Foundations of Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012

  • 12/15/2012
Transact-SQL (T-SQL) is the main language used to manage and manipulate data in Microsoft SQL Server. This chapter lays the foundations for querying data by using T-SQL. The chapter describes the roots of this language, terminology, and the mindset you need to adopt when writing T-SQL code. It then moves on to describe one of the most important concepts you need to know about the language—logical query processing.

Exam objectives in this chapter:

  • Work with Data

  • Query data by using SELECT statements.

Although this chapter doesn’t directly target specific exam objectives other than discussing the design of the SELECT statement, which is the main T-SQL statement used to query data, the rest of the chapters in this Training Kit do. However, the information in this chapter is critical in order to correctly understand the rest of the book.

Lessons in this chapter:

  • Lesson 1: Understanding the Foundations of T-SQL

  • Lesson 2: Understanding Logical Query Processing

Before You Begin

To complete the lessons in this chapter, you must have:

  • An understanding of basic database concepts.

  • Experience working with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

  • Some experience writing T-SQL code.

  • Access to a SQL Server 2012 instance with the sample database TSQL2012 installed. (Please see the book’s introduction for details on how to create the sample database.)