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

Exploring the QTA workflow

We’ve briefly described what QTA does and, in greater depth, how QTA works internally. But now, it’s time to actually run through the recommended database compatibility upgrade we discussed in the Understanding QTA fundamentals section.

QTA is a session-based tool, which means we can open and close it at will while the database compatibility upgrade process progresses. This is useful, given that the recommended database compatibility upgrade process can run for days, depending on the business cycle that our workload serves.

Tip

QTA doesn’t need to run from an SSMS installed on the server. It can execute the workflow against the server from our laptop, desktop, or another designated management machine that you have available.

The way QTA stores our session’s state and analysis data is by creating a few tables in the targeted user database in the msqta schema, as shown in the following screenshot. This schema will remain...