Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming

Written by a T-SQL guru, this thorough, hands-on reference for database developers and
administrators focuses on language features and how they are interpreted and processed
by the SQL Server execution engine.

This book and its predecessor—Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying—cover advanced
T-SQL querying, query tuning, and programming in SQL Server 2005. They are designed for
programmers and DBAs who need to write and optimize code in both SQL Server 2000 and 2005. For
brevity, I'll refer to the books as Inside T-SQL Programming and Inside T-SQL Querying.
The books focus on practical common problems, discussing several approaches to tackle each. You will
be introduced to many polished techniques that will enhance your toolbox and coding vocabulary,
allowing you to provide efficient solutions in a natural manner.
The books unveil the power of set-based querying, and explain why it's usually superior to procedural
programming with cursors and the like. At the same time, it teaches you how to identify the few
scenarios where cursor-based solutions are superior to set-based ones.
The books also cover other much debated constructs—such as temporary tables, dynamic execution,
XML and .NET integration—which hold great power, but at the same time great risk. These constructs
require programmatic maturity. These books will teach you how to use them wisely, in efficient and safe
ways where they are relevant.
The first book—Inside T-SQL Querying—focuses on set-based querying, and I recommend that you read
it first. The second book—Inside T-SQL Programming—focuses on procedural programming and
assumes you read the first book or have sufficient querying background.
Inside T-SQL Querying starts with three chapters that lay the foundation of logical and physical query
processing required to gain the most from the rest of the chapters.
The first chapter covers logical query processing. It describes in detail the logical phases involved in
processing queries, the unique aspects of SQL querying, and the special mindset you need to shift to in
order to program in a relational, set oriented environment.
The second chapter covers physical query processing. It describes in detail the way the SQL Server
engine processes queries, and compares and contrasts physical query processing with logical query
processing. This chapter was written by Lubor Kollar. Lubor was a group program manager during the
SQL Server 2005 development and his team was responsible for the "bottom" part of the Relational
Engine—from query compilation and optimization to query execution, transactional consistency,
backup/restore, and high availability. Table and Index Partitioning, Database Mirroring, Database
Snapshot, Snapshot Isolation, Recursive Queries and other T-SQL query improvements, Database
Tuning Advisor, and Online Index creation and maintenance were the major SQL Server 2005 features
his team has been working on. Few people in the world probably know the subject of query optimization
as well as Lubor does. I find it a privilege to have one of the designers of the optimizer explain it in his
own words.