Book Image

Learn T-SQL Querying - Second Edition

By : Pedro Lopes, Pam Lahoud
Book Image

Learn T-SQL Querying - Second Edition

By: Pedro Lopes, Pam Lahoud

Overview of this book

Data professionals seeking to excel in Transact-SQL (T-SQL) for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database often lack comprehensive resources. This updated second edition of Learn T-SQL Querying focuses on indexing queries and crafting elegant T-SQL code, catering to all data professionals seeking mastery in modern SQL Server versions and Azure SQL Database. Starting with query processing fundamentals, this book lays a solid foundation for writing performant T-SQL queries. You’ll explore the mechanics of the Query Optimizer and Query Execution Plans, learning how to analyze execution plans for insights into current performance and scalability. Through dynamic management views (DMVs) and dynamic management functions (DMFs), you’ll build diagnostic queries. This book thoroughly covers indexing for T-SQL performance and provides insights into SQL Server’s built-in tools for expedited resolution of query performance and scalability issues. Further, hands-on examples will guide you through implementing features such as avoiding UDF pitfalls, understanding predicate SARGability, Query Store, and Query Tuning Assistant. By the end of this book, you‘ll have developed the ability to identify query performance bottlenecks, recognize anti-patterns, and skillfully avoid such pitfalls.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Query Processing Fundamentals
4
Part 2: Dos and Don’ts of T-SQL
9
Part 3: Assembling Our Query Troubleshooting Toolbox

Remote collection with SQL LogScout

While configuring an XEvent session is simple enough when you have access to the server, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to analyze server or application performance remotely, XEvents can be a challenge. As we discussed in the Introducing XEvents section, we can save the XEvent session as a script file and send it to someone to run, but to analyze the data, we’ll need a file target, and configuring one requires knowledge of the disk layout of the system. Also, we would need to ensure that the person we send the script to has at least basic SQL Database Engine knowledge such as how to open, edit, and execute a T-SQL script along with the rights to create an XEvent session. If the person who has access to the server is not a database professional, this might be a challenge.

This is the type of troubleshooting that Microsoft Support must do every day. To make the job easier, they created a tool called SQL LogScout, which...