March 26, 2002
Transact-SQL Cookbook from O'Reilly: Mastering the Creative SQL Query and More
Sebastopol, CA--While a cookbook is often just an assortment of recipes
on a bookshelf, there are times when it can be much more: it can
represent a departure from a person's customary fare, a culinary
adventure, so to speak. Likewise, for many SQL programmers, the new
Transact-SQL
Cookbook by Ales Spetic and Jonathan Gennick (O'Reilly,
US $34.95) will signal a departure from their standard way of thinking
about SQL and Transact-SQL. "Getting the most out of SQL and
Transact-SQL requires a particular way of thinking," authors Spetic and
Gennick explain in their book. "SQL is a set-oriented language in which
you focus on end results, not on the procedures used to accomplish
those results. If you're used to thinking procedurally, this shift to
set-oriented thinking can be jarring."
Transact-SQL is so deceptively simple, Spetic and Gennick say, that few
people take the time to master it. In fact, most SQL books on the
market contribute to this by not taking their readers much further than
the level of writing simple SQL statements. "Ever since I first learned
SQL back in the early '90s, I've been fascinated by how much you could
accomplish with a single, creative SQL query," says Gennick. "One of my
favorite programming tasks is working out SQL-based solutions to
various problems that I'm challenged with. When developing reports, for
example, my credo has been to get each report down to a single SQL
query."
The Transact-SQL Cookbook contains a wealth of solutions to problems
that SQL Server programmers face all the time. The "recipes" in the
book range from those that show how to perform simple tasks such as
importing external data to those that handle more complicated tasks
involving set algebra. Each recipe is followed by a discussion that
explains the logic and concepts underlying the solution.
Says Gennick, "It's my hope that on top of all the specifics that we
write about in the book that readers come away with an awareness of how
much of what would otherwise be client-side programming work can be
pushed back on the database and done using SQL instead. There are many
cases where programmers write procedural code to do what SQL can do for
them with less effort on their part."
The Transact-SQL Cookbook was written to help SQL programmers learn
how to "think SQL," that is, to creatively apply SQL to the programming
problems they encounter daily. As coauthor Spetic explains, "While
working on some projects, I was searching for advanced Transact-SQL
related material written for programmers. Often books on SQL include
information for administrators, designers, and other database
professionals. Such material is too broad and often ignores the little
important details that are of vital importance to a programmer. I
thought that it was important to have a book written for programmers,
with emphasis on programming techniques and tricks."
Readers of the Transact-SQL Cookbook will include those who have just
recently learned SQL as well as those who have been using SQL for
years. The profusion of recipes in the book will provide even the most
experienced SQL programmers with techniques and new ideas about the
full power of SQL and Transact-SQL.
Online Resources:
Transact-SQL Cookbook
By Ales Spetic and Jonathan Gennick
ISBN 1-56592-756-7, 304 pages
$34.95 (US), $54.95 (CAN)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
Return to: O'Reilly Press Room
|
Recent Press Releases
Press Release Archive »
Resources
Press Contacts
Corporate
Sara Winge
800/998-9938 x7109
Media Relations - North America
Sara Peyton
800/998-9938 x7118
Media Relations - Germany
Barbara Müller
+49-221-973160-21
Media Relations - Japan
Kenji Watari
+81-3-3356-5227
Media Relations - United Kingdom
Josette Garcia
+44 (0)1252-721284
Media Relations - Conferences
Maureen Jennings
800/998-9938 x7083
|
