What's your favorite SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 book?

Question

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Best Book for a new Database Developer

I'm looking to become an intermediate, eventually advance sql programmer. I'm currently half way between beginner and intermediate. I'd like to book to cover at least beginner to intermediate, or all the way even.

Thanks

Thank you all for your responses, I have chosen the MVP Deep Dive book from amazon, it has 5 stars and only 5 stars! Sounds good enough for me. I look forward to reading it.

Answer 1

Can't really pick one. The following are all good and cover different areas.

1. Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Programming
2. Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Querying
3. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals
4. SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled

Answer 2

The 2005 and 2008 editions of the inside SQL Server series by Itzik Ben-Gan, Kalen Delaney et al

And of course...how did I forget..after all, I wrote 2 chapters in this book (chapter 8 and 20) SQL Server MVP Deep Dives

Answer 3

I really enjoy the Apress books about SQL, especially when I had to work with SQL Server's Service Broker or it's Full Text Search engine:

Answer 4

This one is not SQL Server specific, but if you are learning databases, it is ggod to understand how to refactor them and most books don't cover this:

http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Databases-Evolutionary-Database-Design/dp/0321293533/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283532624&sr=1-1