Microsoft SQL Server is considered to be one of the most commonly used systems for database management in the world. This popularity has been gained by a high degree of stability, security, and business intelligence and integration functionality. Microsoft SQL Server for Linux is a database server that accepts queries from clients, evaluates them, and then internally executes them to deliver results to the client. The client is an application that produces queries through a database provider and communication protocol sends requests to the server and retrieves the result for client-side processing and/or presentation.

Before starting to write queries and work with Microsoft SQL Server it's a good idea to gain a good understanding of how the software works. With a good understanding of the product and its mechanics, you'll be able to write more efficient queries and get results much faster.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics: