Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers by Robin Dewson lives up to it's title of being a helpful resource for beginners to SQL Server 2005. The author patiently walks the reader through the basics & a wide breadth of topics with adequate examples in the 500+ paged book spanning 14 chapters. Many of the examples are demonstrated using multiple modes - SQL Server Management Studio, TSQL & Templates.The book is filled with interesting facts, "gotchas", practical tips & tricks that make the chapters engaging. I have used the SELECT statement for years but I did not know that $IDENTITY & $ROWGUID can be used with the SELECT statement to return the value from the IDENTITY column & the ROWGUID column if such columns exist within the table being querying upon. Similarly I have used the COUNT function but didn't know there was a COUNT_BIG function as well that returns a bigint data type value unlike COUNT which returns an int type value.
I feel the information in the book could have been better presented & organized. There were some places where the examples of usage could have been closer to the topic for better assimilation.
My rating: 4/5
Also see:
SSMS Tips & Tricks
Free SQL Server 2008 Learning Resources