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

Data access using indexes

Now that we have discussed how the Query Optimizer uses indexes to facilitate predicate pushdown and make queries more efficient, let’s explore how indexes are structured and why they are so important for query performance.

Before we begin discussing the structure of indexes, it’s worth understanding how data is stored and accessed in the SQL Database Engine. Data is stored on 8 KB pages. An object such as a table or an index is essentially a collection of pages, along with metadata that maps out the structure of the object. The SQL Database Engine uses a special metadata page called an Index Allocation Map (IAM) page to locate the pages in an object. IAM pages contain a list of all the pages in a database file that belong to an object. Each object will have at least one IAM page but depending on the size of the object and the file structure of the database, there may be more than one IAM page, forming a chain.

Tables that do not have a...