Sample Chapter: Wrox Beginning SQL Server 2000 Programming
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Wrox are well known for their "How-To" series of books, which teach beginning-intermediate developers how to use Microsoft technologies properly and efficiently. Today, Mitchell takes a look at chapter three from "Beginning SQL Server 2000 Programming", which is published by Wrox Press.Today we will be looking at a sample chapter from Wrox's title "Beginning SQL Server 2000 Programming". This is a great book, and was used by both myself and Tim Pabst when we were making the transition from SQL Server 7 to SQL Server 2000.
If you'd like to read some reviews on the book, or if you would like to purchase it, then you can do so
here.
Anyhow, let's take a look at the sample chapter from the book: Chapter 3 - Query Analyzer...{mospagebreak title=Chapter 3: Query Analyzer&toc=1} Now that SQL Server is installed, and that Enterprise Manager and SQL Server Service Manager have been demonstrated, there is one front-end tool interacting with the SQL Server engine left to discuss. Some people will argue that it is the most important tool within SQL Server, especially those who prefer to type in command syntax rather than burrowing through Enterprise Manager. This tool is SQL Server Query Analyzer. What this tool provides is effectively a command-line interface to databases within SQL Server. But there is a lot more to this tool. It is extremely useful, powerful, and informative. This chapter won't demonstrate this power, but will demonstrate what features are included to allow that power to be used to its full effect. The power demonstration will come as you progress through each chapter of the book, starting at Chapter 5 where the first stages of building the database example begin.
There will also be the ability to demonstrate how Query Analyzer can be used to help with interrogating data, using system functions, and displaying results. It is quite a powerful command-line interface. So why have I called it a command-line interface, when the tool obviously is not that at all?
When Query Analyzer was first developed, it was a simple command-line interface. You went to a MS- DOS box and logged in to a server using a utility called ISQL, which is short for Interactive Structured Query Language. Just as a reminder, SQL is the language used to interrogate and manipulate data, as well as build and manipulate databases and the information contained within them. Microsoft has its own proprietary dialect of SQL called Transact SQL, or T-SQL.
ISQL and OSQL (Object-oriented SQL) are both command-line utilities for entering T-SQL commands for a SQL Server database. ISQL uses an old method of data access known as DB- Library, and is only fully compatible with SQL Server 6.5. It has not been updated with the functionality found in subsequent SQL Server versions. OSQL is an upgrade of ISQL that uses ODBC for data access. ODBC is also quite an old method of data access, but it has been kept up to date and, therefore, the full functionality of T-SQL commands is supported by OSQL.We will explore and explain each area that is contained within Query Analyzer so that, when each area is used later in the book, you will instantly recognize it. Covering each area now will provide an excellent reference point to come back to later, if you need to.
Next: Chapter 3: Query Analyzer (contd.) >>
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