Book Image

SQL Server on Linux

Book Image

SQL Server on Linux

Overview of this book

Microsoft's launch of SQL Server on Linux has made SQL Server a truly versatile platform across different operating systems and data-types, both on-premise and on-cloud. This book is your handy guide to setting up and implementing your SQL Server solution on the open source Linux platform. You will start by understanding how SQL Server can be installed on supported and unsupported Linux distributions. Then you will brush up your SQL Server skills by creating and querying database objects and implementing basic administration tasks to support business continuity, including security and performance optimization. This book will also take you beyond the basics and highlight some advanced topics such as in-memory OLTP and temporal tables. By the end of this book, you will be able to recognize and utilize the full potential of setting up an efficient SQL Server database solution in your Linux environment.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Relational database concepts


Relational databases consist of many objects, and the most common of these is a table. A table is a logical structure (relation) for storing and retrieving rows of data. It is defined by its columns which are represented by the data types.

Every table should have a primary key as a unique representation of a single row. It is usually a single column that either hosts a sequential number or a unique identifier that would never be used more than once. Tables can also contain two or more columns that together represent the unique row of the table. A table can also host foreign keys which describe its table reference, or relation to another table. For example, a Students table has a unique StudentID column, and the same StudentID is then represented in a Grades table to tie the actual grade to the student. This allows for one student to have none, one, or many grades, and requires that student record to exist before the grades can be entered.