Apress - Expert SQL Server 2005 Development

Working with SQL Server on project after project, I find myself solving the same types of problems again and again. The solutions differ slightly from case to case, but they often share something in common—code patterns, logical processes, or general techniques. Every time I work on a customer’s software, I feel like I’m building on what I’ve done before, creating a greater set of tools that I can apply to the next project and the next after that. Whenever I start feeling like I’ve gained mastery in some area, I’ll suddenly learn a new trick and realize that I really don’t know anything at all—and that’s part of the fun of working with such a large, flexible product as SQL Server.

This book, at its core, is all about building your own set of tools from which you can draw inspiration as you work with SQL Server. I try to explain not only the hows of each concept described herein, but also the whys. And in many examples throughout the book, I attempt to delve into the process I took for finding what I feel is the optimal solution. My goal is to share with you how I think through problems. Whether or not you find my approach to be directly usable, my hope is that you can harness it as ameans by which to tune your own development methodology.

This book is arranged into three logical sections. The first four chapters deal with software development methodologies as they apply to SQL Server. T e next three chapters get into advanced features specific to SQL Server. And the final four chapters are more architecturally focused, delving into specific design and implementation issues around some of the more difficult topics I’ve encountered in past projects.