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Blog: SQL Server

"Cool" New Courses for Entity Framework

By Brian Ewoldt

We've joined forces with our Yeti instructor, Don Kiely, to create two new Entity Framework 6.1 courses for you.

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Transaction Support in Integration Services

Excerpt by Don Kiely

A transaction is a core concept of relational database systems.

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SQL 2012: Developer: NULLs and SqlBoolean

By Frank Tillinghast

When integrating T-SQL with the CLR, remember to declare variables, parameters, and return values of data types exposed through the System.Data.SqlTypes namespace.

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SSRS 2008: Reporting Services and SharePoint

By Paul Litwin

SQL Server 2008

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SQL Server 2008: The BIDS Interface and Components

Excerpt by Don Kiely

SQL Server Integration Services is not the only member of the Microsoft Business Intelligence suite to use BIDS for development.

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SQL 2012: Aggregates

Excerpt by Don Kiely

One of the more exciting types of SQLCLR code modules is custom aggregates.

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Isolation Levels and Transactions - Microsoft SQL

Excerpt by Don Kiely

An isolation level defines how much a transaction is isolated from changes made by other, concurrent transactions.

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Choosing the Right Action - Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Excerpt by Don Kiely

The job of the action invoker to select the appropriate action method is more complicated than may appear on the surface.

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Domain Centric Modeling - Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Excerpt by Don Kiely

When the first version of Entity Framework came out, it included support for database-first design, which would reverse engineer an existing database and build a model for you.

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Types of Spatial Data

Excerpt by Don Kiely

SQL Server includes two spatial data types-Geometry and Geography-that encapsulate the database's support for spatial data.

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The HierarchyID Data Type

Excerpt by Don Kiely

As the name suggests, relational databases are best at storing and retrieving relational data.

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The Stages of Query Compilation

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Compiling a query involves three stages: parsing, algebrization, and optimization.

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Advanced Query Techniques

Excerpt by Don Kiely

The T-SQL INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements provide a lot of power and flexibility for maintaining data in a relational database.

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LINQ to SQL Read-Only Queries

Excerpt by Ken Getz and Robert Green

If you are looking for maximum performance, you can execute your queries in read-only mode.

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LINQ and Relational Data

Excerpt by Ken Getz

At its most basic level, LINQ provides the ability to query any data source that supports the IEnumerable or generic IEnumerable(T) interface.

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Roots of SQL Server Data Tools

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Microsoft has long supported application database development with features built into Visual Studio, ranging from support for data access to the ability to create a connection to a database and manipulate database objects and data in simple ways.

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SQL 2012 Developer: Aggregates

Excerpt by Don Kiely

One of the more exciting types of SQLCLR code modules is custom aggregates.

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Schemas and Naming in SQL Server

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Whenever you execute a data selection query in SQL Server, you'll be accessing one or more database objects, so it is important that you understand how things are named.

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Introduction to Stored Procedures

Excerpt by Don Kiely

A stored procedure is a batch of Transact-SQL (T-SQL) code that is saved internally in SQL Server as a database object.

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Overview of Transact-SQL (T-SQL)

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Transact-SQL is the SQL Server implementation of SQL, a standard codified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and also adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

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SQL Security Fundamentals: Changing the Execution

Excerpt by Don Kiely

You don't always want the caller's permissions to be used to validate permissions in a broken ownership chain.

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SQL 2012 Default Schemas for Users

Excerpt by Don Kiely

SQL Server doesn't automatically create a schema with the same name as the user when you create a user. Instead you have to explicitly create it.

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SQL 2012 Roles, Permissions, and Schemas

Excerpt by Don Kiely

The relationship of roles, permissions, and schemas is an important security concept in SQL Server.

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User-Defined Server Roles in SQL Server 2012

Excerpt by Don Kiely

A long awaited security feature in SQL Server 2012 has been user-defined server roles.

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Contained Databases in SQL Server 2012

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Contained databases is an interesting new part of SQL Server 2012. This isn't directly a security feature as such, but it implements a new authentication feature and so has a security element.

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Understanding Logins with SQL Server

Excerpt by Don Kiely

SQL Server logins are not part of Windows-they are saved in and managed by SQL Server.

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Windows Logins via Transact-SQL

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Transact-SQL provides full support for creating logins by using the CREATE LOGIN statement.

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SQL Server Security: The Threats

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Relational databases are used in an amazing variety of applications with connections from a dizzying array of clients, ranging from handheld devices to mainframe Web service applications.

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SQL Server 2012: Using Snapshot Isolation

Excerpt by Don Kiely

As discussed in our previous article, concurrency that is based solely on locking can cause blocking and deadlocking problems.

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SQL Server 2012: Blocking and Deadlocks

Excerpt by Don Kiely

When you modify data in SQL Server, it is important to understand how isolation levels and locking can affect performance and concurrency.

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Updating Large Value Types with UPDATE .WRITE

Excerpt by Don Kiely

SQL Server provides an UPDATE .WRITE Transact-SQL statement to perform partial updates on columns that are defined as varchar(max), nvarchar(max), or varbinary(max).

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SQL Server 2012: Creating a New Table with SELECT INTO in T-SQL

Excerpt by Don Kiely

The SQL standard draws a distinction between Data Manipulation Language (DML) and Data Definition Language (DDL).

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T-SQL Fundamentals: Outer Joins

Excerpt by Don Kiely

One of the fundamental concepts of relational databases is the normalization of data into tables, or sets, of similar data. Different data elements are grouped into separate tables.

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T-SQL: TOP Values

Excerpt by Don Kiely

A general best practice of data selection queries is that you never want to return more data from the database server than you're going to use.

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T-SQL: Counting Rows & Column Data

Excerpt by Don Kiely

One of the primary purposes of a relational database is to summarize information. Other than for data entry, you will rarely look at individual orders.

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The Sky's the Limit with the T-SQL WHERE Clause

Excerpt by Don Kiely

You will rarely want SQL Server to return every row in a table. The most efficient queries retrieve only the data you will actually use-no more, no less.

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T-SQL: Using the SELECT Statement for Naming Columns

Excerpt by Don Kiely

One of the most versatile statements in all of T-SQL is the SELECT statement. It's guaranteed to become your go-to tool for retrieving data stored in SQL Server.

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T-SQL: The WAITFOR Statement

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Syntax that controls the flow of statement execution is an essential feature of any procedural programming language.

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T-SQL: DATEADD and DATEDIFF Functions

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Date and time functions perform operations on date and time values to return a string, numeric, or date/time value.

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T-SQL: PATINDEX Function

Excerpt by Don Kiely

In a previous article we discussed the REPLACE and STUFF functions. This article takes a look at PATINDEX, which supports wildcard characters and other regular-expression-like features for a pattern search.

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T-SQL: REPLACE and STUFF Function

Excerpt by Don Kiely

All programming languages include functions for manipulating strings. This article shows how to use REPLACE and STUFF, some of the most common ones in Transact-SQL.

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T-SQL: COALESCE Function

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Working with null values is a common task when you allow columns to contain nulls. For example, by default, nulls in aggregates are ignored, but this may not always be the behavior you want.

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T-SQL: STR Function

Excerpt by Don Kiely

The STR function is another way to perform a specific conversion: It returns a string from a numeric expression.

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Transact-SQL and Data Types

Excerpt by Don Kiely

Some programming languages are quite forgiving about implicitly converting data types in expressions and computations.

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Transact-SQL Programming: Batches and Scripts

Excerpt by Don Kiely

A batch is a collection of SQL statements that SQL Server processes as a single unit.

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Computed Columns in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

By Don Kiely

Computed columns in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) allow you to configure a column within a table that automatically calculates a value based on an expression that can include references to other columns.

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Protecting Your Data in SQL Server

By Don Kiely

The transaction log is fundamental to the way SQL Server works and is created automatically when you create a new database or attach an existing database that doesn't yet have a log file.

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Tools for Writing T-SQL Queries in the Microsoft World

By Don Kiely

Most modern code development environments have support for writing code. In the Microsoft world, one of the primary tools is IntelliSense.

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SQL Server Management Studio: Displaying Multiple Code Windows

By Don Kiely

You have several options for viewing and manipulating multiple code windows.

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SQL Server Management Studio: Displaying and Filtering Objects

By Don Kiely

SQL Server Management Studio displays server and database information in Object Explorer, which presents information about database objects in a treeview.

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SQL Server Processors & Security Options

By Don Kiely

SQL Server 2012 supports multiple processors if they are available on the server.

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Installing Multiple Instances of SQL on a Single Computer

By Don Kiely

One of the most powerful features of SQL Server is the ability to install multiple instances of the SQL Server relational database engine on a single computer.

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SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT): A Great Set of Tools for Database Dev

By Don Kiely

Microsoft introduced a new set of database development-oriented tools in SQL Server 2012, called SQL Server Data Tools.

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Finding SQL Server Problems

By Don Kiely

The Activity Monitor in SQL Server 2012 gives you a view into the current activity in the SQL Server instance.

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SQL Object Search Box: Finding a Needle in a Haystack Made Easy

By Don Kiely

A medium sized database can easily have hundreds or thousands of objects, and large databases can have even more.

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Don't Waste your Time on Training

By Martin Schaeferle

How many times have you heard people say, "I am definitely not going to waste my time going to that instructor led class" or "that self study training is a waste of time, not for me"?

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