xv
Acknowledgments
Several people contributed to the T-SQL querying and T-SQL programming books, and I’d like to acknowledge their contributions. Some were involved directly in writing or editing the books, while others were involved indirectly by providing advice, support, and inspiration.
To the coauthors of Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Querying—Lubor Kollar, Dejan Sarka, and Steve Kass—and to the coauthors of Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008:
T-SQL Programming—Dejan Sarka, Roger Wolter, Greg Low, Ed Katibah, and Isaac Kunen—it is a great honor to work with you. It is simply amazing to see the level of mastery that you have over your areas of expertise, and it is pure joy to read your texts. Thanks for agreeing to be part of this project.
To Lubor, besides directly contributing to the books, you provide support, advice, and friendship and are a great source of inspiration. I always look forward to spending time with you—hiking, drinking, and talking about SQL and other things.
To Dejko, your knowledge of the relational model is admirable. Whenever we spend time together, I learn new things and discover new depths. I like the fact that you don’t take things for granted and don’t follow blindly words of those who are considered experts in the fi eld.
You have a healthy mind of your own and see things that very few are capable of seeing. I’d like to thank you for agreeing to contribute texts to the books. I’d also like to thank you for your friendship; I always enjoy spending time with you. We need to do the beer list thing again some time. It’s been almost 10 years!
To the technical editor of the books, Steve Kass, your unique mix of strengths in mathematics, SQL, and English are truly extraordinary. I know that editing both books and also writing your own chapters took their toll. Therefore, I’d like you to know how much I appreciate your work. I know you won’t like my saying this, but it is quite interesting to see a genius at work. It kept reminding me of Domingo Montoya’s work on the sword he prepared for the six-fi ngered man from William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.
To Umachandar Jayachandran (UC), many thanks for helping out by editing some of the chapters. Your mastery of T-SQL is remarkable, and I’m so glad you could join the project in any capacity. I’d also like to thank Bob Beauchemin for reviewing the chapter on Spatial Data.
To Cesar Galindo-Legaria, I feel honored that you agreed to write the foreword for the T-SQL querying book. The way you and your team designed SQL Server’s optimizer is simply a marvel. I’m constantly trying to fi gure out and interpret what the optimizer does, and whenever I manage to understand a piece of the puzzle, I fi nd it astonishing what a piece of software is capable of. Your depth of knowledge, your pleasant ways, and your humility are an inspiration.
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xvi Acknowledgments
To the team at Microsoft Press: Ken Jones, the product planner: I appreciate the personal manner in which you handle things and always look forward to Guinness sessions with you.
I think that you have an impossible job trying to make everyone happy and keep projects moving, but somehow you still manage to do it.
To Sally Stickney, the development editor, thanks for kicking the project off the ground. I know that the T-SQL querying book was your last project at Microsoft Press before you started your new chosen path in life and am hopeful that it left a good impression on you. I wish you luck and happiness in your new calling.
To Denise Bankaitis, the project editor, you of all people at Microsoft Press probably spent most time working on the books. Thanks for your elegant project management and for making sure things kept fl owing. It was a pleasure to work with you.
I’d also like to thank DeAnn Montoya, the project manager for the vendor editorial team, S4Carlisle Publishing Services, and Becka McKay, the copy editor. I know you spent countless hours going over our texts, and I appreciate it a lot.
To Solid Quality Mentors, being part of this amazing company and group of people is by far the best thing that happened to me in my career. It’s as if all I did in my professional life led me to this place where I can fulfi ll my calling, which is teaching people about SQL. To Fernando Guerrero, Brian Moran, and Douglas McDowell: the company grew and matured because of your efforts, and you have a lot to be proud of. Being part of this company, I feel a part of something meaningful and that I’m among family and friends—among people whom I both respect and trust.
I’d like to thank my friends and colleagues from the company: Ron Talmage, Andrew J. Kelly, Eladio Rincón, Dejan Sarka, Herbert Albert, Fritz Lechnitz, Gianluca Hotz, Erik Veerman, Jay Hackney, Daniel A. Seara, Davide Mauri, Andrea Benedetti, Miguel Egea, Adolfo Wiernik, Javier Loria, Rushabh Mehta, Greg Low, Peter Myers, Randy Dyess, and many others. I’d like to thank Jeanne Reeves for making many of my classes possible and all the back-offi ce team for their support. I’d also like to thank Kathy Blomstrom for managing our writing projects and for your excellent edits.
I’d like to thank the members of the SQL Server development team who are working on T-SQL and its optimization: Michael Wang, Michael Rys, Eric Hanson, Umachandar Jayachandran (UC), Tobias Thernström, Jim Hogg, Isaac Kunen, Krzysztof Kozielczyk, Cesar Galindo-Legaria, Craig Freedman, Conor Cunningham, and many others. For better or worse, what you develop is what we have to work with, and so far the results are outstanding! Still, until we get a full implementation of the OVER clause, you know I won’t stop bothering you. ;-)
I’d like to thank Dubi Lebel and Assaf Fraenkel from Microsoft Israel and also Ami Levin, who helps me run the Israeli SQL Server users group.
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Acknowledgments xvii To the team at SQL Server Magazine: Megan Bearly, Sheila Molnar, Mary Waterloo,
Michele Crockett, Mike Otey, Lavon Peters, and Anne Grubb: Being part of this magazine is a great privilege. Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of the magazine! I can’t believe that 10 years passed so quickly, but that’s what happens when you have fun.
To my fellow SQL Server MVPs: Erland Sommarskog, Alejandro Mesa, Aaron Bertrand, Tibor Karaszi, Steve Kass, Dejan Sarka, Roy Harvey, Tony Rogerson, Marcello Poletti (Marc), Paul Randall, Bob Beauchemin, Adam Machanic, Simon Sabin, Tom Moreau, Hugo Kornelis, David Portas, David Guzman, and many others: Your contribution to the SQL Server community is remarkable. Much of what I know today is thanks to our discussions and exchange of ideas.
To my fellow SQL Server MCTs: Tibor Karaszi, Chris Randall, Ted Malone, and others: We go a long way back, and I’m glad to see that you’re all still around in the SQL teaching community.
We all share the same passion for teaching. Of anyone, you best understand the kind of fulfi llment that teaching can bestow.
To my students: Without you, my work would be meaningless. Teaching is what I like to do best, and the purpose of pretty much everything else that I do with SQL—including writing these books—is to support my teaching. Your questions make me do a lot of research, and therefore I owe much of my knowledge to you.
To my parents, Emilia and Gabriel Ben-Gan, and to my siblings, Ina Aviram and Michael Ben-Gan, thanks for your continuous support. The fact that most of us ended up being teachers is probably not by chance, but for me to fulfi ll my calling, I end up traveling a lot. I miss you all when I’m away, and I always look forward to our family reunions when I’m back.
To Lilach, you’re the one who needs to put up with me all the time and listen to my SQL ideas that you probably couldn’t care less about. It’s brainwashing, you see—at some point you will start asking for more, and before you know it, you will even start reading my books. Not because I will force you but because you will want to, of course. That’s the plan at least. Thanks for giving meaning to what I do and for supporting me through some rough times of writing.
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