In my seven years of development experience, I read my tutorial and books on programming as well as. But when we talk about sql server from developer ‘s perspective. The following books are best. From novice developer to expert Tsql developer I recommend these books. All these books are from Itzik Ben-gan
From Microsoft learning site
Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 T-SQL Fundamentals
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/book.aspx?ID=12806&locale=en-us
About The BookLearn T-SQL, write better code and queries, and extend your SQL Server knowledge
Master the foundations of T-SQL with the right balance of conceptual and practical content. Get hands-on guidance—including exercises and code samples—that show you how to develop code to query and modify data. You’ll gain a solid understanding of the T-SQL language and good programming practices, and learn to write more efficient and powerful queries.
Discover how to:
- Apply T-SQL fundamentals, create tables, and define data integrity
- Understand logical query processing
- Query multiple tables using joins and subqueries
- Simplify code and improve maintainability with table expressions
- Explore pivoting techniques and how to handle grouping sets
- Write code that modifies data
- Isolate inconsistent data and address deadlock and blocking scenarios
Inside Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: T-SQL Querying
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/book.aspx?ID=12804&locale=en-us
About The BookMaster the mechanics behind advanced querying and tuning—for faster, more scalable code
Tackle the toughest set-based querying and query tuning problems—guided by an author team with in-depth, inside knowledge of T-SQL. Deepen your understanding of architecture and internals—and gain practical approaches and advanced techniques to optimize your code’s performance.
Discover how to:
- Move from procedural programming to the language of sets and logic
- Optimize query tuning with a top-down methodology
- Assess algorithmic complexity to predict performance
- Compare data-aggregation techniques, including new grouping sets
- Manage data modification—insert, delete, update, merge—for performance
- Write more efficient queries against partitioned tables
- Work with graphs, trees, hierarchies, and recursive queries
- Plus—Use pure-logic puzzles to sharpen your problem-solving skills
Inside Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: T-SQL Programming
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Book.aspx?ID=12805&locale=en-us
About The BookGet the in-depth architectural insights you need to exploit advanced T-SQL programming techniques.
Get a detailed look at the internal architecture of T-SQL with this comprehensive programming reference. Database developers and administrators get best practices, expert techniques, and code samples to master the intricacies of this programming language—solving complex problems with real-world solutions.Discover how to:
- Work with T-SQL and CLR user-defined functions, stored procedures, and triggers.
- Handle transactions, concurrency, and error handling.
- Efficiently use temporary objects, including temporary tables, table variables, and table expressions.
- Evaluate when to use set-based programming techniques and when to use cursors.
- Work with dynamic SQL in an efficient and secure manner.
- Treat date- and time-related data in a robust manner.
- Develop CLR user-defined types and learn about temporal support in the relational model.
- Use XML and XQuery and implement a dynamic schema solution.
- Work with spatial data using the new geometry and geography types and spatial indexes.
- Track access and changes to data using extended events, SQL Server Audit, change tracking, and change data capture.
- Use Service Broker for controlled asynchronous processing in database applications.All the book’s code samples will be available for download from the companion Web site.