If you've not programmed with Transact-SQL, this book is for you.It begins with an overview of SQL Server query operations and tools used with T-SQL, and covers both the 2005 and 2008 releases of SQL Server query tools and the query editor. The book then moves to show you how to design and build applications of increasing complexity. Other important tasks covered include full text indexing, optimizing query performance, and application design and security considerations. The companion website also provides all of the code examples from the book.

Paul Turley (Vancouver, WA) is a Manager of Specialized
Services for Hitachi Consulting Education Services. Paul manages
the Business Intelligence training team and teaches classes for
companies throughout the world on Microsoft SQL Server
technologies. He works with companies to architect and build BI and
reporting solutions. He has been developing business database
solutions since 1991 for companies like Microsoft, Disney, Nike,
and Hewlett - Packard. He has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer
since 1996 and holds several industry certifications, including
MCTS and MCITP for BI, MCSD, MCDBA, MSF Practitioner, and IT
Project+.

Paul has authored and co - authored several books and courses on
database, business intelligence, and application development
technologies. He is the lead courseware developer for the Hitachi
Consulting courses: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Solutions
and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Solutions. Books include the
prior edition of this book, the 2008, 2005 and 2000 editions of
Professional SQL Server Reporting Services , Beginning
SQL Server 2005 Administration , Beginning Access 2002
VBA , Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2000 Analysis
Services , and Professional Access 2000 Programming
-- all from Wrox. He is also a contributing author for SQL
Server 2005 Integration Services Step by Step from Microsoft
Press.

Dan Wood (Silverdale, WA) is the senior database
administrator for Avalara, a sales tax compliance company, where he
both administers and develops database solutions for several
enterprise applications that handle global address validation, tax
rate calculation, and sales tax remittance for e - commerce and ERP
clients. He has been working with SQL Server as a DBA, consultant,
and trainer since 1999. Dan was a contributing author on
Beginning Transact - SQL with SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and
the lead author of Beginning SQL Server Administration ,
both from Wrox.

Nearly all business applications read, store, and manipulate data stored in relational databases. If you use Microsoft SQL Server in any way, you need to learn and use T-SQL,?Microsoft's powerful implementation of the ANSI-standard SQL database query language.

This book teaches all of the basics of T-SQL as it's used with SQL Server 2005 and 2008 databases. The authors, leading T-SQL experts, begin with the essentials of SQL Server that are needed to get the most from T-SQL. They then quickly move on to introduce T-SQL itself, including the core elements of data retrieval, SQL functions, aggregation and grouping, and multi-table queries, and they fully explain transaction processing and data manipulation using T-SQL.

The authors also show you how to create and manage T-SQL programming objects, including views, functions, and stored procedures. They detail how to optimize T-SQL query performance and design queries for real-world business applications. All of the methods and techniques in this book can be used with both Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 databases.

In addition, the book includes a comprehensive set of reference appendices, including T-SQL command syntax, system variables and functions, system stored procedures, information schema views, and FileStream objects.

What you will learn from this book

• How to add, modify, and remove records

• How to query multiple tables

• Ways to use views to modify data

• How to create tools for managing databases using T-SQL

• T-SQL programming techniques using views, user-defined functions, and stored procedures

• Methods for optimizing?query performance

• How to use?SQL Server Reporting Services to visualize T-SQL query results

Who this book is for
This book is for beginning SQL Server developers and administrators who need to learn how to use T-SQL. Basic familiarity with relational databases and a general understanding of?basic SQL functions is necessary.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Chapter 1: Introducing T-SQL and Data Management Systems.

Chapter 2: SQL Server Fundamentals.

Chapter 3: SQL Server Tools.

Chapter 4: Introducing the T-SQL Language.

Chapter 5: Data Retrieval.

Chapter 6: SQL Functions.

Chapter 7: Aggregation and Grouping.

Chapter 8: Multi-Table Queries.

Chapter 9: Advanced Queries and Scripting.

Chapter 10: Transactions.

Chapter 11: Advanced Capabilities.

Chapter 12: T-SQL Programming Objects.

Chapter 13: Creating and Managing Database Objects.

Chapter 14: Analyzing and Optimizing Query Performance.

Chapter 15: T-SQL in Applications and Reporting.

Appendix A: Command Syntax Reference.

Appendix B: System Variables and Functions Reference.

Appendix C: System Stored Procedure Reference.

Appendix D: Information Schema Views Reference.

Appendix E: FileStream Objects and Syntax.

Appendix F: Answers to Exercises.

Index.