denglishbi
Posted Tue Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2011
This is by no means an introduction (101) book to MDX, but it is an MDX reference book that anyone using Analysis Services should have on their desk (or device - available in eBook version as well). I have not read a cookbook technical style of book before and I simply couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the style of here is a situation, here's how you do it, and now let's see how this actually works. But the author doesn't just stop there, nope, but what there's more information about the recipe and then provides additional reference links to checkout or other spots in the book to look at as well. After I got done reading one recipe I continued on to the next one because I was interested in reading the solution and finding out more and seeing how it compared to how I would approach the situation.
I found the book very easy to read and the information is extremely valuable for anyone working with Analysis Services and trying to solve solutions using MDX. This is a must have book for any SSAS professional, if you don't believe me, check it out for yourself and you will definitely agree, just like others already have like Derek Goodridge (@WorkerThread) and Jason Thomas (@de_unparagoned).
I would definitely rate this a must have and give it 5 out of 5 stars.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2011
I am always trying to keep my MDX and Analysis Services skills up-to-date and so I am always looking for new books that cover those topics. Recently I came across Tomislav Piasevoli¿s new ¿MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook¿. When I read the first chapters I realized very fast, that book has great potential for all kinds SSAS/MDX developer. For beginners the examples provided are easy to follow and very well described and the fact that he focused on real world scenarios makes the entry into the multidimensional world very intuitive. Beginners will have many quick wins as they can simply copy the examples and adopt them to their cube which I think is the best way to start with MDX. Advanced developers will like the additional information he provides for all examples. He describes pros and cons of several implementations and used techniques especially in terms of performance and usability. The best practices he provides thereby are also good guidelines for beginners and will prevent them from making very common mistakes every developer had to struggle with in the beginning. Even experts that have been working with MDX and Analysis for several years now and consider themselves to have very good skills in both domains, I think will still benefit from reading this book. It is always interesting to see, how other people solve common business requirements to broaden one¿s mind. If you are developing BI solutions every day it is very likely that you stop thinking about your own solution in detail very fast and will be implementing the same solution over and over again even though there may be better solutions out there. Tomislav highlights many of those solutions and shares them with this book.
In general the book is very well structured. The first chapters start with basic calculations and the further you read the more advanced the topics get. Especially in the last chapters he also discusses not so common scenarios that at first sight seem very far-fetched but all of them may be relevant for your some time. Those are things like Context-aware Calculations, how to make changes to your cube to allow better querying and also SSAS¿s Dynamic Management Views (DMVs). Even if you may have not needed them yet, it is always good to know where to find them.
Throughout the book all topics are handled in the same way which makes it very easy to read. He starts with the business problem and describes it in detail. Afterwards he discusses several possible ways to solve it finally explains details why he has chosen a particular solution over another. In the ¿There¿s more ...¿-section of each example he provides further information on the used techniques that allow you to dig into the topic very deep.
Overall I have to say that is a very good book and it is worth a buy for every one that is working with MDX and Analysis Services.
