Microsoft SQL Server 2012 T-SQL
Fundamentals (MSPress)
 By:
Itzik Ben-Gan
Technical Editors: Gianluca
Hotz, Herbert Albert
Publication Date: July 5, 2012
ISBN-10:
0735658145, ISBN-13: 978-0735658141
440 pages
Order the book at:
-
amazon
-
Barnes & Noble
- Oreilly (Ebook also
available) (use discount code MSINT,
details here)
Introduction
This book walks you through your first steps in
T-SQL (also known as Transact-SQL), which is the Microsoft SQL Server
dialect of the ISO and ANSI standards for SQL. You’ll learn the theory
behind T-SQL querying and programming and how to develop T-SQL code to query
and modify data, and you’ll get an overview of programmable objects.
Although this book is intended for beginners, it is
not merely a set of procedures for readers to follow. It goes beyond the
syntactical elements of T-SQL and explains the logic behind the language and
its elements.
Occasionally, the book covers subjects that may be
considered advanced for readers who are new to T-SQL; therefore, those
sections are optional reading. If you already feel comfortable with the
material discussed in the book up to that point, you might want to tackle
the more advanced subjects; otherwise, feel free to skip those sections and
return to them after you’ve gained more experience. The text will indicate
when a section may be considered more advanced and is provided as optional
reading.
Many aspects of SQL are unique to the language and
are very different from other programming languages. This book helps you
adopt the right state of mind and gain a true understanding of the language
elements. You learn how to think in terms of sets and follow good SQL
programming practices.
The book is not version specific; it does, however,
cover language elements that were introduced in recent versions of SQL
Server, including SQL Server 2012. When I discuss language elements that
were introduced recently, I specify the version in which they were added.
Besides being available in an on-premises flavor,
SQL Server is also available as a cloud-based service called Windows Azure
SQL Database (formerly called SQL Azure). The code samples in this book were
tested against both on-premises SQL Server and SQL Database. The book’s
companion website (http://tsql.solidq.com) provides information about
compatibility issues between the flavors—for example, features that are
available in SQL Server 2012 but not yet in SQL Database.
To complement the learning experience, the book
provides exercises that enable you to practice what you’ve learned. The book
occasionally provides optional exercises that are more advanced. Those
exercises are intended for readers who feel very comfortable with the
material and want to challenge themselves with more difficult problems. The
optional exercises for advanced readers are labeled as such.
Who Should Read This Book
This book is intended for T-SQL developers, DBAs, BI
practitioners, report writers, analysts, architects, and SQL Server power
users who just started working with SQL Server and need to write queries and
develop code using Transact-SQL.
Assumptions: To get the most out of this book, you
should have working experience with Windows and with applications based on
Windows. You should also be familiar with basic concepts concerning
relational database management systems.
Who Should Not Read This Book
Not every book is aimed at every possible audience.
This book covers fundamentals. It is mainly aimed at T-SQL practitioners
with little or no experience. With that said, several readers of the
previous edition of this book have mentioned that—even though they already
had years of experience—they still found the book useful for filling gaps in
their knowledge.
Organization of This Book
This book starts with both a theoretical background
to T-SQL querying and programming in Chapter 1, laying the foundations for
the rest of the book, and also coverage of creating tables and defining data
integrity. The book moves on to various aspects of querying and modifying
data in Chapters 2 through 8, then to a discussion of concurrency and
transactions in Chapter 9, and finally provides an overview of programmable
objects in Chapter 10. The following section lists the chapter titles along
with a short description:
Chapter 1, “Background to T-SQL Querying and
Programming,” provides a theoretical background of SQL, set theory, and
predicate logic; examines the relational model and more; describes SQL
Server’s architecture; and explains how to create tables and define data
integrity.
Chapter 2, “Single-Table Queries,” covers various
aspects of querying a single table by using the SELECT statement.
Chapter 3, “Joins,” covers querying multiple tables
by using joins, including cross joins, inner joins, and outer joins.
Chapter 4, “Subqueries,” covers queries within
queries, otherwise known as subqueries.
Chapter 5, “Table Expressions,” covers derived
tables, common table expressions (CTEs), views, inline table-valued
functions, and the APPLY operator.
Chapter 6, “Set Operators,” covers the set operators
UNION, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT.
Chapter 7, “Beyond the Fundamentals of Querying,”
covers window functions, pivoting, unpivoting, and working with grouping
sets.
Chapter 8, “Data Modification,” covers inserting,
updating, deleting, and merging data.
Chapter 9, “Transactions and Concurrency,” covers
concurrency of user connections that work with the same data simultaneously;
it covers concepts including transactions, locks, blocking, isolation
levels, and deadlocks.
Chapter 10, “Programmable Objects,” provides an
overview of the T-SQL programming capabilities in SQL Server.
The book also provides an appendix, “Getting
Started,” to help you set up your environment, download the book’s source
code, install the TSQL2012 sample database, start writing code against SQL
Server, and learn how to get help by working with SQL Server Books Online.
Cheers,
Itzik
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