Recommend a good SQLServer book or site.

[aceO07]

I'm doing some work in SqlServer and I need to learn more about it. I have a good understanding of basic SQL and can get around. However, I need to learn more about SQLServer (2000edition).

Specifically, I want to learn about ALTER TABLE. I need it to add, drop, change properties of a column. Little things like dropping a default from a column before being able to drop a column confuse me. I know how to drop it, but I can't figure out what the default constraint name is.

Lots of little details. I've used MySQL prior to this project and it's much easier. I can understood why SqlServer is more complex, but I wish there was more documentation on the web, or better documentation.

I had to visit an MS programmer's website to get a long sql query to find the primary key of a table. In MySQL I could just use the describe function.

 

[Markbnj]

You don't really need to buy a book for this anymore. Just hit Microsoft's site and go to the MSDN section. Once in the library you can use the left menu to navigate to the SQL server docs and have at it.

 

[kamper]

If you're just looking for a reference manual, there should be a pretty extensive help file that comes with either the server or the client. I always found it quite adequate when I knew roughly what I was looking for.