(Part 2) Best data warehousing books according to redditors

• MDX Solutions by George Spofford and others - I consider this one a bible of sorts for MDX. Lots of explanations and in the MDX reference section LOTS of practical examples. A little dated as it's for 2005 but still very very useful. For $10 used on Amazon, don't pass it up.
  
• Practical MDX Queries by Art Tennick - A much smaller but very dense "learning by example" reference for MDX. I love this book. Used for $17 on Amazon.
  
• MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook by Tomislav Piasevoli - A really, really good book on MDX. Really great examples.
  
• Expert Cube Development with SSAS Multidimensional Models by Chris Webb and Marco Russo - I don't have this book but considering the authors I have to think it's an awesome book from a great publisher (Packt).
  
• There's also a great reference site called MDXpert which covers most if not all MDX functions and syntax although not in terribly great detail.
  
  The MDX language hasn't really changed all that much, so don't worry too much about getting an older reference for 2005/2008.
  
  You're not going to find an "all-in-one" reference for OLAP and MDX. You'll need more than one reference just because there's so much to cover. And my advice is don't assume that any SQL knowledge you have will translate to OLAP/MDX. It's a totally different animal. It took me years to master and I had 10+ years of experience with SQL Server and Oracle when I started learning OLAP/MDX....which didn't mean squat.

Upvotes to the mentions of Powershell - it is really powerful and excellent to use.

However - good'ol DOS and batch files fuel some of my top functions at work. Here are some links that might help:

• SS64
  
• Rob VanDerWoude's Batch Pages
  
• Good thread at Stack overflow
  
• Know your environment variables
  
  And my general go-to books are:
  
  
• Windows Command-Line
  
• Windows Admin Scripting
  
• Windows Administration at the Command Line
  
  A lot of this is/was used for Windows XP - but a good amount of it will translate to Windows 7. Batch / DOS is still fun to use in Windows 7 but definitely also play a bit in the Powershell pool.

Another vote for w3schools.com.

Also the book I've been recommended to read is http://www.amazon.ca/Mastering-Oracle-SQL-Sanjay-Mishra/dp/0596006322