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

What is a query plan?

Think of a query execution plan as a map that provides information on the physical operators that implement the logical operations discussed in the Understanding Query Processing chapter, as well as the execution context for that query that provides information about the system on which the query was executed. Each physical operator is identified in the plan with a unique node ID.

Note

Query execution plans are often referred to as a showplan, which is a textual, XML, or graphical representation of the plan.

So far, we’ve used the terms query plan and query execution plan interchangeably. However, in the SQL Database Engine, there is the notion of an “actual plan” and an “estimated plan.” These differ only in the fact that an “actual plan” has runtime data collected during actual execution (hence, query execution plan), whereas an “estimated plan” is the output of the Query Optimizer that...