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Since its introduction over a decade ago, the Microsoft SQL Server query language, Transact-SQL, has become increasingly popular and more powerful. The current version sports such advanced features as OLE Automation support, cross-platform querying facilities, and full-text search management.
This book is the consummate guide to Microsoft Transact-SQL. From data type nuances to complex statistical computations to the bevy of undocumented features in the language, The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL imparts the knowledge you need to become a virtuoso of the language as quickly as possible.
In this book, you will find the information, explanations, and advice you need to master Transact-SQL and develop the best possible Transact-SQL code. Some 600 code examples not only illustrate important concepts and best practices, but also provide working Transact-SQL code that can be incorporated into your own real-world DBMS applications.
Your journey begins with an introduction explaining language fundamentals such as database and table creation, inserting and updating data, queries, joins, data presentation, and managing transactions. Moving on to more advanced topics, the journey continues with in-depth coverage of:
Comprehensive, written in understandable terms, and full of practical information and examples, The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL is an indispensable reference for anyone working with this database development language. The accompanying CD-ROM includes the complete set of code examples found in the book as well as a SQL programming environment that will speed the development of your own top-notch Transact-SQL code.
About the Sample Databases.
Results Abridged.
On Formality.
Acknowledgments.
Choosing a SQL Editor.
Creating a Database.
Creating Tables.
Inserting Data.
Updating Data.
Deleting Data.
Querying Data.
Column Lists.
SELECTing Variables and Expressions.
Functions.
Converting Data Types.
CASE.
Aggregate Columns.
Filtering Data.
Joins.
Outer Joins.
Other Types of Joins.
Subqueries.
Grouping Data.
HAVING.
Ordering Data.
Column Aliases.
Table Aliases.
Managing Transactions.
Summary.
Dates.
Y2K and Other Date Problems.
Date Functions.
Dates and Simple Arithmetic.
Determining Time Gaps.
Building Calendars.
Strings.
Concatenation.
Char vs. Varchar.
SET ANSI_PADDING.
String Functions.
CHARINDEX().
SOUNDEX().
A Better SOUNDEX().
DIFFERENCE().
Xp_sprintf.
Xp_sscanf.
Masks.
Executing Strings.
Unicode.
Numerics.
Floating Point Fun.
Division by Zero.
Funny Money.
Formatting Numeric Data.
BLOBs.
Caveats.
Retrieving BLOB Data.
Updating BLOB Data.
BLOB Updates and the Transaction Log.
Bits.
UNIQUEIDENTIFIER.
Cursor Variables.
Timestamps.
Summary.
3. @AHEADS = Missing Values.
NULL and Expressions.
NULL and Functions.
NULL and ANSI SQL.
NULL and Stored Procedures.
NULL If You Must.
Create Table.
Some Thoughts on Referential Integrity.
Foreign Keys.
ANSI Referential Actions.
The NULL Exception.
Unique Index Requirement.
No Truncate Table.
Default Constraints.
Dropping Objects.
CREATE INDEX.
No Bit or BLOB Indexes.
No Computed Column Indexes.
Pad_Index.
Drop_Existing.
Temporary Objects.
No More Unusable Temporary Objects.
Can't Create Objects in Other Databases.
Temporary Stored Procedures.
Increased Temporary Table Name Length.
Global Temporary Status Tables.
Object Naming and Dependencies.
Changing the Database Context Temporarily.
Temporary Table Indexes.
Be Wary of Unusable Views.
Object Dependencies.
Summary.
Insert.
Default and Null.
Set Identity_Insert.
Insert...Default Values.
Insert...Select.
Insert...Exec.
Extended Procedures.
Insert and Errors.
Using Insert to Remove Duplicate Rows.
Insert and Clustered Indexes.
Bulk Insert.
Bulk Insert and Triggers.
Bulk Insert and Constraints.
Bulk Insert and Identity Columns.
Update.
The Halloween Problem.
Update and Case.
Using Update to Check Constraints.
Limiting the Number of Rows Affected by an Update.
Swapping Column Values with Update.
Update and Cursors.
Delete.
Delete and Cursors.
Truncate Table.
Detecting DML Errors.
Summary.
Simple Selects.
Computational and Derived Fields.
Select Top.
Derived Tables.
Joins.
Outer Joins and Join Order.
Predicates.
Between.
Like.
Exists.
Nulls.
Exists and In.
Joins.
Result Set Emptiness.
Exists Outside Where and Having.
In.
Optimizing In.
Any and All.
Subqueries.
Where and Subqueries.
Correlated Subqueries.
Relational Division.
Aggregate Functions.
Group by and Having.
Pivot Tables.
Cube and Rollup.
Having.
Union.
Order by.
Summary.
Restrictions.
DML Restrictions.
ANSI SQL Schema Views.
Getting a View's Source Code.
Updatable View's.
With Check Option.
Derived Tables.
Dynamic View's.
Partitioning Data Using Views.
Summary.
The Case for Case.
Efficiency Concerns.
Variance and Standard Deviation.
Medians.
The Identity Column Technique.
The Case Technique.
Vector Medians.
Duplicate Values.
Clipping.
Returning the Top n Rows.
Set Rowcount.
Rankings.
Modes.
Histograms.
Stratified Histograms.
Cumulative and Sliding Aggregates.
Sliding Aggregates.
Extremes.
Determining Extreme Attributes.
Summary.
Sequences.
Time Series Fluctuation.
Sampling Every nth Value.
Regions.
Relative Condition Regions.
Constraining Region Sizes.
Region Boundaries.
Runs.
Regions.
Region Boundaries.
Constrained Regions.
Intervals.
Partitioned Intervals.
Summary.
Arrays as Big Strings.
Modifying Array Elements.
Arrays as Tables.
Sorting.
Transposing Dimensions.
Ensuring Array Integrity.
Reshaping the Array.
Comparing Arrays.
Summary.
Unions.
Differences.
Intersections.
Subsets.
Returning Every nth Row.
Summary.
Simple Hierarchies.
Multilevel Hierarchies.
Indenting a Hierarchy.
Another Approach.
Listing Leaf Nodes.
Indented Lists.
Summary.
On Cursors and Isams.
Types of Cursors.
Forward-Only Cursors.
Dynamic Cursors.
Static Cursors.
Keyset Cursors.
Appropriate Cursor Use.
Dynamic Queries.
Row-Oriented Operations.
Scrollable Forms.
T-SQL Cursor Syntax.
Declare Cursor.
Global vs. Local Cursors.
Open.
Fetch.
Close.
Deallocate.
Configuring Cursors.
Asynchronous Cursors.
ANSI/ISO Automatic Cursor Closing.
Defaulting to Global or Local Cursors.
Updating Cursors.
Cursor Variables.
Cursor Stored Procedures.
Optimizing Cursor Performance.
Summary.
Transactions Defined.
The ACID Test.
Atomicity.
Consistency.
Isolation.
Durability.
How SQL Server Transactions Work.
Transactions and Nonlogged Operations.
Transactions and Triggers.
Types of Transactions.
Automatic Transactions.
Implicit Transactions.
User-Defined Transactions.
Distributed Transactions.
Avoiding Transactions Altogether.
Commands That Minimize Logging.
Read-Only and Single-User Databases.
Automatic Transaction Management.
Transaction Isolation Levels.
Read Uncommitted.
Read Committed.
Repeatable Read.
Serializable.
Transaction Commands and Syntax.
Nested Transactions.
Save Tran and Save Points.
Avoid Accidental Rollbacks.
Invalid T-SQL Syntax in Transactions.
Debugging Transactions.
Optimizing Transactional Code.
Summary.
Stored Procedure Advantages.
Internals.
Creation.
User Execution.
Compilation.
Server Execution.
Creating Stored Procedures.
Creation Tips.
Temporary Procedures.
System Procedures.
Extended Procedures.
Faux Procedures.
Executing Stored Procedures.
Insert and Exec.
Environmental Concerns.
Parameters.
Output Parameters.
Result Codes.
Listing Procedure Parameters.
General Parameter Notes.
Important Automatic Variables.
Flow Control Language.
Errors.
@&commet;Error.
xp_logevent.
Nesting.
Recursion.
Autostart Procedures.
Encryption.
Triggers.
Debugging Procedures.
Summary.
General Performance Guidelines.
Database Design Performance Tips.
Index Performance Tips.
Select Performance Tips.
Insert Performance Tips.
Bulk Copy Performance Tips.
Delete and Update Performance Tips.
Cursor Performance Tips.
Stored Procedure Performance Tips.
Sargs.
Denormalization.
Basic Guidelines.
Basic Techniques.
Contrived Columns.
Redundant Data.
Summary Tables.
Vertical Partitioning.
Horizontal Partitioning.
The Query Optimizer.
The Index Tuning Wizard.
Profiler.
Perfmon.
Summary.
GUI Administration.
System Stored Procedures.
Administrative Transact-SQL Commands.
Administrative Automatic Variables.
Where's the Beef?
Summary.
Full-Text Predicates.
Rowset Functions.
Summary.
sp_exporttable.
sp_importtable.
sp_getsSQLregistry.
Summary.
Defining Undocumented.
Undocumented DBCC Commands.
Undocumented Functions and Variables.
Undocumented Trace Flags.
Undocumented Procedures.
Summary.
Obscure Function.
Data Scrubbing.
Iteration Tables.
Summary.
Books.
Internet Resources
When I began writing this book, I had these design goals in mind:
You'll have to judge for yourself whether these goals have been met, but my hope is that, regardless of the degree of success, the effort will at least be evident.
This book uses SQL Server's Northwind and pubs sample databases extensively. You'll nearly always be able to determine which database a particular example uses from the surrounding commentary or from the code itself. The pubs database is used more often than Northwind, so, when it's not otherwise specified or when in doubt, use pubs.
Usually, modifications to these databases are made within transactions so that they can be reversed; however, for safety's sake, you should probably drop and recreate them after each chapter in which they're modified. The scripts to rebuild them (instnwnd.sql and instpubs.sql) can be found in the \Install subdirectory under the root SQL Server folder.
If I have a pet peeve about computer books, it's the shameless use of space-filling devices to lengthen them--the dirty little secret of the computer publishing industry. Many technical books these days overflow with gratuitous helpings of screenshots, charts, diagrams, outlines, sidebars, icons, line art, etc. There are people who assign more value to a book that's heavy, and many authors and publishers have been all too happy to accommodate them. They seem to take the old saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" literally--in some cases turning out books that are little more than picture books.
I think there's a point at which comprehensiveness gives way to corpulence, a time when exhaustiveness becomes exhausting. In this book, I've tried to strike a balance between being thorough and being space-efficient. To that end, I've often truncated or clipped query result sets, especially those too wide to fit on a page and those of excessive length (I always point this out). On occasion I also list them using reduced font sizes. I don't include screenshots unless doing so benefits the discussion at hand materially (only one chapter contains any screenshots). This is in keeping with my design goal of being complete without being overwrought. Nearly 600 SQL scripts are used in this book, and they are all included in the chapters that reference them. Hopefully none of the abridgements will detract from the book's overall usefulness or value.
Another of my pet peeves is formality for the sake of formality. An artist once observed that "it's harder to draw a good curved line than a straight one." What he meant was that it's in some ways more difficult to do something well for which there is no exact or stringent standard than to do something that's governed by explicit rules and stuffy precedents. All you have to do to draw a straight line is pick up a straightedge. The rules that govern formal writing, particularly that of the academic variety, make writing certain kinds of books easier because they convert much of the subjective nature of writing into something more objective. They're like training wheels on the would-be author's bicycle. Writing goes from being a creative process to a mechanical one. Cross all the T's, dot all the I's, and you're halfway there. Obviously, this relieves the author of many of the decisions that shape creative writing. It also turns otherwise good pieces of work into dreary, textbook-like dissertations that are about as interesting as the telephone book White Pages.
So, I reject the notion that formal writing is better writing, that it is a higher standard and is the ideal for which all technical writers should strive. Instead, I come from the Mark Twain school of thought--I "eschew surplusage"--and I believe that, so long as common methods of speech do not become overly banal (a subjective distinction, I freely admit), the ultimate goal of the technical writer should be to write the way that readers speak. It is the way people--even technical people--are most accustomed to communicating and the way they are the most able to learn and share ideas. I did not invent this way of thinking; it's simply the way most of my favorite authors--Mark Twain, Dean Koontz, Joe Celko, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Heinlein, Andrew Miller, Oscar Wilde, P. J. O'Rourke, Patricia O'Connor--write. Though it is far more difficult to structure and write a narrative that flows naturally and reads easily, it's worth the effort if the ideas the writer seeks to convey are understood as they were intended.
So, throughout this book, you'll see a number of the rules and pseudo rules of formal writing stretched, skirted, bent, and sometimes outright broken. This is intentional. Sometimes I split infinitives, begin sentences with conjunctions, and end them with prepositions. Sometimes record is used interchangeably with row; sometimes field takes the place of column; and I never, ever treat data as a plural word. I saw some software recently that displayed a message to the effect "the data are being loaded," and I literally laughed out loud. The distinction between the plural data and its obscure singular form datum is not maintained in spoken language and hasn't really ever been (except, perhaps, in ancient Rome). It has also been deprecated by numerous writing guides and many authors. You will have to look very hard for an author who treats data as a plural word (I can think of only one off the top of my head, the irascible Ted Codd). The tendency for technical communication to become self-important or ostentatious has always baffled me: why stoop to pretension? Why trade the fluid conveyance of ideas between people for nonsense that confuses some and reads like petty one-upmanship to others?
I'd like to thank my wife, who not only makes it possible for me to write books but also makes it worthwhile. The book you see before you is as much hers as it is mine. I'd like to thank Neil Coy, who made a real programmer of me many years ago. Under Neil's tutelage, I learned software craftsmanship from a master. Joe Celko, the dean of the SQL language, has been a good friend and a valuable source of information throughout this project. Kudos to John Sarapata and Thomas Holaday for helping me come up with a title for the book (I'll keep Sybase for Dummies in mind for future use, John). Thanks to the book's technical reviewers, particularly Wayne Snyder, Gianluca Hotz, Paul Olivieri, and Ron Talmage. Heartfelt thanks to John Gmuender, Joe Gallagher, Mike Massing, and Danny Thorpe for their equanimity and for keeping me sane through the recent storm. Congratulations and genuine appreciation to the superb team at Addison-Wesley--Michael Slaughter, Marisa Meltzer, J. Carter Shanklin, and others too numerous to list. Special thanks to Nancy Cara-Sager, a friend, technical reviewer, and copyeditor who's been with me through several books and a couple of publishers now. Her tireless attention to detail has saved me from embarrassing myself more times than I can count.
Anonymous
Posted Sun May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2004
own all three of Ken Henderson's SQL Server books. They stand apart from the rest of the crowd as the best books available on their respective subjects. Henderson takes a fresh approach to teaching that other authors would do well to emulate. What do I mean exactly? I mean this: Every point of any significance that is raised is illustrated with code when possible. There are hundreds of code examples in each of Henderson's books - many times what you usually see in DBA or programming books. No details are glosssed over. If you really want to know how something works or what the best approach is to doing something, you need these books. Another thing that is great about these books is how easy to read they are. Complex subjects are regularly broached with explanations and teaching that practically anyone could understand. Topics that trip up other authors or that they skip altogether are discussed in terms that anyone can grasp. It is difficult to convey just how important this is, but suffice it to say that the books are simply easy to read. If you want to know SQL Server at an expert level, you need look no further. Get all three of Henderson's books and read them cover-to-cover.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Wed Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2002
This book is not for starters. The examples are not fully explained. Organization is limited and the author seems to go his own mary way when writting code.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Jun 25 00:00:00 EDT 2002
If you want the definitive codex on the Transact-SQL language, look no further. This book has code that will blow your mind. You'll be amazed at all the things you can do with Transact-SQL (and how fast the code runs). The book is concise, yet exhaustive - something you just don't see anymore. Good work, Mr. Henderson.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Fri Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2002
Henderson has such a smooth, natural sytle of writing that it make reading what he writes a pleasure. I have all the best computer books, but few compare with this one. I rank it up there with The Art of Computer Programming and Design Patterns. Through Henderson's easygoing manner and generous code samples, I have learned to love Transact-SQL and what it can do for me. This is a book that belongs in the backpack of every SQL Server practitioner on the planet.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2001
I'm an old Informix hound who migrated to SQL Server when SQL Server 2000 came out. I guess I had a bit of a bias at first because I've always believed that SQL Server was kind of underpowered compared to the other players in the DBMS market. Not any more. This book opened my eyes. The Automation chapter shows how to do COM stuff from Transact SQL. The Stats chapter shows how to do involved statistics computations. The Admin chapter shows how to automate virtually any administrative task (stuff you could never do in Informix). The Performance chapter shows how to tweak your code for the maximum performance and demonstrates how advanced SQL Server's tuning tools are. I was blown away by the book. I've been buying a lot of books lately to ramp up on SQL Server, but this is by far the best.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Tue Nov 28 00:00:00 EST 2000
Looking for what is missing in the SQL documentation from MS, well look no further, This book is incredible, I mean you gain so much insight into programming SQL that you forget there are wizards that do lots of things, of course when using MS you have to consider that most Wizards dont work so the book becomes even better, There is only one thing I dont about this book and it is that it is too short (could add more stuff about Databases in general) and the samples are over complex and could be done with much simpler queries... Over all I would give 9 stars but I can only give 5, This is the Most have for people programming SQL................
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Posted Sat Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2000
This book is its own animal. It does not read like 90% of the other technical books out there. How many computer books do you know that have a social conscience? Not many, I'd bet, but this one does. The epigraphs that start each chapter are insightful and enlightening -- they alone make the book worth buying. But people don't usually buy technical books for philisophical insights, they buy them to learn how to do things. And that's the thing about this book, it delivers here, too -- big time. There's no stone left unturned -- every topic of any direct relevance to Transact-SQL is covered in depth. There's also very little fluff -- for example, you won't find any of the annoying screenshots of Query Analyzer that you see in so many other books. On the contrary, this book is *very* tight -- you definitely get your money's worth every time you sit down with it. The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL reminds me of the way computer books were written before the age of the Internet: scholarly, deep, and insightful. This book is a well-written, old-style tome in the tradition of the programming classics, and it belongs in your library if you work regularly with SQL Server. The CD is also a great value. The Sequin query editor is better than every one of the commercially available Query Analyzer replacements that I've seen, yet it's included free on the CD. So in addition to a great book, yet get a tremendous value. What's not to like?
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Posted Thu Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2000
If you get one book to learn Transact-SQL inside and out, get this one. It's a compendium of all the best practices and time saving techniques that real SQL experts use. I learned so much from this book that I went out and bought a couple of my friends a copy. The chapters on statistics opened a whole new way of SQL development for me. Now I write queries that are half as long and run in half the time they once did. Highly recommended -- my first 5 star review ever.
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Posted Thu May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2000
I was scanning the Web the other night and looking for a Celko-esque treatment of Transact-SQL when I stumbled upon Henderson's book. This is exactly what I was after. It's both modern and thorough, something the other T-SQL books can't claim. It's also written extremely well. The author has a very lucid, to-the-point style of writing that is refreshing in these days of 1000-page books that say very little. My favorite chapter is the Performance & Tuning chapter. It could be its own book. If you're looking for a top-notch treatment of modern Transact-SQL, look no further.
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Posted Thu Apr 27 00:00:00 EDT 2000
This book is the best one available for *Microsoft* Transact-SQL. Note that it does not cover Sybase T-SQL, nor does it claim to. I actually think this is a good thing because it has allowed the author to cover the many nuances of Microsoft's version of the language, which is the most widely used, anyway. The chapters on Undocumented T-SQL and OLE Automation are, all by themselves, worth your money. I've looked for a book like this for a long time and now finally I've found it.
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Posted Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2000
The book is full of useful info. Any serious T-SQL developer should read it cover-to-cover, then keep it within reach at all times. The chapters on Undocumented-TSQL and Performance & Tuning alone are worth the cost of the book. It's so deep and comprehensive, I often have to re-read a passage to really 'get it' -- it's definitely NOT a beginner book. If you're looking for the ultimate T-SQL tome, look no further. (I also appreciated the Sequin T-SQL programming environment. It has features that Query Analyzer could really use. It's the first 'real' programming environment I've ever used for T-SQL and comes free on the book's CD.)
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Posted Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2000
I got this book because I wanted the ultimate reference on Microsoft Transact-SQL. I wasn't disappointed. This is the best book out there on T-SQL and very likely on SQL Server. The author cuts to the chase and gets down to business quickly. There's no fluff in this book and the author seems intent on delivering the goods as rapidly and as thoroughly as possible. The book is up-to-date, covering version 7.0 extensively while pointing out differences with previous versions. I highly recommend the book for anyone who develops SQL Server applications.
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Posted Mon Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2000
This is BY FAR the best book out there on Transact-SQL. For one thing, it's the only one to cover SQL Server 7.0 in any depth. For another, its chapters on performance & tuning and administrative T-SQL are some of the most useful tech book chapters I've ever seen. This book is a T-SQL tour de force if I've ever seen one. Henderson's relaxed style of writing and his exhaustive coverage of subjects usually absent from other T-SQL books (e.g., an entire chapter on undocumented T-SQL, one on statistical computations, one on OLE Automation via T-SQL, etc.) make this book a must-have for any serious SQL Server developer.
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Posted Wed Apr 12 00:00:00 EDT 2000
I really liked this book. In just the first few chapters, I started learning new techniques right away, and that's saying something because I've been coding in T-SQL for nearly seven years. The expose on Undocumented T-SQL is worth the price of the book all by itself. I also appreciate how up-to-date the book is -- it covers version 7.0 extensively. If you want to become a T-SQL expert, get this book.
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Overview
Since its introduction over a decade ago, the Microsoft SQL Server query language, Transact-SQL, has become increasingly popular and more powerful. The current version sports such advanced features as OLE Automation support, cross-platform querying facilities, and full-text search management.
This book is the consummate guide to Microsoft Transact-SQL. From data type nuances to complex statistical computations to the bevy of undocumented features in the language, The Guru's ...