Bibliography and Suggested Reading

Despite this book's considerable length, it doesn't touch on every important area relating to Microsoft SQL Server, and it assumes that readers have some knowledge of relational database management systems (RDBMSs). This section includes other recommended resources for learning about the SQL language, the fundamentals of using Microsoft SQL Server, and related technologies. However, the most important recommendation I can make is to read, cover to cover, the SQL Server documentation.

One of the CDs included with this book contains an evaluation copy of the complete SQL Server 2000 product. To access to the product documentation, you can run the setup program and choose to install only the Books Online from the Client Utilities. The other CD contains some valuable whitepapers. You should start there. This second CD also contains some tools for use with SQL Server as well as an online Transact-SQL language reference compiled by a member of the SQL Server development team. Although the reference is a Microsoft Word file, it contains many cross-linked references and is intended for online use.

You can augment your reading with the following books and other resources. I've listed them in order from introductory materials to the more detailed or specialized materials.

SQL (Osborne's Complete Reference Series) by James R. Groff and Paul N. Weinberg (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1999). An excellent primer for users who are new to SQL.

An Introduction to Database Systems, 7^th Edition, by C. J. Date (Addison-Wesley, 1999). A new revision of a classic book, written by a giant in the field, that covers general relational database concepts. A must-read for everyone in the database industry.

Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit and Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit (Microsoft Press, 1999). Self-paced training with plenty of information about administration and security. These kits are fairly introductory and are suitable for those newer to SQL Server. The 1999 edition is based on SQL Server 7. The SQL Server 2000 version should be available soon. Check the Microsoft Press Web site (http://mspress.microsoft.com) periodically for details.

Database Design for Mere Mortals by Michael J. Hernandez (Addison-Wesley, 1997). A very readable approach to the daunting task of designing a relational database to solve real-world problems. The book is written in a database-independent format, so the details can be applied to SQL Server as well as to other RDMSs you might use.

Handbook of Relational Database Design by Candace C. Fleming and Barbara Vonhalle (Addison-Wesley, 1988). A fine book that discusses general logical database design and data modeling approaches and techniques.

SAMS Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in 21 Days by Richard Waymire and Rick Sawtell (SAMS Publishing, 2000). A good first book on SQL Server 2000 in tutorial format that gets readers up to speed quickly. One of the coauthors is a program manager on the SQL Server development team. This title includes self-test questions for each of the 21 "days."

Database: Principles, Programming, Performance by Patrick O'Neil (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1994). This thorough textbook provides excellent introductory materials, so I've placed it high on the list. It also carefully details a broad spectrum of database topics, including buffer management and transaction semantics.

Understanding the New SQL: A Complete Guide by Jim Melton and Alan R. Simon (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2000). Melton is an active participant in the SQL standards work and was the editor of the ANSI SQL-92 standard. Although you can get the ANSI SQL specification directly from ANSI, this book translates the standard into English.

SQL-99 Complete, Really by Peter Gulutzan and Trudy Pelzer (R&D Books, 1999). An excellent reference that I consult frequently for issues regarding ANSI SQL-99 semantics and conformance.

A Guide to the SQL Standard by C. J. Date with Hugh Darwen (Addison-Wesley, 1997). Similar in purpose and focus to the Melton and Simon book, this book offers more compact coverage, provides additional insight into why things work the way they do, and includes more discussion of semantics. It is an especially good reference on the use of NULL.

Optimizing Transact-SQL: Advanced Programming Techniques by David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, and Eugene Birger (Coriolis Group, 1997). A book that offers lots of clever queries and solutions written with Transact-SQL. (Note, however, that the solutions here were authored before SQL Server had the CASE construct, and CASE can sometimes provide easier, more straightforward solutions.)

Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming by Joe Celko (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1999). An excellent book for insight into subtle but powerful ways to write nonintuitive queries. In places, this one is truly the SQL book for the Mensa crowd—it's loaded with mind-bending puzzles about writing SQL queries to perform nonobvious tasks. It contains many examples—probably more than any other book on this list—and you're likely to find solutions to problems similar in scope to ones you might face.

Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server by William Vaughn (Microsoft Press, 1998). A good book that discusses the various programming interfaces available through Microsoft Visual Basic, especially when you're accessing SQL Server.

Inside ODBC by Kyle Geiger (Microsoft Press, 1995). The finest book available on ODBC, period. Written by the "Father of ODBC." A must for C programmers who work with ODBC and SQL Server. It includes a fine discussion of cursors as well. Although this book is out of print, you might know someone who has a copy or you can check at used bookstores.

SQL Server: Common Problems, Tested Solutions by Neil Pike (APress, 2000). An expanded FAQ list, originally compiled by SQL Server MVP Pike, with contributions by most of the other SQL Server MVPs. Lots of details on frequently confusing issues that arise in working with all versions of SQL Server, from 6 to 2000. The solutions are either undocumented or poorly explained in the product documentation. Some answers are very short, others are pretty extensive, depending on the question. The book provides many possible answers and ways of doing things.

Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Library. Various articles and resources (available online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp) from Microsoft. Like Microsoft KnowledgeBase, the MSDN library contains information about all the Microsoft development products. A must for serious developers.

Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming by Rob Vieira (WROX Press, 1999). A book that has it all, from basic database design and stored procedures to advanced queries and linked servers to advanced topics such as performance tuning and security. It also has a solid description of OLAP Services and Data Transformation Services. A SQL Server 2000 version of this book is still in the works.

The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL by Ken Henderson (Addison Wesley, 1999). A book that offers the most complete set of code examples I have seen—over 600 of them! These examples not only illustrate important concepts and best practices, but they can be incorporated into real-world applications. Henderson has a very good discussion of SOUNDEX and a proposal for an alternative implementation. The book covers basic material as well as advanced topics such as OLE automation and full-text searching. It was because of this book that I finally started to understand and get excited about the power of full-text searching and the CONTAINSTABLE function.

Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000 by Itzik Ben-Gan and Tom Moreau (APress, 2000). A book by two writers who really know Transact-SQL—in fact, they probably dream in T-SQL. Anything written by Ben-Gan is guaranteed to be a gold mine. Ben-Gan and Moreau provide lots of details on new SQL Server 2000 features such as user-defined functions (UDFs), indexed views, cascading actions, federated views, and hierarchical structures.

Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Performance Tuning Technical Reference by Steve Adrien Deluca (Editor), Marcilina S. Garcia, Jamie Reding, and Edward Whalen (Microsoft Press, 2000). Provides information that database administrators need in order to configure a SQL Server 7 RDBMS for optimum performance and scalability. Unlike many tuning books on the market, it teaches not just about SQL Server but also about the underlying operating system and hardware. A SQL Server 2000 version is in the works.

Performance Tuning and Optimization of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 (Microsoft Authorized Training Course #2013). Recommended for people who are interested in becoming the SQL Server performance expert on their team. This course is available from authorized training centers. A separate SQL Server 2000 version of this course won't be offered because much of the relevant information has been included in this course and in the other SQL Server 2000 curricula. Check the Microsoft training and certification Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/train_cert) periodically for details.

Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques by Jim Gray and Andreas Reuter (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1992). Without a doubt, the best book with in-depth explanations of such issues as locking, logging and recovery, and transactional semantics. This book is unusual (and terrific!) in that it is packed with detailed information but is still readable and understandable—unlike many of the overly academic papers that seem more suitable for graduate school classes than for people trying to build actual solutions.

Principles of Database Query Processing for Advanced Applications by Clement T. Yu and Weiyi Meng (Morgan Kaufmann, 1998). For those who want to know what happens under the hood. This is a textbook-style guide to an important area of database theory—how queries work in a variety of databases, and the strategies and algorithms used to optimize them. The book covers topics relevant to relational databases, object-oriented databases, and distributed databases.

In Search of Clusters: The Ongoing Battle in Lowly Parallel Computing by Gregory F. Pfister (Prentice Hall, 1998). A good source of information on scalability limits of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems, such as Amdahl's law, the Von Neumann bottleneck, and other considerations for SMP systems.

I'd also like to recommend the following resources:

Transaction Processing Council (TPC) Web site and full disclosure reports (FDRs). Invaluable resources available at http://www.tpc.org. The Web site allows you to stay abreast of current performance levels of competing hardware and software solutions. It also has plenty of information regarding benchmarks. You also might want to order one of the FDRs for a benchmark that uses SQL Server to determine the exact hardware and software configuration used. If you plan to run a very large system, such an FDR can be a good template to use.