For the current edition of this book, please see Murach’s SQL Server 2008 for Developers (ISBN 9781890774516).

If you want to learn SQL, you’ve picked the right book. Unlike most SQL books, this one starts by showing you how to use SQL queries to extract and update the data in a database, because that’s what every application developer needs to know first. Then, it shows how to design and implement a database, how to use server-side features like views, stored procedures, cursors, and transactions, and how to use the CLR integration feature (new in SQL Server 2005) to create database objects in a .NET language like C# or Visual Basic.

With this breadth of material, this book works well for application developers and SQL programmers, but it’s also a great first book for DBAs-in-training.

The SQL book that most developers don’t even know they need - that’s how I think of this book.

To be an effective application developer, you need to master SQL for the database you’re going to be using. But many developers get by with the SQL they know, never realizing how much they’re missing out on.

So this is first a book for developers who use Microsoft SQL Server as their DBMS (though it can help you if you want to master standard SQL, too). No matter how much SQL experience you have, you’ll find new features that you haven’t been taking advantage of.

In section 1, you’ll learn the concepts and terms you need for working with any database. You’ll also learn how to use the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Studio to work with queries and databases. At that point, you’ll be prepared for rapid progress as you learn SQL.

In section 2, you’ll learn all the skills for retrieving data from a database and for adding, updating, and deleting that data. These skills move from the simple to the complex so you won’t have any trouble if you’re a SQL novice. And they present skills like using outer joins, summary queries, and subqueries that will raise your SQL expertise if you do have SQL experience.

In section 3, you’ll learn how to design a database and how to implement that design by using either SQL DDL (Data Definition Language) statements or the Management Studio. When you’re done, you’ll be able to design and implement your own databases. But even if you’re never called upon to do that, this section will give you perspective that will make you a better SQL developer.

Section 4 presents the skills for working with database features like views, stored procedures, functions, triggers, cursors, transactions, and security. It also teaches you how to use the enhanced SQL features for working with XML data. These are the features that give a database management system much of its power and that give you an extra edge in your SQL skills.

To complete your SQL Server skills, section 5 shows you how to use the CLR integration feature that’s new in SQL Server 2005. This feature allows you to create database objects like stored procedures and user-defined types using any .NET language, like C# or Visual Basic.