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

Implicit conversions

We introduced the concept of implicit conversions in the chapter Exploring Query Execution Plans, particularly in the context of PlanAffectingConvert warnings. An implicit conversion happens when the SQL Database Engine needs to compare two values that are not of the same data type. At this point we should understand how to recognize an implicit conversion in our query plans, but what may not always be obvious is how they got there in the first place and how to correct them.

The most obvious cause of implicit conversions is to compare two columns that are not of the same data type. We can easily avoid this by making sure that columns that are related in our database, and thus may be joined, are of the same data type. A common mistake that can cause this situation is where we have some tables that have been created with NVARCHAR strings and some tables that have VARCHAR strings. This may happen because a database was upgraded at some point to support Unicode...