Book Image

SQL Server 2017 Developer???s Guide

Book Image

SQL Server 2017 Developer???s Guide

Overview of this book

Microsoft SQL Server 2017 is a milestone in Microsoft's data platform timeline, as it brings in the power of R and Python for machine learning and containerization-based deployment on Windows and Linux. This book prepares you for advanced topics by starting with a quick introduction to SQL Server 2017's new features. Then, it introduces you to enhancements in the Transact-SQL language and new database engine capabilities before switching to a different technology: JSON support. You will take a look at the security enhancements and temporal tables. Furthermore, the book focuses on implementing advanced topics, including Query Store, columnstore indexes, and In-Memory OLTP. Toward the end of the book, you'll be introduced to R and how to use the R language with Transact-SQL for data exploration and analysis. You'll also learn to integrate Python code into SQL Server and graph database implementations as well as the deployment options on Linux and SQL Server in containers for development and testing. By the end of this book, you will be armed to design efficient, high-performance database applications without any hassle.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to SQL Server 2017
Index

What is temporal data?


In a table with temporal support, the header represents a predicate with at least one time parameter that represents when the rest of the predicate is valid; the complete predicate is therefore a timestamped predicate. Rows represent timestamped propositions, and the row's valid time period is expressed with one of two attributes: since (for semi temporal data) or during (for fully temporal data); the latter attribute is usually represented with two values, from and to. The following table shows the original and two additional timestamped versions of an exemplarySuppliers table:

Original Suppliers table and two tables with temporal support

From the original table header, you can read a predicate saying that a supplier with identification supplierid, named companyname, with a contact contactname, and so on is currently our supplier, or is currently under contract. You pretend that this supplier is the supplier forever. The Suppliers_Since table header has this predicate...