MS SQL Programming: Book recommendation?

[cgott42]

I'm an advanced Oracle programmer, and am starting to use MS SQL Server for the first time. I am used to writting Oracle scripts, and want to be able to do the same in MS SQL. Which book(s) would you recommend? and why.


thanks,

 

[SQLSister]

Useful Reference Books for SQL Server Professionals faq183-3324

This FAQ has a good list. If you want to convert you SQL skills to T_SQL, I suggest SQL in a Nutshell because it covers both T-SQl and PL/SQL syntax. MAkes it easy to see the differences.

I understand that Oracle programmers use a lot of cursors (This may or may not be actually true, but I've seen it from several sources and certainly was true of the Oracle programmers I have personally met). Be aware that SQL Server is very inefficient using cursors and they should be a technique of last resort. We had a thread just recently where a programmer reduced his/her run time on a procedure from several hours to 2 seconds by replacing the cursor with a set-based solution.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[dbomrrsm]

Just to re-enforce SQLSisters point about Cursors - I had a cursor process that was taking 8 hours to run but running it re-written as set based reduced it to 18 Seconds.

DBomrrsm

 

[cgott42]

Thanks for both tips:

I'm going to order:
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed
SQL Server and ADO Programming Complete
Microsfot SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook.