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

The mighty Transact-SQL SELECT


You probably already know that the most important SQL statement is the mighty SELECT statement you use to retrieve data from your databases. Every database developer knows the basic clauses and their usage:

  • SELECT to define the columns returned, or a projection of all table columns
  • FROM to list the tables used in the query and how they are associated, or joined
  • WHERE to filter the data to return only the rows that satisfy the condition in the predicate
  • GROUP BY to define the groups over which the data is aggregated
  • HAVING to filter the data after the grouping with conditions that refer to aggregations
  • ORDER BY to sort the rows returned to the client application

Besides these basic clauses, SELECT offers a variety of advanced possibilities as well. These advanced techniques are unfortunately less exploited by developers, although they are really powerful and efficient. Therefore, I urge you to review them and potentially use them in your applications. The advanced...