The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures (Paperback)

SQL Server developers worldwide raved about Ken Henderson's The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL: its exceptionally clear, conversational explanations, and its powerfully useful projects and code examples. This book helps SQL Server developers take the next step -- building more powerful, robust applications than ever before. Henderson identifies several key areas of SQL Server development that offer the greatest power -- and then covers each of them in exceptional detail. The book includes especially thorough coverage of Transact-SQL stored procedure programming, including features such as extended procedures, database design, and XML that are often disregarded in competitive books. Henderson introduces a method he has developed to add arrays to T-SQL, something previously thought impossible. He offers an ideal balance of theory and code, gradually building on basic techniques to create increasingly sophisticated solutions, and teaching the philosophy of Transact-SQL programming alongside syntax and technique. An accompanying CD-ROM includes extensive source code, including valuable proprietary code that makes T-SQL queries run faster. For every SQL Server developer.

"This is a book that deserves a prominent place by anyone who aspires to be a real professional developer of SQL Server applications."

The message of this book is that building stored procedures in Transact-SQL is very much like building programs in any other language. It requires the same type of skill, planning, attention to detail, and overall grasp of technology that successful development in other languages requires. To master Transact-SQL, one must first master the fundamental concepts of software development, then build on this foundation by embracing and studying Transact-SQL as a programming language in its own right. This book teaches you how to do that and more.

More than just a catalog of coding tricks and syntax subtleties, The Guru's Guide to SQL Server(TM) Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML explores the philosophy of Transact-SQL programming. It teaches readers how to apply this philosophy in order to develop their own coding techniques and discover their own solutions to real-world programming problems. A follow-up to the widely acclaimed The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL, this book teaches that stored procedure development does not occur in a vacuum--it involves a wide variety of skills, subjects, and technologies--and helps the reader become a better software engineer, not just a stored procedure expert.

Blending theoretical detail with practical application, this comprehensive reference begins with a foundational overview of SQL Server(TM) stored procedure programming. From there, the focus moves on to best practices and design considerations before progressing to advanced topics and a general philosophy of software craftsmanship. In all, this book provides the most complete coverage of SQL Server stored procedure programming available in one source.

Topics such as user-defined functions, views, triggers, extended procedures, error handling, OLE Automation, database design, and XML are covered in detail. The book spotlights undocumented language features and brings the first application of design patterns to the SQL language. The preview of .NET and a groundbreaking approach to adding arrays to Transact-SQL make for the most thorough and engaging read published to date on SQL Server programming.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains the book's source code. More than 700 SQL scripts, programming utilities, and extended procedures provide a veritable treasure trove of high-quality example code.

Theoretically sound, yet immensely practical, The Guru's Guide to SQL Server(TM) Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML provides developers with the tools they need to become expert stored procedure programmers and better software engineers.