Intelligent Data Management with SQL Server

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Edition 1 - 2020
PREFACE
SQL Server is a client-server based Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) from
Microsoft. It provides an enterprise-level data management platform for an organization.
SQL Server includes numerous features and tools that make it an outstanding database and
data analysis platform. It is also targeted for large-scale Online Transaction Processing
(OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications. One of the key features of SQL
Server is that it is now available on the cloud too.
The book begins with an introduction to RDBMS concepts and moves on to introduce SQL
Server 2019. The book then covers various SQL Server topics such as data types, usage of
Transact-SQL, and database objects such as indexes, stored procedures, functions, and so
on. The book also introduces Azure SQL and cloud databases. The book describes
transactions, programming elements with Transact-SQL, and finally troubleshooting errors
with error handling techniques.
The book also explores SQL Server 2019 new features and enhancements. These include
features such as Big Data clusters, PolyBase, Query Store, Stretch Database, and
In-Memory enhancements. Besides these, you will also learn about the improved
Performance Tools and Transact-SQL enhancements.
The knowledge and information in this book is the result of the concentrated effort of the
Design Team, which is continuously striving to bring to you the latest, the best and the
most relevant subject matter in Information Technology. As a part of Aptech’s quality
drive, this team does intensive research and curriculum enrichment to keep it in line with
industry trends and learner requirements.
1. RDBMS Concepts
2. Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model and Normalization
3. Introduction to SQL Server 2019
4. Transact-SQL
5. Creating and Managing Databases
6. Creating Tables
7. Azure SQL
8. Accessing Data
9. Advanced Queries and Joins
10. Views, Stored Procedures, and Querying Metadata
11. Indexes
12. Triggers
13. Programming Transact-SQL
14. Transactions
15. Error Handling
16. Enhancements in SQL Server 2019
17. PolyBase, Query Store, and Stretch Database
 Session - 1
RDBMS Concepts
Welcome to the Session, RDBMS Concepts.

This session deals with the concepts related to databases and database management
systems, explores various database models, and introduces the concept of an RDBMS.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain the concept of data and database

➢ Describe the approaches to data management
➢ Define a Database Management System (DBMS) and list its benefits
➢ Explain the different database models
➢ Define and explain RDBMS
➢ Describe entities and tables and list the characteristics of tables
➢ List the differences between a DBMS and an RDBMS

1.1 Introduction
Organizations often maintain large amounts of data, which are generated as a result of day-to-day
operations. A database is an organized form of such data. It may consist of one or more related data items
called records. Think of a database as a data collection to which different questions can be asked. For
example, 'What are the phone numbers and addresses of the five nearest post offices?' or 'Do we have any
books in our library that deal with health food? If so, on which shelves are they located?' or 'Show me the
personnel records and sales figures of five best-performing sales people for the current quarter, but their
address details are not required to be shown'.

1.2 Data and Database

Data means information and it is the most important component in any work that is done. In the day-to-
day activity, either existing data is used or more data is generated. When this data is gathered and analyzed,
it yields information. It can be any information such as information about the vehicle, sports, airways, and
so on. For example, a sport magazine journalist (who is a soccer enthusiast) gathers the score (data) of
Germany's performance in 10 world cup matches. These scores constitute data. When this data is
compared with the data of 10 world cup matches played by Brazil, the journalist can obtain information
as to which country has a team that plays better soccer.

Information helps to foresee and plan events. Intelligent interpretation of data yields information. In the
world of business, to be able to predict an event and plan for it could save time and money. Consider an
example, where a car manufacturing company is planning its annual purchase of certain parts of the car,
which has to be imported since it is not locally available. If data of the purchase of these parts for the last

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five years is available, the company heads can actually compile information about the total amount of
parts imported. Based on these findings, a production plan can be prepared. Therefore, information is a
key-planning factor.

A database is a collection of data. Some like to think of a database as an organized mechanism that has
the capability of storing information. This information can be retrieved by the user in an effective and
efficient manner.

A phone book is a database. The data contained consists of individuals' names, addresses, and telephone
numbers. These listings are in alphabetical order or indexed. This allows the user to reference a particular
local resident with ease. Ultimately, this data is stored in a database somewhere on a computer. As people
move to different cities or states, entries may have to be added or removed from the phone book. Likewise,
entries will have to be modified for people changing names, addresses, or telephone numbers, and so on.

Figure 1.1 illustrates the concept of a database.

Figure 1.1: Database

Thus, a database is a collection of data that is organized such that its contents can be easily accessed,
managed, and updated.

1.3 Data Management

Data management deals with managing large amount of information, which involves both the storage of
information and the provision of mechanisms for the manipulation of information. In addition, the system
should also provide the safety of the information stored under various circumstances, such as multiple
user access and so on.

The two different approaches of managing data are file-based systems and database systems.

1.3.1 File-based Systems

Storage of large amounts of data has always been a matter of huge concern. In early days, file-based
systems were used. In this system, data was stored in discrete files and a collection of such files was stored
on a computer. These could be accessed by a computer operator. Files of archived data were called tables
because they looked like tables used in traditional file keeping. Rows in the table were called records and
columns were called fields.
Conventionally, before the database systems evolved, data in software systems was stored in flat files.

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An example of the file-based system is illustrated in table 1.1.
First Name Last Name Address Phone
Eric David ericd@eff.org 213-456-0987
Selena Sol selena@eff.org 987-765-4321
Jordan Lim nadroj@otherdomain.com 222-3456-123
Table 1.1: File-based System

➢ Disadvantages of File-based Systems

In a file-based system, different programs in the same application may be interacting with different private
data files. There is no system enforcing any standardized control on the organization and structure of these
data files.

• Data redundancy and inconsistency

Since data resides in different private data files, there are chances of redundancy and resulting
inconsistency. For example, a customer can have a savings account as well as a mortgage loan. Here,
the customer details may be duplicated since the programs for the two functions store their
corresponding data in two different data files. This gives rise to redundancy in the customer's data. Since
the same data is stored in two files, inconsistency arises if a change made in the data of one file is not
reflected in the other.

• Unanticipated queries
In a file-based system, handling sudden/ad-hoc queries can be difficult, since it requires changes in the
existing programs. For example, the bank officer must generate a list of all the customers who have an
account balance of $20,000 or more. The bank officer has two choices: either obtain the list of all
customers and have the required information extracted manually, or hire a system programmer to
design the necessary application program. Both alternatives are obviously unsatisfactory. Suppose that
such a program is written, and several days later, the officer must trim that list to include only those
customers who have opened their account one year ago. As the program to generate such a list does
not exist, it leads to a difficulty in accessing the data.

• Data isolation
Data are scattered in various files, and files may be in a different format. Though data used by different
programs in the application may be related, they reside as isolated data files.

• Concurrent access anomalies

In large multi-user systems, the same file or record may have to be accessed by multiple users
simultaneously. Handling this in a file-based system is difficult.

• Security problems
In data-intensive applications, security of data is a major concern. Users should be given access only
to required data and not to the whole database.

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 For example, in a banking system, payroll personnel may have to view only that part of the database
that has information about various bank employees. They do not require access to information about
customer accounts. Since application programs are added to the system in an ad-hoc manner, it is
difficult to enforce such security constraints. In a file-based system, this can be handled only by
additional programming in each application.

• Integrity problems
In any application, there will be certain data integrity rules, which must be maintained. These could
be in the form of certain conditions/constraints on the elements of the data records. In the savings bank
application, one such integrity rule could be 'Customer ID, which is the unique identifier for a customer
record, should not be empty'. There can be several such integrity rules. In a file-based system, all these
rules must be explicitly programmed in the application program.

Though all these are common issues of concern to any data-intensive application, each application had to
handle all these problems on its own. The application programmer must not only be concerned about
implementing the application business rules but also, about handling these common issues.

1.3.2 Database Systems

Database Systems evolved in the late 1960s to address common issues in applications handling large
volumes of data, which are also data intensive. Some of these issues could be traced back to the
disadvantages of File-based systems.

Databases are used to store data in an efficient and organized manner. A database allows quick and easy
management of data. For example, a company may maintain details of its employees in various databases.
At any point of time, data can be retrieved from the database, new data can be added into the databases and
data can be searched based on some criteria in these databases.

Data storage can be achieved even using simple manual files. For instance, a college has to maintain
information about teachers, students, subjects, and examinations.

Details of the teachers can be maintained in a Staff Register and details of the students could be entered in
a Student Register and so forth. However, data stored in this form is not permanent. Records in such
manual files can only be maintained for a few months or few years. The registers or files are bulky, consume
a lot of space, and hence, cannot be kept for many years.

Instead of this, if the same data was stored using database system, it could be more permanent and
long-lasting.

➢ Advantages of database systems

Information or data can be permanently stored in the form of computerized databases. A database system
is advantageous because it provides a centralized control over the data.

Some of the benefits of using such a centralized database system are as follows:

• The amount of redundancy in the stored data can be reduced

In an organization, several departments often store the same data. Maintaining a centralized database
helps the same data to be accessed by many departments. Thus, duplication of data or 'data

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 redundancy' can be reduced.

• No more inconsistencies in data

When data is duplicated across several departments, any modifications to the data have to be reflected
across all departments. Sometimes, this can lead to inconsistency in the data. As there is a central
database, it is possible for one person to take up the task of updating the data on a regular basis. Consider
that Mr. Larry Finner, an employee of an organization is promoted as a Senior Manager from Manager.

In such a case, there is just one record in the database that must be changed. As a result, data
inconsistency is reduced.

• The stored data can be shared

A central database can be located on a server, which can be shared by several users. In this way, all
users can access the common and updated information all the time.

• Standards can be set and followed

A central control ensures that a certain standard in the representation of data can be set and followed.
For example, the name of an employee has to be represented as 'Mr. Larry Finner'. This representation
can be broken down into the following components:
o A title (Mr.)
o First name (Larry)
o Last name (Finner)

It is certain that all the names stored in the database will follow the same format if the standards are
set in this manner.

• Data Integrity can be maintained

Data integrity refers to the accuracy of data in the database. For example, when an employee resigns and
leaves the organization, consider that the Accounts department has updated its database and the HR
department has not updated its records. The data in the company's records is hence, inaccurate.

Centralized control of the database helps in avoiding these errors. It is certain that if a record is deleted
from one table, its linked record in the other table is also deleted.

• Security of data can be implemented

In a central database system, the privilege of modifying the database is not given to everyone. This right
is given only to one person who has full control over the database. This person is called as Database
Administrator or DBA. The DBA can implement security by placing restrictions on the data. Based on
the permissions granted to them, the users can add, modify, or query data.

1.4 Database Management System (DBMS)

A DBMS can be defined as a collection of related records and a set of programs that access and manipulate
these records. A DBMS enables the user to enter, store, and manage data. The main problem with the
earlier DBMS packages was that the data was stored in the flat file format. So, the information about
different objects was maintained separately in different physical files. Hence, the relations between these
objects, if any, had to be maintained in a separate physical file. Thus, a single package would consist of too
many files and vast functionalities to integrate them into a single system.

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A solution to these problems came in the form of a centralized database system. In a centralized database
system, the database is stored in the central location. Everybody can have access to the data stored in a
central location from their machine. For example, a large central database system would contain all the
data pertaining to the employees. The Accounts and the HR department would access the data required
using suitable programs. These programs or the entire application would reside on individual computer
terminals.

A Database is a collection of interrelated data, and a DBMS is a set of programs used to add or modify
this data. Thus, a DBMS is a set of software programs that allow databases to be defined, constructed, and
manipulated.

A DBMS provides an environment that is both convenient and efficient to use when there is a large volume of
data and many transactions to be processed. Different categories of DBMS can be used, ranging from small
systems that run on personal computers to huge systems that run on mainframes.

Examples of database applications include the following:

o Computerized library systems

o Automated teller machines
o Flight reservation systems
o Computerized parts inventory systems

From a technical standpoint, DBMS products can differ widely. Different DBMS support different query
languages, although there is a semi-standardized query language called Structured Query Language (SQL).

Sophisticated languages for managing database systems are called Fourth Generation Language (4GLs).
The information from a database can be presented in a variety of formats. Most DBMS include a report
writer program that enables the user to output data in the form of a report. Many DBMSs also include a
graphics component that enables the user to output information in the form of graphs and charts.

It is not necessary to use general-purpose DBMS for implementing a computerized database. The users
can write their own set of programs to create and maintain the database, in effect creating their own special-
purpose DBMS software. The database and the software together are called a database system.

The end user accesses the database system through application programs and queries. The DBMS software
enables the user to process the queries and programs placed by the end user. The software accesses the data
from the database.

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Figure 1.2 illustrates a database system.

Figure 1.2: A Simplified Database System Environment

1.4.1 Benefits of DBMS

A DBMS is responsible for processing data and converting it into information. For this purpose, the
database has to be manipulated, which includes querying the database to retrieve specific data, updating the
database, and finally, generating reports.

These reports are the source of information, which is, processed data. A DBMS is also responsible for
data security and integrity.

The benefits of a typical DBMS are as follows:

➢ Data storage
The programs required for physically storing data, handled by a DBMS, is done by creating complex
data structures, and the process is called data storage management.

➢ Data definition
A DBMS provides functions to define the structure of the data in the application. These include
defining and modifying the record structure, the type and size of fields, and various
constraints/conditions to be satisfied by the data in each field.
➢ Data manipulation
Once the data structure is defined, data must be inserted, modified, or deleted. The functions, which
perform these operations, are also part of a DBMS. These functions can handle planned and unplanned
data manipulation requirements. Planned queries are those, which form part of the application.

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 Unplanned queries are ad-hoc queries, which are performed as and when required.

➢ Data security and integrity

Data security is of utmost importance when there are multiple users accessing the database. It is
required for keeping a check over data access by users. The security rules specify, which user has access
to the database, what data elements the user has access to, and the data operations that the user can
perform.

Data in the database should contain as few errors as possible. For example, the employee number for
adding a new employee should not be left blank. Telephone number should contain only numbers.
Such checks are taken care of by a DBMS.

Thus, the DBMS contains functions, which handle the security and integrity of data in the application.
These can be easily invoked by the application and hence, the application programmer does not have
to code these functions in the programs.

➢ Data recovery and concurrency

Recovery of data after a system failure and concurrent access of records by multiple users are also
handled by a DBMS.

➢ Performance
Optimizing the performance of the queries is one of the important functions of a DBMS. Hence, the
DBMS has a set of programs forming the Query Optimizer, which evaluates the different
implementations of a query and chooses the best among them.

➢ Multi-user access control

At any point of time, more than one user can access the same data. A DBMS takes care of the sharing
of data among multiple users, and maintains data integrity.

➢ Database access languages and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

The query language of a DBMS implements data access. SQL is the most commonly used query
language. A query language is a non-procedural language, where the user must request what is required
and does not have to specify how it is to be done. Some procedural languages such as C, Visual Basic,
Pascal, and others provide data access to programmers.

1.5 Database Models

Databases can be differentiated based on functions and model of the data. A data model describes a
container for storing data, and the process of storing and retrieving data from that container. The analysis
and design of data models has been the basis of the evolution of databases. Each model has evolved from
the previous one.

1.5.1 Flat File Data Model

In this model, the database consists of only one table or file. This model is used for simple databases
- for example, to store the roll numbers, names, subjects, and marks of a group of students. This model
cannot handle very complex data. It can cause redundancy when data is repeated more than once.
Table 1.2 depicts the structure of a flat file database.

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 Roll Number FirstName LastName Subject Marks
45 Jones Bill Maths 84
45 Jones Bill Science 75
50 Mary Mathew Science 80
Table 1.2: Structure of Flat File Data Model

1.5.2 Hierarchical Data Model

In the Hierarchical Model, different records are inter-related through hierarchical or tree-like structures. In
this model, relationships are thought of in terms of children and parents. A parent record can have several
children, but a child can have only one parent. To find data stored in this model, the user must know the
structure of the tree.

The Windows Registry is an example of a hierarchical database storing configuration settings and options
on Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Figure 1.3 illustrates an example of a hierarchical representation.

Figure 1.3: Example of a Hierarchical Model

Within the hierarchical model, Department is perceived as the parent of the segment. The tables, Project
and Employee, are children. A path that traces the parent segments beginning from the left, defines the
tree. This ordered sequencing of segments tracing the hierarchical structure is called the hierarchical path.

It is clear from the figure that in a single department, there can be many employees and a department can
have many projects.

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➢ Advantages of the hierarchical model
The advantages of a hierarchical model are as follows:
 Data is held in a common database so data sharing becomes easier, and security is provided and
enforced by a DBMS.
 Data independence is provided by a DBMS, which reduces the effort and costs in maintaining the
program.

This model is very efficient when a database contains a large volume of data. For example, a bank's
customer account system fits the hierarchical model well because each customer's account is subject to
a number of transactions.

1.5.3 Network Data Model

This model is similar to the Hierarchical Data Model. The hierarchical model is actually a subset of the
network model. However, instead of using a single-parent tree hierarchy, the network model uses set
theory to provide a tree-like hierarchy with the exception that child tables were allowed to have more
than one parent.

In the network model, data is stored in sets, instead of the hierarchical tree format. This solves the problem
of data redundancy. The set theory of the network model does not use a single-parent tree hierarchy. It
allows a child to have more than one parent. Thus, the records are physically linked through linked-lists.
Integrated Database Management System (IDMS) from Computer Associates International Inc. and
Raima Database Manager (RDM) Server by Raima Inc. are examples of a Network DBMS.

The network model together with the hierarchical data model was a major data model for implementing
numerous commercial DBMS. The network model structures and language constructs were defined by
Conference on Data Systems Language (CODASYL).

For every database, a definition of the database name, record type for each record, and the components
that make up those records is stored. This is called its network schema. A portion of the database as seen
by the application's programs that actually produce the desired information from the data contained in
the database is called sub-schema. It allows application programs to access the required data from the
database.

Figure 1.4: Network Model

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The network model shown in figure 1.4 illustrates a series of one-to-many relationships, as follows:
1. A sales representative might have written many Invoice tickets, but each Invoice is written by a single
Sales representative (Salesrep).
2. A Customer might have made purchases on different occasions. A Customer may have many Invoice
tickets, but each Invoice belongs only to a single customer.
3. An Invoice ticket may have many Invoice lines (Invline), but each Invline is found on a single
Invoice ticket.
4. A Product may appear in several different Invline, but each Invline contains only a single Product.

Components of the language used with network models are as follows:

Advantages of network model

Advantages of such a structure are specified as follows:

The relationships are easier to implement in the network database model than in the
hierarchical model.

This model enforces database integrity.

This model achieves sufficient data independence.

Disadvantages of network model

Disadvantages are specified as follows:

The databases in this model are difficult to design.

The programmer has to be very familiar with the internal structures to access the
database.

The model provides a navigational data access environment. Hence, to move from A to
E in the sequence A-B-C-D-E, the user has to move through B, C, and D to get to E.

This model is difficult to implement and maintain. Computer programmers, rather than end users, utilize
this model.

1.5.4 Relational Data Model

As demand for information grew and more sophisticated databases and applications were required,
database design, management, and use became too cumbersome. The lack of query facility took a lot of
time of the programmers to produce even the simplest reports. This led to the development of what came
to be called the Relational Model database.

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The term 'Relation' is derived from the set theory of mathematics. In the Relational Model, unlike the
Hierarchical and Network models, there are no physical links. All data is maintained in the form of tables
consisting of rows and columns. Data in two tables is related through common columns and not physical
links. Operators are provided for operating on rows in tables.

Popular relational DBMSs are Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and so on.

This model represents the database as a collection of relations. In this model's terminology, a row is called
a tuple, a column, an attribute, and the table is called a relation. The list of values applicable to a particular
field is called domain. It is possible for several attributes to have the same domain. The number of attributes
of a relation is called degree of the relation. The number of tuples determines the cardinality of the relation.

In order to understand the relational model, consider tables 1.3 and 1.4.
Roll Number Student Name
1 Sam Reiner
2 John Parkinson
3 Jenny Smith
4 Lisa Hayes
5 Penny Walker
6 Peter Jordan
7 Joe Wong
Table 1.3: Students Table

Roll Number Marks Obtained

1 34
2 87
3 45
4 90
5 36
6 65
7 89
Table 1.4: Marks Table

The Students table displays the Roll Number and the Student Name, and the Marks table displays the
Roll Number and Marks obtained by the students. Now, two steps must be carried out for students who
have scored more than 50. First, locate the roll numbers of those who have scored more than 50 from the
Marks table. Second, their names have to be located in the Students table by matching the roll number.

The result will be as shown in table 1.5.

Roll Number Student Name Marks Obtained

4 Lisa 90
6 Peter 65
7 Joe 89
Table 1.5: Displaying Student Names and Marks

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It was possible to get this information because of two facts: First, there is a column common to both the
tables - Roll Number. Second, based on this column, the records from the two different tables could be
matched and the required information could be obtained.

In a relational model, data is stored in tables. A table in a database has a unique name that identifies its
contents. Each table can be defined as an intersection of rows and columns.

Advantages of relational model Disadvantages of relational model

The relational database model gives Though the model hides all complexities of
programmers time to concentrate on logical system, it tends to be slower than other database
view of the database rather than being bothered systems.
about physical view. One of the reasons for
popularity of relational databases is querying As compared to all other models, relational data
flexibility. Most relational databases use model is the most popular and widely used.
Structured Query Language (SQL). An
RDBMS uses SQL to translate user query into
technical code required to retrieve requested
data. Relational model is so easy to handle that
even untrained people find it easy to generate
handy reports and queries, without giving much
thought to the requirement to design a proper
database.

As compared to all other models, the relational data model is the most popular and widely used.

1.6 Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)

The Relational Model is an attempt to simplify database structures. It represents all data in the database as
simple row-column tables of data values. An RDBMS is a software program that helps to create, maintain,
and manipulate a relational database. A relational database is a database divided into logical units called
tables, where tables are related to one another within the database.

Tables are related in a relational database, allowing adequate data to be retrieved in a single query
(although the desired data may exist in more than one table). By having common keys, or fields, among
relational database tables, data from multiple tables can be joined to form one large resultset.

Figure 1.5 shows two tables related to one another through a common key (data value) in a relational
database.

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 Figure 1.5: Relationship Between Tables

Thus, a relational database is a database structured on the relational model. The basic characteristic of a
relational model is that in a relational model, data is stored in relations. To understand relations, consider
the following example.

The Capitals table shown in table 1.6 displays a list of countries and their capitals, and the Currency
table shown in table 1.7 displays the countries and the local currencies used by them.

Country Capital
Greece Athens
Italy Rome
USA Washington
China Beijing
Japan Tokyo
Australia Sydney
France Paris
Table 1.6: Capitals

Country Currency
Greece Drachma
Italy Lira
USA Dollar
China Renminbi (Yuan)
Japan Yen
Australia Australian Dollar
France Francs
Table 1.7: Currency
Both the tables have a common column, that is, the Country column. Now, if the user wants to display
the information about the currency used in Rome, first find the name of the country to which Rome
belongs. This information can be retrieved from table 1.6. Next, that country should be looked up in table

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1.7 to find out the currency.

It is possible to get this information because it is possible to establish a relation between the two tables
through a common column called Country.

1.6.1 Terms Related to RDBMS

There are certain terms that are mostly used in an RDBMS. These are described as follows:

➢ Data is presented as a collection of relations.

➢ Each relation is depicted as a table.
➢ Columns are attributes.
➢ Rows ('tuples') represent entities.
➢ Every table has a set of attributes that are taken together as a 'key' (technically, a 'superkey'), which
uniquely identifies each entity.

For example, a company might have an Employee table with a row for each employee. What attributes
might be interesting for such a table? This will depend on the application and the type of use the data will be
put to, and is determined at database design time.
Consider the scenario of a company maintaining customer and order information for products being sold
and customer-order details for a specific month, such as, August.

The tables 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, and 1.11 are used to illustrate this scenario. These tables depict tuples and
attributes in the form of rows and columns. Various terms related to these tables are given in table 1.12.

Cust_No Cust_Name Phone No

002 David Gordon 0231-5466356
003 Prince Fernandes 0221-5762382
003 Charles Yale 0321-8734723
002 Ryan Ford 0241-2343444
005 Bruce Smith 0241-8472198

Table 1.8: Customer

Item_No Description Price

HW1 Power Supply 4000
HW2 Keyboard 2000
HW3 Mouse 800
SW1 Office Suite 15000
SW2 Payroll Software 8000

Table 1.9: Items

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 Ord_No Item_No Qty
101 HW3 50
101 SW1 150
102 HW2 10
103 HW3 50
104 HW2 25
104 HW3 100
105 SW1 100
Table 1.10: Order_Details

Ord_No Ord_Date Cust_No

101 02-08-12 002
102 11-08-12 003
103 21-08-12 003
104 28-08-12 002
105 30-08-12 005
Table 1.11: Order_August

Term Meaning Example from the Scenario

Relation A table Order_August, Order_Details,
Customer and Items
Tuple A row or a record in a relation A row from Customer relation is a
Customer tuple
Attribute A field or a column in a relation Ord_Date, Item_No, Cust_Name, and
so on
Cardinality of a relation The number of tuples in a Cardinality of Order_Details relation
relation is 7
Degree of a relation The number of attributes in a Degree of Customer relation is 3
relation
Domain of an attribute The set of all values that can be Domain of Qty in Order_Details is the
taken by the attribute set of all values which can represent
quantity of an ordered item
Primary Key of a relation An attribute or a combination of Primary Key of Customer relation is
attributes that uniquely defines Cust_No
each tuple in a relation
Ord_No and Item_No combination
form the primary key of Order_Details
Foreign Key An attribute or a combination of
attributes in one relation R1 that Cust_No in Order_August relation is a
indicates the relationship of R1 foreign key creating reference from
with another relation R2 Order_August to Customer. This is
required to indicate the relationship
The foreign key attributes in R1 between orders in Order_August and
must contain values matching Customer
with those of the values in R2
Table 1.12: Terms Related to Tables

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1.6.2 RDBMS Users
The primary goal of a database system is to provide an environment for retrieving information from and
storing new information into the database.

For a small personal database, one person typically defines the constructs and manipulates the database.

However, many persons are involved in the design, use, and maintenance of a large database with a few
hundred users.
Database Administrator (DBA)
• Is a person who collects information that will be stored in database.
• Administering these resources is responsibility of DBA. DBA is also responsible for
authorizing access to the database, for coordinating and monitoring its use, and for
acquiring software and hardware resources as required. DBA is accountable for
problems such as breach of security or poor system response time.

Database Designer
• Are responsible for identifying the data to be stored in the database and for choosing
appropriate structures to represent and store this data. It is the responsibility of
database designers to communicate with all prospective database users, in order to
understand their requirements, and to come up with a design that meets the
requirements.

System Analysts and Application Programmers

• Determine requirements of end users, and develop specifications for pre- determined
transactions that meet these requirements. Application Programmers implement these
specifications as programs; then, they test, debug, document, and maintain these pre-
determined transactions.

DBMS Designers and Implementers

• Design and implement DBMS modules and interfaces as a software package. A DBMS
is a complex software system that consists of many components or modules, including
modules for implementing the catalog, query language, interface processors, data
access, and security. A DBMS must interface with other system software such as the
operating system and compilers for various programming languages.

End User
• Invokes an application to interact with the system, or writes a query for easy retrieval,
modification, or deletion of data.

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1.7 Entities and Tables
The components of an RDBMS are entities and tables, which will be explained in this section.

1.7.1 Entity
An entity is a person, place, thing, object, event, or even a concept, which can be distinctly identified. For
example, the entities in a university are students, faculty members, and courses.

Each entity has certain characteristics known as attributes. For example, the student entity might include
attributes such as student number, name, and grade. Each attribute should be named appropriately.

A grouping of related entities becomes an entity set. Each entity set is given a name. The name of the entity
set reflects the contents. Thus, the attributes of all the students of the university will be stored in an entity
set called Student.

1.7.2 Tables and their Characteristics

The access and manipulation of data is facilitated by the creation of data relationships based on a construct
known as a table. A table contains a group of related entities that is an entity set. The terms entity set and
table are often used interchangeably. A table is also called a relation. The rows are known as tuples. The
columns are known as attributes. Figure 1.6 highlights the characteristics of a table.

Figure 1.6: Characteristics of a Table

The characteristics of a table are as follows:

➢ A two-dimensional structure composed of rows and columns is perceived as a table.

➢ Each tuple represents a single entity within the entity set.
➢ Each column has a distinct name.
➢ Each row/column intersection represents a single data value.
➢ Each table must have a key known as primary key that uniquely identifies each row.
➢ All values in a column must conform to the same data format. For example, if the attribute is assigned
a decimal data format, all values in the column representing that attribute must be in decimals.
➢ Each column has a specific range of values known as the attribute domain.
➢ Each row carries information describing one entity occurrence.
➢ The order of the rows and columns is immaterial in a DBMS.

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1.8 Differences between a DBMS and an RDBMS
Differences between a DBMS and an RDBMS are listed in table 1.13.

DBMS RDBMS
It does not require to have data in tabular In an RDBMS, tabular structure is a must and table
structure nor does it enforce tabular relationships are enforced by the system. These
relationships between data items. relationships enable the user to apply and manage
business rules with minimal coding.
Small amount of data can be stored and An RDBMS can store and retrieve large amount of
retrieved. data.
A DBMS is less secure than an RDBMS. An RDBMS is more secure than a DBMS.
It is a single user system. It is a multi-user system.
Most DBMSs do not support client/server It supports client/server architecture.
architecture.
Table 1.13: Difference between DBMS and RDBMS

In an RDBMS, a relation is given more importance. Thus, the tables in an RDBMS are dependent and
the user can establish various integrity constraints on these tables so that the ultimate data used by the user
remains correct. In case of a DBMS, entities are given more importance and there is no relation stablished
among these entities.

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1.9 Check Your Progress
1. The data model allows a child node to have more than one parent.

(A) Flat File (C) Network

(B) Hierarchical (D) Relational

2. is used to administer permissions on the databases and database

objects.

(A) Data Definition Language (DDL) (C) Sub-schema

(B) Data Manipulation Language (D) Data Control Language (DCL)

(DML)

3. In the relational model terminology, a row is called a , a column an , and a table a

_____________________.

(A) attribute, tuple, relation (C) attribute, relation, tuple

(B) tuple, attribute, relation (D) row, column, tuple

4. A can be defined as a collection of related records and a set of

programs that access and manipulate these records.

(A) Database Management System (C) Data Management

(B) Relational Database Management (D) Network Model

System

5. A describes a container for storing data and the process of storing and
retrieving data from that container.

(A) Network model (C) Data model

(B) Flat File model (D) Relational model

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1.9.1 Answers
1. C
2. D
3. B
4. B
5. C

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 Summary
➢ A database is a collection of related data stored in the form of a table.
➢ A data model describes a container for storing data and the process of storing and retrieving data
from that container.
➢ A DBMS is a collection of programs that enables the user to store, modify, and extract
information from a database.
➢ A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a suite of software programs for
creating, maintaining, modifying, and manipulating a relational database.
➢ A relational database is divided into logical units called tables. These logical units are interrelated
to each other within the database.
➢ The main components of an RDBMS are entities and tables.
➢ In an RDBMS, a relation is given more importance, whereas, in case of a DBMS, entities are
given more importance and there is no relation established among these entities.

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S

Try It Yourself
1. Create a PowerPoint presentation highlighting in brief what is a DBMS, different database
models, and key features of an RDBMS.

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 Session - 2
Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model and
Normalization
Welcome to the Session, Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model and Normalization.

This session talks about Data Modeling, the E-R model, its components, symbols,
diagrams, relationships, Data Normalization, and Relational Operators.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Define and describe data modeling
➢ Identify and describe the components of the E-R model
➢ Identify relationships that can be formed between entities
➢ Explain E-R diagrams and their use
➢ Describe an E-R diagram, the symbols used for drawing, and show various relationships
➢ Describe various Normal Forms
➢ Outline uses of different Relational Operators

2.1 Introduction
A data model is a group of conceptual tools that describes data, its relationships, and semantics. It also
consists of the consistency constraints that the data adheres to. The Entity-Relationship, Relational,
Network, and Hierarchical models are examples of data models. The development of every database begins
with the basic step of analyzing its data in order to determine the data model that would best represent it.
Once this step is completed, the data model is applied to the data.

2.2 Data Modeling

The process of applying an appropriate data model to the data, in order to organize and structure it, is
called data modeling.

Data modeling is as essential to database development as are planning and designing to any project
development. Building a database without a data model is similar to developing a project without its plans
and design. Data models help database developers to define the relational tables, primary and foreign keys,
stored procedures, and triggers required in the database.

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Data modeling can be broken down into the following three broad steps:
Conceptual Data Logical Data Modeling Physical Data Modeling
Modeling
The data modeler identifies The data modeler describes The data modeler specifies
highest level of relationships data and its relationships in how the logical model is to
in the data. detail. The data modeler be realized physically.
creates a logical model of
the database.

Figure 2.1 exhibits various steps involved in data modeling.

Figure 2.1: Data Modeling Steps

2.3 Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model

Data models can be classified into three different groups:

Object-based logical models Record-based logical models Physical models

The Entity-Relationship (E-R) model belongs to the first classification.

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The model is based on a simple idea. Data can be perceived as real-world objects called entities and the
relationships that exist between them. For example, the data about employees working for an organization
can be perceived as a collection of employees and a collection of various departments that form the
organization. Both employee and department are real-world objects. An employee belongs to a
department. Thus, the relation 'belongs to' links an employee to a particular department.

The employee-department relation can be modeled as shown in figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: E-R Model Depiction of an Organization

An E-R model consists of five basic components. They are as follows:

An entity is a real-world object that exists physically and is distinguishable

Entity from other objects. For example, employee, department, student, customer,
vehicle, and account are entities.

A relationship is an association or bond that exists between one or more

Relationship entities. For example, belongs to, owns, works for, saves in, purchased, and
so on.

Attributes are features that an entity has. Attributes help distinguish every
entity from another. For example, the attributes of a student would be
Attributes roll_number, name, stream, semester, and so on. The attributes of a car
would be registration_number, model, manufacturer, color, price, owner,
and so on.
An entity set is the collection of similar entities. For example, the
Entity Set employees of an organization collectively form an entity set called
employee entity set.

A collection of similar relationships between two or more entity sets is

Relationship Set called a relationship set. For example, employees work in a particular
department. The set of all 'work in' relations that exists between the
employees and the department is called the 'work in' relationship set.

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Various E-R model components can be seen in figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3: Components of the E-R Model

Relationships associate one or more entities and can be of three types. They are as follows:
➢ Self-relationships
Relationships between entities of the same entity set are called self-relationships. For example, a
manager and his team member, both belong to the employee entity set. The team member works for the
manager. Thus, the relation, 'works for', exists between two different employee entities of the same
employee entity set.
The relationship can be seen in figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4: Self-Relationship

➢ Binary relationships

Relationships that exist between entities of two different entity sets are called binary relationships. For
example, an employee belongs to a department. The relation exists between two different entities,
which belong to two different entity sets. The employee entity belongs to an employee entity set. The
department entity belongs to a department entity set.

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 The relationship can be seen in figure 2.5.

Figure 2.5: Binary Relationship

➢ Ternary relationships
Relationships that exist between three entities of different entity sets are called ternary relationships. For
example, an employee works in the accounts department at the regional branch. The relation, 'works'
exists between all three, the employee, the department, and the location.

The relationship can be seen in figure 2.6.

Figure 2.6: Ternary Relationship

Relationships can also be classified as per mapping cardinalities. Different mapping cardinalities are
as follows:

One-to-One

This kind of mapping exists when an entity of one entity set can be associated with only one entity of
another set. Consider the relationship between a vehicle and its registration. Every vehicle has a unique
registration. No two vehicles can have the same registration details. The relation is one-to-one, that is, one

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vehicle-one registration. The mapping cardinality can be seen in figure 2.7.

Figure 2.7: One-to-One Mapping Cardinality

One-to- Many

This kind of mapping exists when an entity of one set can be associated with more than one entity of another
entity set.

Consider the relation between a customer and the customer's vehicles. A customer can have more than one
vehicle. Therefore, the mapping is a one to many mapping, that is, one customer - one or more vehicles.
The mapping cardinality can be seen in figure 2.8.

Figure 2.8: One-to-Many Mapping Cardinality

Many-to-One

This kind of mapping exists when many entities of one set is associated with an entity of another set. This
association is done irrespective of whether the latter entity is already associated to other or more entities of
the former entity set.

Consider the relation between a vehicle and its manufacturer. Every vehicle has only one manufacturing
company or coalition associated to it under the relation, 'manufactured by', but the same company or
coalition can manufacture more than one kind of vehicle.

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The mapping can be seen in figure 2.9.

Figure 2.9: Many-to-One Mapping Cardinality

Many-to-Many

This kind of mapping exists when any number of entities of one set can be associated with any number of
entities of the other entity set.

Consider the relation between a bank's customer and the customer's accounts. A customer can have more
than one account and an account can have more than one customer associated with it in case it is a joint
account or similar. Therefore, the mapping is many-to-many, that is, one or more customers associated with
one or more accounts.
The mapping cardinality can be seen in figure 2.10.

Figure 2.10: Many-to-Many Mapping Cardinality

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Some additional concepts in the E-R model are as follows:

Primary keys

A primary key is an attribute that can uniquely define an entity in an entity set. Consider table 2.1
containing the details of students in a school.
Enrollment_Number Name Grade Division
786 Ashley Seven B
957 Joseph Five A
1011 Kelly One A

Table 2.1: Student Details

In a school, every student has a unique enrollment number (such as enrollment_number in table 2.1),
which is unique to the student. Any student can be identified based on the enrollment number. Thus, the
attribute enrollment_number plays the role of the primary key in the Student Details table.

Weak entity sets

Entity sets that do not have enough attributes to establish a primary key are called weak entity sets.

Strong entity sets

Entity sets that have enough attributes to establish a primary key are called strong entity sets. Consider the
scenario of an educational institution where at the end of each semester, students are required to complete
and submit a set of assignments. The teacher keeps track of the assignments submitted by the students. Now,
an assignment and a student can be considered as two separate entities. The assignment entity is described
by the attributes assignment_numberand subject. The student entity is described by roll_number, name,
and semester. The assignment entities can be grouped to form an assignment entity set and the student
entities can be grouped to form a student entity set. The entity sets are associated by the relation 'submitted
by'. This relation is depicted in figure 2.11.

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 Figure 2.11: Assignment Student Relation

The attributes, assignment_number and subject, are not enough to identify an assignment entity
uniquely. The roll_number attribute alone is enough to uniquely identify any student entity. Therefore,
roll_number is a primary key for the student entity set. The assignment entity set is a weak entity set since
it lacks a primary key. The student entity set is a strong entity set due to the presence of the roll_number
attribute.

2.3.1 Entity-Relationship Diagrams

The E-R diagram is a graphical representation of the E-R model. The E-R diagram, with the help of various
symbols, effectively represents various components of the E-R model.
The symbols used for various components can be seen in table 2.2.

Component Symbol Example

Entity

Weak Entity

Attribute

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 Component Symbol Example
Relationship

Key Attribute

Table 2.2: E-R Diagram Symbols

Attributes in the E-R model can be further classified as follows:

➢ Multi-valued
A multi-valued attribute is illustrated with a double-line ellipse, which has more than one value for at least
one instance of its entity. This attribute may have upper and lower bounds specified for any individual entity
value.

The telephone attribute of an individual may have one or more values, that is, an individual can have one
or more telephone numbers. Hence, the telephone attribute is a multi-valued attribute.

The symbol and example of a multi-valued attribute can be seen in figure 2.12.

Figure 2.12: Symbol and Example of Multi-valued Attribute

➢ Composite

A composite attribute may itself contain two or more attributes, which represent basic attributes having
independent meanings of their own.

The address attribute is usually a composite attribute, composed of attributes such as street, area, and so
on. The symbol and example of a composite attribute can be seen in figure 2.13.

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 Figure 2.13: Symbol and Example of Composite Attribute
➢ Derived

Derived attributes are attributes whose value is entirely dependent on another attribute and are
indicated by dashed ellipses.

The age attribute of a person is the best example for derived attributes. For a particular person entity, the
age of a person can be determined from the current date and the person's birth date. The symbol and
example of a derived attribute can be seen in figure 2.14.

Figure 2.14: Symbol and Example of Derived Attribute

Steps to construct an E-R diagram are as follows:

1. Gather all the data that must be modeled.
2. Identify data that can be modeled as real-world entities.
3. Identify the attributes for each entity.
4. Sort entity sets as weak or strong entity sets.
5. Sort entity attributes as key attributes, multi-valued attributes, composite attributes, derived attributes,
and so on.
6. Identify the relations between the different entities.
7. Using different symbols draw the entities, their attributes, and their relationships. Use appropriate
symbols while drawing attributes.

Consider the scenario of a bank, with customers and accounts. The E-R diagram for the scenario can be
constructed as follows:
1. Step 1: Gather data
The bank is a collection of accounts used by customers to save money.
2. Step 2: Identify entities
Customer
Account
3. Step 3: Identify the attributes
Customer: customer_name, customer_address, customer_contact
Account: account_number, account_owner, balance_amount

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4. Step 4: Sort entity sets
Customer entity set: weak entity set
Account entity set: strong entity set
5. Step 5: Sort attributes
Customer entity set: customer_address - composite, customer_contact - multi-valued
Account entity set: account_number → primary key, account_owner – multi-valued
6. Step 6: Identify relations
A customer 'saves in' an account. The relation is 'saves in'.
7. Step 7: Draw diagram using symbols

Figure 2.15 shows the E-R diagram for the bank.

Figure 2.15: E-R Diagram for the Bank

2.4 Normalization
Initially, all databases are characterized by large number of columns and records. This approach has certain
drawbacks. Consider the following details of the employees in a department. Table 2.3 consists of the
employee details as well as the details of the project they are working on.

Emp_No Project_Id Project_Name Emp_Name Grade Salary

142 113, 124 BLUE STAR, John A 20,000
MAGNUM
168 113 BLUE STAR James B 15,000
263 113 BLUE STAR Andrew C 10,000
109 124 MAGNUM Bob C 10,000
Table 2.3: Department Employee Details

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 Repetition anomaly

The data such as Project_Id, Project_Name, Grade, and Salary repeat many times. This repetition
hampers both, performance during retrieval of data and the storage capacity. This repetition of data is
called the repetition anomaly.
The repetition is shown in table 2.4 with the help of shaded cells.

Emp_No Project_Id Project_Name Emp_Name Grade Salary

142 113, 124 BLUE STAR, John A 20,000
MAGNUM
168 113 BLUE STAR James B 15,000
263 113 BLUE STAR Andrew C 10,000
109 124 MAGNUM Bob C 10,000

Table 2.4: Department Employee with Insertion Anomaly

Insertion anomaly

Suppose the department recruits a new employee named Ann. Now, consider that Ann has not been assigned
any project. Insertion of her details in the table would leave columns Project_Id and Project_Name
empty. Leaving columns blank could lead to problems later. Anomalies created by such insertions are called
insertion anomalies. The anomaly can be seen in table 2.5.

Emp_No Project_Id Project_Name Emp_Name Grade Salary

142 113, 124 BLUE STAR, John A 20,000
MAGNUM
168 113 BLUE STAR James B 15,000
263 113 BLUE STAR Andrew C 10,000
109 124 MAGNUM Bob C 10,000
195 - - Ann C 10,000
Table 2.5: Department Employee Details

Deletion anomaly

Suppose, Bob is relieved from the project MAGNUM. Deleting the record deletes Bob's Emp_No, Grade,
and Salary details too. This loss of data is harmful as all of Bob's personal details are also lost as seen in
the table 2.6. This kind of loss of data due to deletion is called deletion anomaly. The anomaly can be seen
in table 2.6.

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 Emp_No Project_Id Project_Name Emp_Name Grade Salary
142 113, 124 BLUE STAR, John Smith A 20,000
MAGNUM
168 113 BLUE STAR James Kilber B 15,000
263 113 BLUE STAR Andrew Murray C 10,000
Table 2.6: Employee Project Details

Updating anomaly

Suppose John was given a hike in Salary or John was demoted. The change in John's Salary or
Grade must be reflected in all projects John works for. This problem in updating all the occurrences is
called updating anomaly.

The Department Employee Details table is called an unnormalized table. These drawbacks lead to the
need for normalization.

Normalization is the process of removing unwanted redundancy and dependencies. Initially, Codd (1972)
presented three normal forms (1NF, 2NF, and 3NF), all based on dependencies among the attributes of a
relation. The fourth and fifth normal forms are based on multi-value and join dependencies and were
proposed later.

2.4.1 First Normal Form

In order to achieve the first normal form, following steps must be performed:

All the key attributes

must be identified
The table columns
must have atomic
Create separate tables values
for each group of
related data

Consider the Employee Project Details table shown in table 2.7.

Emp_No Project_Id Project_Name Emp_Name Grade Salary

142 113, 124 BLUE STAR, MAGNUM John A 20,000
168 113 BLUE STAR James B 15,000
263 113 BLUE STAR Andrew C 10,000
109 124 MAGNUM Bob C 10,000
Table 2.7: Employee Project Details

The table has data related to projects and employees. The table must be split into two tables, that is, a
Project Details table and an Employee Details table. The table columns, Project_Id
and Project_Name, have multiple values. The data must be split over different rows. The resultant
tables

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are Project Details and Employee Details as shown in tables 2.8 and 2.9.

Project_Id Project_Name
113 BLUE STAR
124 MAGNUM
Table 2.8: Project Details

Emp_No Emp_Name Grade Salary

142 John A 20,000
168 James B 15,000
263 Andrew C 10,000
109 Bob C 10,000
Table 2.9: Employee Details

The Project_Id attribute is the primary key for the Project Details table.
The Emp_No attribute is the primary key for the Employee Details table. Therefore, in first normal
form, the initial Employee Project Details table has been reduced to the Project Details and
Employee Details tables.

2.4.2 Second Normal Form

Tables are said to be in second normal form if:
➢ They meet the requirements of the first normal form
➢ There are no partial dependencies in the tables
➢ The tables are related through foreign keys

Partial dependency means a non-key attribute should not be partially dependent on more than one key
attribute. The Project Details and Employee Details tables do not exhibit any partial dependencies.
The Project_Name is dependent only on Project_Id and Emp_Name, Grade, and Salary are
dependent only on Emp_No. The tables also need to be related through foreign keys. A third table, named
Employee Project Details, is created with only two columns, Project_Id and Emp_No.

So, the project and employee details tables on conversion to second normal form generates tables Project
Details, Employee Details, and Employee Project Details as shown in tables 2.10, 2.11, and 2.12.

Project_Id Project_Name
113 BLUE STAR
124 MAGNUM

Table 2.10: Project Details After Conversion to Second Normal Form

Emp_No Emp_Name Grade Salary
142 John A 20,000
168 James B 15,000
263 Andrew C 10,000

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 Emp_No Emp_Name Grade Salary
109 Bob C 10,000

Table 2.11: Employee Details After Conversion to Second Normal Form

Emp_No Project_Id
142 113
142 124
168 113
263 113
109 124

Table 2.12: Employee Project Details After Conversion to Second Normal Form

The attributes, Emp_no and Project_id, of the Employee Project Details table combine together to
form the primary key. Such primary keys are called composite primary keys.

2.4.3 Third Normal Form

To achieve the third normal form:
➢ The tables should meet the requirements of the second normal form
➢ The tables should not have transitive dependencies in them

The Project Details, Employee Details, and Employee Project Details tables are in second
normal form. If an attribute can be determined by another non-key attribute, it is called a transitive
dependency. To make it simpler, every non-key attribute should be determined by the key attribute only.
If a non-key attribute can be determined by another non-key attribute, it must put into another table.

On observing the different tables, it is seen that the Project Details and Employee Project Details
tables do not exhibit any such transitive dependencies. The non-key attributes are totally determined by the
key attributes. Project_Name is only determined by Project_Id. On further scrutinizing the Employee
Details table, a certain inconsistency is seen. The attribute Salary is determined by the attribute Grade
and not the key attribute Emp_No. Thus, this transitive dependency must be removed.

The Employee Details table can be split into the Employee Details and Grade Salary Details
tables as shown in tables 2.13 and 2.14.

Emp_No Emp_Name Grade

142 John A
168 James B
263 Andrew C
109 Bob C
Table 2.13: Employee Details After Conversion

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 Grade Salary
A 20,000
B 15,000
C 10,000

Table 2.14: Grade Salary Details Table

Thus, at the end of the three normalization stages, the initial Employee Project Details table has been
reduced to the Project Details, Employee Project Details, Employee Details, and Grade
Salary Details tables as shown in tables 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, and 2.18.

Project_Id Project_Name
113 BLUE STAR
124 MAGNUM

Table 2.15: Project Details After Conversion to Third Normal Form

Emp_No Project_Id
142 113
142 124
168 113
263 113
109 124

Table 2.16: Employee Project Details After Conversion to Third Normal Form

Emp_No Emp_Name Grade

142 John A
168 James B
263 Andrew C
109 Bob C

Table 2.17: Employee Details After Conversion to Third Normal Form

Grade Salary
A 20,000
B 15,000
C 10,000
Table 2.18: Grade Salary Details After Conversion to Third Normal Form

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2.4.4 Denormalization
By normalizing a database, redundancy is reduced. This, in turn, reduces the storage requirements for the
database and ensures data integrity. However, it has some drawbacks. They are as follows:

Complex join queries may have Joins may practically involve

to be written often to combine more than three tables
the data in multiple tables. depending on the need for
information.

If such joins are used very often, the performance of the database will become very poor.
The CPU time required to solve such queries will be very large too. In such cases, storing a few fields
redundantly can be ignored to increase the performance of the database. The databases that possess such
minor redundancies in order to increase performance are called denormalized databases and the process
of doing so is called denormalization.

2.5 Relational Operators

The relational model is based on the solid foundation of Relational Algebra. Relational Algebra consists of
a collection of operators that operate on relations. Each operator takes one or two relations as its input and
produces a new relation as its output.

Consider the Branch Reserve Details table as shown in table 2.19.

Branch Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €)
London BS-01 9.2
London BS-02 10
Paris BS-03 15
Los Angeles BS-04 50
Washington BS-05 30
Table 2.19: Branch Reserve Details

SELECT

The SELECT operator is used to extract data that satisfies a given condition. The lowercase Greek letter
sigma, 'σ', is used to denote selection. A select operation, on the Branch Reserve Details table, to display
the details of the branches in London would result in table 2.20.
Branch Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €)
London BS-01 9.2
London BS-02 10
Table 2.20: Details of Branches in London

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A selection on the Branch Reserve Details table to display branches with reserve greater than 20 billion
Euros would result in table 2.21.

Branch Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €)

Los Angeles BS-04 50
Washington BS-05 30
Table 2.21: Details of Branches with Reserves Greater Than 20 Billion Euros

PROJECT
The PROJECT operator is used to project certain details of a relational table. The PROJECT operator only
displays the required details leaving out certain columns. The PROJECT operator is denoted by the Greek
letter pi, ''. Assume that only the Branch_Id and Reserve amounts need to bedisplayed.

A project operation to do the same, on the Branch Reserve Details table, would result in table 2.22.

Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €)

BS-01 9.2
BS-02 10
BS-03 15
BS-04 50
BS-05 30
Table 2.22: Resultant Table with Branch_Id and Reserve Amounts

PRODUCT

The PRODUCT operator, denoted by 'x' helps combine information from two relational tables. Consider
table 2.23.
Branch_Id Loan Amount ( Billion €)
BS-01 0.56
BS-02 0.84
Table 2.23: Branch Loan Details

The product operation on the Branch Reserve Details and Branch Loan Details tables would
result in table 2.24.
Branch Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €) Loan Amount ( Billion €)
London BS-01 9.2 0.56
London BS-01 9.2 0.84
London BS-02 10 0.56
London BS-02 10 0.84
Paris BS-03 15 0.56
Paris BS-03 15 0.84
Los Angeles BS-04 50 0.56
Los Angeles BS-04 50 0.84

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 Branch Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €) Loan Amount ( Billion €)
Washington BS-05 30 0.56
Washington BS-05 30 0.84
Table 2.24: Product of Branch Reserve Details and Branch Loan Details

The product operation combines each record from the first table with all the records in the second table,
somewhat generating all possible combinations between the table records.

UNION
Suppose an official of the bank with the data given in tables 2.19 and 2.23 wanted to know which branches
had reserves below 20 billion Euros or loans. The resultant table would consist of branches with either
reserves below 20 billion Euros or loans or both.

This is similar to the union of two sets of data; first, set of branches with reserve less than 20 billion Euros
and second, branches with loans. Branches with both, reserves below 20 billion Euros and loans would be
displayed only once. The UNION operator does just that, it collects the data from the different tables and
presents a unified version of the complete data. The union operation is represented by the symbol, 'U'. The
union of the Branch Reserve Details and Branch Loan Details tables would generate table 2.25.

Branch Branch_Id
London BS-01
London BS-02
Paris BS-03
Table 2.25: Unified Representation of Branches with Less Reserves or Loans

INTERSECT

Suppose the same official after seeing this data wanted to know which of these branches had both low
reserves and loans too. The answer would be the intersect relational operation. The INTERSECT operator
generates data that holds true in all the tables it is applied on. It is based on the intersection set theory and
is represented by the '∩' symbol. The result of the intersection of the Branch Reserve Details and Branch
Loan Details tables would be a list of branches that have both reserves below 20 billion Euros and loans in
their account. The resultant table generated is table 2.26.
Branch Branch_Id
London BS-01
London BS-02
Table 2.26: Branches with Low Reserves and Loans

DIFFERENCE
If the same official now wanted the list of branches that had low reserves but no loans, then the official
would have to use the difference operation. The DIFFERENCE operator, symbolized as '-', generates data
from different tables too, but it generates data that holds true in one table and not the other. Thus, the branch
would have to have low reserves and no loans to be displayed.
Table 2.27 is the result generated.

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 Branch Branch_Id
Paris BS-03
Table 2.27: Branches with Low Reserves but No Loans

JOIN

The JOIN operation is an enhancement to the product operation. It allows a selection to be performed on
the product of tables. For example, if the reserve values and loan amounts of branches with low reserves
and loan values was needed, the product of the Branch Reserve Details and Branch Loan Details
would be required. Once the product of tables 2.19 and 2.23 would be generated, only those branches would
be listed which have both reserves below 20 billion Euros and loans.

Table 2.28 is generated as a result of the JOIN operation.

Branch Branch_Id Reserve (Billion €) Loan Amount ( Billion €)

London BS-01 9.2 0.56
London BS-02 10 0.84
Table 2.28: Detailed List of Branches with Low Reserve and Loans

DIVIDE

Suppose an official wanted to see the branch names and reserves of all the branches that had loans. This
process can be made very easy by using the DIVIDE operator. All that the official must do is divide the
Branch Reserve Details table (shown earlier in table 2.19) by the list of branches, that is, the Branch Id
column of the Branch Loan Details table (shown earlier in table 2.23). Table 2.29 is the result generated.

Branch Reserve (Billion €)

London 9.2
London 10

Table 2.29: Resultant Table of Division Operation

Note that the attributes of the divisor table should always be a subset of the dividend table. The resultant
table would always be void of the attributes of the divisor table and the records not matching the records
in the divisor table.

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2.6 Check Your Progress

1. One or more attributes that can uniquely define an entity from an entity set is called a
key.
(A) Primary (C) Alternate

(B) Foreign (D) Super

2. An attribute that contains two or more attribute values in it is called a attribute.

(A) Derived (C) Multi-valued

(B) Composite (D) Network

3. Transitive dependence is eliminated in the normal form.

(A) First (C) Third

(B) Second (D) Fourth

4. Which one of these operations is further enhanced in the Product operation?

(A) Divide (C) Difference

(B) Intersection (D) Join

5. Which of the following are the basic components of an E-R model?

a. Entity
b. Relationship
c. Attributes
d. Relationship Chart
e. Relationship Set
(A) a, b, c (C) a, c, e
(B) a, d, c (D) a, b, c, e

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2.6.1 Answers
1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. D

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 Summary
➢ Data modeling is the process of applying an appropriate data model to the data at hand.
➢ E-R model views the real-world as a set of basic objects and relationships among them.
➢ Entity, attributes, entity set, relationships, and relationship sets form the five basic components of
E-R model.
➢ Mapping cardinalities express the number of entities that an entity is associated with.
➢ The process of removing redundant data from the tables of a relational database is called
normalization.
➢ Relational Algebra consists of a collection of operators that help retrieve data from the relational
databases.
➢ SELECT, PRODUCT, UNION, and DIVIDE are some of the relational algebra operators.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Dynamic Data Solutions Ltd. is a popular company based in Chicago, Illinois providing database
solutions to its clients. The company is in the process of conducting recruitment interviews in
different technical institutes for upcoming projects. The candidates interested in database
development can attend the campus interviews. Based on their performance, the candidates are
provided short-term training in any DBMS of their choice and recruited for database development
in the company.

Consider yourself as a student of second year Computer Science who has participated in the campus
interview. You have been provided with a set of interview questions as follows:

a) Explain in brief the meaning of data and database.

b) List the two different approaches for data management.
c) Explain the benefits of a DBMS.
d) List the different database models used in the industry.
e) Explain the RDBMS model in brief and differentiate between DBMS and RDBMS.

2. Champs Online is an online learning company that provides computer education to kids. The
company has basic courses in subjects of Computer Science such as fundamentals of computers,
databases, programming languages, and so on. The company has organized their data in a manner
similar to this:

Student Student Name Course ID Course Title Fees Marks

ID
S001 Rob Martin C001 Programming 5000 50
in Java
S002 Maria Stevens C001 Programming 5000 70
in Java
S003 Clark Hood C002 Networking 6000 80
Fundamentals
S002 Maria Stevens C002 Networking 6000 75
Fundamentals
S003 Clark Hood C003 Database 7000 68
Management
S001 Rob Martin C003 Database 7000 79
Management
S002 Maria Stevens C003 Database 7000 90
Management

a) Identify the problem in the given table.

b) Provide a solution to resolve the problem.
(Hint: Use the concept of Normalization.)

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 Session - 3
Introduction to SQL Server 2019
Welcome to the Session, Introduction to SQL Server 2019. This session introduces SQL
Server 2019. It explains the basic architecture of SQL Server 2019 and lists the versions and
editions of SQL Server. It also explains the role and structure of SQL Server along with the
new features added in SQL Server 2019. Finally, the session explains the process to connect
to SQL Server instances, create and organize script files, and execute Transact-SQL queries.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Describe an overview of SQL Server 2019

➢ Describe basic architecture and version history of SQL Server 2019
➢ Outline the process of connecting to SQL Server instances
➢ Define databases and list the key features of AdventureWorks2019 sample database
➢ Explain the components of SQL Server Management Studio GUI
➢ Explain script file creation and organization
➢ Explain the process to execute Transact-SQL queries

3.1 Introduction to SQL Server 2019

SQL Server is an RDBMS developed by Microsoft. It provides an enterprise-level data management
platform for an organization. SQL Server includes numerous features and tools that make it an outstanding
database and data analysis platform. It is also targeted for large-scale Online Transactional Processing
(OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications.

Recent versions of SQL Server have brought a revolutionary change in areas such as speedy transactions,
higher security, more profound insights, and the latest hybrid cloud. It enhances mission-essential
capabilities of in-memory operations.

Microsoft launched latest version of this product, SQL Server 2019, on November 2019. SQL Server 2019
provides industry leading security, performance and intelligence over your data, regardless of whether it is
structured or unstructured. SQL Server 2019 provides support for Big Data Clusters in SQL Server.
Existing SQL Server tools such as database engine, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Machine
Learning Services, SQL Server on Linux, and SQL Server Master Data Services have been enhanced in
SQL Server 2019. Using SQL Server 2019 not only helps an organization to store and manage huge amount
of information, but also to protect and utilize this data at different locations as required.

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3.2 Features and Benefits of SQL Server
Some of the key features and benefits of SQL Server in general include:

Strong Security Better Performance Multiple Editions Simple and Easy

and Pricing Models Installation Process

Policy-Based SQL Server has built- Microsoft has made SQL Server is simple
Management to detect in transparent data available different to install with a one-
security policies that compression feature editions of SQL Server click installation
are non-compliant. along with encryption. for different kinds of procedure and
This feature allows SQL Server provides users. These are also readable GUI having
only authorized access control coupled priced accordingly. easy instructions for
personnel access to the with efficient Thus, from hobbyists the layman.
database. Security permission to professional
audits and events can management tools. It developers to
be written also offers an enterprise users, there
automatically to log enhanced performance is an edition suitable
files. when it comes to data for each one.
collection.

3.3 Basic Architecture of SQL Server 2019

There are various components that form a part of SQL Server 2019. All the components come together to
form the basic architecture of SQL Server 2019. These components can be represented under three major
heads that are shown in figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Architecture of SQL Server

Tools

There are a number of tools that are provided in SQL Server 2019 for development and query management of
a database. The SQL Server Installation Center must be used to install SQL Server program features and
tools. Features can also be modified or removed using SQL Server Installation Center. Table 3.1 lists
different tools available for SQL Server 2019.

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 Tool Description
One of the most important tools available in SQL Server 2019 is SSMS.
SQL Server Management SSMS is a GUI-based application provided with SQL Server 2019 that
Studio (SSMS) helps to create databases, database objects, query data, and manage the
overall working of SQL Server.
SQLCMD is a command-line tool that can be used in place of SSMS.
SQLCMD It performs similar functions as SSMS, but in command format only.
The SQL Server Installation Center tool can also be used to add, remove,
SQL Server Installation Center and modify SQL Server programs.
SQL Server Configuration Manager is used by database administrators to
SQL Server Configuration manage features of SQL software installed in client machines. This tool is
Manager not available to all users. It can be used to configure services, server
protocols, client protocols, client aliases, and so on.
SQL Server Profiler is used to monitor an instance of the Database
SQL Server Profiler Engine or Analysis Services.
SSDT is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used for Business
SQL Server Data Tools Intelligence Components. It helps to design the database using a tool named
(SSDT) Microsoft Visual Studio.
Connectivity tools include DB-Library, Open Database Connectivity
(ODBC), Object Linking and Embedding Database (OLE DB), and so on.
Connectivity Tools These tools are used to communicate between the clients, servers, and
network libraries.
Table 3.1: Different Tools in SQL Server 2019
Services

There are various services that are executed on a computer running SQL Server. These services run along
with the other Windows services and can be viewed in the task manager.

Some of the SQL Server 2019 services are as follows:

SQL Server Database Database Engine is a core service that is used for storing, processing, and
Engine securing data. It is also used for replication, full-text search, and Data Quality
Services (DQS). It contains tools for managing relational and eXtensible Markup
Language (XML) data.

Analysis Services contain tools that help to create and manage Online
SQL Server Analysis Analytical Processing (OLAP). This is used for personal, team, and corporate
Services (SSAS) business intelligence purposes. Analysis services are also used in data mining
applications.

SQL Server Reporting Reporting Services help to create, manage, publish, and deploy reports. These
Services (SSRS) reports can be in tabular, matrix, graphical, or free-form format. Report
applications can also be created using Reporting Services.

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 SQL Server Integration Integration Services are used for moving, copying, and transforming data using
Services (SSIS) different graphical tools and programmable objects. The DQS component is also
included in Integration Services. Integration services help to build high-
performance data integration solutions.

SQL Server Master Data Master Data Services (MDS) are used for master data management. MDS is
Services used for analysis, managing, and reporting information such as hierarchies,
granular security, transactions, business rules, and so on.

Instances

All the programs and resource allocations are saved in an instance. An instance can include memory,
configuration files, and CPU. Multiple instances can be used for different users in SQL Server 2019. Even
though many instances may be present on a single computer, they do not affect the working of other
instances. This means that all instances work in isolation. Each instance can be customized as per the
requirement. Even permissions for each instance can be granted on individual basis. The resources can
also be allocated to the instance accordingly, for example, the number of databases allowed.

In other words, instances can be called as a bigger container that contains sub-containers in the form of
databases, security options, server objects, and so on.

3.4 Version History of SQL Server

The first version of SQL Server was released in the year 1989. After this, there have been new versions
released almost every year, with the latest one being SQL Server 2019. Figure 3.2 depicts the journey of
the flagship database product by Microsoft from 1989 to the present.

Figure 3.2: Version History of SQL Server

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3.5 Editions of SQL Server
Based on database requirements, an organization can choose from any of the following editions of SQL
Server 2019 that have been released.

The main editions of SQL Server 2019 are as follows:

Express/Web Edition Standard/Web Edition Enterprise/Web Edition

Free to use and provides an entry- Provides full featured provides full featured
level database for basic Web and database for medium tier database for top tier
mobile apps applications applications

Key Features Key Features Key Features

• Offers up to 16 cores of • Offers up to 24 cores of • Supports unlimited
CPU for compute CPU for compute cores of CPU
capacity capacity • Provides unlimited
• Up to 64 GB of memory • Up to 128 GB of memory for buffer
for buffer pool memory for buffer pool pool
• In-memory OLTP and • Supports automatic • Industry-
Columnstore intelligent database leading
• End-to-end tuning performance
encryption with • Azure Data with
secure enclaves Studio with unmatched
• Support for notebook scalability
Linux and support • Unlimited
Windows • Supports Big Data virtualization benefits
containers Clusters • Access to Power
• UTF-8 character encoding • Supports Data Business Intelligence
• Data classification and virtualization by means (BI) Report Server
auditing of PolyBase
• Improved in-memory
performance
In addition to In addition to Standard
Express/Web features and Express/Web
features

Developer Edition
Free to use and includes all features of Enterprise edition, licensed for use as a
development and test database in a non-production environment.

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With each subsequent version, enhancements are made and new features are added.

Features Added in SQL

Server 2019
• Big Data clusters with
Apache Spark and HDFS
• Data virtualization to
integrate external data
sources
Features Added in SQL • Azure Machine Learning
Server 2017 and Spark ML, Support
for Kubernetes
• Support for Linux including deployment, Free
Red Hat Enterprise Linux supported Java
(RHEL), SUSE Linux • Native UTF-8 support
Enterprise Server (SLES), Intelligent Query
and Ubuntu processing
Features Added in SQL • Support for Docker
Server 2016 • In-Memory Database:
containers on Linux and Persistent Memory
Windows support
• Real-time operational
• Python language support • Accelerated database
analytics through
PolyBase • Automatic plan correction recovery, Free Data
and adaptive query Recovery to Azure
• Support for R
processing • Always Encrypted with
programming language
• Cross platform availability secure areas, Data
• SQL Server Machine
groups classification, and
Learning Services
• Support for graph data auditing Vulnerability
• Dynamic data masking,
Row level security, and • Power BI reporting both on- assessment
Always encrypted premises and in the cloud • Notebook support for
• Support for end to end • Access to Power BI Report T-SQL, Python, R, and
mobile BI Server Scala in Azure Data
Studio
• SQL Server Analysis
Services Direct Query
3.6 Connecting to SQL Server Instances
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is used to connect to SQL Server instances. SSMS is a tool
used for creating, querying, and managing the databases. In order to use SSMS, you must first launch
it and then, connect to SQL Server 2019 Database Engine by specifying server information and login
credentials. The login credentials will include username and password.

Detailed steps to connect to SQL Server instance are as follows:

1. Locate the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio tool on the list of programs on Start menu
and start the tool.

2. In the Connect to Server dialog box, select the Server type as Database Engine.

3. Type the Server name.

4. Select either Windows Authentication or SQL Server Authentication, provide the required Login
and Password, and click Connect.

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Figure 3.3 shows the Connect to Server dialog box.

Figure 3.3: Connect to Server Dialog Box

Note - The two authentication methods provided by SQL Server are SQL Server Authentication and
Windows Authentication. SQL Server Authentication requires a user account for login and password.
Hence, multiple user accounts can access the information using their respective usernames and
passwords. With Windows Authentication, the operating system credentials can be used to log in to the
SQL Server database. This will work only on a single machine and cannot be used in any other computer.

Figure 3.4 shows the SSMS window.

Figure 3.4: SSMS Window

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3.7 Introduction to Databases
A database is a collection of data stored in data files on a disk or some removable medium. A database
consists of data files to hold actual data.

An SQL Server database is made up of collection of tables that stores sets of specific structured data.
A table includes a set of rows (also called as records or tuples) and columns (also called as attributes).
Each column in the table is intended to store a specific type of information, for example, dates, names,
currency amounts, and numbers.

SQL Server 2019 supports three kinds of databases, which are as follows:

System User-defined Sample

Databases Databases Databases

3.7.1 System Databases

SQL Server uses system databases to support different parts of the DBMS. Each database has a specific
role and stores job information that requires to be carried out by SQL Server. The system databases store
data in tables, which contain the views, stored procedures, and other database objects. They also have
associated database files (for example, .mdf and .ldf files) that are physically located on the SQL Server
machine.

Using SQL Server 2019, users can create their own databases, also called user-defined databases, and
work with them. The purpose of these databases is to store user data.

Table 3.2 shows the system databases that are supported by SQL Server 2019.
Database Description
master The database records all system-level information of an instance of SQL Server.
The database is used by SQL Server Agent for scheduling database alerts and
msdb various jobs.
The database is used as a template for all databases to be created on the
model particular instance of SQL Server 2019.
The database is a read-only database. It contains system objects included with
resource SQL Server 2019.
tempdb The database holds temporary objects or intermediate result sets.
Table 3.2: System Databases
3.7.2 User-defined Databases
Using SQL Server 2019, users can create their own databases, also called user-defined databases, and
work with them. The purpose of these databases is to store user data.

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3.7.3 AdventureWorks2019 Sample Database
The sample database, AdventureWorks, was introduced from SQL Server 2005 onwards. This database
demonstrates use of new features introduced in SQL Server. A fictitious company called Adventure Works
Cycles is created as a scenario in this database. Adventure Works Cycles is a large, multinational
manufacturing company. The company manufactures and sells metal and composite bicycles to North
American, European, and Asian commercial markets. In SQL Server 2019, a new version of the sample
database AdventureWorks2019 is used. A readymade script is available from Microsoft for developers to
install this database and populate it with fictitious data.

The AdventureWorks2019 database schema covers many functional areas for a fictitious bicycle
manufacturer. These areas include:

➢ Customer/sales force automation and analysis

➢ Human resources
➢ Purchasing/Vendor Electronic Data Interchange
➢ Manufacturing work flow

The database comprises several features. Some of its key features are as follows:

A database engine that includes administration facilities, data access capabilities, Full-Text Search
facility, Common Language Runtime (CLR) integration advantage, and more

A set of integrated samples for two multiple feature-based samples: HRResume and
Storefront
Analysis Services and Integration Services

Notification Services

Replication Facilities

Reporting Services

The sample database consists of these parts:

➢ AdventureWorks2019: Sample OLTP database
➢ AdventureWorks2019DW: Sample Data warehouse
➢ AdventureWorks2019AS: Sample Analysis Services database

3.8 Understanding the SSMS User Interface

SSMS shows several menu options, toolbars, and panes. The pane on the left seen in figure 3.4 is called
Object Explorer. It displays all the objects in the server in a tabular format and providers a user interface
to manage them. Capabilities of Object Explorer vary slightly depending on the type of server.

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3.8.1 Role and Structure of Object Explorer in SQL Server
The structure of Object Explorer in SQL Server 2019 is shown in figure 3.5.

Figure 3.5: Object Explorer

The structure includes databases, security, server objects, replications, and may also show features such as
AlwaysOn High Availability, Management, Integration Services Catalogs, and so on. Object Explorer can
be accessed through SSMS by connecting to the database server.

Various components in the Object Explorer are as follows:

Contains a collection of databases that stores a specific set of structured data.

Databases

Used to provide flexible and trustworthy security configuration in SQL Server 2019.
Security This includes logins, roles, credentials, audits, and so on.

Used to monitor activity in computers running an instance of SQL Server.

Server Objects

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 Used to copy and distribute data and database objects from one database to another,
and then, to synchronize between databases to maintain consistency.
Replication

Used for high availability and disaster recovery. It is generally used for applications
AlwaysOn that require high uptime and failure protection.
High
Availability

Used to manage policies, resources, events, maintenance plans, and so on.

Management

Integration Services Catalogs stores all the objects of the project after the project has
Integration been deployed.
Services
Catalogs

3.8.2 Query Window

Query window is the area where you can type Transact-SQL (T-SQL) queries. Results of your queries
also appear in this window. Figure 3.6 shows an example query in the query window.

Figure 3.6: Query Window

3.9 Creating and Organizing Script Files

Script files are files that contain a set of SQL commands. A script file can contain one or more SQL
statements. The script files are stored in .sql format in SQL Server.

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Cconceptual layers in which the script files can be organized are shown in figure 3.7.

Figure 3.7: Conceptual Layers

A solution is a file in which all the projects in SQL Server are saved. This acts as a top-most node in the
hierarchy. The solution file is stored as a text file with .ssmssln extension. A project comes under a
solution node. There can be more than one project in SQL Server. All the data related to database
connection metadata and other miscellaneous files are stored under a project. It is stored as a text file
with .ssmssqlproj extension. Script files are the core files in which the queries are developed and
executed. The scripts have a .sql extension.

Code Snippet 1 depicts a sample script. This script can be saved as InsertData.sql.

Code Snippet 1:

USE [AdventureWorks2019]
GO
INSERT INTO [Person].[Person]
([BusinessEntityID]
,[PersonType]
,[NameStyle]
,[Title]
,[FirstName]
,[MiddleName]
,[LastName]
,[EmailPromotion]
,[ModifiedDate])
VALUES(21907
,'EM'
,0
,'Mr.'
,'John'
,'Gareth'
,'Hopkins'
,0
,'2020-10-10')
GO

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3.10 Transact-SQL Queries
Queries typed in Transact-SQL and saved as .sql files can be executed directly in the SSMS query window.

Steps to execute Transact-SQL queries are as follows:

1. In the query window, select the code to be executed.

2. On the SSMS toolbar, click Execute.

OR
On the Query menu, click Execute.
OR
Press F5 or Alt+X or Ctrl+E.

Refer to figure 3.6 to view the execution of a sample query.

Query results can be displayed in three different formats. The three formats available are grid, text,
and file view.

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3.11 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following is a command-line tool in SQL Server?

(A) SSMS (C) SSMSCMD

(B) SQLCMD (D) SQLSSMS

2. Which of these components of Object Explorer is used to monitor activity in computers running an
instance of SQL Server?

(A) Server Objects (C) Replication

(B) Security (D) Integration Services

3. What does SSDT stand for?

(A) SQL Server Deterministic Tools (C) SQL Server Diagnostic Tools

(B) SQL Server Data Tools (D) SQL Server Database Tracking

4. Which of the following statements about the tools in SQL Server 2019 are true?
a. The SQL Server Installation Center tool can be used to add, remove, and modify SQL
Server programs.
b. SQLCMD is an IDE used for Business Intelligence Components. It helps to design the
database using Visual Studio.
c. SQL Server Profiler is used to monitor an instance of the Database Engine or Analysis
Services.
d. SQL Server Installation Center is an application provided with SQL Server 2019 that
helps to develop databases, query data, and manage the overall working of SQL Server.

(A) a and c (C) b, c, and d

(B) a, b, and c (D) c and d

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5. Which of the following are true about these statements?

Statement 1: Script files are the core files in which the queries are developed and executed.
Statement 2: Script files are files that contain a set of SQL commands.

(A) Both Statement 1 and 2 (C) Only Statement 2

(B) Only Statement 1 (D) Neither of them

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3.11.1 Answers
1. B
2. A
3. B
4. C
5. A

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 Summary
➢ Basic architecture of SQL Server 2019 includes tools, services, and instances.
➢ Three major editions of SQL Server are Express, Standard, and Enterprise.
➢ The structure of Object Explorer includes databases, security, server objects, replications, AlwaysOn
High Availability, Management, Integration Services Catalogs, and so on.
➢ SSMS is used to connect to SQL Server instances. SSMS is a tool used for developing, querying, and
managing the databases.
➢ Script files should be stored in .sql format in SQL Server 2019.
➢ Queries typed in Transact-SQL and saved as .sql files can be executed directly into the SSMS query
window.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Start SSMS and connect to the Database Engine of SQL Server 2019. Install the AdventureWorks2019
database. Right-click the table HumanResources.Employee and click Script Table as → CREATE
TO → New Query Window. Then, right-click again and click Select Top 1000 Rows option.

2. Repeat this for the tables HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory, Person.Person, and

Production.Product.

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 Session - 4
Transact-SQL
Welcome to the Session, Transact-SQL. This session explains Transact-SQL and the
different categories of Transact-SQL statements. It also explains various data types and
elements supported by Transact-SQL. Finally, the session explains set theory, predicate
logic, and the logical order of operators in the SELECT statement.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain Transact-SQL
➢ List different categories of Transact-SQL statements
➢ Explain various data types supported by Transact-SQL
➢ Explain Transact-SQL language elements
➢ Explain sets and predicate logic
➢ Describe logical order of operators in the SELECT statement

4.1 Introduction
SQL is the universal language used in the database world. Most modern RDBMS products use some type
of SQL dialect as their primary query language. SQL can be used to create or destroy objects such as tables
on the database server and to manipulate those objects, such as adding data into them or retrieving data
from them.

Transact-SQL is Microsoft's implementation of the standard SQL. Usually referred to as T-SQL, this
language implements a standardized way to communicate to the database. The Transact-SQL language is
an enhancement to SQL, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard relational database
language. It provides a comprehensive language that supports defining tables, inserting, deleting, updating,
and accessing the data in the table.

4.2 Transact-SQL
Transact-SQL is a powerful language offering features such as data types, temporary objects, and extended
stored procedures. Scrollable cursors, conditional processing, transaction control, and exception and
error-handling are also some of the features which are supported by Transact-SQL.

The Transact-SQL language in SQL Server 2019 provides improved performance, increased functionality,
and enhanced features. Enhancements include scalar functions, paging, sequences, meta-data discovery,
and better error handling support.

Note: All the queries in this session will make use of the AdventureWorks2019 sample database.

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Code Snippet 1 shows the Transact-SQL statement, SELECT, which is used to retrieve LoginID of
employees with 'Design Engineer' as the JobTitle from the Employee table.

Code Snippet 1:
USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT LoginID FROM HumanResources.Employee
WHERE JobTitle = 'Design Engineer'

Figure 4.1 shows the result that retrieves all records of employees with 'Design Engineer' as the JobTitle
from HumanResources.Employee table.

Figure 4.1: Output of SELECT Statement

Transact-SQL includes many syntax elements that are used by or that influence most statements. These
elements include data types, predicates, functions, variables, expressions, control-of-flow, comments, and
batch separators.

4.3 Different Categories of Transact-SQL Statements

SQL Server supports three types of Transact-SQL statements, namely, DDL, DML, and DCL.

4.3.1 Data Definition Language (DDL)

DDL, which is usually part of a DBMS, is used to define and manage all attributes and properties of a
database, including row layouts, column definitions, key columns, file locations, and storage strategy. DDL
statements are used to build and modify the structure of tables and other objects such as views, triggers,
stored procedures, and so on. For each object, there are usually CREATE, ALTER, and DROP statements (such
as, CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, and DROP TABLE).

Most DDL statements take the following form, where object_name can be a table, view, trigger, stored
procedure, and so on:
➢ CREATE object_name
➢ ALTER object_name
➢ DROP object_name

4.3.2 Data Manipulation Language (DML)

DML is used to select, insert, update, or delete data in the objects defined with DDL. All database users
can use these commands during the routine operations on a database.

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Different DML statements are as follows:
➢ SELECT statement
➢ INSERT statement
➢ UPDATE statement
➢ DELETE statement

4.3.3 Data Control Language (DCL)

Data is an important part of a database, so proper steps should be taken to check that no invalid user
accesses the data. Data control language is used to control permissions on database objects. Permissions are
controlled by using the GRANT, REVOKE, and DENY statements. DCL statements are also used for securing
the database. The three basic DCL statements are as follows:

➢ GRANT statement
➢ REVOKE statement
➢ DENY statement

4.4 Data Types

A data type is an attribute defining the type of data that an object can contain. Data types must be provided
for columns, parameters, variables, and functions that return data values, and stored procedures that have a
return code. Transact-SQL includes a number of base data types, such as varchar, text, and int. All data
that is stored in SQL Server must be compatible with one of the base data types.

Following objects have data types:

➢ Columns present in tables and views
➢ Parameters in stored procedures
➢ Variables
➢ Transact-SQL functions that return one or more data values of a specific data type
➢ Stored procedures that have a return code belonging to the integer data type

Various items in SQL Server 2019 such as columns, variables, and expressions are assigned data types.
SQL Server 2019 supports three kinds of data types:

➢ System-defined data types

These data types are provided by SQL Server 2019. Table 4.1 shows the commonly used system-defined
data types of SQL Server.

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 Category Data Type A Column of This Type
Occupies four bytes of memory space. Is typically used to hold integer
int values. Can hold integer data from -2^31 (-2,147,483,648) to 2^31-1
(2,147,483,647).
Occupies two bytes of memory space. Can hold integer data from
smallint
–32,768 to 32,767.
Occupies one byte of memory space. Can hold integer data from 0 to
tinyint
255.
Exact Numerics Occupies 8 bytes of memory space. Can hold data in the range
bigint -2^63 (-9,223,372,036,854,775,808) to 2^63-1
(9,223,372,036,854,775,807).
numeric Has fixed precision and scale.
Occupies eight bytes of memory space. Represents monetary data
values ranging from –2^63/10000
money
(–922,337,203,685,477.5808) to 2^63–1
(922,337,203,685,477.5807).
Occupies eight bytes of memory space. Represents floating point
float
Approximate number ranging from –1.79E+308 through 1.79E+308.
Numerics Occupies four bytes of memory space. Represents floating precision
real number ranging from –3.40E+38 through 3.40E+38.
Date and datetime Represents date and time. Stored as two 4-byte integers.
Time smalldatetime Represents date and time.
Stores character data that is fixed-length and non-Unicode.
char

Character Stores character data that is variable-length and non-Unicode with a

varchar
String maximum of 8,000 characters.
text
Stores character data that is variable-length and non-Unicode with a
maximum length of 2^31 - 1 (2,147,483,647) characters.
Unicode nchar Stores Unicode character data of fixed-length.
Types nvarchar Stores variable-length Unicode character data.
Occupies 8 bytes of memory space. Can hold automatically generated,
timestamp unique binary numbers that are generated for a database.

Stores fixed-length binary data with a maximum length of 8000 bytes.

binary(n)
Other Data Stores variable-length binary data with a maximum length of 8000
Types varbinary(n)
bytes.
Stores variable-length binary data with a maximum length of 2^30–1
image
(1,073,741,823) bytes.
Occupies 16 bytes of memory space. Also, stores a globally unique
uniqueidentifier
identifier (GUID).

Table 4.1: Commonly Used System-Defined Data Types

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➢ Alias data types

These are based on the system-supplied data types. Alias data types are used when more than one table
stores the same type of data in a column and has similar characteristics such as length, nullability, and
type. In such cases, an alias data type can be created that can be used commonly by all these tables.

Alias data types can be created using the CREATE TYPE statement. The syntax for the CREATE TYPE
statement is as follows:

Syntax:

CREATE TYPE [ schema_name. ] type_name { FROM base_type [ ( precision [ , scale ]

) ] [ NULL | NOT NULL ] } [ ; ]

where,
schema_name: identifies name of the schema in which the alias data type is being created. A schema
is a collection of objects such as tables, views, and so forth in a database.
type_name: identifies name of the alias type being created.
base_type: identifies name of the system-defined data type based on which the alias data type is
being created.
precision and scale: specify precision and scale for numeric data.
NULL | NOT NULL: specifies whether the data type can hold a null value or not.

Code Snippet 2 shows how to create an alias data type using CREATE TYPE statement.

Code Snippet 2:

CREATE TYPE usertype FROM varchar(20) NOT NULL

In the code, the built-in data type varchar is stored as a new data type named usertype by using the
CREATE TYPE statement.

➢ User-defined types

These are created using programming languages supported by the .NET Framework.

4.5 Transact-SQL Language Elements

The Transact-SQL language elements are used in SQL Server 2019 for working on the data that is entered
in SQL Server database. The Transact-SQL language elements includes predicates, operators, functions,
variables, expressions, control-of-flow, errors, and transactions, comments, and batch separators.

4.5.1 Predicates and Operators

Predicates are used to evaluate whether an expression is TRUE, FALSE, or UNKNOWN.

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Some of the predicates available in Transact-SQL are as follows:

Determines whether a specified value matches any value in a subquery or a list.

IN

Specifies a range of values to test.

BETWEEN

Used to match characters against a specified pattern.

LIKE
Searches for precise or less precise matches to single words and phrases, words
within a certain distance of one another, or weighted matches.
CONTAINS

Table 4.2 shows some examples of the predicates.

Predicate Example
SELECT PersonType, Title, FirstName,LastName FROM
IN AdventureWorks2019.Person.Person WHERE PersonType IN ('EM',
'SC')
SELECT BusinessEntityID, NationalIDNumber, LoginID, JobTitle,
BETWEEN HireDate FROM AdventureWorks2019.HumanResources.Employee
WHERE HireDate BETWEEN '01-01-2010' AND '01-01-2013'
SELECT DepartmentID, Name, GroupName, ModifiedDate
LIKE FROM AdventureWorks2019.HumanResources.Department WHERE
Name LIKE 'P%'
SELECT * FROM AdventureWorks2019.Person.Address WHERE CONTAINS
(AddressLine1, 'Street')
CONTAINS
Note that this statement will work only on a table with full text index.

Table 4.2: Predicate Examples

Operators are used to perform arithmetic, comparison, concatenation, or assignment of values. For
example, data can be tested to verify that the COUNTRY column for the customer data is populated (or has
a NOT NULL value). In queries, anyone who can see the data in the table requiring an operator can perform
operations. Appropriate permissions are required before data can be successfully changed. SQL Server has
seven categories of operators. Table 4.3 describes the different operators supported in SQL Server 2019.
Operator Description Example
Comparison Compares a value against another value or an =, <, >, >=, <=, !=,
expression !>
Logical Tests for the truth of a condition AND, OR, NOT
Arithmetic Performs arithmetic operations such as addition, +, -, *, /, %
subtraction, multiplication, and division

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 Operator Description Example
Concatenation Combines two strings into one string +
Assignment Assigns a value to a variable =
Table 4.3: Operators

Table 4.4 shows the precedence of predicates and operators.

Order Operators
1 () Parentheses
2 *, /, %
3 +, -
4 =, <, >, >=, <=, !=, !>
5 NOT
6 AND
7 BETWEEN, IN, CONTAINS, LIKE, OR
8 =

Table 4.4: Precedence of Predicates and Operators

Code Snippet 3 shows execution of operators according to precedence.

Code Snippet 3:
DECLARE @Number int;
SET @Number = 2 + 2 * (4 + (5 - 3))
SELECT @Number

Here, the steps to arrive at the result are as follows:

1. 2 + 2 * (4 + (5 – 3))
2. 2 + 2 * (4 + 2)
3. 2+2*6
4. 2 + 12
5. 14

Hence, the code will display 14.

4.5.2 Functions
A function is a set of Transact-SQL statements that is used to perform some task. Transact-SQL includes a
large number of functions. These functions can be useful when data is calculated or manipulated. In SQL,
functions work on the data, or group of data, to return a required value. They can be used in a SELECT list
or anywhere in an expression.

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The four types of functions in SQL Server 2019 are as follows:

Rowset functions Aggregate functions

In Transact-SQL, the rowset function is used to Transact-SQL provides aggregate functions to
return an object that can be used in place of a assist with the summarization of large
table reference. For example, volumes of data. For example, SUM, MIN,
OPENDATASOURCE, OPENQUERY, MAX, AVG, COUNT, COUNTBIG, and so on are
OPENROWSET, and OPENXML are rowset aggregate functions.
functions.

Ranking functions
Scalar functions
Many tasks, such as creating arrays, generating
sequential numbers, finding ranks, and so on In scalar functions, the input is a single value
can be implemented in an easier and faster way and the output received is also a single value.
by using ranking functions. For example,
RANK, DENSE_RANK, NTILE, and
ROW_NUMBER are ranking functions.

Table 4.5 shows the commonly used scalar functions in SQL.

Function Type Description Example
The conversion function is used to transform a
value of one data type to another. Additionally, it CONVERT
Conversion function
can be used to obtain a variety of special date
formats.
GETDATE, SYSDATETIME,
Date and time functions are used to manipulate GETUTCDATE, DATEADD,
Date and time
date and time values. They are useful to perform
function DATEDIFF, YEAR, MONTH,
calculations based on time and dates. DAY
Mathematical Mathematical functions perform algebraic RAND, ROUND, POWER, ABS,
function operations on numeric values. CEILING, FLOOR
SQL Server provides system functions for HOST_ID, HOST_NAME,
System function ISNULL
returning metadata or configuration settings.
SUBSTRING, LEFT, RIGHT,
String functions are used for string inputs such as LEN, DATALENGTH,
String function char and varchar. The output can be a string or a REPLACE, REPLICATE,
numeric value. UPPER, LOWER, RTRIM,
LTRIM

Table 4.5: Scalar Functions

There are also other scalar functions such as cursor functions, logical functions, metadata functions,
security functions, and so on that are available in SQL Server 2019.

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4.5.3 Variables
A variable is an object that can hold a data value. In Transact-SQL, variables can be classified into local
and global variables.

In Transact-SQL, local variables are created and used for temporary storage while SQL statements are
executed. Data can be passed to SQL statements using local variables. The name of a local variable must
be prefixed with '@' sign.

For example,

DECLARE @SearchWord NVARCHAR(30)

SET @SearchWord = N'performance'

In earlier versions of SQL Server, a concept called global variables existed which referred to in-built variables
that are defined and maintained by the system. In SQL Server 2019, they are categorized as functions. They
are prefixed with two '@' signs. The return value of these functions can be retrieved with a simple SELECT
query.

For example,
SELECT @@LANGUAGE as 'Language'

This returns the language currently used in SQL Server, such as US English.

Some of the functions include:

@@DATEFIRST
@@LANGUAGE
@@LOCK_TIMEOUT
@@MAX_CONNECTIONS
@@MAX_PRECISION
@@SERVERNAME
@@VERSION

4.5.4 Expressions
An expression is a combination of identifiers, values, and operators that SQL Server can evaluate in order
to obtain a result. Expressions can be used in several different places when accessing or changing data.

Code Snippet 4 shows an expression that operates on a column to add an integer to the results of the
YEAR function on a datetime column.

Code Snippet 4:
USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT SalesOrderID, CustomerID, SalesPersonID, TerritoryID,YEAR(OrderDate) AS
CurrentYear, YEAR(OrderDate) + 1 AS NextYear
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader

Figure 4.2 shows results of the expression.

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 Figure 4.2: Expression Result

4.5.5 Control-of-Flow, Errors, and Transactions

Although Transact-SQL is primarily a data retrieval language, it supports control-of-flow statements for
executing and finding errors. Control-of-flow language determines the execution flow of Transact-SQL
statements, statement blocks, user-defined functions, and stored procedures.

Table 4.6 shows some of the commonly used control-of-flow statements in Transact-SQL.
Control-of-Flow Description
Statement
IF. . .ELSE Provides branching control based on a logical test.
WHILE Repeats a statement or a block of statements as long as the condition is true.
BEGIN. . .END Defines the scope of a block of Transact-SQL statements.
TRY. . . CATCH Defines the structure for exception and error handling.
BEGIN TRANSACTION Marks a block of statements as part of an explicit transaction.
Table 4.6: Control-of-Flow Statements

Code Snippet 5 displays an example using IF…ELSE.

Code Snippet 5:

IF DATENAME(weekday, GETDATE()) IN (N'Saturday', N'Sunday')

SELECT 'It is a Weekend';
ELSE
SELECT 'It is a Weekday';

Here, the weekday is retrieved from the current date and checked to see if it is either a Saturday or a
Sunday and then, accordingly a suitable message is displayed.

4.5.6 Comments
Comments are descriptive text strings, also known as remarks, in program code that will be ignored by the
compiler. Comments can be included inside the source code of a single statement, a batch, or a stored

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procedure. Comments explain the purpose of the program, special execution conditions, and provide
revision history information.

SQL Server supports two types of commenting styles:

-- (double hyphens) /* … */ (forward slash-asterisk character pairs)

A complete line of code or part of a code can These comment characters can be used on the
be marked as a comment, if two hyphens (- -) same line as code to be executed, on lines by
are placed at the beginning. The remainder of themselves, or even within executable code.
the line becomes a comment. Everything between /* to */ is considered part
of the comment. For a multiple-line comment,
the open-comment character pair (/*) must begin
the comment, and the close-comment character
pair (*/) must end the comment.

Code Snippet 6 displays the use of -- (double hyphens) style of comment.

Code Snippet 6:

USE AdventureWorks2019
-- HumanResources.Employee table contains the details of an employee.
-- This statement retrieves all the rows of the table
-- HumanResources.Employee.
SELECT * FROM HumanResources.Employee

Code Snippet 7 displays the use of /* … */ (forward slash-asterisk character pairs) style of comment.

Code Snippet 7:

USE AdventureWorks2019
/* HumanResources.Employee table contains the details of an employee.
This statement retrieves all the rows of the table HumanResources.Employee. */
SELECT * FROM HumanResources.Employee

4.5.7 Batch Separators

A batch is a collection of one or more Transact-SQL statements sent at one time from an application to
SQL Server for execution. The Transact-SQL statements in a batch are compiled into a single executable
unit, called an execution plan. The statements in the execution plan are then executed one at a time. The
process wherein a set of commands are processed one at a time from a batch of commands is called batch
processing.

A batch separator is handled by SQL Server client tools such as SSMS to execute commands. For example,
you must specify GO as a batch separator in SSMS.

An example of a batch statement is given in Code Snippet 8.

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Code Snippet 8:
USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM HumanResources.Employee
GO

In Code Snippet 8, the two statements will be grouped into one execution plan, but executed one statement
at a time. The GO keyword signals the end of a batch.

4.6 Sets and Predicate Logic

Sets and Predicate Logic are the two mathematical fundamentals that are used in SQL Server 2019. Both
these theories are used in querying of data in SQL Server 2019.

4.6.1 Set Theory

Set theory is a mathematical foundation used in relational database model. A set is a collection of distinct
objects considered as a whole. For example, all the employees under an Employee table can be considered
as one set. Employees are different objects that form a part of the set in the Employee table.

Table 4.7 shows different applications in the set theory and their corresponding application in SQL Server
queries.
Set Theory Applications Application in SQL Server Queries
Act on the whole set at once. Query the whole table at once.
Use declarative, set-based processing. Use attributes in SQL Server to retrieve specific data.
Elements in the set must be unique. Define unique keys in the table.
No sorting instructions. The results of querying are not retrieved in any order.
Table 4.7: Set Theory Applications

One of the common Set operators is the INTERSECT operator. It returns distinct rows that are produced
by both the left and right input queries operator.

Code Snippet 9 shows an example using the INTERSECT operator.

Code Snippet 9:

USE AdventureWorks2019
GO
SELECT ProductID
FROM Production.Product
INTERSECT
SELECT ProductID
FROM Production.WorkOrder ;

The outcome will show 238 rows of products that have work orders.

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4.6.2 Predicate Logic
Predicate logic is a mathematical framework that consists of logical tests that gives a result. The results are
always displayed as either true or false. In Transact-SQL, expressions such as WHERE and CASE expressions
are based on predicate logic. Predicate logic is also used in other situations in Transact-SQL.

Some of the applications of predicate logic in Transact-SQL are as follows:

Enforcing data integrity using the CHECK constraint

Control-of-flow using the IF statement

Joining tables using the ON filter

Filtering data in queries using the WHERE and HAVING clause

Providing conditional logic to CASE expressions

Defining subqueries

4.7 Logical Order of Operators in SELECT Statement

Along with syntax of different SQL Server elements, an SQL Server user must also know the process of
how the entire query is executed. This process is a logical process that breaks the query and executes the
query according to a predefined sequence in SQL Server 2019. The SELECT statement is a query that will be
used to explain the logical process of query execution.

Following is the syntax of the SELECT statement.

Syntax:

SELECT <select list>

FROM <table source>
WHERE <search condition>
GROUP BY <group by list>
HAVING <search condition>
ORDER BY <order by list>

Table 4.8 explains the elements of the SELECT statement.

Element Description
SELECT <select list> Defines the columns to be returned
FROM <table source> Defines the table to be queried

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 Element Description
WHERE <search condition> Filters the rows by using predicates
GROUP BY <group by list> Arranges the rows by groups
HAVING <search condition> Filters the groups using predicates
ORDER BY <order by list> Sorts the output

Table 4.8: Elements of SELECT Statement

Code Snippet 10 shows a SELECT statement.

Code Snippet 10:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT SalesPersonID, YEAR(OrderDate) AS OrderYear FROM
Sales.SalesOrderHeader
WHERE CustomerID = 30084
GROUP BY SalesPersonID, YEAR(OrderDate)
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
ORDER BY SalesPersonID, OrderYear;

In the example, the order in which SQL Server will execute the SELECT statement is as follows:

1. First, the FROM clause is evaluated to define the source table that will be queried.
2. Next, the WHERE clause is evaluated to filter the rows in the source table. This filtering is defined by the
predicate mentioned in the WHERE clause.
3. After this, the GROUP BY clause is evaluated. This clause arranges the filtered values received from
the WHERE clause.
4. Next, the HAVING clause is evaluated based on the predicate that is provided.
5. Next, the SELECT clause is executed to determine the columns that will appear in the query
results.
6. Finally, the ORDER BY statement is evaluated to display the output.

The order of execution for the SELECT statement in Code Snippet 10 would be as follows:
5. SELECT SalesPersonID, YEAR(OrderDate) AS OrderYear
1. FROM SalesOrderHeader
2. WHERE CustomerID = 30084
3. GROUP BY SalesPersonID, YEAR(OrderDate)
4. HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
6. ORDER BY SalesPersonID, OrderYear;

Figure 4.3 shows the result of the SELECT statement.

Figure 4.3: SELECT Statement Result

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4.8 Check Your Progress

1. Which of the following is used to define and manage all attributes and properties of a database,
including row layouts, column definitions, key columns, file locations, and storage strategy?
(A) DDL (C) DCL

(B) DML (D) DPL

2. Which of the following is not used in DCL?

(A) GRANT statement (C) UPDATE statement

(B) REVOKE statement (D) DENY statement

3. Which of the following specifies a range of values to test?

(A) IN (C) LIKE

(B) BETWEEN (D) CONTAINS

4. Match the following.

Control-of-Flow Statement Description

a. IF. . . ELSE 1. Marks a block of statements as part of an explicit
transaction.
b. WHILE 2. Defines the structure for exception and error
handling.
c. BEGIN. . . END 3. Repeats a statement or a block of statements when
the condition is true.
d. TRY. . . CATCH 4. Defines the scope of a block of
Transact-SQL statements.
e. BEGIN TRANSACTION 5. Provides branching control based on a logical test.

(A) a-4, b-2, c-3, d-1, e-5 (C) a-1, b-4, c-5, d-3, e-2

(B) a-1, b-2, c-4, d-3, e-5 (D) a-5, b-3, c-4, d-2, e-1

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5. Which of the following are the two mathematical fundamentals that are used in SQL Server 2019?
(A) Fractions and Sets (C) Predicate Logic and
Fractions
(B) Sets and Predicate Logic (D) Probability and Fractions

6. Which of the following will be the result of the code?

SET @Number = 2 * (4 + 5) + 2 * (4 + (5 - 3))

(A) 120 (C) 30

(B) 62 (D) 26

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4.8.1 Answers
1. A
2. C
3. B
4. D
5. B
6. C

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 Summary
➢ Transact-SQL is a powerful language which offers features such as data types, temporary objects,
and extended stored procedures.
➢ SQL Server supports three types of Transact-SQL statements, namely, DDL, DML, and DCL.
➢ A data type is an attribute defining the type of data that an object can contain.
➢ The Transact-SQL language elements includes predicates, operators, functions, variables,
expressions, control-of-flow, errors, and transactions, comments, and batch separators.
➢ Sets and Predicate Logic are the two mathematical fundamentals that are used in SQL Server
2019.
➢ Set theory is a mathematical foundation used in relational database model, where a set is a
collection of distinct objects considered as a whole.
➢ Predicate logic is a mathematical framework that consists of logical tests that gives a result.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Use the Query Editor to execute a query. Ensure that a connection to a new server instance is
established.

Then, using the AdventureWorks2019 database, create and execute following queries:

a) Display all the territory names from the table Sales.SalesTerritory.

b) Display all the product descriptions from the table Production.ProductDescription.
c) Display the data in columns ProductID, Name, and ProductNumber from
Production.Product table.
d) Display the bonus, commission percentage, and sales made in the previous year from the table
Sales.SalesPerson for the only those territories that have TerritoryID between 1 and 3.

2. You are given the following code that adds five days to a given date:

SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @startdate DATETIME, @adddays INT;
SET @startdate = 'January 10, 1900 12:00 AM';
SET @adddays = 5;
SET NOCOUNT OFF;
SELECT @startdate + 1.25 AS 'Start Date',
@startdate + @adddays AS 'Add Date';

Create Transact-SQL code that will subtract six days from a given date.

3. Use comparison operators to perform the following tasks:

a) Display all the records from Person.Address table having city as Montreal.
b) Display all the records from HumanResources.Department table that have a value in
DepartmentID that is greater than or equal to the value 13.
c) Display all the records from Production.ProductCategory table that do not have value
in ProductCategoryID that is equal to the value 3 or the value 2.

4. Display all the records from Person.Person for all persons whose last name begins with B.

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 Session - 5
Creating and Managing Databases
Welcome to the Session, Creating and Managing Databases. This session describes system
and user defined databases. It also lists the key features of the AdventureWorks2019
database. Finally, the session describes different types of database modification.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain about modification of system data

➢ Describe adding of filegroups and transaction logs
➢ Outline the process to create a database
➢ Describe how to drop a database
➢ Explain database snapshots

5.1 Modifying System Data

Users are not allowed to directly update the information in system database objects, such as system tables,
system stored procedures, and catalog views. However, users can avail a complete set of administrative
tools allowing them to fully administer the system and manage all users and database objects. These are as
follows:

SSMS Administration utilities: From SQL Server 2005 onwards, several SQL Server administrative
utilities are integrated into SSMS. It is the core administrative console for SQL Server installations. It
enables to perform high-level administrative functions, schedule routine maintenance tasks, and so forth.

SQL Server Management Objects (SQL-SMO) API: Includes complete functionality for administering
SQL Server in applications.

Transact-SQL scripts and stored procedures: These use system stored procedures and Transact- SQL
DDL statements. Figure 5.1 shows a Transact-SQL query window.

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 Figure 5.1: Transact-SQL Query Window

These tools also guard applications from making changes in the system objects.

5.2 Viewing System Database Data

Database applications can determine catalog and system information by using any of these approaches:

System Catalog Views Views displaying metadata for describing database objects in an SQL Server
instance.

New managed code object model, providing a set of objects used for managing
SQL-SMO
Microsoft SQL Server.

Catalog Functions,
Methods, Attributes, or Used in ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), OLE DB, or ODBC applications.
Properties of Data API

Stored Procedures and Used in Transact-SQL as stored procedures and built-in functions.
Functions

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5.3 User-defined Databases
Using SQL Server 2019, users can create their own databases, also called user-defined databases, and
work with them. The purpose of these databases is to store user data.

5.3.1 Creating Databases Using Transact-SQL

To create a user-defined database, the information required is as follows:
➢ Name of the database
➢ Owner or creator of the database
➢ Size of the database
➢ Files and filegroups used to store it

Following is the syntax to create a user-defined database.

Syntax:

CREATE DATABASE DATABASE_NAME

[ ON
[ PRIMARY ] [ <filespec> [ ,...n ]
[ , <filegroup> [ ,...n ] ]
[ LOG ON { <filespec> [ ,...n ] } ]
]
[ COLLATE collation_name ]
]
[;]

where,
DATABASE_NAME: is the name of the database to be created.
ON: indicates the disk files to be used to store the data sections of the database and data files.
PRIMARY: is the associated <filespec> list defining the primary file.
<filespec>: controls the file properties.
<filegroup>: controls filegroup properties.

LOG ON: indicates disk files to be used for storing the database log and log files.
COLLATE collation_name: is the default collation for the database. A collation defines rules for
comparing and sorting character data based on the standard of particular language and locale.
Collation name can be either a Windows collation name or a SQL collation name.

Code Snippet 1 shows how to create a database with database file and transaction log file with collation
name.

Code Snippet 1:

CREATE DATABASE [Customer_DB] ON PRIMARY

( NAME = 'Customer_DBX', FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\Customer_DB.mdf')
LOG ON
( NAME = 'Customer_DB_log', FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\Customer_DB_log.ldf')
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

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After executing the code in Code Snippet 1, SQL Server 2019 displays the message 'Command(s) completed
successfully'.

SQL Server databases use two files - an .mdf file, known as the primary database file, containing the
schema and data and a .ldf file, which contains the logs. A database may also use secondary database
file, which normally uses an .ndf extension.

MDF stands for Master Database File. It contains main information of a database that are part of the
server. This extension also points to various other files. It plays a crucial role in information storage.

LDF stands for Log Database File. This file stores information related to transaction logs for main data
file. It basically keeps track of changes that have been made in the database.

Besides these, there are.ndf files representing secondary data files. Secondary data files make up all the data
files, other than the primary data file. Some databases may not have any secondary data files, while others
have several secondary data files. The recommended file name extension for secondary data files is .ndf.

Note: SQL Server does not enforce the .mdf, .ndf, and .ldf file name extensions, but these extensions
are recommended to help identify the use of the file.

Figure 5.2 shows the query and the database Customer_DB listed in the Object Explorer.

Figure 5.2: Customer_DB Database

5.3.2 Modifying Databases
As a user-defined database grows or diminishes, the database size will be expanded or be shrunk
automatically or manually. Based on changing requirements from time to time, it may be found necessary to
modify a database.

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Following is the syntax to modify a database:

Syntax:

ALTER DATABASE database_name

{
<add_or_modify_files>
| <add_or_modify_filegroups>
| <set_database_options>
| MODIFY NAME = new_database_name
| COLLATE collation_name
}
[;]
where,
database_name: is the original name of the database.
MODIFY NAME = new_database_name: is the new name of the database to which it is to be
renamed.
COLLATE collation_name: is the collation name of the database.
<add_or_modify_files>: is the file to be added, removed, or modified.
<add_or_modify_filegroups>: is the filegroup to be added, modified, or removed from the
database.
<set_database_options>: is the database-level option influencing the characteristics of the
database that can be set for each database. These options are unique to each database and do not
affect other databases.

Code Snippet 2 shows how to rename a database Customer_DB with a new database name, CUST_DB.

Code Snippet 2:

ALTER DATABASE Customer_DB MODIFY NAME = CUST_DB

Figure 5.3 shows database Customer_DB is renamed with a new database name, CUST_DB.

Figure 5.3: New Database Name CUST_DB

5.3.3 Ownership of Databases
In SQL Server 2019, the ownership of a user-defined database can be changed. Ownership of system
databases cannot be changed. The system procedure sp_changedbowner is used to change the ownership
of a database.

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The syntax is as follows:
Syntax:
sp_changedbowner [ @loginame = ] 'login'

where,
login is an existing database username.

After sp_changedbowner is executed, the new owner is known as the dbo user inside the selected
database. The dbo receives permissions to perform all activities in the database. The owner of the master,
model, or tempdb system databases cannot be changed.

Code Snippet 3, when executed, makes the login 'sa' the owner of the current database and maps 'sa' to
existing aliases that are assigned to the old database owner, and will display 'Command(s) completed
successfully'.

Code Snippet 3:
USE CUST_DB
EXEC sp_changedbowner 'sa'

5.3.4 Setting Database Options

Database-level options determine the characteristics of the database that can be set for each database. These
options are unique to each database, so they do not affect other databases. These database options are set
to default values when a database is first created, and can then, be changed by using the SET clause of the
ALTER DATABASE statement.

Table 5.1 shows the database options that are supported by SQL Server 2019.
Option Type Description
Automatic options Controls automatic behavior of database.
Cursor options Controls cursor behavior.
Recovery options Controls recovery models of database.
Miscellaneous options Controls ANSI compliance.
State options Controls state of database, such as online/offline and user connectivity.

Table 5.1: Databases Options in SQL Server 2019

Note - Server-wide settings are set using the sp_configure system stored procedure or SQL
Management Studio.

Code Snippet 4 when executed sets AUTO_SHRINK option for the CUST_DB database to ON. The
AUTO_SHRINK options when set to ON, shrinks the database that have free space.

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Code Snippet 4:

USE CUST_DB;
ALTER DATABASE CUST_DB SET AUTO_SHRINK ON

5.3.5 Filegroups
In SQL Server, data files are used to store database files. The data files are further subdivided into filegroups for
the sake of performance. Each filegroup is used to group related files that together store a database object.
Every database has a primary filegroup by default. This filegroup contains the primary data file. The
primary file group and data files are created automatically with default property values at the time of
creation of the database. User-defined filegroups can then be created to group data files together for
administrative, data allocation, and placement purposes.

For example, three files named Customer_Data1.ndf, Customer_Data2.ndf, and

Customer_Data3.ndf, can be created on three disk drives respectively. These can then be assigned to the
filegroup Customer_fgroup1. A table can then be created specifically on the filegroup
Customer_fgroup1. Queries for data from the table will be spread across the three disk drives thereby,
improving performance.

Table 5.2 shows filegroups that are supported by SQL Server 2019.
Filegroup Description
The filegroup that consists of the primary file. All system tables are
Primary placed inside the primary filegroup.
Any filegroup that is created by the user at the time of creating or
User-defined
modifying databases.

Table 5.2: Filegroups in SQL Server 2019

Adding Filegroups to an existing database

Filegroups can be created when the database is created for the first time or can be created later when more
files are added to the database. However, files cannot be moved to a different filegroup after the files have
been added to the database.

A file cannot be a member of more than one filegroup at the same time. A maximum of 32,767 filegroups
can be created for each database. Filegroups can contain only data files. Transaction log files cannot belong
to a filegroup.

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Following is the syntax to add filegroups while creating a database:

Syntax:
CREATE DATABASE database_name
[ ON
[ PRIMARY ] [ <filespec> [ ,...n ]
[ , <filegroup> [ ,...n ] ]
[ LOG ON { <filespec> [ ,...n ] } ]
]
[ COLLATE collation_name ]
]
[;]

where,
database_name: is the name of the new database.
ON: indicates the disk files to store the data sections of the database, and data files.
PRIMARY and associated <filespec> list: define the primary file. The first file specified in the
<filespec> entry in the primary filegroup becomes the primary file.
LOG ON: indicates the disk files used to store the database log files. COLLATE
collation_name: is the default collation for the database.

Code Snippet 5 shows how to add a filegroup (PRIMARY as default) while creating a database, called
SalesDB.

Code Snippet 5:

CREATE DATABASE [SalesDB] ON PRIMARY

( NAME = 'SalesDB', FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\SalesDB.mdf' , SIZE = 3072KB , MAXSIZE =
UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB ),
FILEGROUP [MyFileGroup]
( NAME = 'SalesDB_FG', FILENAME ='C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\SalesDB_FG.ndf' , SIZE = 3072KB , MAXSIZE
= UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
LOG ON
( NAME = 'SalesDB_log', FILENAME ='C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\SalesDB_log.ldf' , SIZE = 2048KB , MAXSIZE
= 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

Figure 5.4 shows the file groups when creating SalesDB database.

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 Figure 5.4: Filegroup Added When Creating SalesDB Database

Following is the syntax to add a filegroup to an existing database.

Syntax:
ALTER DATABASE database_name
{ <add_or_modify_files>
| <add_or_modify_filegroups>
| <set_database_options>
| MODIFY NAME = new_database_name
| COLLATE collation_name
}
[;]

Code Snippet 6 shows how to add a filegroup to an existing database, called CUST-DB.

Code Snippet 6:
USE CUST_DB
ALTER DATABASE CUST_DB
ADD FILEGROUP FG_ReadOnly

After executing the code, SQL Server 2019 displays the message 'Command(s) completed successfully' and
the filegroup FG_ReadOnly is added to the existing database, CUST_DB.

Default Filegroup

Objects are assigned to the default filegroup when they are created in the database. The PRIMARY filegroup
is the default filegroup. The default filegroup can be changed using the ALTER DATABASE statement.
System objects and tables remain within the PRIMARY filegroup, but do not go into the new default
filegroup.

To make the FG_ReadOnly filegroup as default, it should contain at least one file inside it.

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Code Snippet 7 shows how to create a new file, add it to the FG_ReadOnly filegroup, and make the
FG_ReadOnly filegroup that was created in Code Snippet 6 as the default filegroup.

Code Snippet 7:

USE CUST_DB
ALTER DATABASE CUST_DB
ADD FILE (NAME = Cust_DB1, FILENAME ='C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\Cust_DB1.ndf')
TO FILEGROUP FG_ReadOnly ALTER DATABASE CUST_DB
MODIFY FILEGROUP FG_ReadOnly DEFAULT

After executing the code in Code Snippet 7, SQL Server 2019 displays the message saying the filegroup
property 'DEFAULT' has been set.

Figure 5.5 shows a new file Cust_DB1 created.

Figure 5.5: New File Cust_DB1 Created

5.3.6 Transaction Log

A transaction log in SQL Server records all transactions and the database modifications made by each
transaction. The transaction log is one of the critical components of the database. It can be the only
source of recent data in case of system failure.

The transaction logs support operations such as the following:

An incomplete transaction is rolled back in case of an application

Recovery of individual
issuing a ROLLBACK statement or the Database Engine detecting
transactions
an error. The log records are used to roll back the modifications.

Recovery of all incomplete If a server that is running SQL Server fails, the databases may be
transactions when SQL Server is left in an inconsistent state. When an instance of SQL Server is
started started, it runs a recovery of each database.

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 Rolling a restored database, file,
The database can be restored to the point of failure after a
filegroup, or page forward to the
hardware loss or disk failure affecting the database files.
point of failure

Supporting transactional The Log Reader Agent monitors the transaction log of each
replication database configured for replications of transactions.

Supporting standby server The standby-server solutions, database mirroring, and log shipping
solutions depend on the transaction log.

Working of Transaction Logs:

A database in SQL Server has at least one data file and one transaction log file. Data and transaction log
information are kept separated, preferably on separate drives. Individual files are used by only one
database.

SQL Server uses the transaction log of each database to recover transactions. The transaction log is a serial
record of all modifications that have occurred in the database as well as the transactions that performed the
modifications. This log keeps enough information to undo the modifications made during each transaction.
The transaction log records the allocation and deallocation of pages and the commit or rollback of each
transaction. This feature enables SQL Server either to roll forward or to back out.

The rollback of each transaction is executed using the following ways:

 A transaction is rolled forward when a transaction log is applied.
 A transaction is rolled back when an incomplete transaction is backed out.

➢ Adding Log files to a database

Following is the syntax to modify a database and add log files:

Syntax:
ALTER DATABASE database_name
{
...
}
[;]
<add_or_modify_files>::=
{
ADD FILE <filespec> [ ,...n ]
[ TO FILEGROUP { filegroup_name | DEFAULT } ]
| ADD LOG FILE <filespec> [ ,...n ]
| REMOVE FILE logical_file_name
| MODIFY FILE <filespec>
}

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 Note - By default, the data and transaction logs are put on the same drive and path to accommodate
single-disk systems, but may not be optimal for production environments.

5.3.7 Creating Databases Using SSMS

When a database is created, data files should be as large as possible based on maximum amount of data,
which is expected in the database.

Steps to create a database using SSMS are as follows:

1. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine and then, expand that
instance.

2. Right-click Databases, and then, click New Database as shown in Figure 5.6.

Figure 5.6: New Database Option

3. In New Database dialog box, enter a database name in the Database name box.

4. To create the database by accepting all default values, click OK, as shown in Figure 5.7; otherwise,
continue with the following optional steps.

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 Figure 5.7: New Database Window

5. To change the owner name, click (…) to select another owner.

6. To change the default values of the primary data and transaction log files, in the Database files grid,
click the appropriate cell and enter the new value.

7. To change the collation of the database, select the Options page, and then, select a collation from the
list as shown in Figure 5.8.

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 Figure 5.8: Collation List

8. To change the recovery model, select the Options page and then, select a recovery model from the list
as shown in Figure 5.9.

Figure 5.9: Recovery Model

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9. To change other database options, select the Options page, and then, modify the other database
options.

10. To add a new filegroup, click the Filegroups page. Click Add and then, enter the values for the
filegroup as shown in Figure 5.10.

Figure 5.10: Adding a Filegroup

11. To add an extended property to the database, select the Extended Properties page.
 In the Name column, enter a name for the extended property.
 In the Value column, enter the extended property text. For example, enter one or more
statements that describe the database.

12. To create the database, click OK.

The database will be successfully created and will be visible in Object Explorer after the Databases node
is refreshed.

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5.3.8 Dropping a Database
A full backup of the database must be taken before dropping a database. A deleted database can be
re-created only by restoring a backup.

The steps to delete or drop a database using SSMS are as follows:

1. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine, and then, expand that
instance.
2. Expand Databases, right-click the database to delete, and then, click Delete, as shown in figure
5.11.

Figure 5.11: Delete a Database

3. Confirm that the correct database is selected, and then, click OK.

Apart from using SSMS to drop a database, one can also use a Transact-SQL command.

Following is the syntax to delete or drop a database using Transact-SQL:

Syntax:

DROP DATABASE [databasename]

5.3.9 Creating Database Snapshots

Database snapshot feature was first introduced in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and is present in SQL Server
2019 as well. It is a feature that provides a read-only, static view of a SQL Server database. If a user makes
a mistake in a source database, the source database can be reverted to the previous state when the snapshot
was created. You must use Transact-SQL to create a database snapshot. SSMS does not support creation
of database snapshots.

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Some of the advantages and disadvantages of database snapshots are as follows:

Advantages Disadvantages
• Provide a convenient, read-only copy of • Snapshot backup cannot be created.
data. • Snapshot must exist on the same database
• When queried, no deterioration of server as that of the source database.
performance. • A new user cannot be granted access to the
• Snapshot files are small and are very quick data in a snapshot.
to create.

Following is the syntax to create a database snapshot using Transact-SQL:

Syntax:

CREATE DATABASE database_snapshot_name

ON
(
NAME = logical_file_name,\ FILENAME = 'os_file_name'
) [ ,...n ]
AS SNAPSHOT OF source_database_name
[;]

where,
database_snapshot_name: is the name of the new database snapshot.
ON ( NAME = logical_file_name, FILENAME = 'os_file_name' ) [ ,... n ]: is the list
of files in the source database. For the snapshot to work, all the data files must be specified
individually.
AS SNAPSHOT OF source_database_name: is a database snapshot of the source database
specified by source_database_name.

Code Snippet 9 creates a database snapshot on the AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 9:

CREATE DATABASE AdventureWorks_dbss100 ON

( NAME = AdventureWorks2019, FILENAME =
'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\AdventureWorks_data_100.ss' )
AS SNAPSHOT OF AdventureWorks2019;
GO

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5.4 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following is a complete administration utility?
(A) SQL-SMO (C) Transact-SQL
(B) SQL Server Management Studio (D) Stored procedures

2. Which of these are required information in order to create a user-defined database?

a) Name of the database
b) Owner or creator of the database
c) Size of the database
d) Files and filegroups used to store it

(A) a, b, c (C) b, d
(B) c, d (D) All of these

3. Which of these terms correspond to the description, ‘Defines rules for comparing and sorting
character data based on the standard of particular language and locale.’

(A) Collations (C) Indexes

(B) Triggers (D) Tables

4. Which among these is the correct syntax to create a database?

CREATE DATABASE CREATE DATABASE [Customer_
( NAME = 'Customer_DB', DB] ON PRIMARY
FILENAME = 'C:\Program ( NAME = 'Customer_DB', FILENAME =
(A) Files\Microsoft SQL (C) 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQ Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQL\DAT
L\DATA\Customer_DB.mdf') A\Customer_DB.mdf')
CREATE DB [Customer_DB]
ON PRIMARY
( NAME = 'Customer_DB',
(B) FILENAME = 'C:\Program (D) All of these
Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL15.MYEXPRESS\MSSQ
L\DATA\Customer_DB.mdf')

5. Which of these are valid advantages of database snapshots?

a) Provide a convenient and read-write copy of data.
b) When queried, no deterioration of performance.
c) Snapshot files are small and are very quick to create.

(A) a, b, c (C) b, c

(B) c, d (D) All of these

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5.4.1 Answers
1. A
2. D
3. A
4. C
5. C

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 Summary
➢ SQL Server uses system databases to support different components of the DBMS.

➢ The SQL Server data files are used to store database files, which are further subdivided into
filegroups for the sake of performance.

➢ Databases can be created and dropped using SSMS or Transact-SQL.

➢ The CREATE DATABASE statement with various options can be used to create databases.

➢ ALTER DATABASE and DROP DATABASE are used to modify and delete a database
respectively.

➢ A transaction log in SQL Server records all transactions and the database modifications made by
each transaction.

➢ Objects are assigned to the default filegroup when they are created in the database. The PRIMARY
filegroup is the default filegroup.

➢ A database snapshot is a read-only, static view of a SQL Server database.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Create a database named UnitedAir using Transact-SQL statements with the following
properties:

• Primary filegroup with files, UnitedAir1_dat and UnitedAir2_dat. The size, maximum
size, and file growth should be 5, 10, and 15% respectively. Note that _dat is given as a suffix
to the file name to indicate that it is a filegroup name.

• A filegroup named UnitedAirGroup1 with the files UnitedAirGrp1F1 and

UnitedAirGrp1F2.

• A filegroup with UnitedAirGroup2 with the files UnitedAirGrp2F1 and

UnitedAirGrp2F2.

2. Repeat similar process for a database named BelAir, however, use SSMS to do this instead of
Transact SQL.

3. Create database snapshots for UnitedAir and BelAir databases.

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 Session - 6
Creating Tables
Welcome to the Session, Creating Tables.

This session explores various data types provided by SQL Server 2019 and describes how to
use them. The techniques for creation, modification, and removal of tables and columns are
also discussed.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ List SQL Server 2019 data types

➢ Describe the procedure to create, modify, and drop tables in an SQL Server database
➢ Describe the procedure to add, modify, and drop columns in a table

6.1 Introduction
One of the most important types of database objects in SQL Server 2019 is a table. Tables in SQL Server
2019 contain data in the form of rows and columns. Each column may have data of a specific type and
size.

6.2 Advanced Data Types

Besides basic data types such as int, float, and so on, SQL Server also supports several advanced data
types.

Name Description
hierarchyid
It is a system data type with variable length. You can use it to represent a position
in a hierarchy.
It is a spatial data type, implemented as a Common Language Runtime (CLR) data
type in SQL Server. It represents data in a Euclidean (flat) coordinate system. SQL
Server supports a set of methods for this data type. The geometry type is
geometry
predefined and available in each database. You can create table columns of type
geometry and operate on geometry data similar to how you do on other CLR
types.
It is a spatial type for storing ellipsoidal (round-earth) data, such as GPS latitude
and longitude coordinates. SQL Server supports a set of methods for the
geography
geography spatial data type. This type too is predefined and available in each
database. You can create table columns of type geography.
xml It is a special data type for storing XML data in SQL Server tables.
cursor
It is a data type for variables or stored procedure OUTPUT parameters that contain
a reference to a cursor.

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 Name Description
It is a special data type useful for storing result set temporarily in a
table table-valued function. You can use data from this for processing later. It can be
used in functions, stored procedures, and batches
rowversion It returns automatically generated, unique binary numbers within a database.

Table 6.1: Advanced Data Types in SQL Server

6.3 Creating, Modifying, and Dropping Tables

Most tables have a primary key, made up of one or more columns of the table. A primary key is always
unique. The Database Engine will enforce the restriction that any primary key value cannot be
repeated in the table. Thus, the primary key can be used to identify each record uniquely.

Note: AdventureWorks2019 database will be used for all the subsequent statements/commands.

6.3.1 Creating Tables

The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create tables in SQL Server 2019. A simple basic syntax is
as follows:

Syntax:

CREATE TABLE [database_name. [schema_name].| schema_name.]table_name

([<column_name>] [data_type] Null/Not Null,)
ON [filegroup | "default"]

where,
database_name: is the name of the database in which the table is created.
table_name: is the name of the new table. table_name can be a maximum of 128 characters.
column_name: is the name of a column in the table. column_name can be up to
128 characters. column_name are not specified for columns that are created with
a timestamp data type. The default column name of a timestamp column is timestamp.
data_type: It specifies data type of the column.
ON [filegroup | "default"]: When you create a database in SQL Server, you can have
multiple file groups, where storage is created in multiple places, directories or disks. Each file
group can be named. The PRIMARY file group is the default one, which is always created. Giving
ON PRIMARY creates the table on this file group.

Code Snippet 1 demonstrates creation of a table named dbo.CustomerInfo.

Code Snippet 1:

USE AdventureWorks2019
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerInfo](
[CustomerID number] [numeric](10, 0) NOT NULL, [CustomerName] [varchar](50)
NOT NULL)
ON [PRIMARY]

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 GO
The table will be successfully created, as shown in figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1: Creating a Table

6.3.2 Modifying Tables

The ALTER TABLE statement is used to modify a table definition by altering, adding, or dropping columns
and constraints, reassigning partitions, or disabling or enabling constraints and triggers.

Syntax:

ALTER TABLE [[database_name. [schema_name].| schema_name.]table_name

ALTER COLUMN ([<column_name>] [data_type] Null/Not Null,);
| ADD ([<column_name>] [data_type] Null/Not Null,);
| DROP COLUMN ([<column_name>];

where,
ALTER COLUMN: specifies that the particular column must be changed or modified.
ADD: specifies that one or more column definitions are to be added.
DROP COLUMN ([<column_name>]: specifies that column_name is to be removed from the table.

Code Snippet 2 demonstrates altering the CustomerID column.

Code Snippet 2:

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[CustomerInfo]

ALTER Column [CustomerID number] [numeric](12, 0) NOT NULL;

Code Snippet 3 demonstrates adding the ContactNumber column.

Code Snippet 3:

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[CustomerInfo]

ADD [ContactNumber] [numeric](12, 0) NOT NULL;

Code Snippet 4 demonstrates dropping the ContactNumber column.

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Code Snippet 4:
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[CustomerInfo]
DROP COLUMN [ContactNumber];

Before attempting to drop columns, however, it is important to ensure that the columns can be dropped.

Under certain conditions, columns cannot be dropped, such as, if they are used in a CHECK, FOREIGN
KEY, UNIQUE, or PRIMARY KEY constraint, associated with a DEFAULT definition, and so forth. Constraints
will be explored in a later section.

6.3.3 Dropping Tables

The DROP TABLE statement removes a table definition, its data, and all associated objects such as
indexes, triggers, constraints, and permission specifications for that table.

Syntax:

DROP TABLE <Table_Name>

where,
<Table_Name>: is the name of the table to be dropped.

Code Snippet 5 demonstrates how to drop a table.

Code Snippet 5:

DROP TABLE [dbo].[CustomerInfo]

The table will be removed from the database. Once the table is removed, all data in it will be gone too.

6.3.4 Data Modification Statements

The statements used for modifying data are INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. These are
explained as follows:

➢ INSERT Statement - The INSERT statement adds a new row to a table.

Syntax:

INSERT [INTO] <Table_Name> VALUES <values>

where,
<Table_Name>: is the name of the table in which row is to be inserted.
[INTO]: is an optional keyword used between INSERT and the target table.
<Values>: specifies the values for columns of the table.

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 Code Snippet 6 demonstrates adding a new row to the Person.PersonPhone table of
AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 6:

INSERT INTO [Person].[PersonPhone]

([BusinessEntityID],[PhoneNumber],[PhoneNumberTypeID],[ModifiedDate])
VALUES (299,699-511-0142,1,'2020-10-12' )

The outcome of this will be that one row with the given data is inserted into the table.

➢ UPDATE Statement - The UPDATE statement modifies the data in the table.

Syntax:

UPDATE <Table_Name>
SET <Column_Name = Value>
[WHERE <Search condition>]

where,
<Table_Name>: is the name of the table where records are to be updated.
<Column_Name>: is the name of the column in the table in which record is to be updated.
<Value>: specifies the new value for the modified column.
<Search condition>: specifies the condition to be met for the rows to be deleted.

Code Snippet 7 demonstrates the use of the UPDATE statement to modify the value in column
PhoneNumber.

Code Snippet 7:

UPDATE [Person].[PersonPhone]
SET [PhoneNumber] = ‘731-511-0142’ WHERE BusinessEntityID=299 AND
ModifiedDate='2020-10-12'

The specified value will be updated in the PhoneNumber column of Person.PersonPhone table.
➢ DELETE Statement - The DELETE statement removes rows from a table.

Syntax:

DELETE FROM <Table_Name> [WHERE <Search condition>]

where,
<Table_Name>: is the name of the table from which the records are to be deleted.
The WHERE clause is used to specify the condition. If WHERE clause is not included in the
DELETE statement, all the records in the table will be deleted.

Code Snippet 8 demonstrates how to delete a row from the Person.PersonPhone table whose
PhoneNumber value is 731-511-0142 and BusinessEntityID is 229.

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 Code Snippet 8:

DELETE FROM [Person].[PersonPhone]

WHERE BusinessEntityID=299 AND [PhoneNumber] = '731-511-0142'

The specified row will be deleted from the table.

Note: If WHERE clause is not specified with the DELETE statement for a table, all the rows of the
table will be deleted.

6.3.5 Column Nullability

The nullability feature of a column determines whether rows in the table can contain a null value for that
column. In SQL Server, a null value is not same as zero, blank, or a zero length character string (such
as ' '). For example, a null value in Color column of Production.Product table of
AdventureWorks2019 database does not mean that the product has no color; it just means that color for
the product is unknown or has not been set.

Nullability of a column can be defined either when creating a table or modifying a table. The NULL
keyword is used to indicate that null values are allowed in the column and NOT NULL is used to indicate
that null values are not allowed.

When inserting a row, if no value is given for a nullable column (that is, it allows null values), then, SQL
Server automatically gives it a null value unless the column has been given a default definition. It is also
possible to explicitly enter a null value into a column regardless of what data type it is or whether it has a
default associated with it. Making a column non-nullable (that is, not permitting null values) enforces data
integrity by ensuring that the column contains data in every row.

In Code Snippet 9, the CREATE TABLE statement uses the NULL and NOT NULL keywords with column
definitions.

Code Snippet 9:

CREATE TABLE StoreDetails (StoreID int NOT NULL, Name varchar(40) NULL)

The result of the command is that StoreDetails table is created with StoreID and Name columns,
and StoreID will not accept any null values whereas Name will allow null values.

Thus, the code in Code Snippet 10 will not succeed, because it assumes a null value will be inserted into
StoreID column.

Code Snippet 10:

INSERT INTO [dbo].[StoreDetails] (Name) VALUES ('BrooklynStore')

Figure 6.2 depicts the resulting error when this command is executed.

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 Figure 6.2: Error When Trying to Insert Row with NOT NULL Column

6.3.6 DEFAULT Definition

Consider a scenario in which details about a product must be stored in an SQL Server 2019 table, but all
values for the product details may not be known even at the time of data insertion. However, as per data
consistency and integrity rules, the columns in a record should typically contain a value. Storing null values
into such columns where exact value of data is not known may not be desirable or practical.

In such situations, a DEFAULT definition can be given for the column to assign it as a default value if no
value is given at the time of creation. For example, it is common to specify zero as the default for numeric
columns or 'N/A' or 'Unknown' as the default for string columns when no value is specified.

A DEFAULT definition for a column can be created at the time of table creation or added at a later stage to
an existing table. When a DEFAULT definition is added to an existing column in a table, SQL Server
applies the new default values only to those rows of data, which have been newly added to the table.

In Code Snippet 11, CREATE TABLE statement uses DEFAULT keyword to define default value for Price.

Code Snippet 11:

CREATE TABLE StoreProduct(ProductID int NOT NULL, Name varchar(40) NOT NULL, Price
money NOT NULL DEFAULT (100))

When a row is inserted using a statement as shown in Code Snippet 12, value of Price will not be
blank; it will have a value of 100.00 even though a user has not entered any value for that column.

Code Snippet 12:

INSERT INTO dbo.StoreProduct (ProductID, Name) VALUES (111, 'Rivets')

SELECT * FROM dbo.StoreProduct
GO

Figure 6.3 shows the output of Code Snippet 12, where, though values are added only to ProductID and
Name columns, Price column will still show a value of 100.00. This is because of DEFAULT definition.

Figure 6.3: Demonstrating Use of DEFAULT

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Following cannot be created on columns with DEFAULT definitions:
An IDENTITY or ROWGUIDCOL An existing default definition
A timestamp data type
property or default object

6.3.7 IDENTITY Property

The IDENTITY property of SQL Server is used to create identifier columns that can contain
auto-generated sequential values to uniquely identify each row within a table. For example, an identifier
column could be created to generate unique student registration numbers automatically whenever new rows
are inserted into the Students table. The identity number for the first row inserted into the table is called
seed value. The increment, also called Identity Increment property, is added to the seed in order to generate
further identity numbers in sequence. When a new row is inserted into a table with an identifier column,
the next identity value is automatically generated by SQL Server by adding the increment to the seed. An
identity column is often used for primary key values.

Characteristics of the IDENTITY property are as follows:

A column having IDENTITY property must be defined using one of the following data
types:

decimal, int, numeric, smallint, bigint, or tinyint

A column having IDENTITY property need not have a seed and increment value
specified. If they are not specified, a default value of 1 will be used for both.

A table cannot have more than one column with IDENTITY property.

The identifier column in a table must not allow null values and must not contain a
DEFAULT definition or object.

Columns defined with IDENTITY property cannot have their values updated.

The values can be explicitly inserted into the identity column of a table only if
the IDENTITY_INSERT option is set ON. When IDENTITY_INSERT is ON, INSERT
statements must supply a value.

The advantage of identifier columns is that SQL Server can automatically provide key values, thus reducing
costs that would have been incurred for extra storage and improving performance. Using identifier
columns simplifies programming and keeps primary key values short.

Once the IDENTITY property has been set, retrieving the value of the identifier column can be done by
using the IDENTITYCOL keyword with the table name in a SELECT statement. To know if a table has an
IDENTITY column, the OBJECTPROPERTY() function can be used. To retrieve the name of the IDENTITY
column in a table, the COLUMNPROPERTY function is used.

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Syntax:

CREATE TABLE <table_name> (column_name data_type [IDENTITY

[(seed_value, increment_value)]] NOT NULL)

where,
seed_value: is the seed value which starts generating identity values.
increment_value: is the increment value by which to increase each time.

Code Snippet 13 demonstrates the use of IDENTITY property. HRContactPhone is created as a table with
two columns. The Person_ID column is an identity column. The seed value is 500 and the increment
value is 1.

Code Snippet 13:

CREATE TABLE HRContactPhone (Person_ID int IDENTITY(500,1) NOT NULL,

MobileNumber bigint NOT NULL)

While inserting rows into the table, if IDENTITY_INSERT is not turned ON, then, explicit values for the
IDENTITY column cannot be given. Instead, statements similar to Code Snippet 14 can be given.

Code Snippet 14:

INSERT INTO HRContactPhone (MobileNumber) VALUES(983452201)

INSERT INTO HRContactPhone (MobileNumber) VALUES(993026654)
SELECT * FROM HRContactPhone
GO

Figure 6.4 shows the output where IDENTITY property is incrementing Person_ID column values.

Figure 6.4: IDENTITY Property Applied on Person_ID Column

6.3.8 Globally Unique Identifiers

In addition to the IDENTITY property, SQL Server also supports globally unique identifiers. Often, in
a networked environment, many tables may require to have a column consisting of a common globally
unique value. Consider a scenario where data from multiple database systems such as banking
databases must be consolidated at a single location. When the data from around the world is collated
at the central site for consolidation and reporting, using globally unique values prevents customers in
different countries from having the same bank account number or customer ID. To satisfy this

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requirement, SQL Server provides globally unique identifier columns. These can be created for each
table containing values that are unique across all the computers in a network. Only one identifier
column and one globally unique identifier column can be created for each table. To create and work
with globally unique identifiers, a combination of ROWGUIDCOL, uniqueidentifier data type, and
NEWID functions are used.

Values for a globally unique column are not automatically generated. One has to create a DEFAULT
definition with a NEWID() function for a uniqueidentifier column to generate a globally unique
value. The NEWID() function creates a unique identifier number which is a 16-byte binary string.
The column can be referenced in a SELECT list by using the ROWGUIDCOL keyword.

To know whether a table has a ROWGUIDCOL column, the OBJECTPROPERTY function is used. The
COLUMNPROPERTY function is used to retrieve the name of the ROWGUIDCOL column. Code Snippet
15 demonstrates how to use CREATE TABLE statement to create the EMPCellularPhone table.

The Person_ID column automatically generates a GUID for each new row added to the table.
Code Snippet 15:

CREATE TABLE EMP_CellularPhone(Person_ID uniqueidentifier DEFAULT NEWID() NOT

NULL, PersonName varchar(60) NOT NULL)

Code Snippet 16 adds a value to PersonName column.

Code Snippet 16:

INSERT INTO EMP_CellularPhone(PersonName) VALUES ('William Smith')

SELECT * FROM EMP_CellularPhone
GO

Figure 6.4 shows the output where a unique identifier is displayed against a specific PersonName.

Figure 6.4: Unique Identifier

6.4 Constraints
One of the important functions of SQL Server is to maintain and enforce data integrity. There are a number
of means to achieve this, but one of the commonly used and preferred methods is to use constraints. A
constraint is a property assigned to a column or set of columns in a table to prevent certain types of
inconsistent data values from being entered. Constraints are used to apply business logic rules and enforce
data integrity.

Constraints can be created when a table is created, as part of the table definition by using CREATE TABLE
statement or can be added at a later stage using ALTER TABLE statement.

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Constraints can be categorized as column constraints and table constraints.

Column Constraint Table Constraint

Is specified as part of a column definition Can apply to more than one column in a table and
and applies only to that column. is declared independently from a column
definition. Table constraints must be used when
more than one column is included in a constraint.

SQL Server supports the following types of constraints:

CONSTRAINTS
PRIMARY KEY UNIQUE FOREIGN KEY CHECK NOT NULL

6.4.1 PRIMARY KEY

A table typically has a primary key comprising a single column or combination of columns to uniquely
identify each row within the table. The PRIMARY KEY constraint is used to create a primary key and
enforce integrity of the entity in the table.

Note: Only one primary key constraint can be created per table.

Two rows in a table cannot have the same primary key value and a column that is a primary key cannot
have NULL values. Hence, when a primary key constraint is added to existing columns of a table, SQL
Server 2019 checks to see if the rules for primary key are complied with. If the existing data in the columns
do not comply with the rules for primary key then, the constraint will not be added.

Syntax to add a primary key while creating a table is as follows:

Syntax:

CREATE TABLE <table_name> (Column_Name datatype PRIMARY KEY [column_list] )

Code Snippet 17 demonstrates how to create a table EMPContactPhone to store contact telephone details
of a person. Since the column EMP_ID must be a primary key for identifying each row uniquely, it is created
with the primary key constraint.

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Code Snippet 17:

CREATE TABLE EmpContactPhone (Employee_ID int PRIMARY KEY, MobileNumber bigint,

ServiceProvider varchar(30), LandlineNumber bigint)

An alternative approach is to use CONSTRAINT keyword. The syntax is as follows:

Syntax:

CREATE TABLE <table_name> (<column_name> <datatype> [, column_list] CONSTRAINT

constraint_name PRIMARY KEY)

Having created a primary key for Employee_ID, a query is written to insert rows into the table with the
statements shown in Code Snippet 18.

Code Snippet 18:

INSERT INTO dbo.EmpContactPhone VALUES (101, 983345674,'Verizon', NULL)

INSERT INTO dbo.EmpContactPhone VALUES (101, 989010002,'AT & T', NULL)
GO

The first INSERT statement shown in Code Snippet 18 is executed successfully, but the next INSERT
statement will fail because the value for Employee_ID is duplicate as shown in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5: Output Error Message for Duplicate EMP_ID

Output of Code Snippet 18 is shown in Figure 6.6.

Figure 6.6: Output of the Successfully Executed First INSERT Statement

6.4.2 UNIQUE
A UNIQUE constraint is used to ensure that only unique values are entered in a column or set of columns. It
allows developers to make sure that no duplicate values are entered. Primary keys are implicitly unique.
Unique key constraints enforce entity integrity because once the constraints are applied; no two rows in

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the table can have the same value for the columns. UNIQUE constraints allow null values. A single table
can have more than one UNIQUE constraint. The syntax to create UNIQUE constraint is as follows:

Syntax:

CREATE TABLE <table_name> ([column_list] <column_name> <data_type> UNIQUE

[column_list])

Code Snippet 19 demonstrates how to make MobileNumber and LandlineNumber columns as unique.

Code Snippet 19:

CREATE TABLE NewEmpContactPhone(Person_ID int, MobileNumber bigint PRIMARY
KEY,ServiceProvider varchar(30),LandlineNumber bigint UNIQUE)

Code Snippet 20 demonstrates how to insert rows into this table.

Code Snippet 20:

INSERT INTO NewEmpContactPhone values (111, 983345674, 'Verizon', NULL)
INSERT INTO NewEmpContactPhone values (112, 983345674, 'AT & T', NULL)
GO

Though a value of NULL has been given for the LandlineNumber columns, which are defined as UNIQUE, the
command will execute successfully because UNIQUE constraints check only for the uniqueness of values,
but do not prevent null entries. The first statement shown in Code Snippet 20 is executed successfully, but
the next INSERT statement will fail even though the primary key value is different because the value for
MobileNumber is a duplicate value as shown in Figure 6.7. This is because the column MobileNumber
is defined to be unique and disallows duplicate values.

Figure 6.7: Output Error Message for Value Duplicate MobileNumber

Figure 6.8 shows the result of retrieving rows from NewEmpContactPhone table. It shows the row that
was successfully inserted as an outcome of the first INSERT statement.

Figure 6.8: Successfully Inserted Row

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6.4.3 FOREIGN KEY
A foreign key in a table is a column that points to a primary key or unique column in a table. Foreign key
constraints are used to enforce referential integrity. The syntax for foreign key is as follows:

Syntax:

CREATE TABLE <table_name1>([column_list,] <column_name> <datatype> FOREIGN KEY

REFERENCES <table_name> (pk_column_name> [, column_list])

where,
table_name: is the name of the table from which to reference primary key.
<pk_column_name>: is the name of the primary key column.

Code Snippet 21 demonstrates how to create a foreign key constraint. Here, it ensures that MobileNumber
in EmpPhoneExpenses is linked to MobileNumber column in NewEmpContactPhone. This means that
you cannot insert any values in the MobileNumber column of EmpPhoneExpenses that do not exist in
MobileNumber column of NewEmpContactPhone.

Code Snippet 21:

CREATE TABLE EmpPhoneExpenses (Expense_ID int PRIMARY KEY, MobileNumber bigint
FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES NewEmpContactPhone (MobileNumber), Amount bigint)

Figure 6.9 shows the database diagram depicting the relationship between NewEmpContactPhone and
EmpPhoneExpenses. The two tables are related based on the column MobileNumber.

Figure 6.9: Database Diagram Showing Foreign Key and Relationship Between Tables

Now, a row is inserted into EmpPhoneExpenses table such that the mobile number is the same as one of
the mobile numbers in NewEmpContactPhone. The statements that will be written are shown in Code
Snippet 22.

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Code Snippet 22:

INSERT INTO dbo.EmpPhoneExpenses VALUES(101, 993026654, 500)

SELECT * FROM dbo.EmpPhoneExpenses

The error message of Code Snippet 22 is shown in Figure 6.10.

Figure 6.10: Output Error Message of FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES

If there is no key in the referenced table having a value that is being inserted into the foreign key, the
insertion will fail as shown in Figure 6.10. It is, however, possible to add NULL value into a foreign key
column.

6.4.4 CHECK
A CHECK constraint limits the values that can be placed in a column. Check constraints enforce integrity
of data. For example, a CHECK constraint can be given to check if the value being entered into VoterAge is
greater than or equal to 18. If the data being entered for the column does not satisfy the condition, then,
insertion will fail.

A CHECK constraint operates by specifying a search condition, which can evaluate to TRUE, FALSE, or
unknown. Values that evaluate to FALSE are rejected. Multiple CHECK constraints can be specified for a
single column. A single CHECK constraint can also be applied to multiple columns by creating it at the
table level.

Code Snippet 23 demonstrates creating a CHECK constraint to ensure that Amount value will always be non-
zero. A NULL value can, however, be added into Amount column if the value of Amount is not known.
Code Snippet 23:

CREATE TABLE NewEMP_PhoneExpenses (Expense_ID int PRIMARY KEY, MobileNumber

bigint, Amount bigint CHECK (Amount >10))

Once a CHECK constraint has been defined, if an INSERT statement is written with data that violates the
constraint, it will fail as shown in Code Snippet 24.

Code Snippet 24:

INSERT INTO dbo.NewEMP_PhoneExpenses values (101, 983345674, 9)

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The error message of Code Snippet 24 that appears when the Amount value is less than 10 is shown in
Figure 6.10.

Figure 6.10: Output Error Message of CHECK Constraint

6.4.5 NOT NULL

A NOT NULL constraint enforces that the column will not accept null values. The NOT NULL constraints
are used to enforce domain integrity, similar to CHECK constraints.

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6.5 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following feature of a column determines whether rows in the table can contain a null
value for that column?
(A) Default (C) Group BY

(B) Multiplicity (D) Nullability

2. A in a table is a column that points to a primary key column in another table.

(A) Foreign key (C) Repeated key

(B) Secondary key (D) Local key

3. Which of the following code is used to drop a table from AdventureWorks2019 database?
USE [AdventureWorks2019]
GO
(A) DROPTABLE [dbo].[Table_1] (C) DELETE TABLE [dbo].[Table_1]
USE [AdventureWorks2019]
USE GO
[AdventureWorks2019] GO DROP
(B) DROP TABLE [dbo].[Table_1] (D)
[dbo].[Table_1]

4. Which of the following property of SQL Server is used to create identifier columns that can
contain auto-generated sequential values to uniquely identify each row within a table?
(A) SELECT (C) INSERT

(B) IDENTITY (D) DEFAULT

5. A constraint is used to ensure that only unique values are entered in a column
or set of columns.
(A) UNIQUE (C) Foreign key

(B) DEFAULT (D) INSERT

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6.5.1 Answers
1. D
2. A
3. B
4. B
5. A

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 Summary
➢ Most tables have a primary key, made up of one or more columns of the table that identifies
records uniquely.
➢ The nullability feature of a column determines whether rows in the table can contain a null value
for that column.
➢ A DEFAULT definition for a column can be created at the time of table creation or added at a
later stage to an existing table.
➢ The IDENTITY property of SQL Server is used to create identifier columns that can contain
auto-generated sequential values to uniquely identify each row within a table.
➢ Constraints are used to apply business logic rules and enforce data integrity.
➢ A UNIQUE constraint is used to ensure that only unique values are entered in a column or
set of columns.
➢ A foreign key in a table is a column that points to a primary key column in another table.
➢ A CHECK constraint limits the values that can be placed in a column.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Saint Clara Insurance (SCI) services is a leading Insurance company based in New York, USA.
SCI Services wanted a faster, more accurate, and less expensive way to handle insurance claims
adjusting for its insurance company customers. With an ever-increasing customer base, they
decided to create a Web-based application that will be used not only by employees who work on
field, but will also be used by the administrators in the head office.

SCI handles approximately 650 claims per month, but that can soar to 15,000 or more when a
hurricane or some other disaster strikes. Officers can use the software on the device type of
their choice: Tablet PCs or laptops in the field, or desktop PCs back in their offices. The use of
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 as the software's database enables to receive and update all the
necessary information regarding a customer or claimer.

With thousands of customers expected every month, data integrity of the data in the database
is very important. You must perform the following tasks:

a. Create a database called SaintClaraServices to store the details of the company.

Create a table CustomerHeader with the details given in table 6.2.

Field Name Data Type Description

ClientID int Stores client id. This column is the Primary Key
FirstName char Stores first name of the client
LastName char Stores last name of the client
MiddleName char Stores middle name of the client
Gender char Stores gender of the client
DateOfBirth datetime Stores date of birth of the client
Address varchar(max) Stores address of the client
MaritalStatus char Stores marital status of the client
Age int Stores age of the client
Employment char Stores occupation of the client
CompanyName varchar(max) Stores the company name
CompanyAddress varchar(max) Stores the company address

Table 6.2: CustomerHeader Table

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 Try It Yourself
b. Create a table CustomerDetails with the specifications given in table 6.3.

Field Name Data Type Description

ClientID int Stores client id
FatherName char Stores the name of the client's father
MotherName char Stores the name of the client's mother
Amount money Stores the principal amount
Period int Stores period for insurance
Plan char Stores plan for insurance
Premium money Stores premium
NomineeName char Stores nominee name
Date datetime Stores the date on which insurance is made
Table 6.3: CustomerDetails Table

c. Add a foreign key constraint for ClientID to CustomerDetails table.

d. Create a CHECK constraint in CustomerDetails table to ensure that the Amount value will
always be non-zero.

e. Add NOT NULL constraint to Period, Plan, and Premium columns.

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 Session - 7
Azure SQL
Welcome to the Session, Azure SQL. This session explains Azure SQL and its benefits.
It also lists differences between Azure SQL and on-premises SQL Server. Finally, the
session explains the process to create a cloud database and connect Azure SQL database
with SSMS.
In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain Azure SQL

➢ List the features and benefits of Azure SQL
➢ State the differences between Azure SQL and on-premises SQL Server
➢ Explain steps to connect Azure SQL with SSMS

7.1 Introduction
Cloud computing is a technology trend, that involves delivery of software, platforms, and infrastructure as
services through the Internet. Microsoft Azure is a key offering in Microsoft's suite of cloud computing
products and services. The database functions of Microsoft's cloud platform are provided by Azure SQL.

The data on Azure SQL does not have the constraint of being location-specific. This means that data stored
in Azure SQL can be viewed and edited from any location, as the entire data is stored on cloud storage
platform.

7.2 Azure SQL

Consider a scenario of the Income Tax department. During the month of March, the department is flooded
with heavy workload. During the rest of the year, the workload may be less. As a result, resources, server,
and computing power are under-utilized during those months and over-utilized during peak periods. In
such a scenario, using a cloud database service such as Microsoft Azure SQL can help in optimal use of
resources only as and when required.

Azure SQL is a cloud based relational database service that leverages existing SQL Server technologies. It
extends the functionality of Microsoft SQL Server for developing applications that are Web-based,
scalable, and distributed. Azure SQL is not just a single product but refers to a family of managed,
intelligent, and secure products that use the SQL Server database engine in the Azure cloud.

Azure SQL was earlier known by other names such as SQL Azure, SQL Server Data Services, SQL
Services, and Windows Azure SQL Database. From the time it was first released in 2010 and then renamed
to Azure SQL in 2014 to the present version, there have been many new features and enhancements added
to it.

Azure SQL can be used to store and manage data using queries and other functions that are similar to SQL

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Server 2019. Azure SQL also enables users to perform relational queries, search operations, and
synchronize data with mobile users and remote back offices. Azure SQL can store and retrieve both
structured and unstructured data.

It can also be used in collaboration with other Azure applications, through Visual Studio IDE as shown in
figure 7.1.

Figure 7.1: Example of Using Azure SQL

One of the competitors to Azure SQL is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its Relational Database
Services (RDS) product. Azure SQL is often compared to AWS RDS.

Azure SQL is:

3.6 86%
Times Less
expensive
Faster than AWS

Both cloud based as well as on-premises applications can use the Azure SQL database. Applications
retrieve data from Azure SQL through a protocol known as Tabular Data Stream (TDS). This protocol is
not new to Azure SQL. Whenever on-premises applications involve interaction with SQL Server Database
Engine, this protocol is used by the client and the server.

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7.3 Services and Products in the Azure SQL Family
Following are services and products in the Azure SQL family:

SQL Server on Azure SQL Azure SQL Azure SQL

Azure Virtual Managed Database Edge
Machines Instance
Facilitates migration Is the intelligent, Is the intelligent, Is a small-footprint,
of existing apps or scalable, cloud scalable, relational edge-optimized SQL
building new apps on database service database service built database engine with
the cloud for mission- combining the for the cloud. It is built-in Artificial
critical SQL Server broadest SQL Server always up to date, Intelligence (AI).
workloads. engine compatibility with AI-powered and
with benefits of a fully automated features
managed platform as that optimize
a service. performance.

Figure 7.2 outlines these services along with depicting their purpose.

Figure 7.2: Azure SQL Services

SQL Server in a VM is ideal for existing applications that require full product functionality. It offers up to
20,000 Input/output Operations Per Second (IOPS) in terms of scalability.

Azure SQL Database on the other hand is more suited for applications that require elastic scale and/or
lesser overhead. Azure SQL Database can scale out to thousands of databases and process terabytes of
data.

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7.4 Azure SQL Architecture
Azure SQL Architecture comprises four key layers, as shown in figure 7.3.

Figure 7.3: Azure SQL Architecture

Client Layer Platform Layer

Acts as an interface for applications. Includes systems (data nodes) that host
Includes SQL Server tools, Open actual Azure SQL Server in the data center.
Database Connectivity (ODBC), Each SQL Database is stored in one of the
ADO.NET, and Hypertext Preprocessor nodes and is replicated twice across two
(PHP). different physical servers. Azure SQL
ensures that multiple copies of servers are
TDS transfers data between applications kept within the Azure Cloud. It also ensures
and SQL Databases and also that the copies are synchronized when data
communicates with applications. in them is manipulated.

Service Layer Infrastructure Layer

Lies in between platform and client layers Is the bottom-most layer of the
and acts as a doorway between the two. It architecture and is responsible for
validates Microsoft Azure SQL Database administration of OS and physical
requests and authenticates a user. Also, it hardware.
establishes a connection between client and
server and routes packets using this
connection.

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7.5 Features and Benefits of Azure SQL
Features and benefits of Azure SQL are as follows:
Azure SQL provides several features similar to on-premises SQL Server at a lower
Lower cost cost. Also, as Azure SQL is on the cloud platform, it can be accessed from any
location. Hence, there is no additional cost required to develop a dedicated IT
infrastructure and department to manage the databases.

Elastic Pool feature in Azure SQL allows you to assign a shared set of compute
Scalability resources to a collection of Azure SQL databases. The benefit of this is that, a single
database can be moved in and out of an elastic pool, which gives us flexibility and
in turn, achieve cost efficiency.

TDS is used in on-premises SQL Server databases for client libraries. Hence, most
Usage of developers are familiar with TDS and its use. The same kind of TDS interface is used
TDS in Azure SQL to build client libraries. Hence, it is easier for developers to work on
Azure SQL.

Azure SQL stores multiple copies of data on different physical locations. Even if
Automatic there is a hardware failure due to heavy usage or excessive load, Azure SQL helps
failover to maintain business operations by providing availability of data through other
measures physical locations. This is done by using automatic failover measures that are
provided in Azure SQL.

Even small organizations can use Azure SQL as pricing model for Azure SQL is
Flexibility
based on the storage capacity that is used by an organization. If the organization
in service requires more storage, the price can be altered to suit the requirement. This helps
usage organizations to be flexible in the investment depending on the service usage.

Transact- As Azure SQL is completely based on the relational database model, it also
supports Transact-SQL operations and queries. This concept is similar to the
SQL working of the on-premises SQL Servers. Hence, administrators do not need any
support additional training or support to use Azure SQL.

7.6 Difference between Azure SQL and On-Premises SQL Server

Major difference between Azure SQL and on-premises SQL Server is the presence of physical hardware
and storage. Some other key distinctions between Azure SQL and on-premises SQL Server are as follows:

On-premises SQL Server provides a number of tools for monitoring and

Tools management. All these tools may not be supported by Azure SQL, as there are a
limited set of tools that are available in this version.

Backup and restore function must be supported in on-premises SQL Server for
Backup disaster recovery. For Azure SQL, as all the data is on the cloud platform, backup
and restore is not required.

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 USE statement USE statement is not supported by Azure SQL. Hence, the user cannot switch
between databases in Azure SQL as compared to on-premises SQL Server.

Azure SQL supports only SQL Server authentication and on-premises SQL Server
Authentication supports both SQL Server authentication and Windows Authentication.

Transact-SQL Not all Transact-SQL functions are supported by Azure SQL.

support

Accounts and In Azure SQL, administrative accounts are created in the Azure management portal.
Logins Hence, there are no separate instance-level user logins.

Firewalls Firewalls settings for allowed ports and IP addresses can be managed on physical
servers for on-premises SQL Server. As an Azure SQL database is present on cloud,
authentication through logins is the only method to verify the user.

7.7 Azure SQL Pricing

There are two types of approaches one can use to work with Azure SQL:

1. Sign up for an Azure Free Account and get credit for 30 days and get 12 months of free access to
Azure SQL Database. After 30 days, however, your Azure account will be charged.

2. Alternatively, opt for a paid purchasing model. This approach is complicated because various
database service-tier options such as Database Transaction Units (DTUs), maximum database size,
and disaster recovery options are used to determine pricing instead of hardware (CPU/RAM/HD).
A DTU is a metric that defines a mixture of CPU, memory, and read/write rates.

Paid purchasing models in turn have two categories:

Virtual core DTU-based

(vCore)- Is available for both Azure SQL purchasing
Database and Azure SQL Managed model Provides bundled
based Instance.
purchasing compute and storage
Provides a choice between a packages balanced for
model common workloads.
provisioned compute tier and a
serverless compute tier. With the DTU-based purchasing
provisioned compute tier, you can model is available for
choose exact amount of compute Azure SQL Database.
resources provisioned for workload.
With serverless compute tier, you
specify autoscaling of the compute
resources over a range.

Refer to the Website http://dtucalculator.azurewebsites.net/ to determine DTU based costs.

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For a single database, the vCore-based purchase model is ideal as it is flexible and allows you to scale
memory and storage based on your requirements. Using the serverless compute tier optimizes price and
performance.

7.8 Connect to Azure SQL with SSMS

To access Azure SQL with SSMS, a Microsoft Azure account must be created. To begin with, you can opt
for a free trial account for 30 days.

1. Type the address http://portal.azure.com in the Address bar of your browser. You will be redirected
to a page to enter your login credentials. Refer to Figure 7.4.

Figure 7.4: Signing Into Microsoft Account

2. If you already have a Microsoft account, you can use that to sign in. Refer to figure 7.5.

Figure 7.5: Signing Up For Azure Account

The Azure Portal page will open up and you will be prompted with a variety of actions as shown in figure
7.6.

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 Figure 7.6: Azure Portal

Click Start under Start with an Azure free trial. You will be asked to fill in your profile details and
verify your identity through phone and credit card as shown in figures 7.7,7.8, and 7.9 (steps 1, 2, and 3).

Figure 7.7: Entering Profile Figure 7.8: Verifying Identity Details

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 Figure 7.9: Identity Verification by Credit Card

Finally, upon successful verification of your credit card, your account will be set up. You will see various
services available under Azure services. Click SQL databases under Azure services as shown in figure
7.10.

Figure 7.10: Azure Services

The SQL databases page will be displayed as shown in figure 7.11. Here, you can create and work with

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Azure SQL databases.

Figure 7.11: SQL Databases Page

Click Create SQL database at the bottom of the page. You will be asked to fill up information such as
database name and server name. Refer to Figure 7.12.

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 Figure 7.12: Entering New Database Details

Since a database server does not exist yet, you will create a new one as shown in figure 7.13.

Figure 7.13: Creating a New Database Server

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Observe the rules for the login name shown in figure 7.14.

Figure 7.14: Rules for Server Admin Login Name

Ensure that you specify valid details. Refer to Figure 7.15 for an example.

Figure 7.15: Specifying Valid Details for the New Server

When you finish creating the new server and specify that server name, click Review+create on Create
SQL Database page. The database will be successfully created and a dashboard will be displayed as shown

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in figure 7.16.

Figure 7.16: Database Dashboard

Now that the database is ready, you can use SSMS to work with it, just as you do with on-premises SQL
Server databases.

The process of connecting Azure SQL with SSMS is as follows:

1. Sign in to your Microsoft Azure account online.

2. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
3. In the Connect to Server dialog box, specify the name of the Azure SQL server as shown in figure
7.17. Each user account of Azure SQL has a specific Server name.

Figure 7.17: Connect to Server Dialog Box with Azure SQL Server

4. In the Authentication box, select SQL Server Authentication.

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5. In the Login box, type the name of the Azure SQL administrator account and the password.
6. Click Connect. You may then be prompted to create a new firewall rule as shown in figure 7.18.

Figure 7.18: Creating New Firewall Rule

7. Sign in to Azure by clicking Sign In. Your client IP address will be automatically populated in the
corresponding box as shown in figure 7.19.

Figure 7.19: Adding Client IP Address to the Rule

8. Click Connect. The connection to the database is successfully established. You will see the Azure
SQL Database in the Object Explorer.

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9. Right-click the Tables node and click New→Table as shown in figure 7.20.

Figure 7.20: Creating a New Table

10. Add columns and save the table as shown in figure 7.21.

Figure 7.21: Specifying Columns and Table Name

11. Open the Azure portal and in the SQL Database dashboard, click Query Editor on the left pane.

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12. You will be asked to authenticate your user credentials. Specify the login name and password as
shown in figure 7.22.

Figure 7.22: Specifying Login Details for SQL Database Query Editor

13. The Query Editor on the cloud will be displayed. Observe in figure 7.23 that the table you created in
SSMS is now visible on the left pane. Thus, you created a table on the cloud SQL Server database
using local SSMS.

Figure 7.23: Query Editor Showing Newly Created Table

Now, you can perform similar other tasks, including creating and executing queries from SSMS on cloud
databases.

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7.9 Check Your Progress
1. Which of these are services under Azure SQL?

(A) SQL Server on Azure Virtual (C) Azure SQL Database

Machines
(B) Azure SQL Managed Instance (D) All of these

2. Which one of the following protocols is used by applications retrieve data from SQL Server?
(A) ABS (C) TDS
(B) DTS (D) WSQL

3. Which of the following authentication is required to connect to Azure SQL?

(A) Windows Authentication (C) System Administrator Authentication
(B) SQL Server Authentication (D) No Authentication

4. Which layer in the Azure SQL architecture offers Provisioning, Billing and Metering, and
Connection Routing?
(A) Client Layer (C) Infrastructure Layer
(B) Service Layer (D) None of these

5. Identify the statements that are true:

a) USE statement is not supported by Azure SQL. Hence, the user cannot switch between databases
in Azure SQL as compared to on-premises SQL Server.
b) For a single database, the vCore-based purchase model is ideal as it is flexible and allows you to
scale memory and storage based on your requirements.
c) Automatic failover measures are provided in Azure SQL.
d) All Transact-SQL functions are supported by Azure SQL.
e) In Azure SQL, there are separate instance-level user logins.

(A) a, b, c (C) a, c, d
(B) c, d, e (D) c, d

6. TDS stands for .

(A) Tabular Data Stream (C) Tabular Distinction Stream
(B) Tabular Data System (D) Tabular Direct Stream

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7.9.1 Answers
1. D
2. C
3. B
4. B
5. A
6. A

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 Summary
➢ Microsoft Azure SQL is a cloud based relational database service that leverages existing SQL
Server technologies.
➢ Azure SQL enables users to perform relational queries, search operations, and synchronize data
with mobile users and remote back offices.
➢ Azure SQL can store and retrieve both structured and unstructured data.
➢ Applications retrieve data from Azure SQL through a protocol known as Tabular Data Stream
(TDS).
➢ SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance,
and Azure SQL Edge are the services under Azure SQL.
➢ Users can connect to Azure SQL using SSMS.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Create a database named Library on Azure SQL.

2. Then, using SSMS, create a Members table in this database with following columns:

CardNo: 5 characters
LastName: up to 15 characters
FirstName: up to 15 characters
Address: up to 150 characters
DOB: date
Gender: 1 char (M or F)
Phone_No: up to 15 characters

3. Then, create a Books table with following columns:

BookID: up to 5 characters
Title: up to 200 characters
Author: up to 100 characters
Publish Date: date

Verify using Azure SQL Query Editor whether the tables have been created.

4. Alter the tables to add CardNo as primary key in Members and BookID as primary key in
Books table.
5. Insert some rows into the Members and Books tables on the cloud database, Library.
6. Display records from Members table.
7. Display records from Books table.
8. Create a database named Supermarket on Azure SQL.
9. Create tables Customer, Products, and ProductOrders in this database with following
structures:

Customer

CustNo: 5 characters
FirstName: up to 45 characters
LastName: up to 45 characters
Address: up to 150 characters
DOB: date
Gender: 1 char (M or F)
Phone_No: up to 15 characters

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 Products
ProductNo: int, primary key
Name: up to 45 characters
Category: up to 15 characters
Manufacturer: up to 45 characters

ProductOrders
ProductNo: int, foreign key
OrderDate: date
Quantity: int
CustNo: 5 characters

10. Insert rows into these tables.

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 Session - 8
Accessing Data
Welcome to the Session, Accessing Data.

This session describes SELECT statement. It also explains the expressions and various
clauses used with SELECT statement. Finally, the session introduces the new xml data type
and describes how to work with XML data in SQL Server 2019 tables.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Describe SELECT statement, its syntax, and use

➢ Explain various clauses used with SELECT
➢ State the use of ORDER BY clause
➢ Describe working with typed and untyped XML
➢ Explain the procedure to create, use, and view XML schemas

8.1 Introduction
The SELECT statement is a core command used to access data in SQL Server 2019. XML allows developers
to develop their own set of tags and makes it possible for other programs to understand these tags. XML is
the preferred means for developers to store, format, and manage data on the Web.

8.2 SELECT Statement

A table with its data can be viewed using the SELECT statement. The SELECT statement in a query will
display the required information in a table. The SELECT statement retrieves rows and columns from one or
more tables. The output of the SELECT statement is another table called resultset. The SELECT statement
also joins two tables or retrieves a subset of columns from one or more tables. The SELECT statement defines
the columns to be used for a query. The syntax of SELECT statement can consist of a series of expressions
separated by commas. Each expression in the statement is a column in the resultset. The columns appear
in the same sequence as the order of the expression in the SELECT statement. The SELECT statement
retrieves rows from the database and enables the selection of one or many rows
or columns from a table. Following is the syntax for the SELECT statement.

Syntax:

SELECT <column_name1>...<column_nameN> FROM <table_name>

where,
table_name: is the table from which the data will be displayed.
<column_name1>...<column_nameN>: are the columns that are to be displayed.

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8.2.1 SELECT Without FROM
Many SQL versions use FROM in their query, but in all the versions from SQL Server 2005, including SQL
Server 2019, one can use SELECT statements without using the FROM clause. Code Snippet 1 demonstrates the
use of SELECT statement without using the FROM clause.

Code Snippet 1:

SELECT LEFT('International',5)

The code will display only the first five characters from the extreme left of the word 'International'.

The output is shown in figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1: First Five Characters from the Extreme Left of the Word

8.2.2 Displaying All Columns

The asterisk (*) is used in the SELECT statement to retrieve all the columns from the table. It is used as a
shorthand to list all the column names in the table named in the FROM clause. Following is the syntax for
selecting all columns.

Syntax:

SELECT * FROM <table_name>

where,
*: specifies all columns of the named tables in the FROM clause.
<table_name>: is the name of the table from which the information is to be retrieved. It is possible
to include any number of tables. When two or more tables are used, the row of each table is mapped
with the row of others. This activity takes a lot of time if the data in the tables are huge. Hence, it is
recommended to use this syntax with a condition.

Code Snippet 2 demonstrates the use of ' * ' in the SELECT statement.

Code Snippet 2:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM HumanResources.Employee
GO

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The partial output of Code Snippet 2 with some columns of HumanResources.Employee table is shown
in figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2: Displaying All Columns

8.2.3 Displaying Selected Columns

The SELECT statement displays or returns certain relevant columns that are chosen by the user or
mentioned in the statement. To display specific columns, knowledge of the relevant column names in the
table is required. Following is the syntax for selecting specific columns.

Syntax:

SELECT <column_name1>..<column_nameN> FROM <table_name>

where,
<column_name1>..<column_nameN>: are the columns that are to be displayed.

For example, to display the cost rates in various locations from Production.Location table in
AdventureWorks2019 database, the SELECT statement is shown in Code Snippet 3.

Code Snippet 3:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT LocationID, CostRate FROM Production.Location
GO

Figure 8.3 shows LocationID and CostRate columns from AdventureWorks2019 database.

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 Figure 8.3: LocationID and CostRate Columns

8.3 Different Expressions with SELECT

SELECT statement allows users to specify different expressions in order to view the resultset in an ordered
manner. These expressions assign different names to columns in the resultset, compute values, and
eliminate duplicate values.

8.3.1 Using Constants in Result Sets

Character string constants are used when character columns are joined. They help in proper formatting or
readability. These constants are not specified as a separate column in the resultset. It is usually more
efficient for an application to build the constant values into the results when they are displayed, rather than
making use of the server to incorporate the constant values. For example, to include ' : ' and '->' in the
resultset so as to display the country name, country region code, and its corresponding group, the SELECT
statement is shown in Code Snippet 4.

Code Snippet 4:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT Name +':'+ CountryRegionCode +'->'+ Group FROM Sales.SalesTerritory
GO

In this code, the column name Group of Sales.SalesTerritory is given in brackets because it must
not conflict with the keyword GROUP of Transact-SQL.

Figure 8.4 displays the country name, country region code, and corresponding group from
Sales.SalesTerritory of AdventureWorks2019 database.

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 Figure 8.4: Country Name, Country Region Code, and Corresponding Group

8.3.2 Renaming ResultSet Column Names

Columns displayed in resultsets of queries have corresponding headings specified in the table. These
headings can be changed, renamed, or can be assigned a new name by using AS clause. By customizing
the headings, they become more understandable and meaningful.

If you observe, the output in figure 8.4 had no column heading. The code in Code Snippet 4 can be
modified as given in Code Snippet 5 in order to display a named column heading.

Code Snippet 5:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT Name +':'+ CountryRegionCode +'->'+ [Group] AS NameRegionGroup FROM
Sales.SalesTerritory
GO

Figure 8.5 shows the output.

Figure 8.5: Column Heading Modified to NameRegionGroup

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Code Snippet 6 demonstrates another example for this. It shows how to display 'ChangedDate' as the
heading for ModifiedDate column in the Person.Person table, the SELECT statement.

Code Snippet 6:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT ModifiedDate as 'ChangedDate' FROM Person.Person
GO

The output displays'ChangedDate' as the heading for ModifiedDate column in the Person.Person
table. Figure 8.6 shows the original heading and the changed heading.

Figure 8.6: Column Heading Modified to ChangedDate

8.3.3 Computing Values in ResultSet

A SELECT statement can contain mathematical expressions by applying operators to one or more columns. It
allows a resultset to contain values that do not exist in the base table, but which are calculated from the
values stored in the base table.

Note - The table used in the FROM clause of a query is called as a base table.

For example, consider the table Production.ProductCostHistory from AdventureWorks2019

database. Consider the example where the production people decide to give 15% discount on the standard
cost of all the products. The discount amount does not exist but can be calculated by executing the SELECT
statement shown in Code Snippet 7.

Code Snippet 7:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT ProductID,StandardCost,StandardCost * 0.15 AS Discount FROM
Production.ProductCostHistory
GO

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Figure 8.7 shows the output where discount amount is calculated using SELECT statement.

Figure 8.7: Calculated Discount Amount

8.3.4 Using DISTINCT

The keyword DISTINCT prevents the retrieval of duplicate records. It eliminates rows that are repeating from
the resultset of a SELECT statement. For example, if the StandardCost column is selected without using the
DISTINCT keyword, it will display all the standard costs present in the table. On using the DISTINCT
keyword in the query, SQL Server will display every record of StandardCost only once as shown in Code
Snippet 8.

Code Snippet 8:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT DISTINCT StandardCost FROM Production.ProductCostHistory
GO

8.3.5 Using TOP and PERCENT

The TOP keyword will display only first few set of rows as a resultset. The set of rows is either limited to a
number or a percent of rows. The TOP expression can also be used with other statements such as INSERT,
UPDATE, and DELETE.

Syntax:

SELECT [ALL|DISTINCT] [TOP expression [PERCENT] [WITH TIES]]

where,
expression: is the number or the percentage of rows to be returned as the result.
PERCENT: returns the number of rows limited by percentage.
WITH TIES: is the additional number of rows that is to be displayed.

The SELECT statement has various clauses associated with it.

8.3.6 SELECT with INTO

The INTO clause creates a new table and inserts rows and columns listed in the SELECT statement into it.

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INTO clause also inserts existing rows into the new table. In order to execute this clause with the SELECT
statement, the user must have the permission to CREATE TABLE in the destination database.

Syntax:

SELECT <column_name1>..<column_nameN> [INTO new_table] FROM table_list

where,
new_table: is the name of the new table that is to be created.

Code Snippet 9 uses an INTO clause which creates a new table Production.ProductName with details
such as the product's ID and its name from the table Production.ProductModel.

Code Snippet 9:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT ProductModelID, Name INTO Production.ProductName FROM Production.
ProductModel
GO

After executing the code, a message stating '(128 row(s) affected)' is displayed. If a query is written to
display the rows of the new table, the output will be similar to figure 8.8.

Figure 8.8: New Table

8.3.7 SELECT with WHERE

The WHERE clause with SELECT statement is used to conditionally select or limit the records retrieved by
the query. A WHERE clause specifies a Boolean expression to test the rows returned by the query. The row is
returned if the expression is true and is discarded if it is false.

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Syntax:

SELECT <column_name1>...<column_nameN> FROM <table_name> WHERE <

search_condition>

where,
search_condition: is the condition to be met by the rows.

Table 8.1 shows different operators that can be used with the WHERE clause.
Operator Description
= Equal to
<> Not equal to
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to
! Not

Operator Description
BETWEEN Between a range
LIKE Search for an ordered pattern
IN Within a range
Table 8.1: Operators

Code Snippet 10 demonstrates the equal to operator with WHERE clause to display data with EndDate
'2013-05-29 00:00:00.000'.

Code Snippet 10:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM Production.ProductCostHistory WHERE EndDate='2013-05-29 00:00:00.000'
GO

Code Snippet 10 will return all records from the table Production.ProductCostHistory which has
the end date as 2013-05-29 00:00:00.000.

The output of the SELECT with WHERE clause will return is shown a large number of rows. Some of the
output is shown in figure 8.9.

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 Figure 8.9: SELECT with WHERE clause
All queries in SQL use single quotes to enclose the text values. For example, consider the following query,
which retrieves all the records from Person.Address table having Bothell as city.

Code Snippet 11 demonstrates the equal to operator with WHERE clause to display data with address
having Bothell city.

Code Snippet 11:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM Person.Address WHERE City='Bothell'
GO

The output of the query will return is shown a large number of rows. Some of the output is shown in
figure 8.10.

Figure 8.10: Query with Single Quotes

Numeric values are not enclosed within any quotes as shown in Code Snippet 12.

Code Snippet 12:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM HumanResources.Department WHERE DepartmentID < 10
GO

The query in Code Snippet 12 displays all those records where the value in DepartmentID is less than
10. The output of the query is shown in figure 8.11.

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 Figure 8.11: Output of Where Clause with < Operator
WHERE clause can also be used with wildcard characters as shown in table 8.2. All wildcard characters are
used along with LIKE keyword to make the query accurate and specific.

Wildcard Description Example

_ It will display a single character SELECT * FROM Person.Contact WHERE
Suffix LIKE 'Jr_'
% It will display a string of any length SELECT * FROM Person.Contact WHERE
LastName LIKE 'B%'
[ ] It will display a single character within SELECT * FROM Sales.CurrencyRate
the range enclosed in the brackets WHERE ToCurrencyCode LIKE
'C[AN][DY]'
[^] It will display any single character not SELECT * FROM Sales.CurrencyRate
within the range enclosed in the brackets WHERE ToCurrencyCode LIKE
'A[^R][^S]'

Table 8.2: Wildcard Characters

WHERE clause also uses logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. These operators are used with search
conditions in WHERE clauses.

AND operator joins two or more conditions and returns TRUE only when both the conditions are TRUE.
Therefore, it returns all the rows from the tables where both the conditions that are listed are true.

Code Snippet 13 demonstrates AND operator.

Code Snippet 13:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM Person.Address WHERE AddressID > 900 AND City='Seattle'
GO

OR operator returns TRUE and displays all the rows if it satisfies any one of the conditions.
Code Snippet 14 demonstrates OR operator.

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Code Snippet 14:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM Person.Address WHERE AddressID > 900 OR City='Seattle'
GO

The query in Code Snippet 14 will display all the rows whose AddressID is greater than 900 or whose
City is Seattle.

The NOT operator negates the search condition. Code Snippet 15 demonstrates NOT operator.

Code Snippet 15:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM Person.Address WHERE NOT AddressID = 5
GO

Code Snippet 15 will display all the records whose AddressID is not equal to 5. Multiple logical operators
in a single SELECT statement can be used. When more than one logical operator is used, NOT is evaluated
first, then AND, and finally OR.

8.3.8 GROUP BY Clause

The GROUP BY clause partitions the resultset into one or more subsets. Each subset has values and
expressions in common. If an aggregate function is used in the GROUP BY clause, the resultset produces
single value per aggregate.

The GROUP BY keyword is followed by a list of columns, known as grouped columns. Every grouped
column restricts the number of rows of the resultset. For every grouped column, there is only one row.

The GROUP BY clause can have more than one grouped column.

Syntax:

SELECT <column_name1>..<column_nameN> FROM <table_name> GROUP BY <column _name>

where,
column_name1: is the name of the column according to which the resultset should be grouped.

For example, consider that if the total number of resource hours has to be found for each work order, the
query in Code Snippet 16 would retrieve the resultset.

Code Snippet 16:

SELECT WorkOrderID,SUM(ActualResourceHrs) FROM Production.WorkOrderRouting GROUP

BY WorkOrderID
GO

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The output is shown in figure 8.12. The output shows total number of resource hours grouped by work
orders. The SUM() function is used to get the total and the GROUP BY clause is used for grouping.

Figure 8.12: GROUP BY Clause

The GROUP BY clause can be used with different clauses, such as WHERE, ORDER BY, and HAVING. For
example, Code Snippet 17 shows the use of HAVING with GROUP BY.

Code Snippet 17:

USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT WorkOrderID, SUM(ActualResourceHrs) FROM Production.WorkOrderRouting
GROUP BY WorkOrderID HAVING WorkOrderID <50
GO

The output will show total resource hours only for those workers that have WorkOrderID less than 50.

8.4 ORDER BY Clause

It specifies the order in which the columns should be sorted in a resultset. It sorts query results by one or
more columns. A sort can be in either ascending (ASC) or descending (DESC) order. By default, records are
sorted in an ASC order. To switch to the descending mode, use the optional keyword DESC. When multiple
fields are used, SQL Server considers the leftmost field as the primary level of sort and others as lower levels
of sort.

Syntax:

SELECT <column_name> FROM <table_name> ORDER BY column_name> {ASC|DESC}

The SELECT statement in Code Snippet 18 sorts the query results on the SalesLastYear column of the
Sales.SalesTerritory table.

Code Snippet 18:

SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesTerritory ORDER BY SalesLastYear

GO

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The output is shown in figure 8.13.

Figure 8.13: ORDER BY Clause

8.5 Working with XML

Extensible Markup Language (XML) allows developers to develop their own set of tags and makes it
possible for other programs to understand these tags. XML is the preferred means for developers to store,
format, and manage data on the Web. Applications of today have a mix of technologies such as ASP,
Microsoft .NET technologies, XML, and SQL Server 2019 working in tandem. In such a scenario, it is
better to store XML data within SQL Server 2019.

Native XML databases in SQL Server 2019 have a number of advantages. Some of them are listed as
follows:

Easy Data Search and Management - All the XML data is stored locally in one place,
thus making it easier to search and manage.

Better Performance - Queries from a well-implemented XML database are faster

than queries over documents stored in a file system. Also, the database essentially
parses each document when storing it.

Easy data processing - Large documents can be processed easily.

SQL Server 2019 supports native storage of XML data by using the xml data type. A native XML database
defines a logical model for an XML document -- as opposed to the data in that document -- and stores and
retrieves documents according to that model. At a minimum, the model must include elements, attributes,
PCDATA, and document order.

A native XML database has an XML document as its fundamental unit of (logical) storage, just as a
relational database has a row in a table as its fundamental unit of (logical) storage.

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8.5.1 XML Data Type
In addition to regular commonly used data types, SQL Server 2019 supports the xml data type. The xml
data type is used to store XML documents and fragments in an SQL Server database. An XML fragment
is an XML instance with the top-level element missing from its structure. Following is the syntax to
create a table with columns of type xml:

Syntax:

CREATE TABLE <table_name> ( [ column_list,] <column_name> xml [, column_list])

Code Snippet 19 creates a new table named PhoneBilling with CallDetails column belonging to xml
data type. It is assumed that AdventureWorks2019 is selected as the database.

Code Snippet 19:

CREATE TABLE Person.PhoneBilling (Bill_ID int PRIMARY KEY, MobileNumber bigint

UNIQUE, CallDetails xml)
GO

A column of type xml can also be added to a table at the time of creation or after its creation. The xml
data type columns support DEFAULT values as well as NOT NULL constraint. Data can be inserted into the
xml column in the Person.PhoneBilling table as shown in Code Snippet 20.

Code Snippet 20:

USE AdventureWorks2019
INSERT INTO Person.PhoneBilling VALUES (100,9833276605,
'<Info><Call>Local</Call><Time>45 minutes</Time><Charges>200</Charges>
</Info>')
SELECT CallDetails FROM Person.PhoneBilling
GO

The output is shown in figure 8.14. The CallDetails column shows the XML document that has been
added as a single value. Thus, each row in the Person.PhoneBilling table can have an XML
document in the CallDetails column.

Figure 8.14: XML Data in Columns

The DECLARE statement is used to create variables of type xml. The purpose of the DECLARE statement is
used to declare a variable in SQL Server.

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The syntax of the DECLARE statement is as follows:

Syntax:

DECLARE { @LOCAL_VARIABLE data_type [ = value ] }

Local variable names have to start with an at (@) sign. The value argument which is indicated in the
syntax is an optional parameter that helps to assign an initial value to a variable during the declaration. If
you do not specify any initial value assigned to a variable, it is initialized as NULL.

Code Snippet 21 shows how to create a variable of type xml.

Code Snippet 21:

DECLARE @xmlvar xml

SELECT @xmlvar='<Employee name="Joan" />'

The xml data type columns cannot be used as a primary key, foreign key, or as a unique constraint.

8.5.2 Typed and Untyped XML

There are two ways of storing XML documents in the xml data type columns, namely, typed and untyped
XML. An XML instance which has a schema associated with it is called typed XML instance. A schema
is a header for an XML instance or document. It describes the structure and limits the contents of XML
documents by associating xml data types with XML element types and attributes. Associating XML
schemas with the XML instances or documents is recommended because data can be validated while it is
being stored into the xml data type column.

SQL Server does not perform any validation for data entered in the xml column. However, it ensures that
the data stored is well-formed. Untyped XML data can be created and stored in either table columns or
variables depending upon the need and scope of the data.

The first step in using typed XML is registering a schema. This is done by using the CREATE XML SCHEMA
COLLECTION statement as shown in Code Snippet 22.

Code Snippet 22:

CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION SoccerSchemaCollection

AS N'<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" >
<xsd:element name="MatchDetails">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexContent>
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:anyType">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="Team" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexContent>
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:anyType">
<xsd:sequence />

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 <xsd:attribute name="country" type="xsd:string" />
<xsd:attribute name="score" type="xsd:string" />
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:complexContent>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:complexContent>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>'
GO

The CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION statement creates a collection of schemas, any of which can be used
to validate typed XML data with the name of the collection. This example shows a new schema called
SoccerSchemaCollection being added to the AdventureWorks2019 database. Once a schema is
registered, the schema can be used in new instances of the xml data type.

Code Snippet 23 creates a table with an xml type column and specifies a schema for the column.

Code Snippet 23:

CREATE TABLE SoccerTeam ( TeamID int identity not null, TeamInfo xml
(SoccerSchemaCollection) )

To create new rows with the typed XML data, the INSERT statement can be used as shown in Code
Snippet 24.

Code Snippet 24:

INSERT INTO SoccerTeam (TeamInfo) VALUES ('<MatchDetails><Team country="Australia"

score="3"></Team><Team country="Zimbabwe" score="2"></Team><Team
country="England" score="4"></Team></MatchDetails>')

A normal SELECT can display the data in XML format and on clicking the data in the output, it is
expanded to reveal the full XML. Figures 8.15 and 8.16 depict this.

Figure 8.15: Displaying XML Column with SELECT

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 Figure 8.16: Expanded XML Data in Column

A typed XML variable can also be created by specifying the schema collection name. For instance, in
Code Snippet 25, a variable team is declared as a typed XML variable with schema name as
SoccerSchemaCollection. The SET statement is used to assign the variable as an XML fragment.

Code Snippet 25:

DECLARE @team xml(SoccerSchemaCollection)

SET @team = '<MatchDetails><Team country="Australia"></Team></MatchDetails>'
SELECT @team
GO

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8.6 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following allows developers to develop their own set of tags and makes it possible for
other programs to understand these tags?
(A) XQuery (C) DHTML

(B) HTML (D) XML

2. The statement retrieves rows and columns from one or more tables.
(A) SELECT (C) INSERT

(B) DISPLAY (D) SHOW

3. Which of the following is the correct code to display all records from
EmployeeDepartmentHistory for all employees who have DepartmentID more than 10 and
whose ShiftID is 1?
USE AdventureWorks2019 USE AdventureWorks2019
SELECT * FROM SELECT * FROM
[HumanResources].[EmployeeDepartm [HumanResources].[EmployeeDepart
(A) (C)
entHistory] WHERE DepartmentID > mentHistory] WHERE DepartmentID
10 with ShiftID=1 > 10 OR ShiftID=1

USE AdventureWorks2019 USE AdventureWorks2019

SELECT * FROM SELECT * FROM
(B) HumanResources].[EmployeeDepartmen (D) [HumanResources].[EmployeeDepart
tHistory] WHERE DepartmentID > 10 mentHistory] WHERE DepartmentID
AND ShiftID=1 > 10

4. Which of the following clause with the SELECT statement is used to specify tables to retrieve records?
(A) WHERE (C) .VALUE
(B) FROM (D) .WRITE

5. _____________________ is used to improve the efficiency of queries on XML documents that are
stored in an XML column.

(A) XML indexing (C) XML querying

(B) XML import (D) XML export

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8.6.1 Answers
1. D
2. A
3. B
4. B
5. A

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 Summary
➢ The SELECT statement retrieves rows and columns from tables.
➢ SELECT statement allows users to specify different expressions in order to view the resultset in
an ordered manner.
➢ A SELECT statement can contain mathematical expressions by applying operators to one or
more columns.
➢ The keyword DISTINCT prevents the retrieval of duplicate records.
➢ XML allows developers to develop their own set of tags and makes it possible for other programs
to understand these tags.
➢ A typed XML instance is an XML instance which has a schema associated with it.
➢ XML data can be queried and retrieved using XQuery language.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Transcorp United Inc. is an import export company in USA. The database for the company is
created in SQL Server 2019. Transcorp has around 3,000 employees worldwide. The details of the
employees such as Employee Code, Employee Name, Employee Department, Date of Joining,
City, and so on are stored in Employee_Details table.
As the database administrator of Transcorp, you have to perform the following tasks:
a) Retrieve data of the employees who has joined the company before the year 2019 and after
2010.
b) Get the data of all the employees who are from Houston.

2. Using the Sales.Customer table from AdventureWorks2019 database, perform the

following tasks:
a) Write a SELECT statement that lists only non-duplicate and non NULL Store Ids in sorted
order.
b) Write a SELECT statement that lists all customer details whose TerritoryID is less than
10.

3. Using the Sales.SalesOrderHeader table from AdventureWorks2019 database, perform

the following task:

a) Write a SELECT statement that lists customer ID numbers and sales order ID numbers.

4. Write a query displaying all the columns of the Production.ProductCostHistory table from
the rows that were modified on June 17, 2003.

5. Using the Production.Product table from AdventureWorks2019 database, perform

the following tasks:

a) Write a query that displays the product ID and name for each product from the table with the
name starting with Chain.
b) Write a query similar to the previous one that displays the products with Lock in the name.
c) Change the last query so that the products without Lock in the name are displayed.

6. Write a query that displays all the rows from the Person.Person table where the rows were
modified after December 29, 2000. Display the business entity ID number, the name columns, and
the modified date.

7. Write a query displaying the ProductID, Name, and Color columns from rows in the
Production.Product table. Display only those rows where no color has been assigned.
8. Write a query that returns the business entity ID and name columns from the Person.Person
table.

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 Sort the results by LastName, FirstName, and MiddleName.

9. Write a query using the Sales.SpecialOffer table. Display the difference between the MinQty
and MaxQty columns along with the SpecialOfferID and Description columns.

10. Write a query using the Production.ProductReview table. Use CONTAINS to find all the rows
that have the word socks in the Comments column. Return the ProductID and Comments
columns.

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 Session - 9
Advanced Queries and Joins
Welcome to the session, Advanced Queries and Joins.

This session explains various techniques to group and aggregate data and describes the
concept of subqueries, table expressions, joins, and explores various set operators. The
session also covers pivoting and grouping set operations.

In this Session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain grouping and aggregating data

➢ Describe subqueries
➢ Describe table expressions
➢ Explain Joins
➢ Describe various types of Joins
➢ Explain the use of various set operators to combine data
➢ Describe pivoting and grouping set operations

9.1 Introduction
SQL Server 2019 includes several powerful query features that help you to retrieve data efficiently and
quickly. Data can be grouped and/or aggregated together in order to present summarized information.
Using the concept of subqueries, a resultset of a SELECT can be used as criteria for another SELECT
statement or query. Joins help you to combine column data from two or more tables based on a logical
relationship between the tables. On the other hand, set operators such as UNION and INTERSECT help you
to combine row data from two or more tables. The PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators are used to transform
the orientation of data from column-oriented to row-oriented and vice versa. The GROUPING SET
subclause of the GROUP BY clause helps to specify multiple groupings in a single query.

9.2 Grouping Data

The GROUP BY clause partitions the resultset into one or more subsets. Each subset has values and
expressions in common. The GROUP BY keyword is followed by a list of columns, known as grouped
columns. Every grouped column restricts the number of rows of the resultset. For every grouped column,
there is only one row. The GROUP BY clause can have more than one grouped column.

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Following is the syntax of the GROUP BY clause:

Syntax:
SELECT select_list FROM table_name
GROUP BY column_name1, column_name2 ,...;

where,
column_name: is the name of the column according to which the resultset should be grouped.

Consider the WorkOrderRouting table in the AdventureWorks2019 database. The total resource hours
per work order must be calculated. To achieve this, the records should be grouped by work order number,
that is, WorkOrderID.

Code Snippet 1 retrieves and displays the total resource hours per work order along with the work order
number. In this query, a built-in function named SUM() is used to calculate the total. SUM() is an aggregate
function.

Code Snippet 1:

SELECT WorkOrderID, SUM(ActualResourceHrs) AS TotalHoursPerWorkOrder FROM

Production.WorkOrderRouting GROUP BY WorkOrderID

Executing this query will return all the work order numbers along with the total number of resource
hours per work order.
A part of the output is shown in figure 9.1.

Figure 9.1: Using GROUP BY Clause

The GROUP BY clause can also be used in combination with various other clauses. These clauses are as
follows:

➢ GROUP BY with WHERE

The WHERE clause can also be used with GROUP BY clause to restrict the rows for grouping. The rows
that satisfy the search condition are considered for grouping. The rows that do not meet the conditions
in the WHERE clause are eliminated before any grouping is done.

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Code Snippet 2 shows a query that is similar to Code Snippet 1 but limits the rows displayed, by
considering only those records with WorkOrderID less than 50.

Code Snippet 2:
SELECT WorkOrderID, SUM(ActualResourceHrs) AS TotalHoursPerWorkOrder
FROM Production.WorkOrderRouting WHERE WorkOrderID <50 GROUP BY WorkOrderID

As the number of records returned is more than 25, a part of the output is shown in figure 9.2.

Figure 9.2: GROUP BY with WHERE

➢ GROUP BY with NULL

If the grouping column contains a NULL value, that row becomes a separate group in the resultset. If
the grouping column contains more than one NULL value, the NULL values are put into a single row.
Consider the Production.Product table. There are some rows in it that have NULL values in the
Class column.

Using a GROUP BY on a query for this table will take into consideration the NULL values too. For
example, Code Snippet 3 retrieves and displays the average of the list price for each Class.

Code Snippet 3:

SELECT Class, AVG (ListPrice) AS 'AverageListPrice' FROM Production.Product GROUP

BY Class

As shown in figure 9.3, the NULL values are grouped into a single row in the output.

Figure 9.3: GROUP BY with NULL

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➢ GROUP BY with ALL
The ALL keyword can also be used with the GROUP BY clause. It is significant only when the SELECT
has a WHERE clause. When ALL is used, it includes all the groups that the GROUP BY clause produces. It even
includes those groups that do not meet the search conditions.
Following is the syntax of using GROUP BY with ALL:

Syntax:
SELECT <column_name> FROM <table_name> WHERE <condition> GROUP BY ALL
<column _name>

Consider the Sales.SalesTerritory table. This table has a column named Group indicating the
geographic area to which the sales territory belongs to. Code Snippet 4 calculates and displays the total
sales for each group. The output must display all the groups regardless of whether they had any sales or
not. To achieve this, the code makes use of GROUP BY with ALL.

Code Snippet 4:
SELECT [Group],SUM(SalesYTD) AS 'TotalSales' FROM Sales.SalesTerritory WHERE
[Group] LIKE 'N%' OR [Group] LIKE 'E%' GROUP BY ALL [Group]

Apart from the rows that are displayed in Code Snippet 4, it will also display the group 'Pacific' with null
values as shown in figure 9.4. This is because the Pacific region did not have any sales.

Figure 9.4: GROUP BY with ALL

➢ GROUP BY with HAVING

HAVING clause is used only with SELECT statement to specify a search condition for a group. The
HAVING clause acts as a WHERE clause in places where the WHERE clause cannot be used against
aggregate functions such as SUM(). Once you have created groups with a GROUP BY clause, you may
wish to filter the results further. The HAVING clause acts as a filter on groups, similar to how the WHERE
clause acts as a filter on rows returned by the FROM clause. Following is the syntax of GROUP BY with
HAVING:

Syntax:
SELECT <column_name> FROM <table_name> GROUP BY <column_name> HAVING
<search_condition>

Code Snippet 5 displays the row with the group 'Pacific' as it has total sales less than 6000000.

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Code Snippet 5:
SELECT [Group],SUM(SalesYTD) AS 'TotalSales' FROM Sales.SalesTerritory WHERE
[Group] LIKE 'P%' GROUP BY ALL [Group] HAVING SUM(SalesYTD) < 6000000

The output of this is only 1 row, with Group name Pacific and total sales, 5977814.9154.

9.3 Summarizing Data

The GROUP BY clause also uses operators such as CUBE and ROLLUP to return summarized data.
The number of columns in the GROUP BY clause determines the number of summary rows in the
resultset. The operators are described as follows:

➢ CUBE:

CUBE is an aggregate operator that produces a super-aggregate row. In addition to the usual rows
provided by the GROUP BY, it also provides the summary of rows that the GROUP BY clause generates.

The summary row is displayed for every possible combination of groups in the resultset. The summary
row displays NULL in the resultset, but at the same time returns all the values for those.

Following is the syntax of CUBE:

Syntax:
SELECT <column_name> FROM <table_name> GROUP BY <column_name> WITH CUBE

Code Snippet 6 demonstrates the use of CUBE.

Code Snippet 6:

SELECT Name,CountryRegionCode,SUM(SalesYTD) AS TotalSales FROM Sales.

SalesTerritory WHERE Name <> 'Australia' AND Name<> 'Canada' GROUP BY
Name,CountryRegionCode WITH CUBE

CUBE is like an extension of the GROUP BY clause. CUBE allows you to generate subtotals for all
combinations of grouping columns specified in the GROUP BY clause.

Code Snippet 6 retrieves and displays the total sales of each country (except Australia and Canada)
and also, the total of the sales of all the countries' regions.

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The output will return more than 20 rows. A part of the output is shown in figure 9.5.

Figure 9.5: Using GROUP BY with CUBE

➢ ROLLUP:

In addition to the usual rows that are generated by the GROUP BY, it also introduces summary rows into
the resultset. It is similar to CUBE operator, but generates a resultset that shows groups arranged in a
hierarchical order. It arranges the groups from the lowest to the highest. Group hierarchy in the result is
dependent on the order in which the columns that are grouped are specified.

When generating grouping sets, ROLLUP assumes a hierarchy among the dimension columns and only
generates grouping sets based on this hierarchy. ROLLUP is often used to generate subtotals and totals
for reporting purposes. ROLLUP is commonly used to calculate the aggregates of hierarchical data such
as sales by year > quarter > month.

Following is the syntax of ROLLUP:

Syntax:
SELECT <column_name> FROM <table_name> GROUP BY <column_name> WITH ROLLUP

Code Snippet 7 demonstrates the use of ROLLUP.

Code Snippet 7:
SELECT Name, CountryRegionCode,SUM(SalesYTD) AS TotalSales FROM
Sales.SalesTerritory
WHERE Name <> 'Australia' AND Name<> 'Canada' GROUP BY
Name,CountryRegionCode
WITH ROLLUP

The output is shown in figure 9.6. As seen in the output, the query retrieves and displays total sales of
each country (except Australia and Canada), total of the sales of these countries' regions, and then,
arranges them in order from lowest to highest.

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 Figure 9.6: Using GROUP BY with ROLLUP

9.4 Aggregate Functions

Occasionally, developers may also require to perform analysis across rows, such as counting rows,
meeting specific criteria, or summarizing total sales for all orders. Aggregate functions enable to
accomplish it.

Since aggregate functions return a single value, they can be used in SELECT statements where a single
expression is used, such as SELECT, HAVING, and ORDER BY clauses. Aggregate functions ignore NULLs,
except when using COUNT(*).

Aggregate functions in a SELECT list do not generate a column alias. You may wish to use the AS
clause to provide one.

Aggregate functions in a SELECT clause operate on all rows passed to the SELECT phase. If there is no
GROUP BY clause, all rows will be summarized.

SQL Server provides many built-in aggregate functions. Commonly used functions are included in
table 9.1.

Function
Syntax Description
Name
AVG AVG(<expression>) Calculates the average of all the non-NULL numeric values in a
column.

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 Function
Syntax Description
Name
COUNT or COUNT(*) or When (*) is used, this function counts all rows, including those
COUNT_BIG COUNT(<expression>) with NULL. The function returns count of non- NULL rows
for the column when a column is specified as <expression>.
The return value of COUNT function is an int. The return
value of COUNT_BIG is a big_int.
MAX MAX(<expression>) Returns the largest number, latest date/time, or last occurring
string.
MIN MIN(<expression>) Returns the smallest number, earliest date/time, or first
occurring string.
SUM SUM(<expression>) Calculates the sum of all the non-NULL numeric values in a
column.
Table 9.1: Commonly Used Aggregate Functions

To use a built-in aggregate in a SELECT clause, consider the query in Code Snippet 8.

Code Snippet 8:
SELECT AVG([UnitPrice]) AS AvgUnitPrice, MIN([OrderQty])AS MinQty,
MAX([UnitPriceDiscount]) AS MaxDiscount
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail;

Since the query does not use a GROUP BY clause, all rows in the table will be summarized by the aggregate
formulas in the SELECT clause. The output is shown in figure 9.7.

Figure 9.7: Using Aggregate Functions

When using aggregates in a SELECT clause, all columns referenced in the SELECT list must be used as
inputs for an aggregate function or must be referenced in a GROUP BY clause. Failing this, there will be
an error. For example, the query in Code Snippet 9 will return an error.

Code Snippet 9:
SELECT SalesOrderID, AVG(UnitPrice) AS AvgPrice FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail;

This returns an error stating that the column Sales.SalesOrderDetail.SalesOrderID is invalid in

the SELECT list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause. As
the query is not using a GROUP BY clause, all rows will be treated as a single group. All columns, therefore,
must be used as inputs to aggregate functions. To correct or prevent the error, one must remove
SalesOrderID from the query.

Besides using numeric data, aggregate expressions can also include date, time, and character data for

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summarizing.
Code Snippet 10 returns the earliest and latest order date, using MIN and MAX.

Code Snippet 10:

SELECT MIN(OrderDate)AS Earliest, MAX(OrderDate) AS Latest FROM
Sales.SalesOrderHeader;

Figure 9.8 shows the output.

Figure 9.8: Using Aggregate Functions with Non-Numeric Data

Other functions may also be used in combination with aggregate functions.

9.5 Spatial Aggregates

SQL Server provides several methods that help to aggregate two individual items of geometry or
geography data. These methods are listed in table 9.2.
Method Description
Returns an object that represents the union of a geometry/geography
STUnion
instance with another geometry/geography instance.
Returns an object that represents the points where a geometry/geography
STIntersection
instance intersects another geometry/geography instance.
Returns an object representing the convex hull of a geometry/geography
instance. A set of points is called convex if for any two points, the entire
STConvexHull segment is contained in the set. The convex hull of a set of points is the smallest
convex set containing the set. For any given set of points, there is only one
convex hull.
Table 9.2: Spatial Aggregate Methods

Figures 9.9, 9.10, and 9.11 visually depict an example of these methods. Such output can be seen by
clicking the 'spatial results' tab. When SSMS sees any spatial data in the results, it adds a tab to visualize
it.

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 Figure 9.9: STUnion()

Figure 9.10: STIntersection()

Figure 9.11: STConvexHull()

Code Snippet 11 demonstrates the use of STUnion().

Code Snippet 11:

SELECT geometry::Point(251, 1, 4326).STUnion(geometry::Point(252,2,4326));

The output is shown in figure 9.12. It shows two points.

Figure 9.12: Using STUnion() with a geometry Type

Another example is given in Code Snippet 12.

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Code Snippet 12:
DECLARE @City1 geography
SET @City1 = geography::STPolyFromText(
'POLYGON((175.3 -41.5, 178.3 -37.9, 172.8 -34.6, 175.3 -41.5))', 4326)
DECLARE @City2 geography
SET @City2 = geography::STPolyFromText(
'POLYGON((169.3 -46.6, 174.3 -41.6, 172.5 -40.7, 166.3 -45.8, 169.3 -46.6))',
4326)
DECLARE @CombinedCity geography = @City1.STUnion(@City2)
SELECT @CombinedCity

Here, two variables are declared of the geography type and appropriate values are assigned to them.
Then, they are combined into a third variable of geography type by using the STUnion() method.

The output of the code is shown in figure 9.13.

Figure 9.13: Using STUnion() with a geography Type

9.5.1 More Spatial Aggregates

Consider that you require to compute union of a set of geometry/geography objects or all elements in a
spatial column or determine average of a set of Point elements. It would not be possible to use the AVG()
function here. In such a case, you will make use of advanced spatial aggregate functions in SQL Server.

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 Following four additional aggregates were first introduced in SQL Server 2012 to the suite of spatial
operators in SQL Server and are applicable to SQL Server 2019 as well:

Union Envelope Collection Convex Hull

Aggregate Aggregate Aggregate Aggregate

These aggregates are implemented as static methods, which work for either geography or geometry
data types. Although, aggregates are applicable to all classes of spatial data, they can be best described
with polygons.

➢ Union Aggregate

It performs a union operation on a set of geometry objects. It combines multiple spatial objects into a
single spatial object, removing interior boundaries, where applicable. Following is the syntax of
UnionAggregate:

Syntax:
UnionAggregate (geometry_operand or geography_operand)

where,
geometry_operand: is a geometry type table column comprising the set of geometry objects on
which a union operation will be performed.
geography_operand: is a geography type table column comprising the set of geography objects
on which a union operation will be performed.

Code Snippet 13 demonstrates a simple example of using the UnionAggregate. It uses the
Person.Address table in the AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 13:

SELECT Geography::UnionAggregate(SpatialLocation) AS AVGLocation
FROM Person.Address
WHERE City = 'London';

The output of this will be as shown in figure 9.14.

Figure 9.14: Using Spatial Aggregates

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To view a visual representation of the spatial data, you can click Spatial results tab in the output
window. This will display the output as shown in figure 9.15.

Figure 9.15: Viewing Spatial Results

➢ Envelope Aggregate

The Envelope Aggregate returns a bounding area for a given set of geometry or geography objects. It
exhibits different behaviors for geography and geometry types. Based on the type of object it is applied
to, it returns different results. For the geometry type, the result is a 'traditional' rectangular polygon, which
closely bounds the selected input objects. For the geography type, the result is a circular object, which
loosely bounds the selected input objects. Furthermore, the circular object is defined using the new
CurvePolygon feature.

Following is the syntax of EnvelopeAggregate:

Syntax:

EnvelopeAggregate (geometry_operand or geography_operand)

where,
geometry_operand: is a geometry type table column comprising the set of geometry
objects.
geography_operand: is a geography type table column comprising the set of geography
objects.
Code Snippet 14 returns a bounding box for a set of objects in a table variable column.

Code Snippet 14:

SELECT Geography::EnvelopeAggregate(SpatialLocation) AS Location
FROM Person.Address WHERE City = 'London'

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 The visual representation of the output is shown in figure 9.16.

Figure 9.16: EnvelopeAggregate

➢ Collection Aggregate

It returns a GeometryCollection/GeographyCollection instance with one geometry/geography

part for each spatial object(s) in the selection set. Following is the syntax of CollectionAggregate:

Syntax:
CollectionAggregate (geometry_operand or geography_operand)
where,

geometry_operand: is a geometry type table column comprising the set of geometry objects.
geography_operand: is a geography type table column comprising the set of geography objects.

Code Snippet 15 returns a GeometryCollection instance that contains a CurvePolygon and a

Polygon.

Code Snippet 15:

DECLARE @CollectionDemo TABLE (

shape geometry, shapeType nvarchar(50)
)
INSERT INTO @CollectionDemo(shape,shapeType) VALUES('CURVEPOLYGON(
CIRCULARSTRING(2 3, 4 1, 6 3, 4 5, 2 3))', 'Circle'),
('POLYGON((1 1, 4 1, 4 5, 1 5, 1 1))', 'Rectangle');

SELECT geometry::CollectionAggregate(shape) FROM @CollectionDemo;

The output of the code will be as shown in figure 9.17.

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 Figure 9.17: Using CollectionAggregate

➢ Convex Hull Aggregate

It returns a convex hull polygon, which encloses one or more spatial objects for a given set of
geometry/geography objects. Following is the syntax of ConvexHullAggregate:

Syntax:

ConvexHullAggregate (geometry_operand or geography_operand)

where,
geometry_operand: is a geometry type table column comprising the set of geometry objects.
geography_operand: is a geography type table column comprising the set of geography
objects.

Code Snippet 16 demonstrates the use of ConvexHullAggregate.

Code Snippet 16:

SELECT Geography::ConvexHullAggregate(SpatialLocation) AS Location
FROM Person.Address
WHERE City = 'London'

The output is shown in figure 9.18.

Figure 9.18: Using ConvexHullAggregate

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9.6 Subqueries
You can use a SELECT statement or a query to return records that will be used as criteria for another
SELECT statement or query. The outer query is called parent query and the inner query is called a
subquery. The purpose of a subquery is to return results to the outer query. In other words, the inner query
statement should return the column or columns used in the criteria of the outer query statement.

The simplest form of a subquery is one that returns just one column. The parent query can use the results of
this subquery using an = sign. The syntax for the most basic form of a subquery using just one column
with an = sign is as shown:

Syntax:

SELECT <ColumnName> FROM <table>

WHERE <ColumnName> = (SELECT <ColumnName> FROM <Table> WHERE <ColumnName> =
<Condition> )

In a subquery, the innermost SELECT statement is executed first and its result is passed as criteria to the
outer SELECT statement.
Consider a scenario where it is required to determine the due date and ship date of the most recent
orders.
Code Snippet 17 shows the code to achieve this.

Code Snippet 17:

SELECT DueDate, ShipDate FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WHERE

Sales.SalesOrderHeader.OrderDate = (SELECT MAX(OrderDate)
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader)

Here, a subquery has been used to achieve the desired output. The inner query or subquery retrieves the
most recent order date. This is then passed to the outer query, which displays due date and ship date
for all the orders that were made on that particular date.

A part of the output of the code is shown in figure 9.19.

Figure 9.19: Using a Simple Subquery

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Based on the results returned by the inner query, a subquery can be classified as a scalar subquery or a
multi-valued subquery.
These are described as follows:

• Scalar subqueries return a single value. Here, the outer query must be written to process a single
result.
• Multi-valued subqueries return a result similar to a single-column table. Here, the outer query must be
written to handle multiple possible results.

9.6.1 Working with Multi-valued Queries

If an = operator is used with the subquery, the subquery must return a single scalar value. If more
than one value is returned, there will be an error and the query will not be processed. In such
scenarios, the keywords ANY, ALL, IN, and EXISTS can be used with the WHERE clause of a SELECT
statement when the query returns one column but one or more rows.

These keywords, also called predicates, are used with multi-valued queries. For example, consider that all
the first names and last names of employees whose job title is 'Research and Development Manager' have
to be displayed. Here, the inner query may return more than one row, as there may be more than one
employee with that job title. To ensure that the outer query can use the results of the inner query, the IN
keyword will have to be used.

Code Snippet 18 demonstrates this.

Code Snippet 18:

SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM Person.Person
WHERE Person.Person.BusinessEntityID IN (SELECT BusinessEntityID
FROM HumanResources.Employee WHERE JobTitle ='Research and Development Manager');

Here, the inner query retrieves the BusinessEntityID from the HumanResources.Employee table for
those records having job title 'Research and Development Manager'. These results are then passed to the
outer query, which matches the BusinessEntityID with that in the Person.Person table. Finally,
from the records that are matching, the first and last names are extracted and displayed.

The output is displayed in figure 9.20.

Figure 9.20: Output of Subquery with IN keyword

The SOME or ANY keywords evaluate to true if the result is an inner query containing at least one row that
satisfies the comparison. They compare a scalar value with a column of values. SOME and ANY are
equivalent; both return the same result. They are rarely used.

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There are some guidelines to be followed when working with subqueries. You should remember the
following points when using subqueries:

The ntext, text, and image data types cannot be used in the SELECT list of subqueries.

The SELECT list of a subquery introduced with a comparison operator can have only one expression
or column name.

Subqueries that are introduced by a comparison operator not followed by the keyword ANY or ALL
cannot include GROUP BY and HAVING clauses.

You cannot use DISTINCT keyword with subqueries that include GROUP BY.

You can specify ORDER BY only when TOP is also specified.

Besides scalar and multi-valued subqueries, you can also choose between self-contained subqueries and
correlated subqueries. These are defined as follows:

➢ Self-contained subqueries are written as standalone queries, without any dependencies on the outer
query. A self-contained subquery is processed once when the outer query runs and passes its results to
the outer query.
➢ Correlated subqueries reference one or more columns from the outer query and therefore, depend on
the outer query. Correlated subqueries cannot be run separately from the outer query.

The EXISTS keyword is used with a subquery to check the existence of rows returned by the subquery.
The subquery does not actually return any data; it returns a value of TRUE or FALSE.

Following is the syntax of a subquery containing the word EXISTS:

Syntax:
SELECT <ColumnName> FROM <table> WHERE [NOT] EXISTS
(
<Subquery_Statement>
)

where,
Subquery_Statement: specifies the subquery.

The code in Code Snippet 18 can be rewritten as shown in Code Snippet 19 using EXISTS keyword to
yield same output.

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Code Snippet 19:

SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM Person.Person AS A WHERE EXISTS (SELECT *

FROM HumanResources.Employee As B WHERE JobTitle ='Research and Development Manager'
AND A.BusinessEntityID=B.BusinessEntityID);

Here, the inner subquery retrieves all those records that match job title as 'Research and Development Manager'
and whose BusinessEntityID matches with that in the Person table. If there are no records matching
both these conditions, the inner subquery will not return any rows. Thus, in that case, the EXISTS will
return false and the outer query will also not return any rows. However, the code in Code Snippet 19 will
return two rows because the given conditions are satisfied. The output will be the same as figure 9.20.

Similarly, one can use the NOT EXISTS keyword. The WHERE clause in which it is used is satisfied if there
are no rows returned by the subquery.

9.6.2 Nested Subqueries

A subquery that is defined inside another subquery is called a nested subquery. Consider that you wanted
to retrieve and display the names of persons from Canada. There is no direct way to retrieve this
information since the Sales.SalesTerritory table is not related to Person.Person table. Hence, a
nested subquery is used here as shown in Code Snippet 20.

Code Snippet 20:

SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM Person.Person WHERE BusinessEntityID IN (SELECT
BusinessEntityID FROM Sales.SalesPerson WHERE TerritoryID IN
(SELECT TerritoryID
FROM Sales.SalesTerritory
WHERE Name='Canada')
)

The output is shown in figure 9.21.

Figure 9.21: Output of Nested Subqueries

9.6.3 Correlated Queries

In many queries containing subqueries, the subquery must be evaluated only once to provide the values
required by the parent query. This is because in most of the queries, the subquery makes no reference to
the parent query, so the value in the subquery remains constant.

However, if the subquery refers to a parent query, the subquery must be revaluated for every iteration in the
parent query. This is because the search criterion in the subquery is dependent upon the value of a

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particular record in the parent query.

When a subquery takes parameters from its parent query, it is known as Correlated subquery. Consider
that you want to retrieve all the business entity ids of persons whose contact information was last
modified not earlier than 2019. To do this, you can use a correlated subquery as shown in Code
Snippet 21.

Code Snippet 21:

SELECT e.BusinessEntityID FROM Person.BusinessEntityContact e WHERE

e.ContactTypeID IN (
SELECT c.ContactTypeID FROM
Person.ContactType c
WHERE YEAR(e.ModifiedDate) >=2012
)

In Code Snippet 21, the inner query retrieves contact type ids for all those persons whose contact
information was modified on or before 2019. These results are then passed to the outer query, which
matches these contact type ids with those in the Person.BusinessEntityContact table and displays the
business entity IDs of those records. Figure 9.22 shows part of the output.

Figure 9.22: Output of Correlated Queries

9.7 Joins
Joins are used to retrieve data from two or more tables based on a logical relationship between tables. A
join typically specifies foreign key relationship between the tables. It defines the manner in which two tables
are related in a query by:

• Specifying the column from each table • Specifying a logical operator such as =,
to be used for the join. A typical join <> to be used in comparing values from
specifies a foreign key from one table the columns.
and its associated key in the other table.

Joins can be specified in either the FROM or WHERE clauses.

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Following is the syntax of the JOIN statement:

Syntax:

SELECT <ColumnName1>, <ColumnName2>...<ColumnNameN> FROM

Table_A AS Table_Alias_A
JOIN
Table_B AS Table_Alias_B ON
Table_Alias_A.<CommonColumn> = Table_Alias_B.<CommonColumn>

where,
<ColumnName1>, <ColumnName2>: Is a list of columns that must be displayed.
Table_A: Is the name of the table on the left of the JOIN keyword.
Table_B: Is the name of the table on the right of the JOIN keyword.
AS Table_Alias: Is a way of giving an alias name to the table. An alias defined for the table in a
query can be used to denote a table so that the full name of the table need not be used.
<CommonColumn>: Is a column that is common to both the tables. In this case, the join succeeds
only if the columns have matching values.

Consider that you want to list employee first names, last names, and their job titles from the
HumanResources.Employee and Person.Person. To extract this information from the two tables, you
must join them based on BusinessEntityID as shown in Code Snippet 22.

Code Snippet 22:

SELECT A.FirstName, A.LastName, B.JobTitle
FROM Person.Person A
JOIN
HumanResources.Employee B ON
A.BusinessEntityID = B.BusinessEntityID;

Here, the tables HumanResources.Employee and Person.Person are given aliases A and B. They are
joined together based on their business entity ids. The SELECT statement then retrieves the desired
columns through the aliases.
Figure 9.23 shows the output.

Figure 9.23: Output of Join

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There are three types of joins as follows:

Inner Joins Outer Joins Self-Joins

9.7.1 Inner Join

An inner join is formed when records from two tables are combined only if the rows from both the tables
are matched based on a common column.

Following is the syntax of an inner join:

Syntax:

SELECT <ColumnName1>, <ColumnName2>...<ColumnNameN> FROM Table_A

AS Table_Alias_A
INNER JOIN
Table_B AS Table_Alias_B ON
Table_Alias_A.<CommonColumn> = Table_Alias_B.<CommonColumn>
Code Snippet 23 demonstrates the use of inner join. The scenario for this is similar to Code Snippet 22.

Code Snippet 23:

SELECT A.FirstName, A.LastName, B.JobTitle
FROM Person.Person A
INNER JOIN HumanResources.Employee B
ON
A.BusinessEntityID = B.BusinessEntityID;

In Code Snippet 23, an inner join is constructed between Person.Person and

HumanResources.Employee based on common business entity ids. Here again, the two tables are given
aliases of A and B respectively. The output is the same as shown in figure 9.23.

9.7.2 Outer Join

Outer joins are join statements that return all rows from at least one of the tables specified in the FROM
clause, as long as those rows meet any WHERE or HAVING conditions of the SELECT statement. The two
types of commonly used outer joins are as follows:

➢ Left Outer Join

➢ Right Outer Join

Left Outer Join

Left outer join returns all the records from the left table and only matching records from the right table.

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Following is the syntax of an outer join:

Syntax:
SELECT <ColumnList> FROM Table_A
AS Table_Alias_A
LEFT OUTER JOIN
Table_B AS Table_Alias_B ON
Table_Alias_A.<CommonColumn> = Table_Alias_B.<CommonColumn>

Consider that you want to retrieve all the customer ids from the Sales.Customers table and order
information such as ship dates and due dates, even if the customers have not placed any orders. Since the
record count would be very huge, it is to be restricted to only those orders that are placed before 2019. To
achieve this, you perform a left outer join as shown in Code Snippet 24.

Code Snippet 24:

SELECT A.CustomerID, B.DueDate, B.ShipDate FROM Sales.Customer A LEFT OUTER JOIN
Sales.SalesOrderHeader B
ON
A.CustomerID = B.CustomerID AND YEAR(B.DueDate)<2019;

In Code Snippet 24, the left outer join is constructed between the tables Sales.Customer and
Sales.SalesOrderHeader. The tables are joined based on customer ids. In this case, all records from
the left table, Sales.Customer and only matching records from the right table,
Sales.SalesOrderHeader, are returned. Figure 9.24 shows the output.

Figure 9.24: Output of Left Outer Join

As shown in the output, some records show the due dates and ship dates as NULL. This is because for some
customers, no order is placed, hence, their records will show the dates as NULL.

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Right Outer Join

The right outer join retrieves all records from the second table in the join, regardless of whether there is
matching data in the first table or not.

Following is the syntax of a right outer join:

Syntax:

SELECT <ColumnList> FROM

Left_Table_Name AS
Table_A AS Table_Alias_A
RIGHT OUTER JOIN
Table_B AS Table_Alias_B ON
Table_Alias_A.<CommonColumn> = Table_Alias_B.<CommonColumn>

Consider that you want to retrieve all the product names from Product table and all the corresponding
sales order ids from the SalesOrderDetail table even if there is no matching record for the products in
the SalesOrderDetail table. To do this, you will use a right outer join as shown in Code Snippet 25.

Code Snippet 25:

SELECT P.Name, S.SalesOrderID FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail S
RIGHT OUTER JOIN
Production.Product P
ON P.ProductID = S.ProductID;

In the code, all the records from Product table are shown regardless of whether they have been sold or
not.

9.7.3 Self-Join
A self-join is used to find records in a table that are related to other records in the same table. A table is
joined to itself in a self-join.

Code Snippet 26 demonstrates how to use a self-join to retrieve the product details of those products
that have the same color from the table Production.Product.

Code Snippet 26:

SELECT
p1. ProductID,
p1.Color,
p1.Name,
p2.Name

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 FROM
Production.Product p1
INNER JOIN Production.Product p2 ON p1.Color = p2.Color
ORDER BY p1.ProductID

The output is shown in figure 9.25.

Figure 9.25: Self Join Example

9.7.4 MERGE Statement

The MERGE statement allows you to maintain a target table based on certain join conditions on a source
table using a single statement. You can now perform the following actions in one MERGE statement:

Insert a new row from

the source if the row is
missing in the target Update a target row if a Delete a target row if the
table record already exists in row is missing in the
the source table source table

Consider that you want to:

➢ Compare last and first names of customers from both source and target tables
➢ Update customer information in target table if the last and first names match
➢ Insert new records in target table if the last and first names in source table do not exist in target table
➢ Delete existing records in target table if the last and first names do not match with those of source table

The MERGE statement accomplishes the tasks in a single statement. MERGE also allows you to display
those records that were inserted, updated, or deleted by using an OUTPUT clause.

Syntax:
MERGE target_table USING source_table ON match_condition
WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET Col1 = val1 [, Col2 = val2...]
WHEN [TARGET] NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT (Col1 [,Col2...] VALUES (Val1 [,
Val2...])
WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE THEN DELETE

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 [OUTPUT $action, Inserted.Col1, Deleted.Col1,...] ;

where,
target_table: is the table WHERE changes are being made.
source_table: is the table from which rows will be inserted, updated, or deleted into the target
table.
match_conditions: are the JOIN conditions and any other comparison operators.
MATCHED: true if a row in the target_table and source_table matches the
match_condition.
NOT MATCHED: true if a row from the source_table does not exist in the target_table.
SOURCE NOT MATCHED: true if a row exists in the target_table but not in the
source_table.
OUTPUT: An optional clause that allows to view those records that have been
inserted/deleted/updated in target_table.

MERGE statements are terminated with a semi-colon (;).

Code Snippet 27 shows how to use MERGE statement.

Code Snippet 27:

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [Person].[AddressType] ON
MERGE INTO [Person].[AddressType] AS Target
USING (VALUES
(1,'Billing')
,(2,'Home')
,(3,'Headquarters')
,(4,'Primary')
,(5,'Shipping')
,(6,'Archival')
,(7,'Contact')
,(8,'Alternative')
) AS Source
([AddressTypeID],[Name]) ON (Target.[AddressTypeID] = Source.[AddressTypeID])
WHEN MATCHED AND (Target.[Name] <> Source.[Name]) THEN
UPDATE SET [Name] = Source.[Name]
WHEN NOT MATCHED BY TARGET THEN
INSERT([AddressTypeID],[Name]) VALUES(Source.[AddressTypeID],Source.[Name])
WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE THEN
DELETE
OUTPUT $action, Inserted.[AddressTypeID], Inserted.Name,
Deleted.[AddressTypeID], Deleted.Name;
The Person.AddressType table is the target table and hard-coded data represents the source. The
match condition is the column, AddressTypeID of both source and target. If the match condition
evaluates to false (NOT MATCHED), then new records are inserted in the target table. If match condition
evaluates to true (MATCHED), then records are updated into the target table from the source table.

If records present in the target table do not match with those of source table (NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE), then
these are deleted from the target table. The last statement displays a report consisting of rows that were
inserted/updated/deleted as shown in the output.

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Figure 9.26 shows the output. Observe that one record has been updated, whereas one has been inserted.

Figure 9.26: Using MERGE

9.8 Common Table Expressions (CTEs)

A CTE is similar to a temporary resultset defined within the execution scope of a single SELECT,
INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or CREATE VIEW statement. A CTE is a named expression defined in a
query. A CTE is defined at the start of a query and can be referenced several times in the outer query.

A CTE that include references to itself is called as a recursive CTE.

Note - CTEs were first introduced in SQL Server 2005.

Key advantages of CTEs are improved readability and ease in maintenance of complex queries.

Syntax:

WITH <CTE_name>
AS (<CTE_definition>)

For example, to retrieve and display the customer count year-wise for orders present in the
Sales.SalesOrderHeader table, the code will be as given in Code Snippet 28.

Code Snippet 28:

WITH CTE_OrderYear AS
(
SELECT YEAR(OrderDate) AS OrderYear, CustomerID
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
)
SELECT OrderYear, COUNT(DISTINCT CustomerID) AS CustomerCount FROM
CTE_OrderYear
GROUP BY OrderYear;

Here, CTE_OrderYear is specified as the CTE name. The WITH...AS keywords begins the CTE definition.
Then, the CTE is used in the SELECT statement to retrieve and display the desired results.

Figure 9.27 shows the output.

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 Figure 9.27: Output of CTE

Following guidelines should be remembered while defining CTEs:

CTEs are limited in scope to the execution of the outer query. Hence, when the outer query
ends, the lifetime of the CTE will end.

You must define a name for a CTE and also, define unique names for each of the columns
referenced in the SELECT clause of the CTE.

It is possible to use inline or external aliases for columns in CTEs.

A single CTE can be referenced multiple times in the same query with one definition.

Multiple CTEs can also be defined in the same WITH clause. For example, consider Code Snippet 29. It
defines two CTEs using a single WITH clause.

This snippet assumes that three tables named Student, City, and Status are created in the
AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 29:

WITH CTE_Students
AS (
Select StudentCode, S.Name,C.CityName, St.Status FROM Student S
INNER JOIN City C
ON S.CityCode = C.CityCode INNER
JOIN Status St
ON S.StatusId = St.StatusId)
,
StatusRecord –- This is the second CTE being defined
AS (
SELECT Status, COUNT(Name) AS CountofStudents FROM
CTE_Students
GROUP BY Status
)
SELECT * FROM StatusRecord

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Assuming some records are inserted in all three tables, the output may be as shown in figure 9.28.

Figure 9.28: Using Multiple CTE with Single WITH

9.9 Combining Data Using SET Operators

SQL Server 2019 provides certain keywords, also called as operators, to combine data from multiple
tables. These operators are as follows:
➢ UNION
➢ INTERSECT
➢ EXCEPT

9.9.1 UNION Operator

Results from two different query statements can be combined into a single resultset using the UNION
operator. The query statements must have compatible column types and equal number of columns. The
column names can be different in each statement, but the data types must be compatible. By compatible
data types, it means that it should be possible to convert the contents of one of the columns into another.
For example, if one of the query statements has an int data type and the other query statement has a
money data type, they are compatible and a union can take place between them because the int data can
be converted into money data.

Following is the syntax of the UNION operator.

Syntax:
Query_Statement1 UNION [ALL] Query_Statement2
where,
Query_Statement1 and Query_Statement2 are SELECT statements.

Code Snippet 30 demonstrates the UNION operator.

Code Snippet 30:

SELECT Product.ProductId FROM Production.Product UNION
SELECT ProductId FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail

This will list all the product ids of both tables that match with each other. If you include the ALL clause,
all rows are included in the resultset including duplicate records.

Code Snippet 31 demonstrates the UNION ALL operator.

Code Snippet 31:

SELECT Product.ProductId FROM Production.Product UNION ALL
SELECT ProductId FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail

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By default, the UNION operator removes duplicate records from the resultset. However, if you use the ALL
clause with UNION operator, then all the rows are returned. Apart from UNION, the other operators that are
used to combine data from multiple tables are INTERSECT and EXCEPT.

9.9.2 INTERSECT Operator

Consider again the two tables Product and SalesOrderDetail present in AdventureWorks2019.
Suppose you want to display only the rows that are common to both the tables. To do this, you will use an
operator named INTERSECT. The INTERSECT operator is used with two query statements to return a
distinct set of rows that are common to both the query statements.

Syntax:

Query_statement1
INTERSECT
Query_statement2

where,
Query_Statement1 and Query_Statement2 are SELECT statements.

Code Snippet 32 demonstrates the INTERSECT operator.

Code Snippet 32:

SELECT Product.ProductId FROM Production.Product

INTERSECT
SELECT ProductId FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail

The basic rules for using INTERSECT are as follows:

➢ Number of columns and order in which they are given must be same in both queries.
➢ Data types of the columns being used must be compatible.

The result of the intersection of the Production.Product and Sales.SalesOrderDetail tables

would be only those product ids that have matching records in Production.Product table. In large
enterprises, there are huge volumes of data stored in databases. Instead of storing the entire data in a
single table, it can be spread over several tables that are related to one another. When data is stored
in such tables, there must be some means to combine and retrieve the data from those tables. Using
SQL Server, there are a number of ways to combine data from multiple tables.

9.9.3 EXCEPT Operator

The EXCEPT operator returns all of the distinct rows from the query given on left of the EXCEPT
operator and removes all rows from the resultset that match rows on right of the EXCEPT operator.

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Syntax:
Query_statement1
EXCEPT
Query_statement2

where,
Query_Statement1 and Query_Statement2 are SELECT statements.

The two rules that apply to INTERSECT operator are also applicable for EXCEPT operator. Code
Snippet 33 demonstrates the EXCEPT operator.

Code Snippet 33:

SELECT Product.ProductId FROM Production.Product
EXCEPT
SELECT ProductId FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail

If the order of the two tables in this example is interchanged, only those rows are returned
from Production.Product table which do not match with the rows present in
Sales.SalesOrderDetail.

Thus, in simple terms, EXCEPT operator selects all the records from the first table except those that match
with the second table. Hence, when you are using EXCEPT operator, the order of the two tables in the
queries is important. Whereas, with the INTERSECT operator, it does not matter which table is specified
first.

9.10 Pivoting and Grouping Set Operations

Consider a scenario where data must be displayed in a different orientation than it is stored in, in terms
of row and column layout. The process of transforming data from a row-based orientation to a
column-based orientation is called pivoting. The PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators of SQL Server help to
change the orientation of data from column-oriented to row-oriented and vice versa. This is accomplished
by consolidating values present in a column to a list of distinct values and then, projecting that list in the
form of column headings.

9.10.1 PIVOT Operator

Following is the brief syntax for PIVOT:

Syntax:

SELECT <non-pivoted column>,

[first pivoted column] AS <column name>,
[second pivoted column] AS <column name>,
...

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 [last pivoted column] AS <column name> FROM
(<SELECT query that produces the data>) AS
<alias for the source query>
PIVOT (
<aggregation function>(<column being aggregated>) FOR
[<column that contains the values that will become column headers>]
IN ( [first pivoted column], [second pivoted column],
... [last pivoted column])
) AS <alias for the pivot table>
<optional ORDER BY clause>;

where,
table_source: is a table or table expression.
aggregate_function: is a user-defined or in-built aggregate function that accepts one or more
inputs.
value_column: is the value column of the PIVOT operator.
pivot_column: is the pivot column of the PIVOT operator. This column must be of a type that
can implicitly or explicitly be converted to nvarchar().
IN (column_list): are values in the pivot_column that will become the column names of the
output table. The list must not include any column names that already exist in the input
table_source being pivoted.
table_alias: is the alias name of the output table.

The output of this will be a table containing all columns of the table_source except the pivot_column
and value_column. These columns of the table_source, excluding the pivot_column and
value_column, are called the grouping columns of the pivot operator.

In simpler terms, to use the PIVOT operator, you supply three elements to the operator:

Grouping Spreading Aggregation

In the FROM clause, the input Here, a comma-separated list An aggregation function, such
columns must be provided. of values that occur in the as SUM, to be performed on
The PIVOT operator uses source data is provided that the grouped rows.
those columns to determine will be used as the column
which column(s) to use for headings for the pivoted data.
grouping the data for
aggregation.

Consider an example to understand the PIVOT operator. Code Snippet 34 is shown without the PIVOT
operator and demonstrates a simple GROUP BY aggregation. As the number of records would be huge,
the resultset is limited to five by specifying TOP 5.

Code Snippet 34:

SELECT TOP 5 SUM(SalesYTD) AS TotalSalesYTD, Name FROM Sales.SalesTerritory
GROUP BY Name

Figure 9.29 shows the output.

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 Figure 9.29: Grouping without PIVOT

The top five year to date sales along with territory names grouped by territory names are displayed. Now,
the same query is rewritten in Code Snippet 35 using a PIVOT so that the data is transformed from a
row-based orientation to a column-based orientation.

Code Snippet 35:

-- Pivot table with one row and six columns

SELECT TOP 5 'TotalSalesYTD' AS GrandTotal,
[Northwest], [Northeast], [Central], [Southwest],[Southeast] FROM
(SELECT TOP 5 Name, SalesYTD FROM Sales.SalesTerritory) AS SourceTable PIVOT
(SUM(SalesYTD) FOR Name IN ([Northwest], [Northeast], [Central], [Southwest],
[Southeast]) ) AS PivotTable;

Figure 9.30 shows the output.

Figure 9.30: Grouping with PIVOT

As shown in figure 9.30, the data is transformed and the territory names are now seen as columns instead
of rows. This improves readability. A major challenge in writing queries using PIVOT is the requirement
to provide a fixed list of spreading elements to the PIVOT operator, such as specific territory names
given in Code Snippet 35. It would not be feasible or practical to implement this for large number of
spreading elements. To overcome this, developers can use dynamic SQL. Dynamic SQL provides a
means to build a character string that is passed to SQL Server, interpreted as a command, and then,
executed.

9.10.2 UNPIVOT Operator

UNPIVOT performs almost the reverse operation of PIVOT, by rotating columns into rows. Unpivoting
does not restore the original data. Detail-level data was lost during the aggregation process in the
original pivot. UNPIVOT has no ability to allocate values to return to the original detail values. Instead
of turning rows into columns, unpivoting results in columns being transformed into rows. SQL Server
provides the UNPIVOT table operator to return a row-oriented tabular display from a pivoted data.

When unpivoting data, one or more columns are defined as the source to be converted into rows. The
data in those columns is spread, or split, into one or more new rows, depending on how many columns
are being unpivoted.

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To use the UNPIVOT operator, you provide three elements as follows:

Source columns to be A name for the new column A name for the column that
unpivoted that will display the will display the names of
unpivoted values the unpivoted values

Code Snippet 36 demonstrates the UNPIVOT operator.

Code Snippet 36:

SELECT SalesYear, TotalSales FROM
(
SELECT * FROM
(
SELECT YEAR(SOH.OrderDate) AS SalesYear,
SOH.SubTotal AS TotalSales
FROM sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH
JOIN sales.SalesOrderDetail SOD ON SOH.SalesOrderId =
SOD.SalesOrderId
) AS Sales PIVOT(SUM(TotalSales) FOR SalesYear IN([2011],
[2012],
[2013],
[2014])) AS PVT
) T UNPIVOT(TotalSales FOR SalesYear IN([2011],
[2012],
[2013],
[2014])) AS upvt;

The output is shown in figure 9.31.

Figure 9.31: UNPIVOT

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9.11 Check Your Progress

1. Which of the following statements can be used with subqueries that return one column and
many rows?
(A) ANY (C) IN

(B) ALL (D) =

2. The ______ operator is used to display only the rows that are common to both the tables.
(A) INTERSECT (C) UNION
(B) EXCEPT (D) UNION WITH ALL

3. A subquery that includes another subquery within it is called a .

(A) Join (C) Correlated Subquery
(B) Nested Subquery (D) Parent Subquery

4. is formed when records from two tables are combined only if the rows from both the tables are
matched based on a common column.
(A) Inner join (C) Self-join

(B) Left Outer join (D) Right Outer join

5. return all rows from at least one of the tables in the FROM clause of the SELECT statement, as
long as those rows meet any WHERE or HAVING conditions of the SELECT statement.
(A) Inner join (C) Self-join

(B) Outer join (D) Sub queries

6. Consider you have two tables, Products and Orders that are already populated. Based on
new orders, you want to update Quantity in Products table. You write the following code:

MERGE Products AS T
USING Orders AS S
ON S.ProductID = T.ProductID

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Which of the following code, when inserted into the blank space, will allow you to achieve this?
WHEN MATCHED THEN WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
(A) UPDATE SET T.Quantity (C) UPDATE SET T.Quantity =
= S.Quantity S. Quantity

WHEN MATCHED THEN WHEN MATCHED THEN

(B) UPDATE SET Quantity = (D) UPDATE SET S.Quantity =
Quantity T. Quantity

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9.11.1 Answers
1. C
2. A
3. B
4. A
5. B
6. A

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 Summary
➢ The GROUP BY clause and aggregate functions enable to group and/or aggregate data together
in order to present summarized information.
➢ Spatial aggregate functions were first introduced in SQL Server 2012 and are supported in SQL Server
2019 as well.
➢ A subquery allows the resultset of one SELECT statement to be used as criteria for another
SELECT statement.
➢ Joins help you to combine column data from two or more tables based on a logical
relationship between the tables.
➢ Set operators such as UNION and INTERSECT help you to combine row data from two or
more tables.
➢ The PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators help to change the orientation of data from column-oriented
to row-oriented and vice versa.
➢ The GROUPING SET subclause of the GROUP BY clause helps to specify multiple groupings in
a single query.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Write a query to display the employee names and their departments from the AdventureWorks2019
database.

2. Using the tables Sales.SalesPerson and Sales.SalesTerritory, retrieve IDs of all the sales
persons who operate in Canada.

3. Using the tables Sales.SalesPerson and Sales.SalesTerritory, retrieve IDs of all the
sales persons who operate in Northwest or Northeast.

4. Compare the bonus values of salespersons in the Sales.SalesPerson table to find out the sales
persons earning more bonuses. Display the SalesPersonID and bonus values in descending order.
(Hint: Use a self-join and ORDER BY ...DESC).

5. Retrieve all the values of SalesPersonID from Sales.SalesPerson table, but leave out those
values, which are present in the Sales.Store table. (Hint: Use EXCEPT operator).

6. Combine all the SalesPersonIDs of the tables Sales.SalesPerson and Sales.Store.

7. Retrieve all the sales person IDs and territory IDs from Sales.SalesPerson table regardless of
whether they have matching records in the Sales.SalesTerritory table. (Hint: Use a left outer
join).

8. Retrieve a distinct set of Territory IDs that are present in both Sales.SalesPerson and
Sales.SalesTerritory tables. (Hint: Use INTERSECT operator).

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 Session – 10
Views, Stored Procedures, and
Querying Metadata

Welcome to the session, Views, Stored Procedures, and Querying Metadata.

This session explains about views and describes creating, altering, and dropping views. The
session also describes stored procedures in detail. The session concludes with an
explanation of the techniques to query metadata.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Define views
➢ Describe the technique to create, alter, and drop views
➢ Define stored procedures and its types
➢ Describe the procedure to create, alter, and execute stored procedures
➢ Describe nested stored procedures
➢ Describe querying SQL Server metadata System Catalog views and functions

10.1 Introduction
An SQL Server database has two main categories of objects: those that store data and those that access,
manipulate, or provide access to data. Views and stored procedures belong to the latter category.

10.2 Views
A view is a virtual table that is made up of selected columns from one or more tables. The tables from
which the view is created are referred to as base tables. These base tables can be from different databases. A
view can also include columns from other views created in the same or a different database. A view can have
a maximum of 1,024 columns. The data inside the view comes from the base tables that are referenced in
the view definition. The rows and columns of views are created dynamically when the view is referenced.

Note - All the Code Snippets in the session are based on the AdventureWorks2019 database.

10.2.1 Creating Views

A user can create a view using columns from tables or other views only if the user has permission to access
these tables and views. A view is created using the CREATE VIEW statement and it can be created only in the
current database. SQL Server verifies the existence of objects that are referenced in the view definition.

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Note - While creating a view, test the SELECT statement that defines the view to make sure that SQL
Server returns the expected result. You create the view only after the SELECT statement is tested and
the resultset has been verified.

Following syntax is used to create a view:

Syntax:
CREATE VIEW <view_name>
AS <select_statement>

where,
view_name: specifies the name of the view.
select_statement: specifies the SELECT statement that defines the view.

Code Snippet 1 creates a view from the Production.Product table to display only the product id,
product number, name, and safety stock level of products.

Code Snippet 1:
CREATE VIEW vwProductInfo AS
SELECT ProductID, ProductNumber, Name, SafetyStockLevel
FROM Production.Product;
GO

Note - The words vw are prefixed to a view name as per recommended coding conventions.

Following code in Code Snippet 2 is used to display details of vwProductInfo view:

Code Snippet 2:

SELECT * FROM vwProductInfo

The result will show specified columns of all products from Production.Product table. A part of the
output is shown in figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1: Records from a View

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10.2.2 Creating Views Using JOIN Keyword
The JOIN keyword can also be used to create views. The CREATE VIEW statement is used along with the
JOIN keyword to create a view using columns from multiple tables.

Following syntax is used to create a view with the JOIN keyword:

Syntax:
CREATE VIEW <view_name> AS
SELECT * FROM table_name1 JOIN
table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name = table_name2.column_name

where,
view_name: specifies the name of the view.
table_name1: specifies the name of first table.
JOIN: specifies that two tables are joined using JOIN keyword.
table_name2: specifies the name of the second table.

Code Snippet 3 creates a view named vwPersonDetails with specific columns from the Person and
Employee tables of HumanResources schema. The JOIN and ON keywords join the two tables based on
BusinessEntityID column.

Code Snippet 3:
CREATE VIEW vwPersonDetails AS
SELECT
p.Title
,p.[FirstName]
,p.[MiddleName]
,p.[LastName]
,e.[JobTitle]
FROM [HumanResources].[Employee] e
INNER JOIN [Person].[Person] p
ON p.[BusinessEntityID] = e.[BusinessEntityID]
GO

This view will contain the columns Title, FirstName, MiddleName, and LastName from the Person
table and JobTitle from the Employee table. Once the view is created, you can retrieve records from it,
and manipulate and modify records as well.
Code Snippet 4 shows executing a query on this view.

Code Snippet 4:

SELECT * FROM vwPersonDetails

The output will be as shown in figure 10.2.

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 Figure 10.2: Creating Views with a Join

As shown in figure 10.2, all the rows may not have values for the Title or MiddleName columns - some
may have NULL in them. A person seeing this output may not be able to comprehend the meaning of the
NULL values. Hence, to replace all the NULL values in the output with a null string, the COALESCE() function
can be used as shown in Code Snippet 5.

Code Snippet 5:
CREATE VIEW vwPersonDetailsNew
AS
SELECT
COALESCE(p.Title, ' ') AS Title
,p.[FirstName]
,COALESCE(p.MiddleName, ' ') AS MiddleName
,p.[LastName]
,e.[JobTitle]
FROM [HumanResources].[Employee] e
INNER JOIN [Person].[Person] p
ON p.[BusinessEntityID] = e.[BusinessEntityID]
GO

When this view is queried with a SELECT statement, the output will be as shown in figure 10.3.

Figure 10.3: Using COALESCE Function in a View

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10.2.3 Guidelines and Restrictions on Views
A view can be created using the CREATE VIEW command. Before creating a view, following guidelines and
restrictions should be considered:

A view is created only in the current database. The base tables and views from which the view is
created can be from other databases or servers.

View names must be unique and cannot be the same as the table names in the schema.

A view cannot be created on temporary tables.

A view cannot have a full-text index.

A view cannot contain the DEFAULT definition.

The CREATE VIEW statement can include the ORDER BY clause only if the TOP keyword is used.

Views cannot reference more than 1,024 columns.

The CREATE VIEW statement cannot include the INTO keyword.

The CREATE VIEW statement cannot be combined with other Transact-SQL statements in a single
batch.

Code Snippet 6 reuses the code given in Code Snippet 5 with an ORDER BY clause.

Code Snippet 6:
CREATE VIEW vwSortedPersonDetails AS
SELECT TOP 10 COALESCE(p.Title, ' ') AS Title
,p.[FirstName]
,COALESCE(p.MiddleName, ' ') AS MiddleName
,p.[LastName]
,e.[JobTitle]
FROM [HumanResources].[Employee] e INNER JOIN [Person].[Person] p
ON p.[BusinessEntityID] = e.[BusinessEntityID] ORDER BY p.FirstName
GO
--Retrieve records from the view
SELECT * FROM vwSortedPersonDetails

The TOP keyword displays the name of the first ten employees with their first names in ascending order.

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10.3 Modifying Data through Views
Views can be used to modify data in database tables. Data can be inserted, modified, or deleted through a
view using following statements:

➢ INSERT
➢ UPDATE
➢ DELETE

10.3.1 INSERT with Views

The INSERT statement is used to add a new row to a table or a view. During the execution of the statement,
if the value for a column is not provided, the SQL Server Database Engine must provide a value based on
the definition of the column. If the Database Engine is unable to provide this value, then the new row will
not be added.

The value for the column is provided automatically if the column:

Has an IDENTITY Has a default value Has a timestamp

property specified data type

Takes null values Is a computed

column

While using the INSERT statement on a view, if any rules are violated, the record is not inserted.

In the following example, when data is inserted through the view, the insertion does not take place as the
view is created from two base tables.

First, create a table Employee_Personal_Details as shown in Code Snippet 7.

Code Snippet 7:
CREATE TABLE Employee_Personal_Details (
EmpID int NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(30) NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(30) NOT NULL, Address
varchar(30)
)

Then, create a table Employee_Salary_Details as shown in Code Snippet 8.

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Code Snippet 8:
CREATE TABLE Employee_Salary_Details (
EmpID
int NOT NULL,
Designation varchar(30),
Salary int NOT NULL
)

Code Snippet 9 creates

a view vwEmployee_Details using columns from the
Employee_Personal_Details and Employee_Salary_Details tables by joining the two tables on
the EmpID column.

Code Snippet 9:

CREATE VIEW vwEmployee_Personal_Details

AS
SELECT e1.EmpID, FirstName, LastName, Designation, Salary
FROM Employee_Personal_Details e1
JOIN Employee_Salary_Details e2
ON e1.EmpID = e2.EmpID

Code Snippet 10 uses the INSERT statement to insert data through the view vwEmployee_Details.

However, the data is not inserted as the view is created from two base tables.

Code Snippet 10:

INSERT INTO vwEmployee_Personal_Details VALUES (2,'Jack','Wilson','Software

Developer',16000)

Following error message is displayed when the INSERT statement is executed.

'Msg 4405, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
View or function 'vEmployee_Details' is not updatable because the
modification affects multiple base tables.'

Values can be inserted into user-defined data type columns by:

• Specifying a value of the user-defined type.
• Calling a user-defined function that returns a value of the user-defined type.

Following rules and guidelines must be followed when using the INSERT statement:
➢ The INSERT statement must specify values for all columns in a view in the underlying table that do
not allow null values and have no DEFAULT definitions.
➢ When there is a self-join with the same view or base table, the INSERT statement does not work.

Code Snippet 11 creates a view vwEmpDetails using Employee_Personal_Details table. The

Employee_Personal_Details table contains a column named LastName that does not allow null
values to be inserted.

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Code Snippet 11:
CREATE VIEW vwEmpDetails AS
SELECT FirstName, Address
FROM Employee_Personal_Details

Code Snippet 12 attempts to insert values into the vwEmpDetails view.

Code Snippet 12:

INSERT INTO vwEmpDetails VALUES ('Jack','NYC')

This insert is not allowed as the view does not contain the LastName column from the base table and
that column does not allow null values.

10.3.2 UPDATE with Views

The UPDATE statement can be used to change the data in a view. Updating a view also updates the
underlying table.

Consider an example. Code Snippet 13 creates a table named Product_Details.

Code Snippet 13:

CREATE TABLE Product_Details (

ProductID int, ProductName
varchar(30), Rate money
)

Assume some records are added in the table as shown in figure 10.4.

Figure 10.4: Records in the Product_Details

Code Snippet 14 creates a view based on the Product_Details table.

Code Snippet 14:

CREATE VIEW vwProduct_Details

AS
SELECT ProductName, Rate FROM Product_Details

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Code Snippet 15 updates the view to change all rates of DVD writers to 3,000.

Code Snippet 15:

UPDATE vwProduct_Details
SET Rate=3000
WHERE ProductName='DVD Writer'

The outcome of this code affects not only the view, vwProduct_Details, but also the underlying table
from which the view was created.

Figure 10.5 shows the updated table which was automatically updated because of the view.

Figure 10.5: Updated Table

Large value data types include varchar(max), nvarchar(max), and varbinary(max). To update data
having large value data types, the .WRITE clause is used. The .WRITE clause specifies that a section of
the value in a column is to be modified. The .WRITE clause cannot be used to update a NULL value in a
column. Also, it cannot be used to set a column value to NULL.

Syntax:
column_name .WRITE (expression, @Offset, @Length)

where,
column_name: specifies the name of the large value data-type column.
expression: specifies the value that is copied to the column.
@Offset: specifies the starting point in the value of the column at which the expression is written.
@Length: specifies the length of the section in the column.
@Offset and @Length are specified in bytes for varbinary and varchar data types and in
characters for the nvarchar data type.

Assume that the table Product_Details is modified to include a column Description having data
type nvarchar(max).

A view is created based on this table, having the columns ProductName, Description, and Rate as
shown in Code Snippet 16.

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Code Snippet 16:
CREATE VIEW vwProduct_Details AS
SELECT
ProductName,
Description,
Rate FROM Product_Details

Code Snippet 17 uses the UPDATE statement on the view vwProduct_Details. The .WRITE clause is
used with values 0 and 2 to change first two characters in the Description column. Thus, Internal
will be changed to External.

Code Snippet 17:

UPDATE vwProduct_Details
SET Description .WRITE(N'Ex',0,2)
WHERE ProductName='Portable Hard Drive'

As a result of the code, all the rows in the view that had 'Portable Hard Drive' as product name will be
updated with External instead of Internal in the Description column.

Figure 10.6 shows a sample output of the view after the updation.

Figure 10.6: Updating a View

Following rules and guidelines must be followed when using the UPDATE statement:

The value of a column with an IDENTITY property cannot be updated.

Records cannot be updated if the base table contains a TIMESTAMP column.

When there is a self-join with the same view or base table, the UPDATE statement does not
work.

While updating a row, if a constraint or rule is violated, the statement is terminated, an error
is returned, and no records are updated.

V 1.0 © Aptech Limited

10.3.3 DELETE with Views
SQL Server enables you to delete rows from a view. Rows can be deleted from the view using the
DELETE statement. When rows are deleted from a view, corresponding rows are also deleted from the base
table.

For example, consider a view vwCustDetails that lists the account information of different customers.
When a customer closes the account, the details of this customer need to be deleted. This is done using the
DELETE statement.

Following syntax is used to delete data from a view.

Syntax:
DELETE FROM <view_name>
WHERE <search_condition>

Assume that a table named Customer_details and a view vwCustDetails based on the table are
created.

Code Snippet 18 is used to delete the record from the view vwCustDetails that has CustID C0004.

Code Snippet 18:

DELETE FROM vwCustDetails WHERE CustID='C0004'

Figure 10.7 depicts the logic of deleting from views.

Figure 10.7: Deleting from Views

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10.4 Altering Views
Besides modifying the data within a view, users can also modify the definition of a view. A view can be
modified or altered by dropping and recreating it or executing the ALTER VIEW statement. The ALTER
VIEW statement modifies an existing view without having to reorganize its permissions and other properties.

ALTER VIEW can be applied to indexed views; however, it unconditionally drops all indexes on the view.
Views are often altered when a user requests for additional information or makes changes in the underlying
table definition.

Note - After a view is created, if the structure of its underlying tables is altered by adding columns, the
new columns do not appear in the view. This is because the column list is interpreted only when you
first create the view. To see the new columns in the view, you must alter the view.

Following syntax is used to alter a view:

Syntax:

ALTER VIEW <view_name>

AS <select_statement>

Code Snippet 19 alters the view, vwProductInfo to include the ReOrderPoint column.

Code Snippet 19:

ALTER VIEW vwProductInfo AS
SELECT ProductID, ProductNumber, Name, SafetyStockLevel, ReOrderPoint
FROM Production.Product;
GO

10.5 Dropping Views

A view can be removed from the database if it is no longer required. This is done using the DROP VIEW
statement. When a view is dropped, the data in the base tables remains unaffected. The definition of the view
and other information associated with the view is deleted from the system catalog. All permissions for the
view are also deleted. If a user queries any view that references the dropped view, the user receives an error
message.

Note - The owner of the view has the permission to drop a view and this permission is nontransferable.
However, the system administrator or database owner can drop any object by specifying the owner name
in the DROP VIEW statement.

Following syntax is used to drop a view:

Syntax:

DROP VIEW <view_name>

Code Snippet 20 deletes the view, vwProductInfo.

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Code Snippet 20:

DROP VIEW vwProductInfo

10.6 Definition of a View

The definition of a view helps to understand how its data is derived from the source tables. There are
certain system stored procedures that help to retrieve view definitions. The sp_helptext stored procedure
displays view related information when the name of the view is given as its parameter. Information about
the definition of a view can be obtained if such information is not encrypted.

Following syntax is used to view the definition information of a view:

Syntax:

sp_helptext <view_name>

Code Snippet 21 displays information about the view, vwEmployee_Personal_Details.

Code Snippet 21:

EXEC sp_helptext vwEmployee_Personal_Details

The execution of the code will display the definition about the view as shown in figure 10.8.

Figure 10.8: Using sp_helptext to display View Definitions

10.7 Creating a View Using Built-in Functions

Views can be created using built-in functions of SQL Server. When functions are used, the derived
column must include the column name in the CREATE VIEW statement.

Consider the view that was created in Code Snippet 16. It has been re-created in Code Snippet 22 to make
use of the AVG() function. Make sure to delete the existing view before executing this snippet.

Code Snippet 22:

CREATE VIEW vwProduct_Details AS
SELECT
ProductName,
AVG(Rate) AS AverageRate FROM
Product_Details GROUP BY ProductName

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Here, the AVG() function calculates the average rate of similar products by using a GROUP BY clause.

Figure 10.9 shows the result when the view is queried.

Figure 10.9: Using Built-in Functions with Views

10.8 CHECK OPTION
The CHECK OPTION is an option associated with the CREATE VIEW statement. It is used to ensure that all
the updates in the view satisfy the conditions mentioned in the view definition. If the conditions are not
satisfied, the database engine returns an error. Thus, the CHECK OPTION is used to enforce domain integrity;
it checks the definition of the view to see that the WHERE conditions in the SELECT statement is not violated.

The WITH CHECK OPTION clause forces all the modification statements executed against the view to
follow the condition set within the SELECT statement. When a row is modified, the WITH CHECK OPTION
makes sure that the data remains visible through the view.

Following syntax creates a view using the CHECK OPTION:

Syntax:
CREATE VIEW <view_name>
AS select_statement [ WITH CHECK OPTION ]

where,
WITH CHECK OPTION: specifies that the modified data in the view continues to satisfy the view
definition.

Code Snippet 23 re-creates the view vwProductInfo having SafetyStockLevel less than or equal to
1000.

Code Snippet 23:

CREATE VIEW vwProductInfo AS
SELECT ProductID, ProductNumber,Name,SafetyStockLevel,
ReOrderPoint
FROM Production.Product
WHERE SafetyStockLevel <=1000
WITH CHECK OPTION;
GO

In Code Snippet 24, the UPDATE statement is used to modify the view vwProductInfo by changing the
value of the SafetyStockLevel column for the product having id 321 to 2500.

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Code Snippet 24:

UPDATE vwProductInfo SET SafetyStockLevel= 2500

WHERE ProductID=321

The UPDATE statement fails to execute as it violates the view definition, which specifies that
SafetyStockLevel must be less than or equal to 1000. Thus, no rows are affected in the view
vwProductInfo.

Note - Any updates performed on the base tables are not verified against the view, even if CHECK
OPTION is specified.

10.9 SCHEMABINDING Option

A view can be bound to the schema of the base table using the SCHEMABINDING option. This option can be
used with CREATE VIEW or ALTER VIEW statements. When SCHEMABINDING option is specified, the base
table or tables cannot be modified that would affect the view definition. The view definition must be first
modified or deleted to remove dependencies on the table that is to be modified.

While using the SCHEMABINDING option in a view, you must specify the schema name along with the
object name in the SELECT statement.

Following syntax is used to create a view with the SCHEMABINDING option:

Syntax:
CREATE VIEW <view_name> WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS <select_statement>

where,
view_name: specifies the name of the view.
WITH SCHEMABINDING: specifies that the view must be bound to a schema.
select_statement: Specifies the SELECT statement that defines the view.

Code Snippet 25 creates a view vwNewProductInfo with SCHEMABINDING option to bind the view to the
Production schema, which is the schema of the table Product.

Code Snippet 25:

CREATE VIEW vwNewProductInfo WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
SELECT ProductID, ProductNumber, Name, SafetyStockLevel
FROM Production.Product;
GO

10.10 Using sp_refreshview

During the creation of a view, the SCHEMABINDING option is used to bind the view to the schema of the
tables that are included in the view. However, a view can also be created without selecting the
SCHEMABINDING option. In such a case, if changes are made to the underlying objects (tables or views) on

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which the view depends, the sp_refreshview stored procedure should be executed. The
sp_refreshview stored procedure updates the metadata for the view. If the sp_refreshview procedure
is not executed, the metadata of the view is not updated to reflect the changes in the base tables. This results
in the generation of unexpected results when the view is queried.

The sp_refreshview stored procedure returns code value zero if the execution is successful or returns a
non-zero number in case the execution has failed.

Following syntax is used to run the sp_refreshview stored procedure:

Syntax:

sp_refreshview '<view_name>'

Code Snippet 26 creates a table Customers with the CustID, CustName, and Address columns.

Code Snippet 26:

CREATE TABLE Customers
(
CustID int,
CustName varchar(50),
Address varchar(60)
)

Code Snippet 27 creates a view vwCustomers based on the table Customers.

Code Snippet 27:

CREATE VIEW vwCustomers
AS
SELECT * FROM Customers

Code Snippet 28 executes the SELECT query on the view.

Code Snippet 28:

SELECT * FROM vwCustomers

The output of Code Snippet 28 shows three columns, CustID, CustName, and Address.

Code Snippet 29 uses the ALTER TABLE statement to add a column Age to the table Customers.

Code Snippet 29:

ALTER TABLE Customers ADD Age int

Code Snippet 30 executes the SELECT query on the view.

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Code Snippet 30:

SELECT * FROM vwCustomers

The updated column Age is not seen in the view.

To resolve this, the sp_refreshview stored procedure must be executed on the view vwCustomers
as shown in Code Snippet 31.

Code Snippet 31:

EXEC sp_refreshview 'vwCustomers'

When a SELECT query is run again on the view, the column Age is seen in the output. This is because the
sp_refreshview procedure refreshes the metadata for the view vwCustomers.

Tables that are schema-bound to a view cannot be dropped unless the view is dropped or changed such that
it no longer has schema binding. If the view is not dropped or changed and you attempt to drop the table,
the Database Engine returns an error message.

Also, when an ALTER TABLE statement affects the view definition of a schema-bound view, the ALTER
TABLE statement fails.

Consider the schema-bound view that was created in Code Snippet 25. It is dependent on the
Production.Product table.

Code Snippet 32 tries to modify the data type of ProductID column in the Production.Product table
from int to varchar(7).

Code Snippet 32:

ALTER TABLE Production.Product ALTER COLUMN ProductID varchar(7)

The Database Engine returns an error message as the table is schema-bound to the vwNewProductInfo
view and hence, cannot be altered such that it violates the view definition of the view.

10.11 Stored Procedures

A stored procedure is a group of Transact-SQL statements that act as a single block of code that performs a
specific task. This block of code is identified by an assigned name and is stored in the database in a compiled
form. A stored procedure may also be a reference to a .NET Framework Common Language Runtime
(CLR) method.

Stored procedures are useful when repetitive tasks have to be performed. This eliminates the need for
repetitively typing out multiple Transact-SQL statements and then repetitively compiling them.

Stored procedures can accept values in the form of input parameters and return output values as defined by
the output parameters.

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Using stored procedures offers numerous advantages over using Transact-SQL statements. These are as
follows:

The database administrator can improve the security by associating database privileges
Improved with stored procedures. Users can be given permission to execute a stored procedure even
Security if the user does not have permission to access the tables or views.

Stored procedures are compiled during the first execution. For every subsequent
Precompiled execution, SQL Server reuses this precompiled version. This reduces the time and
Execution resources required for compilation.

Stored procedures help in reducing network traffic. When Transact-SQL statements are
executed individually, there is network usage separately for execution of each statement.
Reduced When a stored procedure is executed, the Transact-SQL statements are executed together
Client/Server as a single unit. Network path is not used separately for execution of each individual
Traffic statement. This reduces network traffic.

Stored procedures can be used multiple times. This eliminates the need to repetitively
type out hundreds of Transact-SQL statements every time a similar task is to be
Reuse of code
performed.

10.11.1 Types of Stored Procedures

SQL Server supports various types of stored procedures. These are described as follows:

➢ User-Defined Stored Procedures

User-defined stored procedures are also known as custom stored procedures. These procedures are used
for reusing Transact-SQL statements for performing repetitive tasks. There are two types of user-defined
stored procedures, the Transact-SQL stored procedures and the Common Language Runtime (CLR) stored
procedures.

Transact-SQL stored procedures consist of Transact-SQL statements whereas the CLR stored procedures
are based on the .NET framework CLR methods. Both the stored procedures can take and return user-defined
parameters.
➢ Extended Stored Procedures

Extended stored procedures help SQL Server in interacting with the operating system. Extended stored
procedures are not resident objects of SQL Server. They are procedures that are implemented as Dynamic-
Link Libraries (DLL) executed outside the SQL Server environment. The application interacting with SQL

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Server calls the DLL at run-time. The DLL is dynamically loaded and run by SQL Server. SQL Server allots
space to run the extended stored procedures. Extended stored procedures use the 'xp' prefix. Tasks that are
complicated or cannot be executed using Transact-SQL statements are performed using extended stored
procedures.

➢ System Stored Procedures

System stored procedures are commonly used for interacting with system tables and performing
administrative tasks such as updating system tables. The system stored procedures are prefixed with 'sp_'.
These procedures are located in the Resource database. These procedures can be seen in the sys schema
of every system and user-defined database. System stored procedures allow GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE
permissions.

A system stored procedure is a set of pre-compiled Transact-SQL statements executed as a single unit.
System procedures are used in database administrative and informational activities. These procedures
provide easy access to the metadata information about database objects such as system tables, user-defined
tables, views, and indexes.

System stored procedures logically appear in the sys schema of system and user-defined databases. When
referencing a system stored procedure, the sys schema identifier is used. System stored procedures are
stored physically in the hidden Resource database and have the sp_ prefix. System stored procedures are
owned by the database administrator.

Note - System tables are created by default at the time of creating a new database. These tables store the
metadata information about user-defined objects such as tables and views. Users cannot access or
update the system tables using system stored procedures except through permissions granted by a
database administrator.

10.11.2 Classification of System Stored Procedures

System stored procedures can be classified into different categories depending on the tasks they perform.

Some of the important categories are as follows:

All information about tables in the user database is stored in a set of tables called the
Catalog Stored Procedures system catalog. Information from the system catalog can be accessed using catalog
procedures. For example, the sp_tables catalog stored procedure displays the list of
all the tables in the current database.

Security stored procedures are used to manage the security of the database. For
Security Stored Procedures example, the sp_changedbowner security stored procedure is used to change the
owner of the current database.

Cursor procedures are used to implement the functionality of a cursor. For example,
Cursor Stored Procedures the sp_cursor_list cursor stored procedure lists all the cursors opened by the
connection and describes their attributes.

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 Distributed Query Stored Distributed stored procedures are used in the management of distributed queries. For
Procedures example, the sp_indexes distributed query stored procedure returns index
information for the specified remote table.

Database Mail and SQL Mail stored procedures are used to perform e-mail operations
Database Mail and SQL from within the SQL Server. For example, the sp_send_dbmail database mail stored
Mail Stored Procedures procedure sends e-mail messages to specified recipients. The message may include a
query resultset or file attachments or both.

10.11.3 Temporary Stored Procedures

Stored procedures created for temporary use within a session are called temporary stored procedures. These
procedures are stored in the tempdb database. The tempdb system database is a global resource available
to all users connected to an instance of SQL Server. It holds all temporary tables and temporary stored
procedures.

SQL Server supports two types of temporary stored procedures namely, local and global. The differences
between the two types are given in table 10.1.
Local Temporary Procedure Global Temporary Procedure
Visible only to the user that created it Visible to all users
Dropped at the end of the current session Dropped at the end of the last session
Local Temporary Procedure Global Temporary Procedure
Can only be used by its owner Can be used by any user
Uses the # prefix before the procedure name Uses the ## prefix before the procedure name

Table 10.1: Differences Between Local and Global Temporary Procedures

Note - A session is established when a user connects to the database and is ended when the user
disconnects. The complete name of a global temporary stored procedure including the prefix # #
cannot exceed 128 characters. The complete name of a local temporary stored procedure including
the prefix # cannot exceed 116 characters.

10.11.4 Remote Stored Procedures

Stored procedures that run on remote SQL Servers are known as remote stored procedures. Remote stored
procedures can be used only when the remote server allows remote access. When a remote stored
procedure is executed from a local instance of SQL Server to a client computer, a statement abort error
might be encountered. When such an error occurs, the statement that caused the error is terminated but the
remote procedure continues to be executed.

10.11.5 Extended Stored Procedures

Extended stored procedures are used to perform tasks that are unable to be performed using standard
Transact-SQL statements. Extended stored procedures use the 'xp_' prefix. These stored procedures are

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contained in the dbo schema of the master database.

Syntax:

EXECUTE <procedure_name>

Code Snippet 33 executes the extended stored procedure xp_fileexist to check whether the
MyTest.txt file exists or not.

Code Snippet 33:

EXECUTE xp_fileexist 'c:\MyTest.txt'

Note - When you execute an extended stored procedure, either in a batch or in a module, qualify the
stored procedure name with master.dbo.

10.12 Custom or User-defined Stored Procedures

In SQL Server, users are allowed to create customized stored procedures for performance of various tasks.
Such stored procedures are referred to as user-defined or custom stored procedures.

For example, consider a table Customer_Details that stores details about all the customers. You would
need to type out Transact-SQL statements every time you wished to view the details about the customers.
Instead, you could create a custom stored procedure that would display these details whenever the
procedure is executed.

Creating a custom stored procedure requires CREATE PROCEDURE permission in the database and ALTER
permission on the schema in which the procedure is being created.

Following syntax is used to create a custom stored procedure:

Syntax:

CREATE { PROC | PROCEDURE } procedure_name

[ { @parameter data_type } ]
AS <sql_statement>

where,
procedure_name: specifies the name of the procedure.
@parameter: specifies the input/output parameters in the procedure.
data_type: specifies the data types of the parameters.
sql_statement: specifies one or more Transact-SQL statements to be included in the procedure.

Code Snippet 34 creates and then executes a custom stored procedure, uspGetCustTerritory, which
will display the details of customers such as customer id, territory id, and territory name.

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Code Snippet 34:
CREATE PROCEDURE uspGetCustTerritory
AS
SELECT TOP 10 CustomerID, Customer.TerritoryID, Sales.SalesTerritory.Name
FROM Sales.Customer JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory ON Sales.Customer.TerritoryID =
Sales.SalesTerritory.TerritoryID

To execute the stored procedure, the EXEC command is used as shown in Code Snippet 35.

Code Snippet 35:

EXEC uspGetCustTerritory

The output is shown in figure 10.10.

Figure 10.10: Output of a Simple Stored Procedure

10.12.1 Using Parameters

The real advantage of a stored procedure comes into picture only when one or more parameters are used with
it. Data is passed between the stored procedure and the calling program when a call is made to a stored
procedure. This data transfer is done using parameters. Parameters are of two types that are as follows:

Input Output
Parameters Parameters

Input parameters allow the Output parameters allow a

calling program to pass values stored procedure to pass
to a stored procedure. These values back to the calling
values are accepted into program. These values are
variables defined in the stored accepted into variables by the
procedure. calling program.

These are now described in detail.

Input Parameters

Values are passed from the calling program to the stored procedure and these values are accepted into the
input parameters of the stored procedure. The input parameters are defined at the time of creation of the

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stored procedure. The values passed to input parameters could be either constants or variables. These values
are passed to the procedure at the time of calling the procedure. The stored procedure performs specified
tasks using these values.

Following syntax is used to create a stored procedure:

Syntax:

CREATE PROCEDURE <procedure_name>

@parameter <data_type>
AS <sql_statement>

where,
data_type: specifies the system defined data type.

Following syntax is used to execute a stored procedure and pass values as input parameters:

Syntax:

EXECUTE <procedure_name> <parameters>

Code Snippet 36 creates a stored procedure, uspGetSales with a parameter territory to accept the name
of a territory and display the sales details and salesperson id for that territory. Then, the code executes the
stored procedure with Northwest being passed as the input parameter.

Code Snippet 36:

CREATE PROCEDURE uspGetSales @territory varchar(40) AS
SELECT BusinessEntityID, B.SalesYTD, B.SalesLastYear FROM
Sales.SalesPerson A
JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory B
ON A.TerritoryID = B.TerritoryID WHERE
B.Name = @territory;
--Execute the stored procedure EXEC
uspGetSales 'Northwest'

The output is shown in figure 10.11.

Figure 10.11: Using Stored Procedure with Parameters

Output Parameters
Stored procedures occasionally need to return output back to the calling program. This transfer of data from
the stored procedure to the calling program is performed using output parameters. Output parameters are
defined at the time of creation of the procedure. To specify an output parameter, the OUTPUT keyword is
used while declaring the parameter. Also, the calling statement has to have a variable specified with the

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OUTPUT keyword to accept the output from the called procedure.

Following syntax is used to pass output parameters in a stored procedure and then, execute the stored
procedure with the OUTPUT parameter specified:

Syntax:

EXECUTE <procedure_name> <parameters>

Code Snippet 37 creates a stored procedure, uspGetTotalSales with input parameter @territory to
accept the name of a territory and output parameter @sum to display the sum of sales year to date in that
territory.
Code Snippet 37:
CREATE PROCEDURE uspGetTotalSales @territory
varchar(40), @sum int OUTPUT AS
SELECT @sum= SUM(B.SalesYTD) FROM
Sales.SalesPerson A JOIN
Sales.SalesTerritory B
ON A.TerritoryID = B.TerritoryID
WHERE B.Name = @territory

Code Snippet 38 declares a variable sumsales to accept the output of the procedure
uspGetTotalSales.

Code Snippet 38:

DECLARE @sumsales money
EXEC uspGetTotalSales 'Northwest', @sumsales OUTPUT
PRINT 'The year-to-date sales figure for this territory is ' +convert (varchar(100),
@sumsales);

The code passes Northwest as the input to the uspGetTotalSales stored procedure and accepts the
output in the variable sumsales. The output is printed using the PRINT command.
OUTPUT parameters have following characteristics:

➢ The parameter cannot be of text and image data type.

➢ The calling statement must contain a variable to receive the return value.
➢ The variable can be used in subsequent Transact-SQL statements in the batch or the calling
procedure.
➢ Output parameters can be cursor placeholders.

The OUTPUT clause returns information from each row on which the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
statements have been executed. This clause is useful to retrieve the value of an identity or computed column
after an INSERT or UPDATE operation.

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10.12.2 Using SSMS to Create Stored Procedures
You can also create a user-defined stored procedure using SSMS. Steps to perform this are as follows:
1. Launch Object Explorer.
2. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of Database Engine and after successfully connection,
expand the instance.
3. Expand the Databases node and then, expand the AdventureWorks2019 database.

Expand Programmability, right-click Stored Procedures, and then, click Stored Procedure as
shown in figure 10.12.

Figure 10.12: Creating a Stored Procedure

The Query Editor displays a default template in Transact SQL for the stored procedure, as shown
in figure 10.13.

Figure 10.13: Default Template for Stored Procedure

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4. On the Query menu, click Specify Values for Template Parameters, as shown in figure 10.14.

Figure 10.14: Selecting Query Menu Option

The Specify Values for Template Parameters dialog box is displayed as shown in figure 10.15.

Figure 10.15: Specify Values for Template Parameters Dialog Box

5. In the Specify Values for Template Parameters dialog box, enter the values for the parameters as
shown in table 10.2.
Parameter Value
Author Your name
Create Date Today's date
Description Returns year to sales data for a territory
Procedure_Name uspGetTotals
@Param1 @territory
@Datatype_For_Param1 varchar(50)
Default_Value_For_Param1 NULL
@Param2
@Datatype_For_Param2
Default_Value_For_Param2
Table 10.2: Parameter Values

6. After entering these details, click OK.

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7. In the Query Editor, replace the SELECT statement (on line 31) with following statement:
SELECT BusinessEntityID, B.SalesYTD, B.SalesLastYear FROM Sales.SalesPerson
A JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory B
ON A.TerritoryID = B.TerritoryID WHERE B.Name = @territory;

8. Comment following line:

SELECT 'Return Value' = @return_value

9. To test the syntax, on the Query menu, click Parse. If an error message is returned, compare the
statements with the information and correct as required.

10. To create the procedure, from the Query menu, click Execute. The procedure is created as an object
in the database.

11. To see the procedure listed in Object Explorer, right-click Stored Procedures and select Refresh.

The procedure name will be displayed in the Object Explorer tree as shown in figure 10.16.

Figure 10.16: Stored Procedure Seen in Object Explorer

12. To run the procedure, in Object Explorer, right-click the stored procedure name uspGetTotals and
select Execute Stored Procedure.

13. In the Execute Procedure window, enter Northwest as the value for the parameter @territory
and click OK. The procedure will be executed and the output will be displayed, as shown in figure
10.17.

Figure 10.17: Output of Stored Procedure Created Through SSMS

10.13 Modifying and Dropping Stored Procedures

The permissions associated with the stored procedure are lost when a stored procedure is re-created.
However, when a stored procedure is altered, the permissions defined for the stored procedure remain the

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same even though the procedure definition is changed.

A procedure can be altered using the ALTER PROCEDURE statement.

Following syntax is used to modify a stored procedure:

Syntax:

ALTER PROCEDURE <procedure_name>

@parameter <data_type> [ OUTPUT ] [
WITH { ENCRYPTION | RECOMPILE } ]
AS <sql_statement>

where,
ENCRYPTION: encrypts the stored procedure definition.
RECOMPILE: indicates that the procedure is compiled at run-time.
sql_statement: specifies Transact-SQL statements to be included in the body of the procedure.

Code Snippet 39 modifies the definition of the stored procedure named uspGetTotals to add a new
column CostYTD to be retrieved from Sales.SalesTerritory.

Code Snippet 39:

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[uspGetTotals]
@territory varchar = 40
AS
SELECT BusinessEntityID, B.SalesYTD, B.CostYTD, B.SalesLastYear FROM
Sales.SalesPerson A JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory B
ON A.TerritoryID = B.TerritoryID
WHERE B.Name = @territory;
GO

Note - When you change the definition of a stored procedure, the dependent objects may fail when
executed. This happens if the dependent objects are not updated to reflect the changes made to the stored
procedure.

Dropping stored procedures

Stored procedures can be dropped if they are no longer required. If another stored procedure calls a deleted
procedure, an error message is displayed.

If a new procedure is created using the same name as well as the same parameters as the dropped procedure,
all calls to the dropped procedure will be executed successfully. This is because they will now refer to the
new procedure, which has the same name and parameters as the deleted procedure.

Before dropping a stored procedure, execute the sp_depends system stored procedure to determine
which objects depend on the procedure.

A procedure is dropped using the DROP PROCEDURE statement.

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Following syntax is used to drop a stored procedure:

Syntax:

DROP PROCEDURE <procedure_name>

Code Snippet 40 drops (removes) the stored procedure, uspGetTotals.

Code Snippet 40:

DROP PROCEDURE uspGetTotals

10.14 Nested Stored Procedures

SQL Server 2019 enables stored procedures to be called inside other stored procedures. The called
procedures can in turn call other procedures. This architecture of calling one procedure from another
procedure is referred to as nested stored procedure architecture.

When a stored procedure calls another stored procedure, the level of nesting is said to be increased by one.
Similarly, when a called procedure completes its execution and passes control back to the calling
procedure, the level of nesting is said to be decreased by one. The maximum level of nesting supported by
SQL Server 2019 is 32.

Code Snippet 41 is used to create a stored procedure NestedProcedure that calls two other stored
procedures that were created earlier through Code Snippets 34 and 36.

Code Snippet 41:

CREATE PROCEDURE NestedProcedure AS
BEGIN
EXEC uspGetCustTerritory
EXEC uspGetSales 'France'
END

When the procedure NestedProcedure is executed, this procedure in turn invokes the
uspGetCustTerritory and uspGetSales stored procedures and passes the value France as the input
parameter to the uspGetSales stored procedure.

Note - Although there can be a maximum of 32 levels of nesting, there is no limit as to the number of
stored procedure that can be called from a given stored procedure.

10.15 Querying System MetaData

The properties of an object such as a table or a view are stored in special system tables. These properties are
referred to as metadata. All SQL objects produce metadata. This metadata can be viewed using system views,
which are predefined views of SQL Server.

There are over 230 different system views and these are automatically inserted into the user created
database. These views are grouped into several different schemas.

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System Catalog Views
These contain information about the catalog in a SQL Server system. A catalog is similar to an inventory
of objects. These views contain a wide range of metadata. In earlier versions of SQL Server, users were
required to query a large number of system tables, system views, and system functions. In SQL Server 2012,
all user-accessible catalog metadata can easily be found by querying just the catalog views.

Code Snippet 42 retrieves a list of user tables and attributes from the system catalog view sys.tables.

Code Snippet 42:

SELECT name, object_id, type, type_desc
FROM sys.tables;

Information Schema Views

Users can query information schema views to return system metadata. These views are useful to third-party
tools that may not be specific for SQL Server. Information schema views provide an internal, system table-
independent view of the SQL Server metadata. Information schema views enable applications to work
correctly although significant changes have been made to the underlying system tables.

Following points in table 10.3 will help to decide whether one should query SQL Server-specific system
views or information schema views:
Information Schema Views SQL Server System Views
They are stored in their own schema,
They appear in the sys schema.
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.
They use standard terminology instead of SQL
Server terms. For example, they use catalog instead
They adhere to SQL Server terminology.
of database and domain instead of user-defined
data type.
They may not expose all the metadata available to
SQL Server's own catalog views. For example,
They can expose all the metadata available to
sys.columns includes attributes for identity
SQL Server's catalog views.
property and computed column property, while
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.columns does not.

Table 10.3: Information Schema Views and SQL Server System Views

Code Snippet 43 retrieves data from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view in the

AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 43:

SELECT TABLE_CATALOG, TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, TABLE_TYPE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;

System Metadata Functions

In addition to views, SQL Server provides a number of built-in functions that return metadata to a query.
These include scalar functions and table-valued functions, which can return information about system

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settings, session options, and a wide range of objects.

SQL Server metadata functions come in a variety of formats. Some appear similar to standard scalar
functions, such as ERROR_NUMBER(). Others use special prefixes, such as @@VERSION or $PARTITION.

Table 10.4 shows some common system metadata functions.

Function Name Description Example
Returns the object ID of a OBJECT_ID('Sales.Customer
OBJECT_ID(<object_name>) ')
database object.
Returns the name
OBJECT_NAME(<object_id>) corresponding to an object OBJECT_ NAME(197575742)
ID.
Returns 0 if the last
statement succeeded;
@@ERROR @@ERROR
otherwise returns the error
number.
SERVERPROPERTY Returns the value of the SERVERPROPERTY(
(<property >) specified server property. 'Collation')
Table 10.4: Common System Metadata Functions

Code Snippet 44 uses a SELECT statement to query a system metadata function.

Code Snippet 44:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('EDITION') AS EditionName;

One of the new features in SQL Server 2019 is memory-optimized tempdb metadata. The SQL Server
team enhanced tempdb code with optimizations so that some of the metadata which could have been a
bottleneck on tempdb heavy systems can now rely on memory and be optimized for RAM access.

Large volume, large scale environments that use a lot of tempdb usually run into this type of bottleneck.
Earlier this would require some sort of workaround to reduce the use of tempdb. However, with this new
feature in place, it is possible to enable metadata to remain in memory and be optimally accessed.

10.16 Querying Dynamic Management Objects

First introduced in SQL Server 2005, Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and Dynamic Management
Functions (DMFs) are dynamic management objects that return server and database state information.
DMVs and DMFs are collectively referred to as dynamic management objects. They provide useful insight
into the working of software and can be used for examining the state of SQL Server instance,
troubleshooting, and performance tuning.
Both DMVs and DMFs return data in tabular format but the difference is that while a DMF normally
accepts at least one parameter, a DMV does not accept parameters. SQL Server 2019 provides nearly 200
dynamic management objects. In order to query DMVs, it is required to have VIEW SERVER STATE or
VIEW DATABASE STATE permission, depending on the scope of the DMV.

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10.16.1 Categorizing and Querying DMVs
Table 10.5 lists the naming convention that helps organize the DMVs by function.
Naming Pattern Description
db Database related
io I/O statistics
Os SQL Server Operating System Information
'tran' Transaction-related
'exec' Query execution-related metadata
Table 10.5: Organizing DMVS by Function

To query a dynamic management object, you use a SELECT statement as you would with any user-defined
view or table-valued function. For example, Code Snippet 45 returns a list of current user connections from
the sys.dm_exec_sessions view.

sys.dm_exec_sessions is a server-scoped DMV that displays information about all active user
connections and internal tasks. This information includes login user, current session setting, client version,
client program name, client login time, and more. The sys.dm_exec_sessions can be used to identify a
specific session and find information about it.

Code Snippet 45:

SELECT session_id, login_time, program_name FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions

WHERE login_name ='sa' and is_user_process =1;

Here, is_user_process is a column in the view that determines if the session is a system session or not.
A value of 1 indicates that it is not a system session but rather a user session. The program_name column
determines the name of client program that initiated the session. The login_time column establishes the
time when the session began. The output of Code Snippet 45 is shown in figure 10.18.

Figure 10.18: Querying the sys.dm_exec_sessions DMV

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10.17 Check Your Progress
1. Which of these statements about views are true?
a. Views enable you to see and manipulate selected parts of a table.
b. Only columns from a table can be selected for a view, rows cannot be.
c. System views display information about the system or the machine.
d. Views have a maximum of 1024 columns.
e. When data in a view is changed, it is not reflected in the underlying table.

(A) a, c, d, e (C) a, b, d
(B) a, d (D) All of these

2. You are creating a view vwSupplier with FirstName, LastName, and City columns from the
Supplier_Details table. Which of the following code is violating the definition of a view?
CREATE VIEW vwSupplier AS CREATE VIEW vwSupplier AS
SELECT FirstName, LastName, City SELECT FirstName, LastName,
(A) FROM Supplier_Details WHERE City (C) City FROM Supplier_Details
IN('New York', 'Boston', 'Orlando') ORDER BY FirstName
CREATE VIEW vwSupplier AS SELECT CREATE VIEW vwSupplier AS
TOP 100 FirstName, LastName, City SELECT TOP 100 FirstName,
(B) FROM Supplier_Details (D) LastName, City FROM
WHERE FirstName LIKE 'A%' ORDER BY Supplier_Details
FirstName

3. Which of these statements about CHECK OPTION and SCHEMABINDING options are true?
a. The CHECK OPTION ensures entity integrity.
b. The SCHEMABINDING option binds the view to the schema of the base table.
c. When a row is modified, the WITH CHECK OPTION makes sure that the data remains
visible through the view.
d. SCHEMABINDING option ensures the base table cannot be modified in a way that would
affect the view definition.
e. SCHEMABINDING option cannot be used with ALTER VIEW statements.

(A) a, b, c (C) b, c, d
(B) b, c (D) c, d, e

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4. You want to create a view vwAccount_Details with the SCHEMABINDING option. Which of the
following code will achieve this objective?
CREATE VIEW vwAccount_Details CREATE VIEW vwAccount_Details
AS WITH SCHEMABINDING
SELECT AccNo, City AS
(A) FROM dbo.Customer_Details (C) SELECT AccNo, City
WITH SCHEMABINDING FROM dbo.Customer_Details
CREATE VIEW vwAccount_Details CREATE VIEW vwAccount_Details
SCHEMABINDING WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS AS
(B) SELECT AccNo, City FROM (D) SELECT AccNo, City FROM
Customer_Details Customer_Details

5. A table Item_Details is created with ItemCode, ItemName, Price, and Quantity columns.
The ItemCode column is defined as the PRIMARY KEY, ItemName is defined with UNIQUE and
NOT NULL constraints, Price is defined with the NOT NULL constraint, and Quantity is defined
with the NOT NULL constraint and having a default value specified. Which of the following views
created using columns from the Item_Details table can be used to insert records in the table?
CREATE VIEW vwItemDetails CREATE VIEW vwItemDetails
AS SELECT ItemCode, AS
(A) ItemName, Price (C) SELECT ItemName, Price,
FROM Item_Details Quantity FROM Item_Details
CREATE VIEW vwItemDetails CREATE VIEW vwItemDetails
AS SELECT ItemCode, AS
(B) Price, Quantity (D) SELECT ItemCode, ItemName,
FROM Item_Details Quantity FROM Item_Details

6. Which of these statements about stored procedures are true?

a. A stored procedure is a group of Transact-SQL statements that act as a block of code
used to perform a particular task.
b. All system stored procedures are identified by the 'xp_' prefix.
c. A distributed stored procedure is used in the management of distributed queries.
d. Database Mail and SQL mail procedures are used to perform e-mail operations within SQL
Server.
e. User-defined stored procedures are also known as custom stored procedures.

(A) a, d (C) a, c, d, e

(B) b, c, e (D) d

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10.17.1 Answers
1. A
2. C
3. C
4. B
5. A
6. C

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 Summary
➢ A view is a virtual table that is made up of selected columns from one or more tables and is
created using the CREATE VIEW command in SQL Server.
➢ Users can manipulate the data in views, such as inserting into views, modifying the data in views,
and deleting from views.
➢ A stored procedure is a group of Transact-SQL statements that act as a single block of code that
performs a specific task.
➢ SQL Server supports various types of stored procedures, such as User-Defined Stored Procedures,
Extended Stored Procedures, and System Stored Procedures.
➢ System stored procedures can be classified into different categories such as Catalog Stored
Procedures, Security Stored Procedures, and Cursor Stored Procedures.
➢ Input and output parameters can be used with stored procedures to pass and receive data from
stored procedures.
➢ The properties of an object such as a table or a view are stored in special system tables and are
referred to as metadata.
➢ DMVs and DMFs are dynamic management objects that return server and database state
information. DMVs and DMFs are collectively referred to as dynamic management objects.

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 Try It Yourself
1. In SQL Server Management Studio, locate the extended stored procedures defined under the master
database and execute the following procedures in a query window:

sys.xp_readerrorlog sys.xp_getnetname sys.xp_fixeddrives

2. ShoezUnlimited is a trendy shoe store based in Miami. It stocks various kinds of footwear in its store
and sells them for profits. ShoezUnlimited maintains the details of all products in an SQL Server 2019
database. The management wants their developer to make use of stored procedures for commonly
performed tasks. Assuming that you are the developer, perform the following tasks:

a) Create the Shoes table having structure as shown in table 10.6 in the database, ShoezUnlimited.
Field Name Data Type Key Field Description
ProductCode varchar(5) Primary Key Product Code that uniquely identifies each
shoe
BrandName varchar(30) Brand name of the shoe
Category varchar(30) Category of the shoe, such as for example,
sports shoe, casual wear, party wear, and so
forth
UnitPrice money Price of the shoe in dollars
QtyOnHand int Quantity available
Table 10.6: Shoes Table

b) Add at least five records to the table. Ensure that the value of the column QtyOnHand is more
than 20 for each of the shoes.
c) Write statements to create a stored procedure named sp_PriceIncrease that will increment
the unitprice of all shoes by 10 dollars.
d) Write statements to create a stored procedure sp_QtyOnHand that will decrease the quantity on
hand of specified brands by 25. The brand name should be supplied as input.
e) Execute the stored procedures sp_PriceIncrease and sp_QtyOnHand.

3. Create a view called dbo.vw_OrderDetails that displays details of sales orders for the product
whose id is 777. Use the Sales.SalesOrderDetail table of AdventureWorks2019 database Test
the view by creating a query that retrieves data from the view.

4. Create a view called dbo.vw_Products that displays a list of the products from the
Production.Product table joined to the Production.ProductCostHistory table of
AdventureWorks2019 database. Include columns that describe the product and show the cost
history for each product. Test the view by creating a query that retrieves data from the view.

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 Session - 11
Indexes
Welcome to the Session, Indexes. This session introduces indexes with their internal data
storage. Then, this session explains index structures for different indexes along with their
types. Finally, the session describes the procedures for Index management to implement
types of indexes in actual environment.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Define and explain Indexes
➢ Explain Storage Structure
➢ Explain types of Indexes
➢ Understand Index Management

11.1 Introduction
Indexes are special data structures associated with tables or views that help speed up the query. Table 11.1
lists commonly used indexes in SQL Server.

Index Type Description

It sorts and stores the data rows of a table or view in order based on the clustered index
Clustered key. Clustered index is implemented as a B-tree index structure that supports fast
retrieval of the rows, based on their clustered index key values.
Non-clustered index is defined on a table or view that has data in either a clustered
structure or on a heap. Each index row in the non-clustered index contains nonclustered
key value and a row locator. Locator points to data row in the clustered index or heap
Nonclustered
having key value. Rows in index are stored in order of the index key values, but the
data rows are not guaranteed to be in any particular order unless a clustered index is
created on the table.
Unique index ensures that index key contains no duplicate values and therefore, each
row in the table or view is in some way unique.
Unique
Uniqueness can be a property of both clustered and nonclustered indexes.
Columnstore index stores and manages data by using column-based data storage and
column-based query processing in in-memory.
Columnstore Columnstore indexes work well for data warehousing workloads that primarily perform
bulk loads and read-only queries. Use the columnstore index to achieve up to 10x query
performance gains over traditional row-oriented storage, and up to 7x data compression
over the uncompressed data size.
Optimized non-clustered index is suited to cover queries that select from a well-defined
Filtered subset of data. It uses a filter predicate to index a portion of rows in a table. A well-
designed filtered index can improve query performance, reduce index maintenance

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 Index Type Description
costs, and reduce index storage costs compared with full-table indexes.
It provides the ability to perform certain operations more efficiently on spatial objects
Spatial
in a column of geometry data type.
Due to large size of XML columns, queries that search within these columns can be
XML slow. You can speed up these queries by creating an XML index on each column. An
XML index can be a clustered or a nonclustered index.
Table 11.1: Types of Indexes
There are other types of indexes such as Hash, Memory optimize nonclustered, Index with included
column, Index on computed columns, and Full text.
SQL Server engine uses an index in the similar way as a student uses a book index. For example, consider
that you need to find all references to INSERT statements in an SQL book. The immediate approach taken
will be to scan each page of the book beginning from the starting page. You mark each time the word
INSERT is found, until the end of the book is reached. This approach is time consuming and laborious. The
second way is to use the index in the back of the book to find the page numbers for each occurrence of the
INSERT statements. The second way produces the same results as the first, but by tremendously saving
time.
When SQL Server has not defined any index for searching, then the process is similar to the first way in
the example; the SQL engine must visit each row in a table. In database terminology, this behavior is
called table scan or just scan.
A table scan is not always troublesome, but it is sometimes unavoidable. However, as a table grows up to
thousands and millions of rows and beyond, scans become slower and more expensive. In such cases,
indexes are strongly recommended.

11.1.1 Overview of Data Storage

A book contains pages, which contain paragraphs made up of sentences. Similarly, SQL Server stores data
in storage units known as data pages. These pages contain data in the form of rows.
The pages in a book have the same physical size. Similarly, in SQL Server all data pages are the same size
- 8 kilobytes (KB). This means that SQL Server databases have 128 data pages per megabytes (MB) of
storage space.
A page begins with a 96-byte header, which stores system information about the page. This information
includes the following:

➢ Page number
➢ Page type
➢ Amount of free space on the page
➢ Allocation unit ID of the object to which the page is allocated

Figure 11.1 shows data storage structure of a data page.

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 Figure 11.1: Data Storage
Note - A data page is the smallest unit of data storage. An allocation unit is a collection of data pages
grouped together based on the page type. This grouping is done for efficient management of data.

11.1.2 Data Files

All input and output operations in the database are performed at the page level. This means that the
database engine reads or writes data pages. A set of eight contiguous data pages is referred to as an extent.
SQL Server stores data pages in files known as data files. The space allotted to a data file is divided into
sequentially numbered data pages. The numbering starts from zero as shown in figure 11.2.

Figure 11.2: Data Files

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There are three different types of data files explained as follows:

Primary
• A primary data file is automatically created at the time of creation of the database. This file has
references to all other files in the database. The recommended file extension for primary data files
is .mdf.

Secondary
• These are optional user-defined data files. Data can be spread across multiple disks by putting each
file on a different disk drive. Recommended file name extension for secondary data files is .ndf.

Transaction Log
• Log files contain information about modifications carried out in the database. This information is
useful in recovery of data in contingencies such as sudden power failure or the need to shift the
database to a different server. There is at least one log file for each database. The recommended file
extension for log files is .ldf.

11.1.3 Requirement for Indexes

To facilitate quick retrieval of data from a database, SQL Server provides the indexing feature. Similar to
an index in a book, an index in SQL Server database contains information that allows you to find specific
data without scanning through the entire table as shown in figure 11.3.

Figure 11.3: Index in a Book

11.1.4 Indexes
In a table, records are stored in the order in which they are inserted. Their storage in the database is
unsorted. When data is to be retrieved from such tables, the entire table requires to be scanned. This slows
down the retrieval process. To speed up data retrieval process, indexes are required.

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When an index is created on a table, it creates an order for the data rows or records in the table as shown
in figure 11.4. This assists in faster location and retrieval of data during searches.

Figure 11.4: Indexes

Note - Multiple indexes can be created on a single table.

Indexes are automatically created when PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints are defined on a
table. Indexes reduce disk I/O operations and consume fewer system resources.
The CREATE INDEX statement is used to create an index. Following is the syntax for this statement:
Syntax

CREATE INDEX <index_name> ON <table_name> (<column_name>)

where,
index_name: specifies the name of the index.
table_name: specifies the name of the table.
column_name: specifies the name of the column.

Indexes point to the location of a row on a data page instead of searching through the table. Consider the
following facts and guidelines about indexes:
➢ Indexes increase the speed of queries that join tables or perform sorting operations.
➢ Indexes implement the uniqueness of rows if defined when you create an index.
➢ Indexes are created and maintained in ascending or descending order.

11.1.5 Scenario
In a telephone directory, where a large amount of data is stored and is frequently accessed, the storage of
data is done in an alphabetical order. If such data were unsorted, it would be nearly impossible to search
for a specific telephone number.
Similarly, in a database table having a large number of records that are frequently accessed, the data is to be
sorted for fast retrieval. When an index is created on the table, the index either physically or logically sorts
the records. Thus, searching for a specific record becomes faster and there is less strain on system resources.

11.1.6 Accessing Data Group-wise

Indexes are useful when data must be accessed group-wise. For example, you want to make
modifications to the conveyance allowance for all employees based on the department they work in.

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Here, you wish to make changes for all employees in one department before moving on to employees in
another department. In this case, an index can be created as shown in figure 11.5 on the DepartmentName
column before accessing records.

This index will create logical chunks of data rows based on the department. This again will limit the
amount of data actually scanned during query retrieval.

Hence, retrieval will be faster and there will be less strain on system resources.

Figure 11.5: Accessing Data Group-wise

11.2 Index Architecture

In SQL Server, data in the database can be stored either in a sorted manner or at random. If data is stored
in a sorted manner, the data is said to be present in a clustered structure. If it is stored at random, it is said
to be present in a heap structure.
Figure 11.6 shows an example demonstrating index architecture.

Figure 11.6: Index Architecture

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11.2.1 B-Tree
In SQL Server, indexes are organized as B-Trees. Each page in an index B-tree is called an index node.
Top node of the B-tree is called the root node. Bottom nodes in the index are called the leaf nodes. Any
index levels between the root and the leaf nodes are collectively known as intermediate nodes as
shown in figure 11.7.

Figure 11.7: B-Tree

Note - A B-Tree index traverses from top to bottom by using pointers.

11.2.2 Index B-Tree Structure

In the B-Tree structure of an index, the root node consists of an index page. This index page contains
pointers that point to the index pages present in the first intermediate level. These index pages in turn point
to the index pages present in the next intermediate level. There can be multiple intermediate levels in an
index B-Tree. The leaf nodes of the index B-Tree have either data pages containing data rows or index
pages containing index rows that point to data rows as shown in figure 11.8.

Figure 11.8: Index B-Tree Structure

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Different types of nodes are as follows:
➢ Root Node - Contains an index page with pointers pointing to index pages at the first intermediate
level.
➢ Intermediate Nodes - Contain index pages with pointers pointing either to index pages at the next
intermediate level or to index or data pages at the leaf level.
➢ Leaf Nodes - Contain either data pages or index pages that point to data pages.

Note - A data page containing index entries is called an index page.

11.2.3 Heap Structures

A heap is a table without a clustered index. This means that, in a heap structure, the data pages and records
are not arranged in sorted order. The only connection between the data pages is the information recorded
in the Index Allocation Map (IAM) pages.
Heaps have one row in sys.partitions, with index_id = 0 for each partition used by the heap. By
default, a heap has a single partition. When a heap has multiple partitions, each partition has a heap
structure that contains data for that specific partition as shown in figure 11.9. For example, if a heap has
four partitions, there are four heap structures; one in each partition.
At a minimum, each heap will have one IN_ROW_DATA allocation unit per partition. The heap will also
have one LOB_DATA allocation unit per partition, if it contains large object (LOB) columns. It will also
have one ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA allocation unit per partition, if it contains variable length columns that
exceed the 8,060 byte row size limit.

Figure 11.9: Heap Structures

Note - If an allocation unit contains extents from more than one file, there will be multiple IAM
pages linked together in an IAM chain to map these extents.

11.2.4 Clustered Index Structures

Clustered indexes are organized as B-Trees. Each page in an index B-tree is called an index node.

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Top node of the B-tree is root node and bottom nodes in the index are called the leaf nodes.
Clustered Index

Leaf nodes contain data pages of the underlying table, root, and intermediate level nodes contain index
pages holding index rows.
Each index row contains a key value and a pointer to either an intermediate level page in the B-tree or a
data row in the leaf level of the index.

By default, a clustered index has a single partition. When a clustered index has multiple partitions, each
partition has a B-tree structure that contains the data for that specific partition.

The clustered index will also have one LOB_DATA allocation unit per partition if it contains large object (LOB)
columns. It will also have one ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA allocation unit per partition if it contains variable
length columns that exceed the 8,060 byte row size limit.

Figure 11.10 shows the structure of a clustered index in a single partition.

Figure 11.10: Clustered Indexes

11.2.5 Nonclustered Index Structures

A nonclustered index is defined on a table that has data in either a clustered structure or a heap.

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Nonclustered index will be the default type if an index is not defined on a table. Each index row in the
nonclustered index contains a nonclustered key value and a row locator. This row locator points to the
data row corresponding to the key value in the table. Figure 11.11 shows nonclustered index structure.

Nonclustered indexes have a similar B-Tree structure as clustered indexes, but with the following
differences:
➢ The data rows of the table are not physically stored in the order defined by their nonclustered
keys.
➢ In a nonclustered index structure, the leaf level contains index rows.

Figure 11.11: Nonclustered Index

➢ Nonclustered indexes are useful when you require multiple ways to search data. Some facts and
guidelines to be considered before creating a nonclustered index are as follows:
➢ When a clustered index is re-created or the DROP_EXISTING option is used, SQL Server rebuilds the
existing nonclustered indexes.
➢ A table can have up to 999 nonclustered indexes.
➢ Create clustered index before creating a nonclustered index.

11.2.6 Column Store Index

A columnstore index is a feature in SQL Server for storing, retrieving and managing data by using a
columnar data format, called a columnstore as shown in figure 11.12.

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 Figure 11.12: Clustered Column Store Index

Columnstore indexes use both types of data storage format rowstore and columnstore.

Columnstore indexes are mainly used for following reasons:

➢ To reduce storage costs
➢ Better performance

Details of columnstore, rowstore, and deltastore data storage formats are as follows:

Columnstore • It is logically organized data as a table with rows and columns and physically
stored in a column-wise data format.

Rowstore • It is logically organized data as a table with rows and columns and then, physically
stored in a row-wise data format.

Deltastore • It is a holding place for rows that are too few in number to be compressed into
the columnstore. The deltastore stores the rows in rowstore format.

11.2.7 Hash Index

Hash index consists of an array of pointers and each element of the array is called a hash bucket.

• Each bucket is eight bytes, which are used to store the memory address of a link list of key entries.
• Each entry is a value for an index key, plus the address of its corresponding row in the underlying
memory-optimized table.
• Each entry points to the next entry in a link list of entries, all chained to the current bucket.

The number of buckets must be specified at index definition time:

• The lower the ratio of buckets to table rows or to distinct values, the longer the average bucket link list
will be.
• Short link lists perform faster than long link lists.

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• The maximum number of buckets in hash indexes is 1,073,741,824.

Interplay of the hash index and the buckets is summarized in the figure 11.13.

Figure 11.13: Hash Index Architecture

11.2.8 XML Indexes

XML indexes can be created on xml data type columns. They index all tags, values, and paths over the
XML instances in the column and benefit query performance. Your application may benefit from an
XML index in the following situations:

Queries on XML columns are common in your workload. XML index maintenance cost during data
modification must be considered.

When XML values are relatively large and the retrieved parts are relatively small. Building the index
avoids parsing the whole data at run time and benefits index lookups for efficient query processing.

XML indexes fall into the following categories:

• Primary XML index
• Secondary XML index

11.2.9 Spatial Indexes

In SQL Server, spatial indexes are built using B-trees, which means that the indexes must represent the 2-
dimensional spatial data in the linear order of B-trees. Therefore, before reading data into a spatial index,
SQL Server implements a hierarchical uniform decomposition of space. The index-creation process
decomposes the space into a four-level grid hierarchy. These levels are referred to as level 1 (the top level),
level 2, level 3, and level 4 as shown in figure 11.16.

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 Figure 11.16: Four Levels of 4x4 Grids

11.2.10 Full-Text Indexes

Creating and maintaining a full-text index involves populating the index by using a process called a
population also known as a crawl.

Types of population

A full-text index supports the following types of population:

• Full population
• Automatic or manual population based on change tracking
• Incremental population based on a timestamp

11.3 Index Management

Index management allow user to manage indexes in terms various operation such as CREATE, ALTER,
DROP, and so on.

11.3.1 Create Clustered Index

CREATE CLUSTERED index statement allow users to create CLUSTERED index on specified columns and
table.

Syntax
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX index_name ON table_name (column1, column2, ...);

For creating clustered index, a new table name parts is created in AdventureWorks2019 database under
production with column details as shown in Code Snippet 1.

Code Snippet 1:

CREATE TABLE Production.parts(

part_id INT NOT NULL,
part_name VARCHAR(100)
);

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Code Snippet 2 displays how create clustered index named ix_parts_id on Part_Id column in
Production.parts table.

Code Snippet 2:

CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX ix_parts_id ON Production.parts (Part_id);

The index is created as shown in figure 11.17.

Figure 11.17: Clustered Index

In a similar way, following syntaxes are used to Rename, Disable, Enable, and Drop indexes:

RENAME INDEX
The sp_rename is a system stored procedure that allows you to rename any user-created object in the
current database including table, index, and column.

Syntax
EXEC sp_rename
index_name,
new_index_name,
N'INDEX';

Code Snippet 3 renames the index ix_parts_id of the production.parts table to index_part_id
and output is shown in figure 11.18.

Code Snippet 3:

EXEC sp_rename
N'production.parts.ix_parts_id',
N'index_part_id',
N'INDEX';

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 Figure 11.18: Renamed Index

Note: One can rename an index using the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), simply by
right-clicking index name it can be done.

DISABLE INDEX
To disable an index, ALTER INDEX statement is used as follows:

Syntax
ALTER INDEX index_name
ON table_name
DISABLE;

Code Snippet 4 displays example for disable index. It disables index_part_id on part_id column in
production.parts table.

Code Snippet 4:

ALTER INDEX INDEX_PART_ID

ON Production.Parts
DISABLE;

Figure 11.19 displays index_part_id is disabled successfully.

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 Figure 11.19: Disable Index

As a result of this, simply if user tried to display all records from Production.Parts table, it displays
error as shown in following figure 11.20.

Figure 11.20: Records of Production.Parts

In addition to this, user can able to disable all indexes on table as shown in Code Snippet 5.

Code Snippet 5:

ALTER INDEX ALL ON Production.Parts

DISABLE;

ENABLE INDEX

This statement uses the ALTER INDEX statement to ‘enable’ or rebuild an index on a table.

Syntax
ALTER INDEX index_name
ON table_name
REBUILD;

Figure 11.21 displays example for enabling index. It enables INDEX_PART_ID on PART_ID column on
Production.Parts table.

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 Figure 11.21: Enable Index

Similarly, user can enable all indexes for production.parts table as shown in figure 11.22.

DROP INDEX

DROP INDEX statement removes one or more indexes from the current database. Following is the syntax
for DROP INDEX statement:

Syntax
DROP INDEX [IF EXISTS] index_name
ON table_name;

• Specify name of index that you want to remove after DROP INDEX clause.
• Then, specify name of table to which index belongs.

Code Snippet 6 shows code for dropping index INDEX_PART_ID on Production.Parts table.

Code Snippet 6:

DROP INDEX IF EXISTS

INDEX_PART_ID ON Production.Parts;

Figure 11.22 displays output of Code Snippet 6.

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 Figure 11.22: Drop Indexes

Removing a nonexisting index will result in an error. However, you can use the IF EXISTS option to
conditionally drop the index and avoid the error as shown in figure 11.23.

Figure 11.23: Nonexisting index

11.3.2 NonClustered Indexes

A nonclustered index is a data structure that improves speed of data retrieval from tables. Unlike a clustered
index, a nonclustered index sorts and stores data separately from the data rows in table.

Following syntax is used to create nonclustered index:

Syntax

CREATE [NONCLUSTERED] INDEX index_name

ON table_name(column_list);

• First, specify name of index followed by CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX clause. Note that the
NONCLUSTERED keyword is optional.

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 • Then, specify the table name on which you want to create index and a list of columns of that table
as the index key columns.

Code Snippet 7 displays how to create nonclustered index on Sales.Customer table from
Adventureworks2019 database.

Code Snippet 7:

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX INDEX_CUSTOMER_STOREID

ON Sales.Customer(StoreID);

Figure 11.24, displays index_customer_storeid is created on Sales.Customer table.

Figure 11.24: Nonclustered Index

11.3.3 Unique Indexes
Unique index ensures index key columns do not contain any duplicate values.

It may consist of one or many columns. If a unique index has one column, the values in this column will
be unique. In case the unique index has multiple columns, the combination of values in these columns is
unique.

Note: unique index can be clustered or non-clustered.

Following syntax can be used to create a unique index:

Syntax

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name

ON table_name(column_list);

• Provide name of unique index after CREATE UNIQUE INDEX keywords.

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 • Then, specify name of table to which index associated and a list of columns that will be included in
index.

Code Snippet 8, display how to create unique index on Sales.Customer table in AdventureWorks2019
database.

Code Snippet 8:

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX AK_Customer_rowguid

ON Sales.Customer(rowguide);

Figure 11.25 displays Unique index created in Code Snippet 8.

Figure 11.25: Unique Index

11.3.4 Filtered Indexes
Filtered index is a nonclustered index with a predicate that allows you to specify which rows should be
added to the index.

Following syntax illustrates how to create a filtered index:

Syntax

CREATE INDEX index_name

ON table_name(column_list)
WHERE predicate;

• Provide name of filtered index after CREATE INDEX clause.

• Next, list the table name with a list of key columns that will be included in index.
• Then, use a WHERE clause with a predicate to specify which rows of the table should be included
in index.

For creating filtered index Sales.Customer table from AdventureWorks2019 database is used.

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In this table column PersonID having so many NULL values and it will be correct selection for filtered
index. Let us understand this by using Code Snippet 9.

Code Snippet 9:

CREATE INDEX index_cust_personID

ON Sales.Customer(PersonID)
WHERE PersonID IS NOT NULL;

Figure 11.26 displays filtered index created using Code Snippet 9.

Figure 11.26: Filtered Index

Now, suppose user executed code from Code Snippet 10.

Code Snippet 10:

Select CustomerID, PersonID, StoreID from Sales.Customer Where PersonID=1700;

Here is the estimated execution plan as shown in figure 11.27.

Figure 11.27: Execution Plan for index_cust_personID

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In figure 11.27, if you noticed query optimizer leverage filtered index index_cust_personID for
searching.

Note: To improve the key lookup, you can use an index with included columns.

11.3.5 Partitioned Table and Indexes

SQL Server supports both table and index partitioning. Data of partitioned tables and indexes is divided
into units that may optionally be spread across more than one filegroup in a database. Data is partitioned
horizontally, so that groups of rows are mapped into individual partitions. All partitions of a single index
or table must reside in the same database. Table or index is treated as a single logical entity when queries
or updates are performed on the data.

Note: SQL Server 2019 (15.x) supports up to 15,000 partitions by default. In versions earlier than SQL
Server 2012 (11.x), the number of partitions was limited to 1,000 by default.

Partitioning large tables or indexes can have the following manageability and performance benefits.
Benefits of Partitioning

Transfer or access subsets of data quickly and efficiently.

Perform maintenance operations on one or more partitions.

These operations are more efficient because they target only
these data subsets, instead of the whole table.

Improve query performance, based on the types of queries

you frequently run and on your hardware configuration.

For creating sample partition following table with mentioned detail is used.

CREATE TABLE testing_table(receipt_id BIGINT, date DATE);

Specify exactly how table is going to be partitioned by partitioning column. In this case, date, along with
the range of values included in each partition. Regarding partition boundaries, you can specify either the
LEFT or RIGHT as displayed in Code Snippet 11.

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 Code Snippet 11:

CREATE PARTITION FUNCTION partition_function (int)

AS RANGE LEFT FOR VALUES (20200630, 20200731, 20200831);

In this example, following four partitions are defined:

• Partition No. 1 ⇒ All records with date ≤ 2020-06-30
• Partition No. 2 ⇒ All records with date > 2020-06-30 & date ≤ 2020-07-31
• Partition No. 3 ⇒ All records with date > 2020-07-31 & date ≤ 2020-08-31
• Partition No. 4 ⇒ All records with date > 2020-08-31

Code Snippet 12 will allow to determine partition at which records are placed.

Code Snippet 12:

(SELECT 20200613 date, $PARTITION.partition_function(20200613)

PartitionNumber)
UNION
(SELECT 20200713 date, $PARTITION.partition_function(20200713)
PartitionNumber)
UNION
(SELECT 20200813 date, $PARTITION.partition_function(20200813)
PartitionNumber)
UNION
(SELECT 20200913 date, $PARTITION.partition_function(20200913));

Output of Code Snippet 12 is displayed in figure 11.28.

Figure 11.28: Partition Table

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11.3.6 XML Indexes
XML data is stored in xml type columns as large binary objects (BLOBs). These XML instances can be
large, and the stored binary representation of xml data type instances can be up to two GB.

Following figure 11.29 displays how XML data is stored in Instructions column of
Production.ProductModel table in AdventureWorks2019 database.

Figure 11.29: XML Data

XML indexes are created on such XML data columns stored in tables and databases. Code Snippet 13 is
used to create Primary XML index name PXML_ProductModel_CatalogDescription on
CatalogDescription column of Production.ProductModel column.

Code Snippet 13:

CREATE PRIMARY XML INDEX PXML_ProductModel_CatalogDescription

ON Production.ProductModel (CatalogDescription);
Figure 11.30 displays specified XML index in Code Snippet 13 is created.

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 Figure 11.30: Primary XML Index

Primary XML index contains all the data in XML column. To provide an additional performance boost
to XML queries, you can add specialized secondary XML indexes. Secondary XML index covers the same
data as it is underlying primary index, but it creates a more specific index, based on the primary index as
shown in Code Snippet 14.

Code Snippet 14:

CREATE XML INDEX IXML_ProductModel_CatalogDescription_Path

ON Production.ProductModel (CatalogDescription)
USING XML INDEX PXML_ProductModel_CatalogDescription
FOR PATH;

Figure 11.31, displays specified Secondary XML index in Code Snippet 14 is created.

Figure 11.31: Secondary XML Index

11.3.7 Columnstore Indexes

Creating a column store index is done by using the CREATE COLUMNSTORE INDEX command and has

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many of the same options as a regular index. For creating columnstore index
Sales.SalesOrderDetail table from AdventureWorks2019 database will be used as shown in Code
Snippet 15.

Code Snippet 15:

CREATE COLUMNSTORE INDEX IX_SalesOrderDetail_ProductIDOrderQty_ColumnStore

ON Sales.SalesOrderDetail (ProductId,OrderQty);

Figure shows columnstore index IX_SalesOrderDetail_ProductIDOrderQty_ColumnStore

created on Sales.SalesOrderDetail table.

Figure 11.32: Columnstore Index

Once the index is created, a basic aggregation query in Code Snippet 16 is similar to what you would see
in any data warehouse environment that is used to test created columnstore index.

Code Snippet 16:

SELECT ProductID,SUM(OrderQty)
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail
GROUP BY ProductId;
This query will simply sum of order quantity across each product. By looking at estimated execution plan
one can understand that the entire query was satisfied by scanning the column store index and none of
the table access was even required as shown in figure 11.33.

Figure 11.33: Estimated Execution Plan for Columnstore Index

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11.4 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following is the correct code to define an index?
USE CUST_DB USE CUST_DB
CREATE INDEX IX_ CREATE INDEX IX_Country With
Country Customer_ Customer_Details(Country);
(A) Details(Country); (C) GO
GO
USE CUST_DB USE CUST_DB
CREATE INDEX IX_ CREATE INDEX IX_Country ON
Country FROM Customer_ Customer_Details(Country);
(B) Details(Country); (D) GO
GO

2. SQL Server stores data in storage units known as .

(A) data pages (C) records

(B) forms (D) columns

3. Creating and maintaining a full-text index involves populating the index by using a process called
a _________________ and is also called as ________________.

(A) Population, Crawl (C) Crawl, Trigger

(B) Troll, Population (D) Partition, Population

4. Which of the following code is used to create a clustered INDEX on CustID in

Customer_Details table?
USE CUST_DB USE CUST_DB
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX CREATE INDEX Customer_Details ON
(A) Customer_Details(CustID) (C) IX_CustID
GO GO
USE CUST_DB USE CUST_DB
CREATE INDEX IX_CustID ON CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX IX_CustID
(B) Customer_Details (D) ON Customer_Details(CustID)
GO GO

5. A clustered index can be created on a table using a column without values.

(A) similar (C) transparent

(B) duplicate (D) any

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11.4.1 Answers
1. D
2. A
3. A
4. D
5. B

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 Summary
➢ Indexes increase the speed of querying process by providing quick access to rows or columns in a data
table.
➢ SQL Server stores data in storage units known as data pages.
➢ All input and output operations in a database are performed at the page level.
➢ A clustered index causes records to be physically stored in a sorted or sequential order.
➢ A nonclustered index is defined on a table that has data either in a clustered structure or a heap.
➢ XML indexes can speed up queries on tables that have XML data.
➢ Column Store Index enhances performance of data warehouse queries extensively.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Houston State Library is one of the renowned libraries in Houston, Texas. The library has a
stock of around 10, 00000 books of different genres. The library issues books to students of the
college nearby. With the inflow of students coming to the library growing exponentially, Houston
State Library has decided to automate the entire process of issuing books to the students. The
library has increased the quantity of each book by 10 copies, depending upon the demand made
by the students.

a. Create a database named HoustonStateLibrary to store details of books in the Library.

b. Create a table named BooksMaster to store the details of the books in the library as shown in
table 11.2.

Field Name Data Type Key Field Description

BookCode varchar(50) Primary Key Stores book code of the book
Title varchar(max) Stores the book title
ISBN varchar(50) Stores the ISBN of the book
Author char(30) Stores author name of the book
Price money Stores price of the book
Publisher char(30) Stores publisher name of the book
NumPages numeric(10,0) Stores number of pages in the book
Table 11.2: BooksMaster Table

c. Create a clustered index named IX _ Title on the Title column in the BooksMaster table.
d. Create a table BooksMaster1 having field names BookCode, Title, and Book Details.
e. Specify the data type for BookDetails as xml. Create an XML document with details of ISBN,
Author, Price, Publisher, and NumPages.
f. The library wants to retrieve the publisher name of the company which prints a specific author's
book.
g. Create a primary XML index PXML_Books on the BookCode column of the BooksMaster
table.

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 Session - 12
Triggers
Welcome to the Session, Triggers.

This session explains the triggers and different types of triggers. The session also
describes the procedure to create and alter DML triggers, nested triggers, update
functions, handling multiple rows in a session, LOGON trigger, and performance
implication of triggers.

In this Session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain triggers
➢ Explain the procedure to create and alter DML triggers
➢ Describe nested triggers
➢ Describe update functions
➢ Explain the handling of multiple rows in a session
➢ Explain the performance implication of triggers implication
t
12.1 Introduction
Trigger is a special type of stored procedure that is executed when an attempt is made to modify data in a
table for which triggers are created. Unlike standard system stored procedures, triggers cannot be executed
directly, nor do they pass or receive parameters.
If INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations are performed on table for which triggers are defined, triggers
will get executed automatically when such operations are performed. This automatic execution of the
trigger cannot be circumvented. In SQL Server, triggers are created using the CREATE TRIGGER statement.
Figure 12.1 displays an example of triggers.

Figure 12.1: Triggers

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12.2 Use of Triggers
Triggers can contain complex processing logic and are generally used for maintaining low-level data
integrity. The primary uses of triggers can be classified as follows:

➢ Cascade changes in related tables

Users can use a trigger to cascade changes through related tables. For example, consider a table
Sales.Customer in AdventureWorks2019 database having a foreign key, PersonID referencing the
primary key, BusinessEntityID of the Person.Person table. If an update or a delete event occurs in
the Person.Person table, an update or delete trigger can be defined to cascade these changes to the
Sales.Customer table.

➢ Enforce complex data integrity

DML Triggers DDL Triggers Logon Triggers
• DML triggers execute • DDL triggers execute • Logon triggers execute
when data is inserted, when a table or a view is stored procedures when a
modified, or deleted in a created, modified, or session is established with
table or a view using the deleted using the a LOGON event. These
• INSERT, UPDATE, or CREATE, ALTER, or triggers are invoked after
DELETE statements. DROP statements. the login authentication is
complete and before the
actual session is
established. Logon triggers
control server sessions by
restricting invalid logins or
limiting the number of
sessions.

Unlike CHECK constraints, triggers can reference the columns in other tables. This feature can be used to
apply complex data integrity checks. Data integrity can be enforced by:
 Checking constraints before cascading updates or deletes.
 Creating multi-row triggers for actions executed on multiple rows.
 Enforcing referential integrity between databases.

➢ Define custom error messages

Custom error messages are used for providing more suitable or detailed explanations in certain error
situations. Triggers can be used to invoke such predefined custom error messages when the relevant error
conditions occur.

➢ Maintain denormalized data

Low-level data integrity can be maintained in denormalized database environments using triggers.
Denormalized data generally refers to redundant or derived data. Here, triggers are used for checks that
do not require exact matches. For example, if the value of the year is to be checked against complete dates,
a trigger can be used to perform the check.

➢ Compare before and after states of data

Triggers provide the option to reference changes that are made to data by INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE

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statements. This allows users to reference the affected rows when modifications are carried out through
triggers.

12.3 Types of Triggers

Triggers are automatically executed when a language event occurs in a table or a view. Language events
can be classified as DML and DDL events. Triggers associated with DML events are known as DML
triggers, whereas triggers associated with DDL events are known as DDL triggers. Triggers in SQL Server
can be classified into three basic types:

12.4 Creating DML Triggers

DML triggers are executed either on completion of the DML events or in place of the DML events. These
triggers enforce referential integrity by cascading changes to related tables when a row is modified. They
can perform multiple actions for each modification statement.

DML triggers are of three main types:

• INSERT trigger
• UPDATE trigger
• DELETE trigger

Figure 12.2 displays different types of DML events.

Figure 12.2: DML Events

12.5 Introduction to Inserted and Deleted Tables

SQL statements in DML triggers use two special types of tables to modify data in the database. When the
data is inserted, updated, or deleted, SQL Server creates and manages these tables automatically. Tables
temporarily store the original as well as the modified data. These tables are as follows:
• Inserted Table
Inserted table stores copies of the affected rows during INSERT and UPDATE statements. During an
insert or update transaction, new rows are added to both the inserted table and the trigger table. The
rows in the inserted table are copies of the new rows in the trigger table.
• Deleted Table
Deleted table stores copies of the affected rows during DELETE and UPDATE statements. During
the execution of a DELETE or UPDATE statement, rows are deleted from the trigger table and
transferred to the deleted table.
Note - Inserted and deleted tables are temporary, memory-resident tables to test the effects of certain
data modifications and to set conditions for DML trigger actions. SQL Server 2019 (15.x) does not
allow text, ntext, or image column references in the inserted and deleted tables for AFTER triggers.

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12.6 Insert Triggers
An INSERT trigger is executed when a new record is inserted in a table. INSERT trigger ensures that the
value being entered conforms to the constraints defined on that table.
When a user inserts a record in the table, INSERT trigger saves a copy of that record in inserted table. It
then checks whether the new value in the inserted table conforms to the specified constraints or not.
If the record is valid, the INSERT trigger inserts the row in the trigger table otherwise, it displays an error
message. An INSERT trigger is created using the INSERT keyword in the CREATE TRIGGER and ALTER
TRIGGER statements.
Following is the general syntax for creating an INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE trigger:
Syntax:
CREATE TRIGGER [schema_name.] trigger_name ON [schema_name.] table_name
[WITH ENCRYPTION]
{FOR INSERT} AS
[IF UPDATE (column_name)...]
[{AND | OR} UPDATE (column_name)...]
<sql_statements>
where,
• schema_name: specifies the name of the schema to which the table/trigger belongs.
• trigger_name: specifies the name of the trigger.
• table_name: specifies the table to which DML trigger to be applied.
• WITH ENCRYPTION: encrypts the text of the CREATE TRIGGER statement.
• FOR: specifies that the DML trigger executes after the modification operations are complete.
• INSERT: specifies that this DML trigger will be invoked by insert operations.
• UPDATE: Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether an INSERT or UPDATE attempt was
made on a specified column.
• column_name: Is the name of the column to test for the UPDATE action.
• AND: Combines two Boolean expressions and returns TRUE when both expressions are
TRUE.
• OR: Combines two Boolean expressions and returns TRUE if at least one expression is
TRUE.
• sql_statement: specifies the SQL statements that are executed in the DML trigger.

Code Snippet 1 creates two tables with mentioned details into AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 1:
CREATE TABLE Locations (LocationID int, LocName varchar(100));
CREATE TABLE LocationHistory (LocationID int, ModifiedDate DATETIME);

Code Snippet 2 creates an INSERT trigger named TRIGGER_INSERT_Locations on Locations table.

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Code Snippet 2:
CREATE TRIGGER TRIGGER_INSERT_Locations ON Locations
FOR INSERT
NOT FOR REPLICATION
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO LocationHistory
SELECT LocationID
,getdate()
FROM inserted
END;

The trigger, TRIGGER_INSERT_Locations will get executed when a record is inserted in Locations
table. It then inserts LocationID and current date from inserted table to LocationHistory table.

To test the created INSERT trigger, code from Code Snippet 3 is used.

Code Snippet 3:

INSERT INTO dbo.Locations (LocationID,LocName) VALUES (443101,'Alaska');

Then SELECT all records from LocationHistory table to check TRIGGER_INSERT_Locations is

executed or not as shown in figure 12.3.

Figure 12.3: Insert Trigger Test

12.7 Update Triggers

The UPDATE trigger copies the original record in the Deleted table and the new record into the Inserted
table when a record is updated. It then evaluates the new record to determine if the values conform to
the constraints specified in the trigger table.
If the new values are valid, the record from the Inserted table is copied to the trigger table. However, if
the new values are invalid, an error message is displayed. Also, the original record is copied from the
Deleted table back into the trigger table.
An UPDATE trigger is created using the UPDATE keyword in the CREATE TRIGGER and ALTER TRIGGER
statements. Code Snippet 4 creates an UPDATE trigger at the table-level.

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 Code Snippet 4:

CREATE TRIGGER TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations ON Locations

FOR UPDATE
NOT FOR REPLICATION
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO LocationHistory
SELECT LocationID
,getdate()
FROM inserted
END;

The trigger, TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations is created on Locations table and will get executed when a
record is updated in Locations table. It then inserts the LocationID and current date from inserted
table to LocationHistory table. The FOR UPDATE clause specifies that this DML trigger will be
invoked after the update operations.

To test the created UPDATE trigger, code from Code Snippet 5 is used.

Code Snippet 5:

UPDATE dbo.Locations
SET LocName='Atlanta'
Where LocationID=443101;
Then, SELECT all records from LocationHistory table to check TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations is
executed or not as shown in figure 12.4.

Figure 12.4: Update Trigger Test

12.8 Delete Triggers
The DELETE trigger can be created to restrict a user from deleting a particular record in a table.
Following will happen if the user tries to delete the record:

• The record is deleted from the trigger table and inserted in the Deleted table.

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• It is checked for constraints against deletion.

• If there is a constraint on the record to prevent deletion, the DELETE trigger displays an error message.

• The deleted record stored in the Deleted table is copied back to the trigger table.

A DELETE trigger is created using the DELETE keyword in the CREATE TRIGGER statement as shown in
Code Snippet 6.

Code Snippet 6:

CREATE TRIGGER TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations ON Locations

FOR DELETE
NOT FOR REPLICATION
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO LocationHistory
SELECT LocationID
,getdate()
FROM deleted
END;

The trigger TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations is created on Locations table and will get executed when a
record is deleted from Locations table. It then inserts the LocationID and current date from deleted
table to LocationHistory table.

To test the created DELETE trigger, code from Code Snippet 7 is used.
Code Snippet 7:
DELETE FROM dbo.Locations
Where LocationID=443101;
Then, SELECT all records from LocationHistory table to check TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations is
executed or not as shown in figure 12.5.

Figure 12.5: Delete Trigger Test

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12.9 AFTER Triggers
An AFTER trigger is executed on completion of INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations. A table can
have multiple AFTER triggers defined for each INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operation. If multiple
AFTER triggers are created on the same table, the user must define the order in which the triggers
must be executed. An AFTER trigger is executed when the constraint check in the table is completed.
Also, the trigger is executed after the Inserted and Deleted tables are created.

Figure 12.6 displays different types of AFTER triggers.

Figure 12.6: AFTER Triggers

Following is the syntax for creating an AFTER trigger:
Syntax
CREATE TRIGGER <trigger_name> ON <table_name>
[WITH ENCRYPTION]
{FOR | AFTER}
{ [ INSERT ] [ , ] [ UPDATE ] [ , ] [ DELETE ] }
AS <sql_statement>
where,
FOR | AFTER: specifies that the DML trigger executes after the modification operations are complete.
{ [ INSERT ] [ , ] [ UPDATE ] [ , ] [ DELETE ] }: specifies the operations that invoke the
DML trigger

Code Snippet 8 creates an AFTER INSERT trigger on the Locations table. If a new record is inserted in
the table, the AFTER INSERT trigger activates. The trigger inserts the LocationID and current date from
inserted table to LocationHistory table.

Code Snippet 8:

CREATE TRIGGER AFTER_INSERT_Locations ON Locations

AFTER INSERT
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO LocationHistory
SELECT LocationID
,getdate()

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 FROM inserted
END;

To test the created AFTER INSERT trigger, code from Code Snippet 9 is used.

Code Snippet 9:
INSERT INTO dbo.Locations (LocationID,LocName) VALUES (443103,'SAN ROMAN');
Then, SELECT all records from LocationHistory table to check AFTER_INSERT_Locations is executed
or not as shown in figure 12.7.

Figure 12.7: After Insert Trigger Test

12.10 INSTEAD OF Triggers
An INSTEAD OF trigger is executed in place of the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations. INSTEAD
OF triggers can be created on tables as well as views. A table or a view can have only one INSTEAD
OF trigger defined for each INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operation.
The INSTEAD OF triggers are executed before constraint checks are performed on the table. These
triggers are executed after the creation of the Inserted and Deleted tables.

Code Snippet 10 creates the trigger INSTEADOF_DELETE_Locations for delete event on Locations
table.

Code Snippet 10:

CREATE TRIGGER INSTEADOF_DELETE_Locations ON Locations

INSTEAD OF DELETE
AS
BEGIN
SELECT 'Sample Instead of trigger' as [Message]
END;

When delete statement is issued against the table, INSTEAD OF trigger is fired and the T-SQL block inside
the triggers in SQL Server is executed, but the actual delete operation does not happen.

Code Snippet 11:

DELETE FROM dbo.Locations

WHERE LocationID=443101;

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The output of Code Snippet 11 is shown in figure 12.7.

Figure 12.7: Instead of Trigger Test

12.11 Execution Order of DML Triggers

SQL Server allows users to specify which AFTER trigger is to be executed first and which is to be
executed last. All AFTER triggers invoked between the first and last triggers have no definite order of
execution.
All the triggering actions have a first and last trigger defined for them. However, no two triggering
actions on a table can have the same first and last triggers.
Users can use the sp_settriggerorder stored procedure to define the order of DML AFTER triggers.

Figure 12.8 displays the execution order of DML Triggers.

Figure 12.8: Execution Order of DML Triggers

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Following is the syntax for specifying execution order of multiple AFTER DML triggers:
Syntax
sp_settriggerorder [@triggername = ] '[ triggerschema. ] triggername'
, [@order = ] 'value'
, [@stmttype = ] 'statement_type'

where,
[triggerschema.] triggername: is the name of the DML or DDL trigger and the schema to
which it belongs and whose order needs to be specified.

value: specifies the execution order of the trigger as FIRST, LAST, or NONE. If FIRST is
specified, then the trigger is fired first. If LAST is specified, the trigger is fired last. If NONE is
specified, the order of the firing of the trigger is undefined.
statement_type: specifies the type of SQL statement (INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE) that invokes
the DML trigger.
Code Snippet 12 first executes the TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations trigger defined on Locations table
when the DELETE operation is performed on the table row.
Code Snippet 12:
EXEC sp_settriggerorder @triggername = 'TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations', @order =
'FIRST', @stmttype = 'DELETE'

12.12 Viewing Definitions of DML Triggers

A trigger definition includes the trigger name, the table on which the trigger is created, the triggering
actions, and the SQL statements that are executed. SQL Server provides sp_helptext stored
procedure to retrieve the trigger definitions.
The DML trigger name must be specified as the parameter when executing sp_helptext.

Note - Trigger definition cannot be viewed if the definition is encrypted.

Following is the syntax for viewing a DML trigger:
Syntax
sp_helptext '<DML_trigger_name>';

where,
DML_trigger_name: specifies the name of the DML trigger whose definitions are to be
displayed.
Code Snippet 13 displays the definition of the trigger, TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations, created on the
Locations table.
Code Snippet 13:

sp_helptext TRIGGER_DELETE_Locations

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12.13 Modifying Definitions of DML Triggers
Trigger parameters are defined at the time of creating a trigger. These parameters include the type of
triggering action that invokes the trigger and the SQL statements that are executed.

If the user wants to modify any of these parameters for a DML trigger, a user can do so in any one of two
ways:

• Drop and re-create the trigger with the new parameters.

• Change the parameters using the ALTER TRIGGER statement.

If the object referencing a DML trigger is renamed, the trigger must be modified to reflect the change
in object name.

Note - A DML trigger can be encrypted to hide its definition.

Figure 12.9: Modifying DML Triggers

Following is the syntax for modifying a DML trigger:
Syntax
ALTER TRIGGER <trigger_name>
ON {<table_name> | <view_name>}
[WITH ENCRYPTION]
{FOR | AFTER | INSTEAD OF}
{ [ INSERT ] [ , ] [ UPDATE ] [ , ] [ DELETE ] }
AS <sql_statement>
where,
WITH ENCRYPTION: specifies that the DML trigger definitions are not displayed.
FOR | AFTER: specifies that the DML trigger executes after modification operations are
complete.
INSTEAD OF: specifies that the DML trigger executes in place of modification operations.

Code Snippet 14 alters the TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations trigger created on the Locations table
using the WITH ENCRYPTION option.

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 Code Snippet 14:

ALTER TRIGGER TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations ON Locations

WITH ENCRYPTION FOR INSERT
AS
IF '443101' IN (SELECT LocationID FROM inserted)
BEGIN
PRINT 'Location cannot be updated'
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
END;

Now, if the user tries to view the definition of the TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations trigger using the
sp_helptext stored procedure, the following error message is displayed:

The text for object TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations is encrypted as shown in figure 12.10.

Figure 12.10: Encrypted Trigger

12.14 Dropping DML Triggers
SQL Server provides the option of dropping a DML trigger created on a table if the trigger is no longer
required. The trigger can be dropped using the DROP TRIGGER statement. Multiple triggers can also be
dropped using a single drop trigger statement.
When a table is dropped, all the triggers defined on that table are also dropped.
Figure 12.11 depicts the concept of dropped DML triggers.

Figure 12.11: Dropping DML Triggers

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Note - When the DML trigger is deleted from the table, the information about the trigger is also
removed from the catalog views.

Following is the syntax for dropping DML triggers:

Syntax

DROP TRIGGER <DML_trigger_name> [ ,...n ]

where,
DML_trigger_name: specifies the name of the DML trigger to be dropped.
[ ,...n ]: specifies that multiple DML triggers can be dropped.
Code Snippet 15 drops the TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations trigger created on Locations table.
Code Snippet 15:

DROP TRIGGER TRIGGER_UPDATE_Locations

12.15 DDL Triggers

A Data Definition Language (DDL) triggers execute stored procedures when DDL events such as CREATE,
ALTER, and DROP statements occur in the database or the server. DDL triggers can operate only on
completion of DDL events.
DDL triggers can be used to prevent modifications in the database schema. A schema is a collection of
objects such as tables, views, and so forth in a database.

DDL triggers can invoke an event or display a message based on the modifications attempted on the
schema. DDL triggers are defined either at the database level or at the server level. Figure 12.12 displays
different types of DDL triggers.

Figure 12.12: DDL Triggers

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Following is the syntax for creating DDL triggers:
Syntax
CREATE TRIGGER <trigger_name> ON { ALL SERVER
| DATABASE } [WITH ENCRYPTION]
{ FOR | AFTER } { <event_type> }
AS <sql_statement>

where,
ALL SERVER: specifies that the DDL trigger executes when DDL events occur in the current
server.
DATABASE: specifies that the DDL trigger executes when DDL events occur in the current
database.
event_type: specifies the name of the DDL event that invokes the DDL trigger.

Code Snippet 16 creates a DDL trigger for dropping and altering a table.
Code Snippet 16:

CREATE TRIGGER Secure ON DATABASE

FOR DROP_TABLE, ALTER_TABLE AS
PRINT 'You must disable Trigger "Secure" to drop or alter tables!'
ROLLBACK;

In this code, the DDL trigger is created for DROP TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements.

12.15.1 Scope of DDL Triggers

DDL triggers are invoked by SQL statements executed either in the current database or on the current
server. For example, a DDL trigger created for a CREATE TABLE statement executes on the CREATE
TABLE event in the database. A DDL trigger created for a CREATE LOGIN statement executes on CREATE
LOGIN event in the server.
The scope of the DDL trigger depends on whether the trigger executes for database events or server
events. Accordingly, the DDL triggers are classified into two types, which are as follows:

• Database-Scoped DDL Triggers

Database-scoped DDL triggers are invoked by the events that modify the database schema. These
triggers are stored in the database and execute on DDL events, except those related to temporary
tables.

• Server-Scoped DDL Triggers

Server-scoped DDL triggers are invoked by DDL events at the server level. These triggers are stored
in the master database.

Figure 12.13 displays the scope of DDL triggers.

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 Figure 12.13: Scope of DDL Triggers
12.16 Nested Triggers
Both DDL and DML triggers are nested when a trigger implements an action that initiates another
trigger. DDL and DML triggers can be nested up to 32 levels. Suppose if a trigger modifies a table
on which there is another trigger, the second trigger is initiated, which then calls a third trigger, and
so on.
If the nested triggers are allowed, then the triggers in the sequence start an infinite loop. This will
exceed the nesting level and the trigger will terminate.
Nested triggers can be used to perform the functions such as storing the backup of the rows that are
affected by the previous actions.
A Transact-SQL trigger executes the managed code through referencing a CLR routine, aggregate,
or type, that references the counts as one level against the 32-level nesting limit. Methods which are
invoked from within managed code are not counted against this limit.
Users can disable nested triggers, by setting the nested triggers option of sp_configure to 0 or OFF.
The default configuration is allowed for nested triggers. If nested trigger option is off, then the
recursive trigger is disabled, irrespective of the recursive triggers setting that is set by using the ALTER
DATABASE.

Code Snippet 17 creates an AFTER DELETE trigger named Employee_Deletion on

HumanResources.Employee table in AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 17:

CREATE TRIGGER Employee_Deletion ON HumanResources.Employee
AFTER DELETE
AS
BEGIN
PRINT 'Deletion will affect EmployeePayHistory table'
DELETE FROM EmployeePayHistory WHERE BusinessEntityID IN (SELECT
BusinessEntityID FROM deleted)
END;

When a record is deleted from the HumanResources.Employee table, the Employee_Deletion trigger
is activated and a message is displayed. Also, the record of the employee is deleted from the
HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory table.
Code Snippet 18 creates an AFTER DELETE trigger Deletion_Confirmation on the

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HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory table.

Code Snippet 18:

CREATE TRIGGER Deletion_Confirmation

ON HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory AFTER DELETE
AS
BEGIN
PRINT 'Employee details successfully deleted from EmployeePayHistory table'
END;
DELETE FROM EmployeePayHistory WHERE EmpID=1

When a record is
deleted from the HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory table, the
Deletion_Confirmation trigger is activated. This trigger prints the confirmation message of the record
being deleted.
Thus, the Employee_Deletion and the Deletion_Confirmation triggers are seen to be nested.

12.17 UPDATE()
UPDATE () function returns a Boolean value that specifies whether an UPDATE or INSERT action was
performed on a specific view or column of a table.
UPDATE() function can be used anywhere inside the body of a Transact-SQL UPDATE or INSERT
trigger to test whether the trigger should execute some actions.
Following is the syntax for UPDATE():

Syntax

UPDATE (column );
where,
column: is the name of the column to test for either an INSERT or UPDATE action.
Code Snippet 19 creates a trigger Accounting on the Production.TransactionHistory table to
update the columns TransactionID or ProductID.
Code Snippet 19:

CREATE TRIGGER Accounting ON Production.TransactionHistory AFTER UPDATE

AS
IF (UPDATE (TransactionID) OR UPDATE (ProductID) ) BEGIN
RAISERROR (50009, 16, 10) END;
GO

12.18 Handling of Multiple Rows in a Session

When a user writes the code for a DML trigger, then the statement that causes the trigger to fire will be
single statement. This single statement will affect multiple rows of data, instead of a single row. This is a
common behavior for DELETE and UPDATE triggers as these statements often affect multiple rows. The
behavior for INSERT triggers is less common as the basic INSERT statement adds only one row.

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When the functionality of a DML trigger involves automatically recalculating summary values of one
table and storing the result in another table, then multirow considerations are important.

Code Snippet 20 stores a running total for a single-row insert.

Code Snippet 20:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER PODetails
ON Purchasing.PurchaseOrderDetail AFTER INSERT AS
UPDATE PurchaseOrderHeader
SET SubTotal = SubTotal + LineTotal FROM inserted
WHERE PurchaseOrderHeader.PurchaseOrderID = inserted.PurchaseOrderID;

In this code, the subtotal is calculated and stored for a single-row insert operation. Code Snippet 21 stores
a running total for a multi-row or single-row insert.

Code Snippet 21:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER PODetailsMultiple
ON Purchasing.PurchaseOrderDetail AFTER INSERT AS
UPDATE Purchasing.PurchaseOrderHeader SET SubTotal = SubTotal +
(SELECT SUM(LineTotal) FROM inserted
WHERE PurchaseOrderHeader.PurchaseOrderID
= inserted.PurchaseOrderID)
WHERE PurchaseOrderHeader.PurchaseOrderID IN (SELECT PurchaseOrderID FROM
inserted);

In this code, the subtotal is calculated and stored for a multi-row or single-row insert operation.

12.19 LOGON Triggers

These triggers are fired in response to a LOGON event in SQL Server. Logon triggers fire stored procedures
in response to a LOGON event. This event is raised when a user session is established with an instance of
SQL Server. Logon triggers fire after the authentication phase of logging in finishes, but before the user
session is actually established. Therefore, all messages originating inside the trigger that would typically
reach the user, such as error messages and messages from the PRINT statement are diverted to the SQL
Server error log. Logon triggers do not fire if authentication fails.

LOGON triggers are created at the server level and are useful in following cases:
• To audit login activity
• To control the login activity

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LoginActivity table with LOGONEvent and Logintime columns is created in
AdventureWorks2019 database for this example as follows:

CREATE TABLE LoginActivity (LOGONEvent XML, 00Logintime datetime)

Use EVENTDATA() and write your custom code to track or control the connections. Code Snippet 22
creates a simple trigger in SQL Server for LOGON event. This LOGON trigger tracks login activities on all
SQL server instances available and insert event related XML data and Date of login activity into
LoginActivity table in AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 22:

CREATE TRIGGER [track_logins] ON ALL SERVER

FOR LOGON AS

BEGIN
INSERT INTO LoginActivity
SELECT EVENTDATA()
,GETDATE()
END;

Note: User must be cautious while creating these triggers as login may fail if the trigger execution fails
or if you do not have access to objects referenced in the LOGON trigger. In such cases, the only
member of the sysadmin role can connect to the server using a dedicated administrator connection.
So, it is always better to enable dedicated administrator connection when using these triggers.

12.20 Performance Implication of Triggers

In reality, triggers do not carry overheads, rather they are quite responsive. However, many performance
issues can occur because of the logic present inside the trigger. Suppose a trigger creates a cursor and loops
through many rows, then there will be a slowdown in the process.
Similarly, consider that the trigger executes various SQL statements against other tables separate from the
Inserted and Deleted tables. This will again result in the slowdown of speed of SQL statements that are
within the trigger.
A good rule will be to keep the logic simple within the triggers and avoid using cursors while executing
statements against another table and different tasks that cause performance slowdown.

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12.21 Check Your Progress
1. Which of these statements about triggers in SQL Server 2019 are true?
Triggers retrieve information from DML triggers execute on INSERT,
a. c.
tables of the same as well as other UPDATE, and DELETE statements.
databases.
DDL triggers operate only after a DDL triggers execute either while
b. d.
table or a view is modified. modifying the data or after the data is
modified.

(A) a, b, c (C) a, b ,d

(B) b, c, d (D) a, c, d

2. Match the description with different types of DML triggers in SQL Server 2019.

Description DML Trigger

Executes when users replace an
a. 1. INSERT
existing record with a new value.
Executes on completion of the
b. 2. UPDATE
modification operations.
Executes in place of the modification
c. 3. DELETE
operations.
Executes when users add a record on
d. 4. AFTER
a table.
Executes when users remove a record
e. 5. INSTEAD OF
from a table.

(A) a-1, b-4, c-2, d-3, e-5 (C) a-2, b-4, c-3, d-5, e-1

(B) a-2, b-4, c-5, d-1, e-3 (D) a-1, b-2, c-3, d-4, e-5

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3. Which of these statements about DML triggers in SQL Server 2019 are true?
UPDATE triggers do not use the
DML triggers can perform multiple
a. c. Deleted table to update records in a
actions for each modification
statement. table.
The Inserted and Deleted tables are Deleted triggers do not use the Inserted
b. created by SQL Server 2019 when a new d. table to delete records from a table.
table is created in the database.

(A) a, b (C) a, d

(B) c, d (D) b, d

4. Which of these statements about the working with DML triggers of SQL Server 2019 are true?
Each triggering action cannot have DML trigger definition can be modified
a. c.
multiple AFTER triggers. by dropping and recreating the trigger.
Two triggering actions on a table can DML trigger definition can be viewed
b. d.
have the same first and last triggers. using the sp_helptext stored procedure.

(A) a, c (C) b, d

(B) b, c (D) c, d

5. triggers can be used to perform the functions such as storing the backup
of the rows that are affected by previous actions.

(A) Nested (C) DDL

(B) DML (D) INSTEAD OF

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12.21.1 Answers
1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. A

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 Summary
➢ A trigger is a stored procedure that is executed when an attempt is made to insert, update, or
delete data in a table that is protected by the trigger.
➢ Logon triggers execute stored procedures when a session is established with a LOGON event.
➢ DML triggers are executed when DML events occur in tables or views.
➢ The INSERT trigger is executed when a new record is inserted in a table.
➢ The UPDATE trigger copies the original record in the Deleted table and the new record into
the Inserted table when a record is updated.
➢ The DELETE trigger can be created to restrict a user from deleting a particular record in a table.
➢ The AFTER trigger is executed on completion of INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Galaxy Airlines is a newly launched airline service that operates flights to and from various
cities all over Europe. The company maintains the data pertaining to day-to-day transactions
regarding flight services in SQL Server 2019 databases. To enable efficient and faster
performance, Galaxy Airlines has decided to incorporate use of triggers in their database
applications. The detailed list of operations to be performed are listed as follows:

a. Create the following tables in GalaxyAirlines database. Table 12.2 lists the Flight table.

Field Name Data Type Key Field Description

Aircraft_code varchar(10) Primary Stores aircraft code
key
Type varchar(6) Describes the type of aircraft
Source varchar(20) Stores the name of the city from
where the aircraft will depart
Destination varchar(20) Stores the name of the city
where the aircraft will arrive
Dep_time varchar(10) Stores departure time
Journey_hrs int Stores journey hours
Table 12.2: Flight Table
Table 12.3 lists the Flight_Details table.

Field Name Data Type Key Field Description

Class_Code varchar(10) Primary Stores the class, whether first,
key business, or economy
Aircraft_code varchar(10) Foreign Stores aircraft code
key
Fare money Stores the fare amount
Seats int Stores total number of seats on
the flight
Table 12.3: Flight_Details Table

b. Write statements to create a trigger trgCheckSeats that will activate whenever a new row
is being inserted into the Flight_Details table. The maximum limit of seats that a flight
can contain is 150. The trigger should check for the value of seats being inserted. If it is
more than 150, the INSERT operation is not allowed to succeed.

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 Try It Yourself
c. Insert at least five records in each table.

d. Write statements to create a trigger UpdateValid that will activate whenever a row is being
updated in the Flight_Details table. The trigger should determine if the Seats column is present
in the list of columns being updated. If yes, the UPDATE operation should not succeed
because the Seats column is defined as a constant and cannot be changed.

e. Write statements to create a DDL trigger ProhibitDelete that will activate whenever a user is
trying to delete a table from the Galaxy Airlines database. The trigger must not allow a user
to perform deletes and must display a message ‘You are not allowed to delete tables in this
database.

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 Session - 13
Programming Transact-SQL
Welcome to the Session, Programming Transact-SQL.

This session introduces programming with Transact-SQL and describes various

Transact-SQL programming elements. The session also describes program flow
statements and Transact-SQL functions. The session further explains the procedure to
create and alter user-defined functions and create windows using the OVER and
window functions.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Describe Transact-SQL programming

➢ Describe program flow statements
➢ Describe various Transact-SQL functions
➢ Explain the procedure to create and alter User-Defined Functions (UDFs)
➢ Explain creation of windows with OVER
➢ Describe window functions

13.1 Introduction
Transact-SQL programming is a procedural language extension to SQL. Transact-SQL programming is
extended by adding the subroutines and programming structures similar to high-level languages. Like
high-level languages, Transact-SQL programming also has rules and syntax that control and enable
programming statements to work together. Users can control the flow of programs by using conditional
statements such as IF and loops such as WHILE.

13.2 Transact-SQL Programming Elements

Transact-SQL programming elements enable to perform various operations that cannot be done in a
single statement. Users can group several Transact-SQL statements together by using one of the following
ways:
• Batches
A batch is a collection of one or more Transact-SQL statements that are sent as one unit from an
application to the server.
• Stored Procedures
A stored procedure is a collection of Transact-SQL statements that are precompiled and predefined on the
server.
• Triggers
A trigger is a special type of stored procedure that is executed when the user performs an event

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such as an INSERT, DELETE, or UPDATE operation on a table.

• Scripts
A script is a chain of Transact-SQL statements stored in a file that is used as input to the SSMS code editor
or sqlcmd utility.
Following features enable users to work with Transact-SQL statements:

• Variables
A variable allows a user to store data that can be used as input in a Transact-SQL statement.

• Control-of-flow
Control-of-flow is used for including conditional constructs in Transact-SQL.

• Error Handling
Error handling is a mechanism that is used for handling errors and provides information to the
users about the error occurred.

13.2.1 Transact-SQL Batches

A Transact-SQL batch is a group of one or more Transact-SQL statements sent to the server as one unit
from an application for execution. SQL Server compiles the batch SQL statements into a single executable
unit, also called as an execution plan. In the execution plan, the SQL statements are executed one by one.
A Transact-SQL batch statement should be terminated with a semicolon. This condition is not mandatory,
but the facility to end a statement without a semicolon is deprecated and may be removed in the new
versions of SQL Server in the future. Hence, it is recommended to use semicolons to terminate batches.
A compile error such as syntax error restricts the compilation of the execution plan. So, if a compile-time
error occurs, no statements in the batch are executed.
A run-time error such as a constraint violation or an arithmetic overflow has one of the following effects:

• Most of the run-time errors stop the current statement and the statements that follow in the batch.
• A specific run-time error such as a constraint violation stops only the existing statement and the
remaining statements in the batch are executed.
The SQL statements that execute before the run-time error is encountered are unaffected. The only
exception is when the batch is in a transaction and the error results in the transaction being rolled back.
For example, suppose there are 10 statements in a batch and the sixth statement has a syntax error, then
the remaining statements in the batch will not execute. If the batch is compiled and the third statement
fails to run, then, the results of the first two statements remains unaffected as it is already executed.

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Following rules are applied to use batches:
1. CREATE FUNCTION, CREATE DEFAULT, CREATE RULE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE PROCEDURE,
CREATE VIEW, and CREATE SCHEMA statements cannot be jointly used with other statements in a
batch. The CREATE SQL statement starts the batch and all other statements that are inside the batch
will be considered as part of the CREATE statement definition.
2. No changes are made in the table and the new columns reference the same batch.
3. If the first statement in a batch has the EXECUTE statement, then, the EXECUTE keyword is not
required. It is required only when the EXECUTE statement does not exist in the first statement in the
batch.
Code Snippet 1 creates a view in a batch.
Code Snippet 1:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
CREATE VIEW dbo.vProduct
AS
SELECT ProductNumber, Name FROM Production.Product;
GO
SELECT * FROM dbo.vProduct;
GO

In Code Snippet 1, a view is created in a batch. The CREATE VIEW is the only statement in the batch, the
GO commands are essential to separate the CREATE VIEW statement from the SELECT and USE
statements. This was a simple example to demonstrate the use of a batch. In the real-world, a large
number of statements may be used within a single batch. It is also possible to combine two or more
batches within a transaction.
Code Snippet 2 shows an example of this.
Code Snippet 2:

BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
CREATE TABLE Company (
Id_Num int IDENTITY(100, 5),
Company_Name nvarchar(100))
GO
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'A Bike Store')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Progressive Sports')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Modular Cycle Systems')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Advanced Bike Components')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Metropolitan Sports Supply')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Aerobic Exercise Company')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Associated Bikes')
INSERT Company (Company_Name) VALUES (N'Exemplary Cycles')
GO
SELECT Id_Num, Company_Name FROM dbo. Company
ORDER BY Company_Name ASC;

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 GO
COMMIT;
GO

In Code Snippet 2, several batches are combined into one transaction. The BEGIN TRANSACTION and
COMMIT statements enclose the transaction statements. The CREATE TABLE, BEGIN TRANSACTION,
SELECT, COMMIT, and USE statements are in single-statement batches. The INSERT statements are all
included in one batch.

13.2.2 Transact-SQL Variables

Variables allow users to store data for using as input in a Transact-SQL statement. For example, users can
create a query that requires various types of data values specified in the WHERE clause each time the
query is executed. Here, the users can use variables in the WHERE clause and write the logic to store the
variables with the appropriate data.
SQL Server provides the following statements to set and declare local variables.
• DECLARE
Variables are declared with the DECLARE statement in the body of a batch. These variables are assigned
values by using the SELECT or SET statement. The variables are initialized with NULL values if the user has
not provided a value at the time of the declaration.
Following is the basic syntax to declare a local variable:
Syntax
DECLARE {{ @local_variable [AS] data_type } | [ = value ] }

where,
@local_variable: specifies the name of the variables and begins with @ sign.
data_type: specifies the data type. A variable cannot be of image, text, or ntext data type.
=value: Assigns an inline value to a variable. The value can be an expression or a constant value.
The value should match with the variable declaration type or it should be implicitly converted to
that type.
Code Snippet 3 uses a local variable to retrieve contact information for the last names starting with
‘Man’.
Code Snippet 3:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
DECLARE @find varchar(30) = 'Man%';
SELECT p.LastName, p.FirstName, ph.PhoneNumber FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN Person.PersonPhone AS ph ON p.BusinessEntityID = ph.BusinessEntityID
WHERE LastName LIKE @find;

In Code Snippet 3, a local variable named @find is used to store the search criteria, which will be then,
used to retrieve the contact information. Here, the criteria include all last names beginning with ‘Man’.
Figure 13.1 displays the output.

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 Figure 13.1: Contact Information
• SET
The SET statement sets the local variable created by the DECLARE statement to the specified value.

Following is the basic syntax to set a local variable:

Syntax
SET
{@local_variable = {expression}
}
|
{@local_variable
{+= | -= | *= | /= | %= | &= | ^= | |=} expression
}

where,
@local_variable: specifies the name of the variable and begins with @ sign.
=: Assigns the value on the right side to the variable on the left side.
{= | += | -= | *= | /= | %= | &= | ^= | |= }: specifies the compound
assignment operators.

They are as follows:

+= Add and then, assign
-= Subtract and then, assign
*= Multiply and then, assign
/= Divide and then, assign
%= Modulo and then, assign
&= Bitwise AND and then, assign
^= Bitwise XOR and then, assign
|= Bitwise OR and then, assign
expression: specifies any valid expression which can even include a scalar subquery.
Code Snippet 4 demonstrates the use of SET to assign a string value to a variable.

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Code Snippet 4:
DECLARE @myvar char(20);
SET @myvar = 'This is a test';

In Code Snippet 4, the @myvar variable is assigned a string value.

• SELECT
The SELECT statement indicates that the specified local variable that was created using DECLARE
should be set to the given expression.
Following is the syntax of the SELECT statement:
Syntax

SELECT {@local_variable {= | += | -= | *= | /= | %= | &= | ^= | |=}

expression} [
,...n] [ ; ]/

where,
@local_variable: specifies the local variable to which a value will be assigned.
=: Assigns the value on the right-hand side to the variable on the left-hand side.
{= | += | -= | *= | /= | %= | &= | ^= | |= }: specifies the compound
assignment operators.
expression: specifies any valid expression which can even include a scalar subquery.
Code Snippet 5 shows how to use SELECT to return a single value.
Code Snippet 5:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
DECLARE @var1 nvarchar(30);
SELECT @var1 = 'Unnamed Company';
SELECT @var1 = Name FROM Sales.Store WHERE BusinessEntityID = 10;
SELECT @var1 AS 'Company Name';

In Code Snippet 5, the variable @var1 is assigned Unnamed Company as its value.
The query against the Store table will return zero rows as the value specified for the BusinessEntityID
does not exist in the table. The variable will then, retain the Unnamed Company value and will be
displayed with the heading Company Name. Figure 13.2 displays the output.

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 Figure 13.2: Generic Name
Though both the SET and SELECT statements look similar, they are not. Here are a few differences
between the two:

• It is possible to assign only one variable at a time using SET. However, using SELECT you can
make multiple assignments at once.

• SET can only assign a scalar value when assigning from a query. It raises an error and does not
work if the query returns multiple values/rows. However, SELECT assigns one of the returned
values to the variable and the user will not even know that multiple values were returned.

Note - To assign variables, it is recommended to use SET @local_variable instead of SELECT

@local_variable.

13.3 Synonyms
Synonyms are database objects that serve the following purposes:

• They offer another name for a different database object, also called as the base object, which may
exist on a remote or local server.
• They present a layer of abstraction that guards a client application from the modifications made
to the location and the name of the base object.
For example, consider that the Department table of AdventureWorks2019 is located on the first server
named Server1. To reference this table from the second server, Server2, a client application would have
to use the following four-part name:
Server1.AdventureWorks2019.HumanResources.Department
If the location of the table was modified, for example, to another server, the client application would
have to be rectified to reflect that change. To address both these issues, users can create a
synonym, DeptEmpTable, on Server2 for the Department table on Server1.

Now, the client application only has to use the single name, DeptEmpTable, to refer to the
Department table.

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Similarly, if the location of Department table changes, users have to modify the
synonym, DeptEmpTable, to point to the new location of the Department table. Since, there is no ALTER
SYNONYM statement, you first have to drop the synonym, DeptEmpTable, and then, re-create the synonym
with the same name, but point the synonym to the new location of Department.

Note - A synonym is a part of schema, and similar to other schema objects, the synonym name must
be unique.

Table 13.1 lists the database objects for which the users can create synonyms.

Database Objects
Extended stored procedure
SQL table-valued function
SQL stored procedure
Table (User-defined)
Replication-filter-procedure
SQL scalar function
SQL inline-tabled-valued function
View
Table 13.1: Database Objects

• Synonyms and Schemas

Suppose users want to create a synonym and have a default schema that is not owned by them. In such
a case, they can qualify the synonym name with the schema name that they actually own. Consider,
for example, a user owns a schema Resources, but Materials is the user's default schema. If this user
wants to create a synonym, he/she must prefix the name of the synonym with the schema Resources.

• Granting Permissions on Synonyms

Only members of the roles db_owner or db_ddladmin or synonym owners are allowed to grant
permissions on a synonym. Users can deny, grant, or revoke all or any of the permissions on a synonym.
Table 13.2 displays the list of permissions that are applied on a synonym.

Permissions
DELETE
INSERT
TAKE OWNERSHIP
VIEW DEFINITION
CONTROL
EXECUTE
SELECT
UPDATE
Table 13.2: Permissions

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• Working with Synonyms
Users can work with synonyms in SQL Server 2019 using either Transact-SQL or SSMS. To create a
synonym using SSMS, perform the following steps:

1. In Object Explorer, expand the database where you want to create a new synonym.
2. Select the Synonyms folder, right-click it and then, click New Synonym as shown in figure 13.3.

Figure 13.3: Creating a New Synonym

3. In the New Synonym dialog box, provide the information as shown in figure 13.4.

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 Figure 13.4: Adding Details in the New Synonym Dialog Box

where,
Synonym name: is the new name for the object. Here, Emp is the name.
Synonym schema: is the new name for the schema object. Here, the same schema name
HumanResources is used for the synonym and the object type.
Server name: is the name of the server to be connected. Here, the server name is specified as
10.2.110.140.
Database name: is the database name to connect the object. Here, AdventureWorks2019
is the database name.
Schema: is the schema that owns the object.

Object type and Object name: is the object type and name respectively. Here, the object type
selected is view and the object name that refers to the synonym is
vEmployeeDepartmentHistory.

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To create a synonym using Transact-SQL, perform the following steps:
1. Connect to the Database Engine.
2. Click New Query in the Standard bar.
3. Write the query to create the synonym in the query window.
4. Click Execute on the toolbar to complete creation of the synonym.

Following is the syntax to create a synonym:

Syntax
CREATE SYNONYM [schema_name_1.] synonym_name FOR <object>
<object>:: =
{
[server_name.[database_name] . [schema_name_2].| database_name.
[schema_name_2].| schema_name_2.] object_name
}
where,
schema_name_1: states that the schema in which the synonym is created.
synonym_name: specifies the new synonym name.
server_name: specifies the server name where the base object is located.
database_name: specifies the database name where the base object is located.
schema_name_2: specifies the schema name of the base object.
object_name: specifies the base object name, which is referenced by the synonym.

Code Snippet 6 creates a synonym from an existing table.

Code Snippet 6:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
CREATE SYNONYM MyAddressType
FOR AdventureWorks2019.Person.AddressType;
GO

In Code Snippet 6, a synonym is created from an existing table present in the AdventureWorks2019
database.

13.4 Program Flow Statements

There are different types of program flow statements and functions supported by Transact-SQL. Some of
these are as follows:

• Transact-SQL Control-of-Flow language

Control-of-flow language determines the execution flow of Transact-SQL statements, statement blocks,
user-defined functions, and stored procedures.
By default, Transact-SQL statements are executed sequentially, in the order they occur. Control-of-flow
language elements allow statements to be executed in a particular order, to be related to each other and
made interdependent using constructs similar to programming languages.
Table 13.3 lists some of the Transact-SQL control-of-flow language keywords.

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 Control-Of-Flow Language Keywords
RETURN
THROW
TRY….CATCH
WAITFOR
WHILE
BEGIN….END
BREAK
CONTINUE
GOTO label
IF…ELSE
Table 13.3: Keywords
• BEGIN….END
The BEGIN…END statements with a series of Transact-SQL statements so that a group of Transact-SQL
statements is executed.
Following is the basic syntax for the BEGIN and END statement:
Syntax:
BEGIN
{
sql_statement | statement_block
}
END
where,
{sql_statement| statement_block}: Is any valid Transact-SQL statement that is
defined using a statement block.
Code Snippet 7 shows the use of BEGIN and END statements.
Code Snippet 7:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
GO
IF @@TRANCOUNT = 0 BEGIN
SELECT FirstName, MiddleName
FROM Person.Person WHERE LastName = 'Andy';
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
PRINT N'Rolling back the transaction two times would cause an error.';
END;
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
PRINT N'Rolled back the transaction.';
GO

In Code Snippet 7, BEGIN and END statements describe a sequence of Transact-SQL statements that are
executed together. Suppose the BEGIN and END are not included, then, the ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
statements will execute and both the PRINT messages will be displayed.

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 • IF…ELSE
The IF…ELSE statement enforces a condition on the execution of a Transact-SQL statement. The
Transact-SQL statement is followed with the IF keyword and the condition executes only if the condition
is satisfied and returns TRUE. The ELSE keyword is an optional Transact-SQL statement that executes only
when the IF condition is not satisfied and returns FALSE.
Following is the syntax for the IF…ELSE statement:
Syntax:
IF Boolean_expression
{sql_statement | statement_block}
[ELSE
{sql_statement | statement_block} ]
where,
Boolean_expression: specifies the expression that returns TRUE or FALSE value.
{sql_statement| statement_block }: Is any Transact-SQL statement or statement grouping
that is defined by using a statement block. If a statement block is not used, the IF or ELSE condition
can affect the performance of only one Transact-SQL statement. In order to define the statement
block, the BEGIN and END keywords are used.

Code Snippet 8 shows the use of IF…ELSE statements.

Code Snippet 8:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
DECLARE @ListPrice money;
SET @ListPrice = (SELECT MAX(p.ListPrice) FROM Production.Product AS p
JOIN Production.ProductSubcategory AS s
ON p.ProductSubcategoryID = s.ProductSubcategoryID WHERE s.[Name] = 'Mountain
Bikes');
PRINT @ListPrice
IF @ListPrice <3000
PRINT 'All the products in this category can be purchased for an amount less
than 3000'
ELSE
PRINT 'The prices for some products in this category exceed 3000'

In Code Snippet 8, the IF…ELSE statement is used to form a conditional statement. First, a variable
@ListPrice is defined and a query is created to return the maximum list price of the product category
Mountain Bikes. Then, this price is compared with a value of 3000 to determine if products can be
purchased for an amount less than 3,000. If yes, an appropriate message is printed using the first PRINT
statement. If not, then the second PRINT statement executes.
• WHILE
The WHILE statement specifies a condition for the repetitive execution of the statement block. The
statements are executed repetitively as long as the specified condition is true. The execution of statements
in the WHILE loop can be controlled by using the BREAK and CONTINUE keywords.

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Following is the syntax for WHILE statement:
Syntax
WHILE Boolean_expression
{sql_statement | statement_block | BREAK | CONTINUE}

where,
Boolean_expression: specifies the expression that returns TRUE or FALSE values.
{sql_statement | statement_block}: Is any Transact-SQL statement that defines the
statement block.
BREAK: Results in an exit from the innermost WHILE loop. Every statement that appears
after the END keyword, that marks the end of the loop, is executed.
CONTINUE: Results in the WHILE loop being restarted. The statements after the CONTINUE
keyword within the body of the loop are not executed.
Code Snippet 9 shows the use of WHILE statement.
Code Snippet 9:

DECLARE @flag int SET @flag = 10 WHILE (@flag <=95) BEGIN

IF @flag%2 =0 PRINT @flag
SET @flag = @flag + 1
CONTINUE; END
GO

Using Code Snippet 9, all the even numbers beginning from 10 until 95 are displayed. This is achieved
using a WHILE loop along with an IF statement. Similarly, a WHILE loop can also be used with queries
and other Transact-SQL statements.

13.5 Transact-SQL Functions

The Transact-SQL functions that are commonly used are as follows:

• Deterministic and non-deterministic functions

User-defined functions possess properties that define the capability of the SQL Server Database
Engine. The Database Engine is used to index the result of a function either through computed
columns that the function calls or the indexed views that reference the functions. One such property
is the determinism of a function.
Deterministic functions return the same result every time they are called with a definite set of input
values and specify the same state of the database. Non-deterministic functions return different results
every time they are called with specified set of input values even though the database that is accessed
remains the same.
For example, if a user calls the DAY() function on a particular column, it always returns the numerical
day for the date parameter passed in. However, if the user calls the DATENAME() function, the output
cannot be predicted since it may be different each time, depending on what part of the date is passed
as input. Thus, here, DAY() is a deterministic function, while DATENAME() is a non-deterministic
function. Similarly, RAND (without any seed), @@TIMETICKS, @@CONNECTIONS, and GETDATE()

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are non-deterministic.
Users cannot influence the determinism of built-in functions. Every built-in function is deterministic
or non-deterministic depending on how the function is implemented by SQL Server.
Table 13.4 lists some of the deterministic and non-deterministic built-in functions.

Deterministic Built-in Non-Deterministic Built-in

Functions Functions
POWER @@TOTAL_WRITE
ROUND CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
RADIANS GETDATE
EXP GETUTCDATE
FLOOR GET_TRANSMISSION_STATUS
SQUARE NEWID
SQRT NEWSEQUENTIALID
LOG @@CONNECTIONS
YEAR @@CPU_BUSY
ABS @@DBTS
ASIN @@IDLE
ACOS @@IOBUSY
SIGN @@PACK_RECEIVED
SIN @@PACK_SENT
Table 13.4: Deterministic and Non-deterministic Built-in Functions
There are some functions that are not always deterministic, but you can use them in indexed
views if they are given in a deterministic manner. Table 13.5 lists some of these functions.

Function Description
CONVERT Is deterministic only if one of these conditions exists:

• Has an sql_variant source type.

• Has an sql_variant target type and source type is non-deterministic.
• Has its source or target type as smalldatetime or datetime, has the other
source or target type as a character string, and has a non-deterministic
style specified. The style parameter must be a constant to be deterministic.
CAST Is deterministic only if it is used with smalldatetime, sql_variant, or datetime.
ISDATE Is deterministic unless used with the CONVERT function, the CONVERT
style parameter is specified, and style is not equal to 0, 100, 9, or 109.
CHECKSUM Is deterministic, with the exception of CHECKSUM(*).

Table 13.5: Deterministic Functions

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• Calling Extended Stored Procedures from Functions
Functions calling extended stored procedures are non-deterministic because the extended stored
procedures may result in side effects on the database.
Changes made to the global state of a database such as a change to an external resource, or
updates to a table, file, or a network are called side effects. For example, sending an e-mail, or
deleting a file can cause side effects. While executing an extended stored procedure from a user-
defined function, the user cannot assure that it will return a consistent resultset.
Therefore, the user-defined functions that create side effects on the database are not
recommended.

• Scalar-valued Functions
A Scalar-valued Function (SVF) always returns an int, bit, or string value. The data type returned
from and the input parameters of SVF can be of any data type except text, ntext, image,
cursor, and timestamp.
An inline scalar function has a single statement and no function body. A multi-statement scalar
function encloses the function body in a BEGIN...END block.

• Table-valued Functions
Table-valued functions are user-defined functions that return a table. Similar to an inline scalar
function, an inline table-valued function has a single statement and no function body.
Code Snippet 10 shows the creation of a table-valued function.
Code Snippet 10:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID (N'Sales.ufn_CustDates', N'IF') IS NOT NULL DROP FUNCTION
Sales.ufn_ufn_CustDates;
GO
CREATE FUNCTION Sales.ufn_CustDates () RETURNS TABLE
AS RETURN (
SELECT A.CustomerID, B.DueDate, B.ShipDate FROM Sales.Customer A
LEFT OUTER JOIN
Sales.SalesOrderHeader B ON
A.CustomerID = B.CustomerID AND YEAR(B.DueDate)<2020
);

Here, an inline table-valued function defines a left outer join between the tables Sales.Customer
and Sales.SalesOrderHeader.

Tables are joined based on customer ids. In this case, all records from the left table and only
matching records from the right table are returned. The resultant table is then returned from the
table-valued function.
The function is invoked as shown in Code Snippet 11.
Code Snippet 11:
SELECT * FROM Sales.ufn_CustDates();

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The result will be the outcome of the join represented in a tabular format.

13.6 Altering User-defined Functions

Users can modify the user-defined functions in SQL Server 2019 by using the Transact-SQL or SSMS.
Changing the user-defined functions does not modify the functions’ permissions, nor will it affect any
stored procedures, triggers, or functions.

• Limitations and Restrictions

The ALTER FUNCTION does not allow the users to perform the following actions:
 Modify a scalar-valued function to a table-valued function.
 Modify an inline function to a multi-statement function.
 Modify a Transact-SQL to a CLR function.

• Permissions
The ALTER permission is required on the schema or the function. If the function specifies a
user-defined type, then it requires the EXECUTE permission on the type.

• Modifying a User-defined function using SSMS

Users can also modify user-defined functions using SSMS.
To modify the user-defined function using SSMS, perform the following steps:
1. Click the plus (+) symbol beside the database that contains the function to be modified.
2. Click the plus (+) symbol next to the Programmability folder.
3. Click the plus (+) symbol next to the folder, which contains the function to be modified.
There are four folder types as follows:
 Table-valued Functions
 Scalar-valued Functions
 Aggregate Functions
 System Functions
4. Right-click the function to be modified and then, select Modify. The code for the function
appears in a query editor window.
5. In the query editor window, make the required changes to the ALTER FUNCTION statement
body.
6. Click Execute on the toolbar to execute the ALTER FUNCTION statement.

• Modifying a User-defined function using Transact-SQL

To modify the user-defined function using Transact-SQL, perform the following steps:
o In the Object Explorer, connect to the Database Engine instance.
o On the Standard bar, click New Query.
o Type the ALTER FUNCTION code in the Query Editor.

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 o Click Execute on the toolbar to execute the ALTER FUNCTION statement.
Code Snippet 12 demonstrates modifying a table-valued function.
Code Snippet 12:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[ufnGetAccountingEndDate]() RETURNS [datetime]
AS BEGIN
RETURN DATEADD(millisecond, -2, CONVERT(datetime, '20040701', 112));
END;

13.7 Creation of Windows with OVER

A window function is a function that applies to a collection of rows. The word 'window' is used to refer
to the collection of rows that the function works on.
In Transact-SQL, the OVER clause is used to define a window within a query resultset. Using windows
and the OVER clause with functions provides several advantages. For instance, they help to calculate
aggregated values. They also enable row numbers in a resultset to be generated easily.

13.7.1 Windowing Components

Three core components of creating windows with the OVER clause are as follows:

• Partitioning
Partitioning is a feature that limits the window of the recent calculation to only those rows from
the resultset that contains the same values in the partition columns as in the existing row. It uses
the PARTITION BY clause.

Code Snippet 13 demonstrates use of the PARTITION BY and OVER clauses with aggregate functions.
Here, using the OVER clause proves to be better efficient than using subqueries to calculate the
aggregate values.
Code Snippet 13:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
SELECT SalesOrderID, ProductID, OrderQty
,SUM(OrderQty) OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS Total
,MAX(OrderQty) OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS MaxOrderQty FROM
Sales.SalesOrderDetail
WHERE ProductId IN(776, 773);
GO

Output of Code Snippet 13 is shown in figure 13.5.

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 Figure 13.5: Partitioning with OVER Clause
• Ordering
The ordering element defines the ordering for calculation in the partition. In a standard SQL ordering
element all functions are supported. Earlier, SQL Server had no support for ordering elements with
aggregate functions as it only supported partitioning. In SQL Server 2019, there is a support for the
ordering element with aggregate functions. The ordering element has different meaning to some
extent for different function categories. With ranking functions, ordering is spontaneous.
Code Snippet 14 demonstrates an example of the ordering element.
Code Snippet 14:
SELECT CustomerID, StoreID,
RANK() OVER(ORDER BY StoreID DESC) AS Rnk_All, RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY
PersonID
ORDER BY CustomerID DESC) AS Rnk_Cust
FROM Sales.Customer;

Code Snippet 14 makes use of the RANK() function which returns the rank of each row in the partition
of a resultset. The rank of a row is determined by adding 1 to the number of ranks that come before
the specified row. For example, while using descending ordering, the RANK() function returns one
more than the number of rows in the respective partition that has a greater ordering value than the
specified one.
Figure 13.6 displays the output of Code Snippet 14.

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 Figure 13.6: Ordering
Code Snippet 15 displays a query with two RANK calculations and the ORDER BY clause.
Code Snippet 15:

SELECT TerritoryID, Name, SalesYTD, RANK() OVER(ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS

Rnk_One, RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY TerritoryID
ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS Rnk_Two
FROM Sales.SalesTerritory;

Code Snippet 15 makes use of the RANK() function which returns the rank of each row in the partition
of a resultset. In general, the rank of a row is determined by adding 1 to the number of ranks that come
before the specified row. Here in this code, the first RANK() function generates the attribute Rnk_One
that depends on the default partitioning, and the second RANK function generates Rnk_Two that uses
explicit partitioning by TerritoryID.
Figure 13.7 displays the partitions defined for a sample of three results of calculations in the query:
one Rnk_One value and two Rnk_Two value.

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 Figure 13.7: Partitioning and Ranking

• Framing
Framing is a feature that enables you to specify a further division of rows within a window partition.
This is done by assigning upper and lower boundaries for the window frame that presents rows to
the window function. In simple terms, a frame is similar to a moving window over the data that
starts and ends at specified positions. Window frames can be defined using the ROW or RANGE
subclauses and providing starting and ending boundaries.
Code Snippet 16 displays a query against the ProductInventory, calculating the running total
quantity for each product and location.
Code Snippet 16:

SELECT ProductID, Shelf, Quantity,

SUM(Quantity) OVER(PARTITION BY ProductID
ORDER BY LocationID
ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS RunQty
FROM Production.ProductInventory;

In Code Snippet 16, the window function applies the SUM aggregate to the attribute Quantity,
partitions the window by ProductID, orders the partition rows by LocationID, and frames the
partition rows depending on the given ordering between unbounded preceding (no low boundary
point) and the current row. In other words, the result will be the sum of all prior rows in the frame,
including the current row. Figure 13.8 displays the output of Code Snippet 16.

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 Figure 13.8: Framing
13.8 Window Functions
Some of the different types of window functions are as follows:

• Ranking functions
These functions return a rank value for each row in a partition. Based on the function that is used,
many rows will return the same value as the other rows. Ranking functions are non-deterministic.
Table 13.6 lists various ranking functions.

Ranking Functions Description

NTILE Spreads rows in an ordered partition into a given number of
groups, beginning at 1. For each row, the function returns the
number of the group to which the row belongs.
ROW NUMBER Retrieves the sequential number of a row in a partition of a
resultset, starting at 1 for the first row in each partition.
DENSE RANK Returns the rank of rows within the partition of a resultset, without
any gaps in the ranking. The rank of a row is one plus the number
of distinct ranks that come before the row in question.
Table 13.6: Ranking Functions
Code Snippet 17 demonstrates the use of ranking functions.
Code Snippet 17:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
SELECT p.FirstName, p.LastName

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 ,ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS 'Row Number'
,NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS 'NTILE'
,s.SalesYTD, a.PostalCode FROM Sales.SalesPerson AS s
INNER JOIN Person.Person AS p
ON s.BusinessEntityID = p.BusinessEntityID INNER JOIN Person.Address AS a
ON a.AddressID = p.BusinessEntityID
WHERE TerritoryID IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0;

The NTILE() function breaks a given input collection into N equal sized logical groups. To
determine how many rows belong in each group, SQL Server has to determine the total number
of rows in the input collection. The OVER clause decides the order of the rows when they have
been divided into groups. It is possible to perform the grouping in one order and return the
resultset in another order.

Figure 13.9 displays the output of Code Snippet 17.

Figure 13.9: Output of Code Snippet 17

• OFFSET functions
Different types of offset functions are as follows:
o SWITCHOFFSET
This function returns a DATETIMEOFFSET value that is modified from the stored time zone offset to a
specific new time zone offset.
Following is the syntax for the SWITCHOFFSET function:
Syntax

SWITCHOFFSET (DATETIMEOFFSET, time_zone)

where,
DATETIMEOFFSET: is an expression that is resolved to a datetimeoffset(n)value.
time_zone: specifies the character string in the format [+|-]TZH:TZM or a signed integer (of

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 minutes) which represents the time zone offset and is assumed to be daylight-saving aware and
adjusted.
Code Snippet 18 displays the use of SWITCHOFFSET function.
Code Snippet 18:

CREATE TABLE Test(

ColDatetimeoffset datetimeoffset
);
GO
INSERT INTO Test
VALUES ('1998-09-20 7:45:50.71345 -5:00');
GO
SELECT SWITCHOFFSET (ColDatetimeoffset, '-08:00')
FROM Test;
GO
--Returns: 1998-09-20 04:45:50.7134500 -08:00
SELECT ColDatetimeoffset
FROM Test;

Figure 13.10 displays the output of Code Snippet 18.

Figure 13.10: Use of SWITCHOFFSET Function

• DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS
This function returns a datetimeoffset value for the specified date and time with specified precision
and offset.
Following is the syntax for DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS:
Syntax
DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS (year, month, day, hour,
minute, seconds, fractions, hour_offset,
minute_offset, precision)

where,
year: specifies the integer expression for a year.
month: specifies the integer expression for a month.
day: specifies the integer expression for a day.
hour: specifies the integer expression for an hour.
minute: specifies the integer expression for a minute.
seconds: specifies the integer expression for a day.
fractions: specifies the integer expression for fractions.

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 hour_offset: specifies the integer expression for the hour portion of the time zone offset.
minute_offset: specifies the integer expression for the minute portion of the time zone offset.
precision: specifies the integer literal precision of the datetimeoffset value to be returned.

Code Snippet 19 displays the use of DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS function.

Code Snippet 19:

SELECT DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS (2010, 12, 31, 14, 23, 23, 0, 12, 0, 7)

AS Result;
Code Snippet 19 displays a datetimeoffset value for the given date and time with the specified
precision and offset.

Figure 13.11 displays the output of Code Snippet 19.

Figure 13.11: Use of DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS Function

• SYSDATETIMEOFFSET
These functions returns datetimeoffset(7) value which contains the date and time of the computer
on which the instance of SQL Server is running.
Following is the syntax for SYSDATETIMEOFFSET:
Syntax:
SYSDATETIMEOFFSET ();

Code Snippet 20 displays different formats used by the date and time functions.
Code Snippet 20:
SELECT SYSDATETIME() AS SYSDATETIME
,SYSDATETIMEOFFSET() AS SYSDATETIMEOFFSET
,SYSUTCDATETIME() AS SYSUTCDATETIME

Figure 13.12 displays the use of SYSDATETIMEOFFSET function.

Figure 13.12: Use of SYSDATETIMEOFFSET Function

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• Analytic Functions
SQL Server 2019 supports several analytic functions. These functions compute aggregate value based
on a group of rows. Analytic functions compute running totals, moving averages, or top-N results
within a group.
Table 13.7 lists some of the analytic functions.

Function Description
LEAD Provides access to data from a subsequent row in the same
resultset without using a self-join.
LAST_VALUE Retrieves the last value in an ordered set of values.
LAG Provides access to data from a previous row in the same
resultset without using a self-join.
FIRST_VALUE Retrieves the first value in an ordered set of values.
CUME_DIST Computes the cumulative distribution of a value in a group of
values.
PERCENTILE_ CONT Computes a percentile based on a continuous distribution of
the column value in SQL.
PERCENTILE_DISC Calculates a particular percentile for sorted values in an entire
rowset or within distinct partitions of a rowset.

Table 13.7: Analytic Functions

Code Snippet 21 demonstrates the use of LEAD() function.
Code Snippet 21:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
SELECT BusinessEntityID, YEAR(QuotaDate) AS QuotaYear, SalesQuota AS NewQuota,
LEAD(SalesQuota, 1,0) OVER (ORDER BY YEAR(QuotaDate)) AS FutureQuota FROM
Sales.SalesPersonQuotaHistory
WHERE BusinessEntityID = 275 and YEAR(QuotaDate) IN ('2011','2014');
In Code Snippet 21, the LEAD() function is used to return the difference in the sales quotas for a
particular employee over the subsequent years.
Code Snippet 22 demonstrates the use of FIRST_VALUE() function.
Code Snippet 22:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
SELECT Name, ListPrice,
FIRST_VALUE(Name) OVER (ORDER BY ListPrice ASC) AS LessExpensive FROM
Production.Product
WHERE ProductSubcategoryID = 37
In Code Snippet 22, the FIRST_VALUE() function compares products in the product category 37 and
returns the product name that is less expensive as shown in figure 13.13.

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Figure 13.13: First Value() Function

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13.9 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following is a feature that controls the use of multiple Transact-SQL statements
at one time?

(A) Scripts (C) Control-of-flow

(B) Error Handling (D) Variables

2. Which of the following are used to set and declare local variables provided by SQL Server?

a. DECLARE

b. SET

c. DELETE

d. INSERT

(A) a, d (C) a, b

(B) b, c (D) c, d

3. Which of the following is not a permission that is applied on a synonym?

(A) GRANT (C) DELETE

(B) CONTROL (D) UPDATE

4. Which of the following code uses a local variable to retrieve contact information for the last
names starting with ‘Per’?
USE
AdventureWorks2019;
GO
DECLARE @find
varchar(30);
SET @find = 'Per%';
(A) SELECT p.LastName,
p.FirstName,
ph.PhoneNumber FROM
Person.Person AS p
JOIN
Person.PersonPhone AS
ph ON
p.BusinessEntityID =
ph.BusinessEntityID
WHERE LastName LIKE @find;

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 USE
AdventureWorks2019;
GO
DECLARE find varchar(30) =
'Per%'; SET find = 'Per%';
SELECT p.LastName, p.FirstName, ph.PhoneNumber
(B) FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN Person.PersonPhone AS ph ON p.BusinessEntityID =
ph.BusinessEntityID
WHERE LastName LIKE find;

USE
AdventureWorks2019;
GO
@find varchar(30);
@find varchar(30) =
'Per%'; SET @find =
(C) 'Per%';
SELECT p.LastName, p.FirstName, ph.PhoneNumber
FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN Person.PersonPhone AS ph ON p.BusinessEntityID =
ph.BusinessEntityID
WHERE LastName LIKE @find;

USE
AdventureWorks2019; GO
SET @find varchar(30);
SET @find varchar(30) =
'Per%'; SET @find = 'Per';
SELECT p.LastName, p.FirstName, ph.PhoneNumber
(D) FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN Person.PersonPhone AS ph ON p.BusinessEntityID =
ph.BusinessEntityID
WHERE LastName LIKE @find;

5. Which of the following is not a non-deterministic function?

(A) @@PACK_SENT (C) @@DBTS

(B) @@IOBUSY (D) IDLE

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13.9.1 Answers
1. A
2. C
3. A
4. A
5. D

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 Summary
➢ Transact-SQL provides basic programming elements such as variables, control-of-flow elements,
conditional, and loop constructs.
➢ A batch is a collection of one or more Transact-SQL statements that are sent as one unit from an
application to the server.
➢ Variables allow users to store data for using as input in other Transact-SQL statements.
➢ Synonyms provide a way to have an alias for a database object that may exist on a remote or local
server.
➢ Deterministic functions always return same result each time when they are called with a definite
set of input values.
➢ Non-deterministic functions return different results every time they are called with specified set
of input values even though the database that is accessed remains the same.
➢ A window function is a function that applies to a collection of rows.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Zen Technologies is a leading company in textiles located in California. The management of the
company wants to give a loyalty award to all employees completing tenure of five years in the
organization. Using the same Employee table, create a Transact-SQL batch to return EmployeeID,
FirstName, Department, and HireDate of all such employees. Assume that the management gives
twenty five percent salary increment to everybody completing one year in the organization. The
chairman of the organization wants to participate in a national salary survey.
Write a batch to determine the total salary paid to a department which employs more than one
employee. The management wants to find out which department has hired largest number of
employees in last five years.
Hint:
• Use the DATETIMEOFFSETFROMPARTS function.

2. Maxwel distribution is product Distribution Company and having various department across
various countries you have to find the country wise report to display unique department in the
company. The report should display all unique departments’ country wise with the name of their
leaders.

For this example, you have to create HumanResource.Departments table in

AdventureWorks2019 database with DepartmentID, DepartmentName, Country, and
DepartmentLeader.

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 Session - 14
Transactions
Welcome to the Session, Transactions.

This session explains the types of transactions and the procedure to implement the
transactions. It also describes the process to control and mark a transaction and lists the
differences between the implicit and explicit transactions. The session also covers the
isolation levels, scope, different types of locks, and transaction management.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Define and describe transactions
➢ Explain the procedure to implement transactions
➢ Explain the steps to mark a transaction
➢ Distinguish between implicit and explicit transactions
➢ Explain isolation levels
➢ Explain the scope and different types of locks
➢ Explain transaction management

14.1 Introduction
A transaction is a single unit of work. A transaction is successful only when all data modifications that
are made in a transaction are committed and are saved in the database permanently. If the transaction is
rolled back or cancelled, then it means that the transaction has encountered errors and there are no
changes made to the contents of the database. Hence, a transaction can be either committed or rolled
back.

14.2 Need for Transactions

There are many circumstances where users are required to make many changes to the data in more than
one database tables. In many cases, the data will be inconsistent that executes the individual commands.

Suppose if the first statement executes correctly but the other statements fail then the data remains in an
incorrect state.

For example, a good scenario will be the funds transfer activity in a banking system. The transfer of funds
will need an INSERT and two UPDATE statements. First, the user has to increase the balance of the
destination account and then, decrease the balance of the source account. The user has to check that the
transactions are committed and whether the same changes are made to the source account and the
destination account.

➢ Defining Transactions
A logical unit of work must exhibit four properties, called the Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and
Durability (ACID) properties, to qualify as a transaction.

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 Atomicity: If the transaction has many operations then all should be committed. If any of the
operation in the group fails then, it should be rolled back.
 Consistency: The sequence of operations must be consistent.
 Isolation: Operations that are performed must be isolated from other operations on the same server
or on the same database.
 Durability: The operations that are performed on the database must be saved and stored in the
database permanently.

➢ Implementing Transactions
SQL Server supports transactions in several modes. Some of these modes are as follows:
 Autocommit Transactions: Each single-line statement is automatically committed as soon as it
completes. In this mode, one does not need to write any specific statements to start and end the
transactions. It is the default mode for SQL Server Database Engine.
 Explicit Transactions: Each transaction explicitly starts with the BEGIN TRANSACTION
statement and ends with a ROLLBACK or COMMIT transaction.
 Implicit Transactions: A new transaction is automatically started when the earlier transaction
completes and every transaction is explicitly completed by using the ROLLBACK or COMMIT
statement.
 Batch-scoped Transactions: These transactions are related to Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS).
Any implicit or explicit transaction that starts in a MARS session is a batch-scoped transaction.
 Distributed Transactions: It span two or more servers known as resource managers. The
management of the transaction must be coordinated between the resource managers by a server
component called transaction manager. Each instance of the SQL Server Database Engine can
operate as a resource manager in distributed transactions coordinated by transaction managers, such
as Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC), or other transaction managers that
support the Open Group XA specification for distributed transaction processing.

➢ Transactions Extending Batches

The transaction statements identify the block of code that should either fail or succeed and provide the
facility where the database engine can undo or roll back the operations. Errors that encounter during the
execution of simple batch have the possibility of partial success, which is not a desired result. This also led
to inconsistencies in the tables and databases. To overcome this, users can add code to identify the batch
as a transaction and place the batch between the BEGIN TRANSACTION and COMMIT TRANSACTION. Users
can add error-handling code to roll back the transaction in case of errors. The error-handling code will
undo the partial changes that were made before the error had occurred. This way, inconsistencies in the
tables and databases can be prevented.

14.3 Controlling Transactions

Transactions can be controlled through applications by specifying the beginning and ending of a
transaction. This is done by using the database API functions or Transact-SQL statements.
Transactions are managed at the connection level, by default. When a transaction is started on a
connection, all Transact-SQL statements are executed on the same connection and are a part of the
connection until the transaction ends.

14.3.1 Starting and Ending Transactions Using Transact-SQL

One of the ways users can start and end transactions is by using Transact-SQL statements. Users can start
a transaction in SQL Server in the implicit or explicit modes. Explicit transaction mode starts a transaction

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 by using a BEGIN TRANSACTION statement. Users can end a transaction using the ROLLBACK or COMMIT
statements.
Following are some of the types of transaction statements:

➢ BEGIN TRANSACTION
The BEGIN TRANSACTION statement marks the beginning point of an explicit or local transaction.

Following is the syntax for the BEGIN TRANSACTION statement:

Syntax:
BEGIN {TRAN | TRANSACTION}
[{transaction_name | @tran_name_variable} [WITH MARK['description']]
] [ ; ]
where,
transaction_name: specifies the name that is assigned to the transaction. It should follow the
rules for identifiers and limit the identifiers that are 32 characters long.
@tran_name_variable: specifies the name of a user-defined variable that contains a valid
transaction name.
WITH MARK['description']: specifies the transaction that is marked in the log. The description
string defines the mark.

Code Snippet 1 shows how to create and begin a transaction.

Code Snippet 1:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
DECLARE @TranName VARCHAR(30);
SELECT @TranName = 'FirstTransaction';
BEGIN TRANSACTION @TranName;
DELETE FROM HumanResources.JobCandidate WHERE JobCandidateID = 13;

In Code Snippet 1, a transaction name is declared using a variable with value FirstTransaction. A new
transaction with this name is then created having a DELETE statement. As the transaction comprises a
single-line statement, it is implicitly committed.

➢ COMMIT TRANSACTION
The COMMIT TRANSACTION statement marks an end of a successful implicit or explicit transaction. If the
@@TRANCOUNT is 1, then, COMMIT TRANSACTION performs all data modifications performed on the
database and becomes a permanent part of the database. Further, it releases the resources held by the
transaction and decrements @@TRANCOUNT by 0. If @@TRANCOUNT is greater than 1, then the COMMIT
TRANSACTION decrements the @@TRANCOUNT by 1 and keeps the transaction in active state.

Following is the syntax for the COMMIT TRANSACTION statement:

Syntax:
COMMIT {TRAN | TRANSACTION} [transaction_name | @tran_name_variable
]] [ ; ]
where,
transaction_name: specifies the name that is assigned by the previous BEGIN TRANSACTION statement.
It should follow the rules for identifiers and do not allow identifiers that are 32 characters long.

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@tran_name_variable: specifies the name of a user-defined variable that contains a valid transaction
name. The variable can be declared as char, varchar, nchar, or nvarchar data type. If more than 32
characters are passed to the variable, then only 32 characters are used and the remaining characters will be
truncated.

Code Snippet 2 shows how to commit a transaction in the HumanResources.JobCandidate

table of AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 2:

BEGIN TRANSACTION;
GO
DELETE FROM HumanResources.JobCandidate WHERE JobCandidateID = 11;
GO
COMMIT TRANSACTION;
GO

Code Snippet 2 defines a transaction that will delete a job candidate record having
JobCandidateID as 11.

➢ COMMIT WORK
The COMMIT WORK statement marks the end of a transaction. Following is the syntax for the COMMIT WORK
statement:

Syntax
COMMIT [WORK] [ ; ]
COMMIT TRANSACTION and COMMIT WORK are identical except for the fact that COMMIT
TRANSACTION accepts a user-defined transaction name.

➢ Marking a Transaction

Code Snippet 3 shows how to mark a transaction in the HumanResources.JobCandidate table

of AdventureWorks2019 database.

Code Snippet 3:

BEGIN TRANSACTION DeleteCandidate

WITH MARK N'Deleting a Job Candidate';
GO
DELETE FROM HumanResources.JobCandidate WHERE JobCandidateID = 11;
GO
COMMIT TRANSACTION DeleteCandidate;

In Code Snippet 3, a transaction named DeleteCandidate is created and marked in the log.

➢ ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
This transaction rolls back or cancels an implicit or explicit transaction to the starting point of the
transaction, or to a savepoint in a transaction. A savepoint is a mechanism to roll back some parts of
transaction. The ROLLBACK TRANSACTION is used to delete all data modifications made from the

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beginning of the transaction or to a savepoint. It also releases the resources held by the transaction.

Following is the syntax for the ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement:

Syntax
ROLLBACK {TRAN | TRANSACTION}
[transaction_name | @tran_name_variable
| savepoint_name | @savepoint_variable]
[ ; ]
where,
transaction_name: specifies the name that is assigned to the BEGIN TRANSACTION statement.
@tran_name_variable: specifies the name of a user-defined variable that contains a valid
transaction name. The variable can be declared as char, varchar, nchar, or nvarchar data type.
savepoint_name: specifies the savepoint_name from a SAVE TRANSACTION statement. Use
savepoint_name only when a conditional roll back affects a part of a transaction.
@savepoint_variable: specifies the name of savepoint variable that contain a valid savepoint
name. The variable can be declared as char, varchar, nchar, or nvarchar data type.
Consider an example that demonstrates the use of ROLLBACK. Assume that a database named Sterling
has been created. A table named ValueTable is created in this database as shown in Code Snippet 4.

Code Snippet 4:

USE Sterling;
GO
CREATE TABLE ValueTable ([value] char)
GO
Code Snippet 5 creates a transaction that inserts two records into ValueTable. Then, it rolls back the
transaction and again inserts one record into ValueTable. When a SELECT statement is used to query
the table, you will see that only a single record with value C is displayed. This is because the earlier INSERT
operations have been rolled back or cancelled.

Code Snippet 5:

BEGIN TRANSACTION
INSERT INTO ValueTable VALUES('A'); INSERT INTO ValueTable VALUES('B');
GO
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
INSERT INTO ValueTable VALUES('C');
SELECT [value] FROM ValueTable;

➢ ROLLBACK WORK
This statement rolls back a user-specified transaction to the beginning of the transaction. Following is the
syntax for the ROLLBACK WORK statement:

Syntax
ROLLBACK [WORK] [ ; ]
The keyword WORK is optional and is rarely used.

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 Figure 14.1 displays the working of transactions.

Figure 14.1: Working of Transactions

➢ SAVE TRANSACTION

The SAVE TRANSACTION statement sets a savepoint within a transaction. Following is the syntax for the
SAVE TRANSACTION statement:
Syntax
SAVE {TRAN | TRANSACTION} {savepoint_name | @savepoint_variable} [ ; ]
where,
savepoint_name: specifies the savepoint_name assigned.
@savepoint_variable: specifies the name of a user-defined variable that contain a valid savepoint
name. The variable can be declared as char, varchar, nchar, or nvarchar data type.

Code Snippet 6 shows how to use a savepoint transaction.

Code Snippet 6:

CREATE PROCEDURE SaveTranExample @InputCandidateID INT

AS
DECLARE @TranCounter INT;
SET @TranCounter = @@TRANCOUNT; IF @TranCounter > 0
SAVE TRANSACTION ProcedureSave;
ELSE
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
DELETE HumanResources.JobCandidate
WHERE JobCandidateID = @InputCandidateID; IF @TranCounter = 0
COMMIT TRANSACTION;
IF @TranCounter = 1
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION ProcedureSave;
GO

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In Code Snippet 6, a savepoint transaction is created within a stored procedure. This will then be used to
roll back only the changes made by the stored procedure if an active transaction has started before the
stored procedure executes.

14.4 The @@TRANCOUNT

The @@TRANCOUNT system function returns a number of BEGIN TRANSACTION statements that occur in
the current connection. Figure 14.2 displays an example of using @@TRANCOUNT.

Figure 14.2: @@TRANCOUNT

Following is the syntax for the @@TRANCOUNT statement:

Syntax
@@TRANCOUNT

Code Snippet 7 shows the effect that nested BEGIN and COMMIT statements have on the @@TRANCOUNT
variable.

Code Snippet 7:

PRINT @@TRANCOUNT BEGIN TRAN

PRINT @@TRANCOUNT BEGIN TRAN
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT COMMIT
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT COMMIT
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT

Code Snippet 7 displays the number of times the BEGIN TRAN and COMMIT statement execute in the
current connection.

Figure 14.3 displays the output of Code Snippet 7.

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 Figure 14.3: Output of Code Snippet 7

Code Snippet 8 shows the effect that nested BEGIN and ROLLBACK statements have on the @@TRANCOUNT
variable.

Code Snippet 8:
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT BEGIN TRAN
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT BEGIN TRAN
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT
ROLLBACK
PRINT @@TRANCOUNT

In this case, code snippet 8 displays the number of times the BEGIN and ROLLBACK statements execute
in the current connection.
Figure 14.4 displays the output of Code Snippet 8.

Figure 14.4: Output of Code Snippet 8

14.5 Marking a Transaction

Users can use transaction marks to recover the related updates made to two or more related databases.
Though this recovery loses every transaction that is committed after the mark was used as the recovery
point. Marking a transaction is useful only when the user is willing to lose recently committed transactions
or is testing related databases.
Marking related transactions on a routine basis in every single related database creates a sequence of
common recovery points in a database. The transaction marks are incorporated in log backups and are also
recorded in the transaction log. In case of any disaster, user can restore each of the databases to the same
transaction mark in order to recover them to a consistent point.

➢ Concerns for Using Marked Transactions

Consider the following situations before inserting the named marks in the transaction:
 As the transaction mark consume log space, use them only for transactions that play an important

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 role in the database recovery strategy.
 When the marked transaction is committed, then a row is inserted in the logmarkhistory
table in msdb.
 If a marked transaction spans over multiple databases on different servers or on the same database
server, the marks must be logged in the records of all affected databases.

14.5.1 Create Marked Transactions

For creating a marked transaction, users can use the BEGIN TRANSACTION statement and the WITH MARK
[description] clause. The optional description is a textual description of the mark. A mark name for
the transaction is reused and required. The transaction log records the mark description, name, user,
database, datetime information, and the Log Sequence Number (LSN). The datetime information is used
with the mark name for unique identification of the mark.

For creating a marked transaction in a set of databases, the following steps are required:

1. Name the transaction in the BEGIN TRAN statement and use the WITH MARK clause.
2. Execute an update against all of the databases in the set.

Code Snippet 9 updates the list price in the Product table of the AdventureWorks2019
database.

Code Snippet 9:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
BEGIN TRANSACTION ListPriceUpdate
WITH MARK 'UPDATE Product list prices';
GO
UPDATE Production.Product
SET ListPrice = ListPrice * 1.20 WHERE ProductNumber LIKE 'BK-%';
GO
COMMIT TRANSACTION ListPriceUpdate;
GO

14.6 Differences Between Implicit and Explicit Transactions

Table 14.1 lists the differences between implicit and explicit transactions.
Implicit Explicit
These transactions are maintained by SQL These transactions are defined by programmers.
Server for each and every DML and DDL
statements.
These DML and DDL statements execute DML statements are included to execute as a unit.
under the implicit transactions.
SQL Server will roll back the entire statement. SELECT Statements are not included as they do
not modify data.
Table 14.1: Implicit Vs. Explicit Transactions

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14.7 Isolation Levels
Transactions identify the isolation levels that define the degree to which one transaction must be isolated
from the data modifications or resource that are made by other transactions. Isolation levels are defined in
terms of which the concurrency side effects such as dirty reads are allowed. When one transaction changes
a value and a second transaction reads the same value before the original change has been committed or
rolled back, it is called as a dirty read.

Transaction isolation levels control the following:

➢ When data is read, are there any locks taken and what types of locks are requested?
➢ How much amount of time the read locks are held?
➢ If a read operation that is referencing a row modified by some other transaction is:
 Blocking until the exclusive lock on the row is free.
 Retrieving the committed version of the row that exists at the time when the transaction or
statement started.
 Reading the uncommitted data modification.
While choosing a transaction isolation level, those locks that prevent data modification are not
affected. A transaction acquires an exclusive lock every time on each data that it modifies. Then,
it holds that lock until the transaction is completed, irrespective of the isolation level that is set
for that transaction.

Transaction isolation levels mainly describe the protection levels from the special effects of changes made
by other transactions for read operations. A lower isolation level increases the capability of several users
to access data at the same time. However, it increases the number of concurrency effects such as dirty reads
or lost updates that users might come across. On the other hand, a higher isolation level decreases the types
of concurrency effects which user may encounter. This requires additional system resources and increases
the chance of one transaction blocking another transaction.

Selecting a suitable isolation level is based on the data integrity requirements of the application as
compared to the overheads of each isolation level. The higher isolation level, serializable, assures that a
transaction will recover the same data each time it repeats the read operation. Then, it does this by
performing a level of locking that is expected to influence other users in a multi-user system. The lower
isolation levels retrieves data that is modified and is not committed by other transactions. All concurrency
side effects occur in read uncommitted, however, there is no read versioning or locking, hence, the
overhead is minimized.

Table 14.2 lists the concurrency effects that are allowed by different isolation levels.
Isolation Level Dirty Read NonRepeatable Read
Read committed No Yes
Read uncommitted Yes No
Snapshot No No
Repeatable Read No No
Serializable No No
Table 14.2: Isolation Levels

Transactions need to execute at an isolation level of at least repeatable read that prevents lost updates
occurring when two transactions each retrieve the same row and then, updates the row that is dependent

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on the originally retrieved rows.

14.8 Scope and Different Types of Locks

The SQL Server Database Engine locks the resources that use different lock modes, which determine the
resources that are accessible to concurrent transactions.

Table 14.3 lists the resource lock modes used by the Database Engine.
Lock Mode Description
Update Is used on resources that are to be updated.
Shared Is used for read operations that do not change data such as SELECT
statement.
Intent Is used to establish a hierarchy of locks.
Exclusive Is used for INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE data-modification operations.
BULK UPDATE Is used while copying bulk data into the table.
Schema Is used when the operation is dependent on the table schema.
Table 14.3: Lock Modes
Different types of locks are as follows:

➢ Update Locks
These locks avoid common forms of deadlock. In a serializable transaction, the transaction will read data,
acquire a shared lock on the row or a page, and modify the data that requires lock conversion to an
exclusive lock.

When two transactions acquire a shared lock on a resource and try to update data simultaneously, the
same transaction attempts the lock conversion to an exclusive lock. The shared mode to exclusive lock
conversion should wait as the exclusive lock for one transaction is not compatible with shared mode lock
of the other transaction a lock wait occurs. Similarly, the second transaction tries to acquire an exclusive
lock for update. As both the transactions are converting to exclusive locks and each waits for the other
transaction to release its shared lock mode, a deadlock occurs.

Figure 14.5 depicts the concept of such a deadlock.

Figure 14.5: Deadlock

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To avoid this deadlock, update locks are used. Only one transaction can obtain an update lock to a resource
at a time. When a transaction modifies a resource, then the update lock is converted to an exclusive lock.

➢ Shared Locks
These locks allow parallel transactions to read a resource under pessimistic concurrency control.
Transactions can change the data while shared locks exist on the resource. Shared locks are released on a
resource once the read operation is completed, except the isolation level is set to repeatable read or higher.

➢ Exclusive Locks
These locks prevent access to resources by concurrent transactions. By using an exclusive lock, no other
transaction can change data and read operations take place only through the read uncommitted isolation
level or NOLOCK hint. DML statements such as INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE combine modification and
read operations. These statements first perform a read operation to get data before modifying the
statements. DML statements usually request both exclusive and shared locks. For example, if the user
wants to use an UPDATE statement that modifies the row in one table that is dependent on a join with other
table. Therefore, the update statements request shared lock on the rows that reads from the join table and
request exclusive locks on the modified rows.

➢ Intent Locks
The Database Engine uses intent locks for protecting and places an exclusive or shared lock on the resource
that is at a lower level in the lock hierarchy. The name intent locks is given because they are acquired
before a lock at the low level and hence, indicate intent to place locks at low level. An intent lock is useful
for two purposes:
 To prevent other transactions from changing the higher-level resource in a way that will
invalidate the lock at the lower-level.
 To improve the efficiency of the Database Engine for identifying the lock conflicts those are at
the higher level of granularity.
For example, a shared intent locks are requested at the table level before requesting the shared locks on
rows or pages within the table. Setting the intent lock at the table level protects other transaction from
subsequently acquiring an exclusive lock on the table containing pages. Intent locks also contain Intent
Exclusive (IX), Intent Shared (IS), and Shared with Intent Exclusive (SIX). Table 14.4 lists the lock modes
in Intent locks.
Lock Mode Description
Intent shared (IS) Protects the requested shared lock on some resources that are lower in the
hierarchy.
Intent exclusive Protects the requested exclusive lock on some resources lower in the
(IX) hierarchy. IX is a superset of IS, that protects requesting shared locks on
lower level resources.
Shared with Intent Protects the requested shared lock on all resources lower in the hierarchy
Exclusive (SIX) and intent exclusive locks on some of the lower level resources.
Concurrent IS locks are allowed at the top-level resource.
Intent Update (IU) Protects the requested update locks on all resources lower in the hierarchy.
IU locks are used only on page resources. IU locks are converted to IX
locks if an update operation takes place.
Shared intent Provides combination of S and IU locks, as a result of acquiring these
update (SIU) locks separately and simultaneously holding both locks.

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 Lock Mode Description
Update intent Provides combination of U and IX locks, as a result of acquiring these
exclusive (UIX) locks separately and simultaneously holding both locks.
Table 14.4: Lock Modes in Intent Locks
➢ Bulk Update locks
Bulk update locks are used by the database engine. These locks are used when a large amount of data is
copied into a table (bulk copy operations) and either the table lock on bulk load option is set or the
TABLOCK hint is specified using the sp_tableoption.
These locks allow multiple threads to load bulk data continuously in the same table however, preventing
other processes that are not bulk loading data from accessing the table.

➢ Schema Locks
Schema modification locks are used by Database Engine while performing a table DDL operation such as
dropping a table or a column. Schema locks prevent concurrent access to the table, which means a schema
lock blocks all external operations until the lock releases.
Some DML operations such as truncating a table use the Schema lock to prevent access to affected tables
by concurrent operations.
Schema stability locks are used by the database engine while compiling and executing the queries. These
stability locks do not block any of the transaction locks including the exclusive locks. Hence, the
transactions that include X locks on the table continue to execute during the query compilation. Though,
the concurrent DML and DDL operations that acquire the Schema modification locks do not perform on
the tables.

➢ Key-Range Locks
These types of locks protect a collection of rows that are implicitly present in a recordset which is being
read by a Transact-SQL statement while using the serializable transaction isolation level. Key-range locks
prevent phantom reads. By protecting the range of keys between rows, they also prevent the phantom
deletions or insertions in the recordset that accesses a transaction.

14.9 Transaction Management

Each single statement that is executed is, by default, transactional in SQL Server. If a single SQL statement
is issued, then, an implicit transaction is started. It means the statement will start and complete implicitly.
When users use explicit BEGIN TRAN/COMMIT TRAN commands, they can group them together as an
explicit transaction. These statements will either succeed or fail. SQL Server implements several
transaction isolation levels that ensure the ACID properties of these transactions. In reality, it means that it
uses locks to facilitate transactional access to shared database resources and also, prevent the interference
between the transactions.

14.10 Transaction Log

Each SQL Server database has a transaction log, which records all transactions and the database
modifications made by every transaction. The transaction log should be truncated regularly to keep it from
filling up. Monitoring log size is important as there may be some factors that delay the log truncation.

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Transaction log is a critical component of the database and if a system failure occurs, the transaction log
will be required to bring the database to a consistent data. The transaction log should not be moved or
deleted until users understand the consequences of doing it. Operations supported by the transaction log
are as follows:
 Individual transactions recovery
 Incomplete transactions recovery when SQL Server starts
 Transactional replication support
 Disaster recovery solutions and high availability support
 Roll back a file, restored database, filegroup, or page forward to the point of failure

➢ Truncating a Transaction Log

Truncating a log frees the space in the log file for reusing the transaction log. Truncation of logs starts
automatically after the following events:
 In a simple recovery model after the checkpoint.
 In a bulk-logged recovery model or full recovery model, if the checkpoint is occurred ever since the
last backup, truncation occurs after a log backup.

There are factors that delay a log truncation. When the log records remain active for a long time,
transaction log truncation is late and the transaction log fills up. Log truncations are delayed due to many
reasons. Users can also discover if anything prevents the log truncation by querying the
log_reuse_wait_desc and log_reuse_wait columns of the sys.databases catalog view.

Table 14.5 lists the values of some of these columns.

Log_reuse_wait Log_reuse_wait desc Description
0 NOTHING Specifies that at present, there are
more than one reusable virtual log
file.
1 CHECKPOINT Specifies that there is no checkpoint
occurred since the last log
truncation or the head of the log has
not moved beyond a virtual log file.
2 LOG_BACKUP Specifies a log backup that is
required before the transaction log
truncates.
3 ACTIVE_BACKUP_OR_RESTORE Specifies that the data backup or a
restore is in progress.
4 ACTIVE_TRANSACTION Specifies that a transaction is active.
5 DATABASE_MIRRORING Specifies that the database
mirroring is paused or under high-
performance mode, the mirror
database is significantly behind
the principal database.
Table 14.5: Catalog View Columns

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14.11 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following types of transaction is related to Multiple Active Result Sets?
(A Autocommit (C) Implicit
)
(B) Explicit (D Batch-scoped
)
2. marks the beginning point of an explicit or local transaction.
(A ROLLBACK TRANSACTION (C) COMMIT WORK
)
(B) BEGIN TRANSACTION (D COMMIT TRANSACTION
)

3. Identify the function that returns a number of BEGIN TRANSACTION statements that occur in the
current connection.
(A @@TRANCOUNTER (C) @@TRANCOUNT
)
(B) @@ERRORMESSAGE (D @@ERROR
)
4. Which of the following is not the concurrency effect allowed by different isolation levels?
(A Read committed (C) Repeatable Read
)
(B) Snapshot (D COMMIT
)

5. Match the description with corresponding Lock Modes.

Description Lock
Modes
a. Is used on resources that are to be 1. Schema
updated.
Is used for read operations that do
b. not change data such as SELECT 2. Exclusive
statement.
c. Is used to establish a hierarchy of 3. Intent
locks.
d. Is used for INSERT, UPDATE, or 4. Shared
DELETE
data-modification operations.
e. Is used when the operation is 5. Update
dependent on the table schema.

(A a-1, b-4, c-2, d-3, e-5 (C) a-2, b-4, c-3, d-5, e-1
)
(B) a-5, b-4, c-3, d-2, e-1 (D a-1, b-2, c-3, d-4, e-5
)

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14.11.1 Answers
1. D
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. B

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 Summary
➢ A transaction is a sequence of operations that works as a single unit.
➢ BEGIN TRANSACTION marks the beginning point of an explicit or local transaction.
➢ COMMIT TRANSACTION marks an end of a successful implicit or explicit transaction.
➢ ROLLBACK with an optional keyword WORK rolls back a user-specified transaction to the
beginning of the transaction.
➢ @@TRANCOUNT is a system function that returns a number of BEGIN TRANSACTION
statements that occur in the current connection.
➢ Isolation levels are provided by the transaction to describe the extent to which a single
transaction must be isolated from changes made by other transactions.
➢ The SQL Server Database Engine locks the resources using different lock modes, which
determine the resources that are accessible to concurrent transactions.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Zamora Electronics Ltd. employs more than 500 workers in its units. Some of these are at junior
level while some are at senior level depending upon their expertise and years of experience. Each
employee is given annual leave based on the designation. The management at Zamora
Electronics Ltd. is planning to computerize their human resources department and all the data
pertaining to employees will now be stored in an SQL Server database. The company has made
some changes in the leave policy of the employees and wants to update the same in their tables.
Assume that you are the database administrator and that you are assigned the following tasks:
 Create a transaction to update the records in the table as per the new leave policy.
 Check if the transactions are updated in the appropriate table.
 Check if the transactions are not updated. Then, ensure that they are rolled back with the
appropriate error messages.

Table 14.6 lists the EmployeeDetails table.

Field Name Data Type Key Field Description
Employee_Id varchar(5) Primary Stores employee identification number
Key
FirstName varchar(30) Stores first name of the employee
LastName varchar(30) Stores last name of the employee
Address varchar(60) Stores address of the employee
PhoneNumber varchar(20) Stores phone number of the
employee, it could be landline or
mobile
Department_Id varchar(4) Stores department id of the
department to which the employee
belongs
Designation varchar(30) Stores designation or job role of the
employee
Salary money Stores salary of the employee
Join_date datetime Stores date of joining for the employee
Performance_Rating int Stores rating of the employee
Table 14.6: EmployeeDetails Table

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 Session - 15
Error Handling
Welcome to the Session, Error Handling.

This session introduces error-handling techniques in SQL Server and describes the use of
TRY-CATCH blocks. Various system functions and statements that can help display error
information are also covered in the session.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Explain error handling and its implementation

➢ Describe the TRY-CATCH block
➢ Explain the procedure to display error information
➢ Describe the @@ERROR and RAISERROR statements
➢ Explain the use of ERROR_STATE, ERROR_SEVERITY, and
ERROR_PROCEDURE
➢ Explain the use of ERROR_NUMBER, ERROR_MESSAGE, and ERROR_LINE
➢ Describe the THROW statement

15.1 Introduction
Error handling in SQL Server has become easy through a number of different techniques. SQL Server
has introduced options that can help you to handle errors efficiently. Often, it is not possible to capture
errors that occur at the user's end. SQL Server provides the TRY…CATCHstatement that helps to handle
errors effectively at the back end. There are a number of system functions that print error related
information, which can help fix errors easily.

15.2 Types of Errors

As a Transact-SQL programmer, one must be aware of various types of errors that can occur while
working with SQL Server statements. The first step one can perform is to identify the type of the error
and then, determine how to handle or overcome it.
Some of the types of errors are as follows:

➢ Syntax Errors
Syntax errors are the errors that occur when code cannot be parsed by SQL Server. Such errors are detected
by SQL Server before beginning the execution process of a Transact-SQL block or stored procedure.
Some scenarios where syntax errors occur are as follows:
 If a user is typing an operator or a keyword is used in a wrong way, the code editor will display the
tooltip showing the error. Figure 15.1 displays an example of syntax error.

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 Figure 15.1: Syntax Error
In figure 15.1, the SEToperator is wrongly used in the Transact-SQL statement, hence a syntax error
will be raised.
 If a user types a keyword or an operator wrongly because the user does not remember the valid
usage, the code editor will appropriately indicate it.

Figure 15.2 displays an example.

Figure 15.2: Wrong Keyword Error

 If the user forgets to type something that is required, the code editor will display an error once the
user executes that statement.
Syntax errors are easily identified as the code editor points them out. Therefore, these errors can be easily
fixed. However, if users use a command-based application such as sqlcmd, the error is shown only after
the code is executed.

➢ Run-time Errors
Run-time errors are errors that occur when the application tries to perform an action that is supported
neither by SQL Server nor by the operating system. Run-time errors are sometimes difficult to fix as
they are not clearly identified or are external to the database.
Some instances where run-time errors can occur are as follows:
 Performing a calculation such as division by 0
 Trying to execute code that is not defined clearly

Figure 15.3 shows the divide by zero error.

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 Figure 15.3: Divide by Zero Error
Here, the code editor will not show any error before execution because there is no syntax error.
Figure 15.4 displays an example that tries to store a value in the variable that does not meet the specified
range. In such a case, an arithmetic overflow error occurs.

Figure 15.4: Arithmetic Overflow Error

Following are some common situations when run-time error occurs:

 Using a stored procedure, or a function, or a trigger that is unavailable
 Trying to perform an action that an object or a variable cannot handle
 Attempting to access or use computer memory that is insufficient
 Trying to perform an action on incompatible types
 Using wrongly conditional statements

15.3 Implementing Error Handling

While developing any application, one of the most important things that users need to take care of is error
handling. In the same way, users also have to take care of handling exception and errors while designing
the database. Various error handling mechanisms can be used. Some of them are as follows:
➢ When executing some DML statements such as INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE, users can handle
errors to ensure correct output.
➢ When a transaction fails and the user must roll back the transaction, an appropriate error message
can be displayed.
➢ When working with cursors in SQL Server, users can handle errors to ensure correct results.

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15.4 TRY…CATCH
TRY…CATCH statements are used to implement exception handling in Transact-SQL. One or more
Transact-SQL statements can be enclosed within a TRY block. If an error occurs in the TRY block, the
control is passed to the CATCH block that may contain one or more statements.

Figure 15.5 illustrates the TRY…CATCH logic.

Figure 15.5: TRY…CATCH Logic

Following is the syntax for TRY…CATCH statements:
Syntax:

BEGIN TRY
{ sql_statement | statement_block }
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
[ { sql_statement | statement_block } ]
END CATCH
[ ; ]
where,
sql_statement: specifies any Transact-SQL statement.
statement_block: specifies the group of Transact-SQL statements in a BEGIN…END block.

A TRY…CATCH construct will catch all run-time errors that have severity higher than 10 and that do not
close the database connection. A TRY block is followed by a related CATCH block. A TRY…CATCH block
cannot span multiple batches or multiple blocks of Transact-SQL statements.
If there are no errors in the TRY block, after the last statement in the TRYblock has executed, control is
passed to the next statement following the END..CATCHstatement. If there is an error in the TRY block,
control is passed to the first statement inside the CATCH block. If END...CATCH is the last statement in a
trigger or a stored procedure, control is passed back to the calling block.

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Code Snippet 1 demonstrates a simple example of TRY…CATCH statements.
Code Snippet 1:

BEGIN TRY
DECLARE @num int;
SELECT @num=217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
PRINT 'Error occurred, unable to divide by 0'
END CATCH;

In this code, an attempt is made to divide a number by zero. This will cause an error, hence, the
TRY…CATCH statement is used here to handle the error.
Both TRY and CATCH blocks can contain nested TRY…CATCH constructs. For example, a CATCH block can
have an embedded TRY…CATCH construct to handle errors faced by the CATCH code. Errors that are
encountered in a CATCH block are treated just like errors that are generated elsewhere. If the CATCH block
encloses a nested TRY…CATCH construct, any error in the nested TRY block passes the control to the nested
CATCH block. If there is no nested TRY…CATCH construct the error is passed back to the caller.
TRY…CATCH constructs can also catch unhandled errors from triggers or stored procedures that execute
through the code in TRY block. However, as an alternative approach, triggers or stored procedures can also
enclose their own TRY…CATCH constructs to handle errors generated through their code.
Note: GOTO statements can be used to jump to a label inside the same TRY…CATCH block or to leave
the TRY…CATCH block. The TRY…CATCH construct should not be used in a user-defined function.

15.5 Information
It is a good practice to display error information along with the error, so that it can help to solve the
error quickly and efficiently.
To achieve this, system functions need to be used in the CATCHblock to find information about the
error that initiated the CATCHblock to execute.

System functions are as follows:

➢ ERROR_NUMBER(): returns the number of errors.
➢ ERROR_SEVERITY(): returns the severity.
➢ ERROR_STATE(): returns state number of the error.
➢ ERROR_PROCEDURE(): returns the name of the trigger or stored procedure where the error occurred.
➢ ERROR_LINE(): returns the line number that caused the error.
➢ ERROR_ MESSAGE(): returns the complete text of the error. The text contains the value supplied for
the parameters such as object names, length, or times.
The functions return NULL when they are called outside the scope of the CATCH block.

➢ Using TRY…CATCH with error information

Code Snippet 2 demonstrates a simple example displaying error information.

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Code Snippet 2:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
BEGIN TRY
SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber, ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity, ERROR_LINE()
AS ErrorLine, ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage;
END CATCH;
GO

In this code, the SELECT statement will cause a divide-by-zero error that is handled using the TRY…CATCH
statement. The error causes execution to jump to the associated CATCH block within which the error
information will be displayed.
Figure 15.6 displays the result of the error information. The first resultset is blank because the statement
fails.

Figure 15.6: Error Information

Code Snippet 3 demonstrates a stored procedure that contains error-handling functions.
Code Snippet 3:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ( 'sp_ErrorInfo', 'P' ) IS NOT NULL
DROP PROCEDURE sp_ErrorInfo;
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_ErrorInfo
AS
SELECT
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
ERROR_STATE() AS ErrorState,
ERROR_PROCEDURE() AS ErrorProcedure,
ERROR_LINE() AS ErrorLine,
ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage;
GO
BEGIN TRY SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
EXECUTE sp_ErrorInfo;

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 END CATCH;

In this code, when an error occurs, the CATCH block of the TRY…CATCH construct is called and the error
information is returned.

➢ Using TRY…CATCH with Transaction

Code Snippet 4 demonstrates a TRY…CATCHblock that works inside a transaction.
Code Snippet 4:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
BEGIN TRY
DELETE FROM Production.Product WHERE ProductID = 980;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity
,ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber
,ERROR_PROCEDURE() AS ErrorProcedure
,ERROR_STATE() AS ErrorState
,ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage
,ERROR_LINE() AS ErrorLine; IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
END CATCH;

IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0 COMMIT TRANSACTION;

GO

In this code, the TRY…CATCH block works within the transaction.

The statement inside the TRY block generates a constraint violation error as shown in figure 15.7 which is
as follows:
The DELETE statement is conflicted with the REFERENCE constraint
"FK_BillOfMaterials_Product_ProductAssemblyID". The conflict occurred in database
"AdventureWorks2019", table "Production.BillOfMaterials", column
'ProductAssemblyID'.

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 Figure 15.7: Constraint Violation Error

➢ Uncommittable Transactions
If an error is generated in a TRY block, it causes the state of the current transaction to be invalid and the
transaction is considered as an uncommitted transaction. An uncommittable transaction performs only
ROLLBACK TRANSACTIONor read operations. The transaction does not execute any Transact-SQL statement
that performs a COMMIT TRANSACTIONor a write operation.
The XACT_STATE function returns -1 if the transaction has been classified as an uncommittable transaction.
When a batch is completed, the Database Engine rolls back any uncommittable transactions. If no error
messages are sent when the transaction enters the uncommittable state on completing the batch, then the
error messages are sent to the client. This specifies that an uncommittable transaction is detected and rolled
back.

15.6 @@ERROR
The @@ERRORfunction returns the error number for the last Transact-SQL statement executed.

Following is the syntax for the @@ERRORfunction:

Syntax:

@@ERROR
The @@ERRORsystem function returns a value of the integer type. This function returns 0, if the previous
Transact-SQL statement encountered no errors. It also returns an error number only if the previous
statements encounter an error. If the error was one of the errors in the sys.messages catalog view,
then @@ERROR contains the value from the sys.messages.message_id column for that error. Users

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can view the text associated with an @@ERROR error number in the sys.messagescatalog view.

Code Snippet 5 demonstrates how to use @@ERROR to check for a constraint violation.

Code Snippet 5:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
BEGIN TRY
UPDATE HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory SET PayFrequency = 4
WHERE BusinessEntityID = 1;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
IF @@ERROR = 547
PRINT N'Check constraint violation has occurred.';
END CATCH

In this code, @@ERROR is used to check for a check constraint violation (which has error number 547) in
an UPDATE statement.
It displays the following error message:
(0 rows affected)
Check constraint violation has occurred.

15.7 RAISERROR
The RAISERROR statement starts error processing for a session and displays an error message. RAISERROR
can reference a user-defined message stored in the sys.messages catalog view or build dynamic error
messages at run-time. The message is returned as a server error message to the calling application or to
the associated CATCH block of a TRY…CATCH construct.
Following is the syntax for RAISERROR statement.
Syntax:
RAISERROR ( { msg_id | msg_str | @local_variable }
{ ,severity,state }
[ ,argument [ ,...n ] ] )
[ WITH option [ ,...n ] ]
where,
msg_id: specifies the user-defined error message number that is stored in the sys.messages
catalog view using the sp_addmessage.

msg_str: specifies the user-defined messages with formatting. msg_str is a string of

characters with optional embedded conversion specifications. A conversion specification has
the following format:
% [[flag] [width] [. precision] [{h | l}]] type

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 Parameters that can be used in msg_str are as follows:
{h | l} type: Specifies the use of character types d, i, o, s, x, X, or u, and
creates shortint(h) or longint(l) values.
Following are some of the type specifications:
d or i: Specifies the signed integer
o: Specifies the unsigned octal
x or X: Specifies the unsigned hexadecimal
flag: Specifies the code that determines the spacing and justification of the substituted value.
This can include symbols such as - (minus) and + (plus) to specify left-justification or to indicate
the value is a signed type respectively.
precision: Specifies the maximum number of characters taken from the argument value for
string values. For example, if a string has five characters and the precision is 2, only the first two
characters of the string value are used.
width: Specifies an integer that defines the minimum width for the field in which the argument
value is placed.
@local_variable: Specifies a variable of any valid character data type that contains string
formatted in the same way as msg_str.
severity: Severity levels from 0 through 18 are specified by any user. Severity levels from 19
through 25 are specified by members of the sysadmin fixed server role or users with ALTER
TRACE permissions. Severity levels from 19 through 25 uses the WITH LOG option is required.
option: Specifies the custom option for the error.
Table 15.1 lists the values for the custom options.

Value Description
Records the error in the error log and the application log for the instance of the
LOG
Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine.
NOWAIT Sends message directly to the client.
Sets the ERROR_NUMBER and @@ERROR values to msg_id or 5000 irrespective of
SETERROR
the severity level.
Table 15.1: Type Specification Values
When RAISERROR executes with a severity of 11 or higher in a TRY block, it will transfer the control to
the associated CATCH block.

Following errors are returned back to the caller if RAISERROR executes:

➢ Out of scope of any TRY block
➢ Having severity of 10 or lower in TRY block
➢ Having severity of 20 or higher that terminates the database connection
A CATCH block can use the RAISERROR statement to rethrow the error that has invoked the CATCH block.
For this, it will require to know the original error information which can be obtained through the

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ERROR_NUMBERand the ERROR_MESSAGEsystem functions.
By default, the @@ERRORis set to 0 for messages that have a severity from 1 through 10.
Code Snippet 6 demonstrates how to build a RAISERROR statement to display a customized error
statement.

Code Snippet 6:
RAISERROR (N'This is an error message %s %d.', 10, 1, N'serial number', 23);
GO
In this code, the RAISERROR statements takes the first argument of N'serial number' changes the first
conversion specification of %s, and the second argument of 23 changes the second conversion of %d. The
code snippet displays the 'This is error message serial number 23'. Code Snippet 7
demonstrates how to use RAISERROR statement to return the same string.

Code Snippet 7:

RAISERROR (N'%*.*s', 10, 1, 7, 3, N'Hello world');

GO
RAISERROR (N'%7.3s', 10, 1, N'Hello world');
GO

In this code, the RAISERROR statements return the same string, Hel. The first statement specifies the width
and the precision values and the second statement specifies the conversion specification.

Users can also return error information from a CATCH block.

Code Snippet 8 demonstrates how to use RAISERROR statement inside the TRY block.
Code Snippet 8:

BEGIN TRY
RAISERROR ('Raises Error in the TRY block.', 16, 1 );
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
DECLARE @ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000); DECLARE @ErrorSeverity INT;
DECLARE @ErrorState INT; SELECT
@ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(), @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),
@ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();
RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage, @ErrorSeverity, @ErrorState );
END CATCH;

In this code, the RAISERROR statement used inside the TRY block has severity 16, which causes the
execution to jump to the associated CATCH block.
RAISERROR is then used inside the CATCH block to return the error information about the original error.

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15.8 ERROR_STATE
The ERROR_STATE system function returns the state number of the error that causes the CATCH block of a
TRY…CATCH construct to execute. Following is the syntax for ERROR_STATE system function:
Syntax:
ERROR_STATE ( )
When called in a CATCH block, it returns the state number of the error message that caused the CATCH
block to be run. This returns a NULLwhen it is called outside the scope of a CATCH block.
There are specific error messages that are raised at various points in the code for the SQL Server Database
Engine. For example, an error 1105 is raised for several different conditions. Each specific condition that
raises error assigns the unique state code.
ERROR_STATEis called from anywhere within the scope of a CATCHblock. ERROR_STATE returns the error
state regardless of how many times it is executed or whether it is executed within the scope of the CATCH
block. This is in comparison with the functions such as @@ERRORthat only returns the error number in the
statement directly after the one that caused error or in the first statement of a CATCH block.

Users can use the ERROR_STATE in a CATCH block. Code Snippet 9 demonstrates how to use ERROR_STATE
statement inside the TRY block.

Code Snippet 9:

BEGIN TRY
SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_STATE() AS ErrorState;
END CATCH;
GO

In this code, the SELECT statement generates a divide-by-zero error. The CATCH statement will then
return the state of the error. The ERROR_STATEis displayed as 1.

15.9 ERROR_SEVERITY
The ERROR_SEVERITY function returns the severity of the error that causes the CATCH block of a
TRY…CATCH construct to be executed. Following is the syntax for ERROR_SEVERITY:

Syntax:
ERROR_SEVERITY ( )

It returns a NULLvalue if called outside the scope of the CATCHblock. ERROR_SEVERITYcan be called
anywhere within the scope of a CATCHblock. In nested CATCHblocks, ERROR_SEVERITYwill return the
error severity that is specific to the scope of the CATCH block where it is referenced. Users can use the
ERROR_SEVERITYfunction in a CATCHblock.
Code Snippet 10 shows how to display the severity of the error.

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Code Snippet 10:

BEGIN TRY
SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity;
END CATCH;
GO

In this code, an attempt to divide by zero generates the error and causes the CATCH block to display the
severity error as 16.

15.10 ERROR_PROCEDURE
The ERROR_PROCEDURE function returns the trigger or a stored procedure name where the error has
occurred that has caused the CATCH block of a TRY…CATCH construct to be executed.
Following is the syntax of the ERROR_PROCEDURE:
Syntax:
ERROR_PROCEDURE( )

It returns the nvarchardata type. When the function is called in a CATCH block, it will return the name of
the stored procedure where the error occurred. The function returns a NULL value if the error has not
occurred within a trigger or a stored procedure. ERROR_PROCEDUREcan be called from anywhere in the
scope of a CATCH block. The function also returns NULL if this function is called outside the scope of a
CATCH block.
In nested CATCH blocks, the ERROR_PROCEDURE returns the trigger or stored procedure name specific
to the scope of the CATCH block where it is referenced.
Code Snippet 11 shows the use of the ERROR_PROCEDURE function.
Code Snippet 11:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ( 'usp_Example', 'P' ) IS NOT NULL
DROP PROCEDURE usp_Example;
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE usp_Example AS
SELECT 217/0;
GO
BEGIN TRY
EXECUTE usp_Example;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_PROCEDURE() AS ErrorProcedure;
END CATCH;
GO

In this code, the stored procedure usp_Example generates a divide-by-zero error. The ERROR_PROCEDURE

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function accordingly returns the name of this stored procedure where the error has occurred.
Code Snippet 12 demonstrates the use of ERROR_PROCEDURE function along with other functions.
Code Snippet 12:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ('usp_Example', 'P') IS NOT NULL
DROP PROCEDURE usp_Example;
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE usp_Example AS
SELECT 217/0;
GO
BEGIN TRY
EXECUTE usp_Example;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH SELECT
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber, ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity, ERROR_STATE()
AS ErrorState, ERROR_PROCEDURE() AS ErrorProcedure, ERROR_MESSAGE() AS
ErrorMessage, ERROR_LINE() AS ErrorLine;
END CATCH;
GO

This code makes use of several error handling system functions that can help to detect and rectify an error
easily.

15.11 ERROR_NUMBER
The ERROR_NUMBER system function when called in a CATCH block returns the error number of the error
that causes the CATCH block of a TRY…CATCH construct to be executed. Following is the syntax of
ERROR_NUMBER:
Syntax:
ERROR_NUMBER( )
The function can be called from anywhere inside the scope of a CATCHblock. The function will return
NULLwhen it is called out of the scope of a CATCHblock.
ERROR_NUMBER returns the error number irrespective of how many times it executes or whether it
executes within the scope of a CATCH block. This is different than the @@ERRORwhich only returns the
error number in the statement immediately after the one that causes error, or the first statement of the
CATCHblock.
Code Snippet 13 demonstrates the use of ERROR_NUMBER in a CATCH block.
Code Snippet 13:

BEGIN TRY
SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber;
END CATCH;
GO

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As a result of this code, the error number is displayed when the attempted division by zero occurs.

15.12 ERROR_MESSAGE
The ERROR_MESSAGE function returns the text message of the error that causes the CATCH block of a
TRY…CATCH construct to execute.
Following is the syntax of ERROR_MESSAGE:
Syntax:

ERROR_MESSAGE( )

When the ERROR_MESSAGE function is called in the CATCH block, it returns the full text of the error
message that causes the CATCHblock to execute. The text includes the values that are supplied for any
parameter that can be substituted such as object names, times, or lengths. It also returns NULL if it is
called outside the scope of a CATCH block.
Code Snippet 14 demonstrates the use of ERROR_MESSAGE in a CATCH block.
Code Snippet 14:

BEGIN TRY
SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage;
END CATCH;
GO

In this code, similar to other examples, the SELECT statement generates a divide-by-zero error. The
CATCH block displays the error message.

15.13 ERROR_LINE
The ERROR_LINE function returns the line number at which the error occurred in the TRY…CATCH
block.
Following is the syntax of ERROR_LINE:
Syntax:
ERROR_LINE( )
When this function is called in the CATCHblock, it returns the line number where the error has occurred.
If the error has occurred within a trigger or a stored procedure, it returns the line number in that trigger
or stored procedure. Similar to other functions, this function returns a NULL if it is called outside the
scope of a CATCH block.
Code Snippet 15 demonstrates the use of ERROR_LINE in a CATCH block.

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Code Snippet 15:

BEGIN TRY
SELECT 217/0;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_LINE() AS ErrorLine;
END CATCH;
GO

As a result of this code, the line number at which the error has occurred will be displayed.

15.14 Errors Unaffected by the TRY...CATCH Construct

The TRY…CATCH construct does not trap the following conditions:

➢ Informational messages or warnings having a severity of 10 or lower

➢ An error that has a severity of 20 or higher that stops the SQL Server Database Engine task
processing for the session. If errors occur that have severity of 20 or higher and the database
connection is not interrupted, the TRY…CATCH will handle the error
➢ Attentions such as broken client connection or client-interrupted requests
➢ When the session ends because of the KILLstatements used by the system administrator

Following types of errors are not handled by a CATCH block that occur at the same execution level as that
of the TRY…CATCHconstruct:

➢ Compile errors such as syntax errors that restrict a batch from running
➢ Errors that arise in the statement-level recompilation such as object name resolution errors
occurring after compiling due to deferred name resolution.
Code Snippet 16 demonstrates how an object name resolution error is generated by the SELECT statement.
Code Snippet 16:
USE AdventureWorks2019;
GO
BEGIN TRY
SELECT * FROM Nonexistent;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage;
END CATCH
This code will cause the object name resolution error in the SELECT statement. It will not be caught by the
TRY…CATCHconstruct.
Running a similar SELECTstatement inside a stored procedure causes the error to occur at a level lower
than the TRY block. The error is handled by the TRY…CATCH construct. Code Snippet 17 demonstrates how
the error message is displayed in such a case.

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Code Snippet 17:
IF OBJECT_ID (N'sp_Example', N'P') IS NOT NULL
DROP PROCEDURE sp_Example;
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_Example AS
SELECT * FROM Nonexistent;
GO
BEGIN TRY
EXECUTE sp_Example;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH SELECT
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage;
END CATCH;

15.15 THROW
The THROW statement raises an exception and transfers control of the execution to a CATCH block of a
TRY…CATCH construct.
Following is the syntax of the THROW statement:
Syntax:

THROW [ { error_number | @local_variable },

{ message | @local_variable },
{ state | @local_variable }
] [ ; ]
where,
error_number: specifies a constant or variable that represents the error_number as int.
message: specifies a variable or string that defines the exception message as nvarchar(2048).
state: specifies a variable or a constant between 0 and 255that specifies the state to associate
with state of message as tinyint.
Code Snippet 18 demonstrates the use of THROW statement to raise an exception again.
Code Snippet 18:

USE tempdb;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.TestRethrow
(ID INT PRIMARY KEY
);
BEGIN TRY
INSERT dbo.TestRethrow(ID) VALUES(1);
INSERT dbo.TestRethrow(ID) VALUES(1);
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
PRINT 'In catch block.';
THROW;
END CATCH;

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In this code, the THROW statement is used to raise once again the exception that had last occurred.
The outcome of the code will be as follows:
(1 row(s) affected)
(0 row(s) affected)
In catch block.
Msg 2627, Level 14, State 1, Line 6
Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint 'PK TestReth 3214EC27AAB15FEE'. Cannot insert
duplicate key in object 'dbo.TestRethrow'. The duplicate key value is (1).

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15.16 Check Your Progress
1. ____________ occur only if the user writes code that cannot be parsed by SQL Server, such as a
wrong keyword or an incomplete statement.

(A) Syntax Errors (C) Logical Errors

(B) Run-time Errors (D) Error Log

2. Which of the following constructs can catch unhandled errors from triggers or stored procedures?

(A) IF-ELSE (C) RAISERROR

(B) TRY…CATCH (D) @@ERROR

3. Which of the following functions returns the error number for the last Transact-SQL
statement executed?

(A) ERROR_LINE (C) @@ERROR

(B) RAISERROR (D) @@ERROR_NUMBER

4. Which of these functions returns the severity of the error that causes the CATCH block of a
TRY…CATCHconstruct to be executed?

(A) ERROR_LINE (C) ERROR_PROCEDURE

(B) ERROR_NUMBER (D) ERROR_SEVERITY

5. The statement raises an exception and transmits the execution to a CATCH block
of a TRY…CATCHconstruct in SQL Server 2019.

(A) BEGIN (C) THROW

(B) END (D) ERROR

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15.16.1 Answers
1. A

2. B

3. C
4. D

5. C

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 Summary
➢ Syntax errors are the errors that occur when code cannot be parsed by SQL Server.

➢ Run-time errors occur when the application tries to perform an action that is supported neither by
Microsoft SQL Server nor by the operating system.

➢ TRY…CATCH statements are used to handle exceptions in Transact-SQL.

➢ TRY…CATCH constructs can also catch unhandled errors from triggers or stored procedures that
execute through the code in a TRY block.

➢ GOTO statements can be used to jump to a label inside the same TRY…CATCH block or to leave a
TRY…CATCH block.

➢ Various system functions are available in Transact-SQL to print error information about the error that
occurred.

➢ The RAISERROR statement is used to start the error processing for a session and displays an error
message.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Acme Technologies Private Limited is a leading software company located at New York. The
company has achieved many awards as the best dealer in the development of software technologies.
The company has received many new projects on mobile and Web development. At present, they
are working on a database project for Payroll Management System in SQL Server 2019. They have
created the database on Payroll management system for the employees of Client Company. At the
time of table creation and data insertion, they receive different types of errors. Consider that you are
the database administrator for Acme Technologies and your technical head has assigned you the
task of error rectification.
To achieve the solution for task assigned to you, you need to perform the following steps:

a. Write error-handling statements using the TRY…CATCH construct for both normal statements as
well as stored procedures.

b. Display the error information using the following:

⚫ ERROR_NUMBER
⚫ ERROR_MESSAGE
⚫ ERROR_LINE

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 Session - 16
Enhancements in SQL Server 2019
Welcome to the Session, Enhancements in SQL Server 2019.

This session covers some of the enhancements made in SQL Server 2019. These include
Verbose Truncation Warnings, Vulnerability Assessment, Big Data Clusters, and how to
use JSON data effectively with SQL Server 2019.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Describe the importance of new error messages
➢ Describe how to perform vulnerability assessment
➢ Explain Big Data clusters
➢ Explain how to use JSON data with SQL Server 2019

16.1 Verbose Truncation Warnings

‘Verbose Truncation Warnings’ is one of the greatest features launched in SQL Server 2019. People from
development industry are been waiting for this feature from quite a long time. It saves a lot of time while
importing, inserting, and updating huge amount of data.

Sometimes we receive the bad data in terms of character limits more than the defined limit in a column.
For example, if we want to insert bulk data into a database table using an insert statement, we get a bad
data on character length 5 into Color Name column while our existing column (Color_Name) allows only
three characters, so how SQL Server will behave? It will raise an SQL truncate error. Insert statement will
fail in this case. We normally call it as silent truncation and occur when we try to insert string data (varchar,
nvarchar, char, and nchar) into more than the size of the column.

Let us first create a sample database and a table to demonstrate the issue in earlier version of SQL Server.
SQL Server 2017 has been used for this example.

Step 1: Create a Sample DB 2017 database and set the compatibility to 140 as shown in Code Snippet 1.
Code Snippet 1:

USE [master]
GO
--Create Sample Database
CREATE DATABASE [Sample DB 2017]
GO
ALTER DATABASE [Sample DB 2017]
SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 140 -- SQL Server 2017
GO

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Step 2: Create a sample table and insert few records as shown in Code Snippet 2.

Code Snippet 2:

USE [Sample DB 2017]

GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[tbl_Color](
[Color ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[Color Name] [varchar](3) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[tbl_Color]

([Color Name])
VALUES
('Red'),
('Blue'),
('Green')
GO

Output of Code Snippet 2 is displayed in figure 16.1.

Figure 16.1: General Error Message

In figure 16.1, as we can see, we get the SQL truncate error message ‘String or binary data would be
truncated.’ In other words, data size is exceeding the table’s column size. However, it does not specify

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which column and which data is exceeding the limit in the table.

Consider if insertion or updation of more than one million rows in a table which has more than 50 columns.
It is complicated to perform and understand right? Now, you don’t need to worry because this issue has
been fixed in SQL Server 2019.

You can also set the database compatibility by selecting the Database Properties and then, select the
Options and set the Compatibility level.

Now, let us look at the SQL Server 2019 behavior of this SQL truncate issue.

Step 1: Create a database in SQL Server 2019 by default the compatibility is 150 as shown in Code Snippet
3.

Code Snippet 3:

USE [master]
GO
--Create Sample Database
CREATE DATABASE [Sample DB 2019]
GO

Step 2: Create a sample table and insert few records as shown in Code Snippet 4.

Code Snippet 4:

USE [Sample DB 2019]

GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[tbl_Color](
[Color ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[Color Name] [varchar](3) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[tbl_Color]

([Color Name])
VALUES
('Red'),
('Blue'),
('Green')
GO

The output of Code Snippet 4 is displayed in Figure 16.2.

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 Figure 16.2: Detailed Error Message

Output displayed in figure 16.2 shows error message which is very precise. It shows the database name,
table name, column name, and specify data exceeding the limit. In this case ‘Blue’ in Column ‘Color Name’
is exceeding the column size which is varchar(3).

16.2 Vulnerability Assessment

SQL Vulnerability Assessment is an easy-to-configure service that can discover, track, and help you reverse
or reduce potential database vulnerabilities. You can use it to proactively improve your database security.

Vulnerability Assessment is part of the Azure Defender for SQL offering, which is a unified package for
advanced SQL security capabilities. Vulnerability Assessment can be accessed and managed via the central
Azure Defender for SQL portal.

Note: Vulnerability Assessment is supported for Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed
Instance, and Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL Data Warehouse).

SQL Vulnerability Assessment is a service that provides visibility into your security state. Vulnerability
Assessment includes actionable steps to resolve security issues and enhance your database security. It can
help you to:

• Meet compliance requirements that require database scan reports

• Meet data privacy standards
• Monitor a dynamic database environment where changes are difficult to track

Vulnerability Assessment is a scanning service built into Azure SQL Database. The service employs a

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knowledge base of rules that flag security vulnerabilities. It highlights deviations from best practices, such
as misconfigurations, excessive permissions, and unprotected sensitive data.

The rules are based on Microsoft's best practices and focus on the security issues that present the biggest
risks to your database and its valuable data. They cover database-level issues and server-level security
issues, such as server firewall settings and server-level permissions. These rules also represent many of the
requirements from various regulatory bodies to meet their compliance standards.

Results of the scan include actionable steps to resolve each issue and provide customized remediation
scripts where applicable. You can customize an assessment report for your environment by setting an
acceptable baseline for:

• Permission configurations
• Feature configurations
• Database settings

Following steps are used to implement vulnerability assessment:

Step 1: Run a scan.

• Go to Azure SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance Database, or Azure Synapse resource in the
Azure portal.

• Under the Security heading, select Security center.

• Then, click Select Storage on the Vulnerability Assessment pane to open the Vulnerability
Assessment settings pane for either the entire server or managed instance.

• Configure a storage account where your scan results for all databases on the server or managed instance
will be stored. After storage is configured, select Scan to scan your database for vulnerabilities as shown
in figure 16.3.

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 Figure 16.3: Run a Scan

Note: The scan is lightweight and safe. It takes a few seconds to run and is entirely read-only. It
does not make any changes to your database.

Step 2: View the report

When vulnerability scan is finished, the scan report is automatically displayed in the Azure portal as shown
in figure 16.4. The report presents an overview of your security state. It lists how many issues were found
and their respective severities. Results include warnings on deviations from best practices and a snapshot
of your security-related settings, such as database principals and roles and their associated permissions.
Scan report also provides a map of sensitive data discovered in your database.

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 Figure 16.4: Vulnerability Report

Step 3: Analyze the results and resolve issues

Review your results and determine the findings in the report that are true security issues in your
environment as shown in figure 16.5. Drill down to each failed result to understand the impact of the
finding and why each security check failed. Use the actionable remediation information provided by the
report to resolve the issue.

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 Figure 16.5: Security Issues

Step 4: Set your baseline

As you review your assessment results, you can mark specific results as being an acceptable baseline in
your environment as shown in figure 16.6. The baseline is essentially a customization of how the results
are reported. Results that match the baseline are considered as passing in subsequent scans. After you have
established your baseline security state, Vulnerability Assessment only reports on deviations from the
baseline. In this way, you can focus your attention on the relevant issues.

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 Figure 16.6: Approve as Baseline

Step 5: Run a new scan to see your customized tracking report

After you finish setting up your Rule Baselines, run a new scan to view the customized report as shown in
figure 16.7. Vulnerability Assessment now reports only the security issues that deviate from your approved
baseline state.

Figure 16.7: Customize Scan Report

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Vulnerability Assessment can now be used to monitor that your database maintains a high level of security
at all times and that your organizational policies are met. If compliance reports are required, Vulnerability
Assessment reports can be helpful to facilitate the compliance process.

16.3 Big Data Clusters

In SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters allow to deploy scalable clusters of SQL Server, Spark, and Hadoop
Distributed File System (HDFS) containers running on Kubernetes. These components are running side
by side and enable read, write, and process big data from Transact-SQL or Spark, allowing you to easily
combine and analyze your high-value relational data with high-volume big data.

Note: Kubernetes (also known as k8s or "kube") is an open source container orchestration platform
that automates many of the manual processes involved in deploying, managing, and scaling
containerized applications.
Following are some popular uses of Big Data Clusters:
• Deploy scalable clusters of SQL Server, Spark, and HDFS containers running on Kubernetes
• Read, write, and process big data from Transact-SQL or Spark
• Easily combine and analyze high-value relational data with high-volume big data
• Query external data sources
• Store big data in HDFS managed by SQL Server
• Query data from multiple external data sources through the cluster
• Use the data for AI, machine learning, and other analysis tasks
• Deploy and run applications in Big Data Clusters
• Virtualize data with PolyBase
• Query data from external SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata, MongoDB, and ODBC data sources with
external tables
• Provide high availability for the SQL Server master instance and all databases by using Always On
availability group technology

SQL Server Big Data Clusters provide flexibility in interacting with big data. Query external data sources
and store big data in HDFS managed by SQL Server. Then this data can be used for AI, machine learning,
and other analysis tasks.

Data Virtualization

SQL Server Big Data Clusters can query external data sources without moving or copying the data as
shown in figure 16.8.

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 Figure 16.8: Data Virtualization

Data Lake
Data Lake is a storage repository that holds a huge amount of raw data in its native format. It is a scalable
HDFS storage pool. This can be used to store big data, potentially ingested from multiple external data
sources. Once the big data is stored in HDFS big data cluster, and then it can be analyzed. One can query
the data and combine it with relational data available in SQL Server as shown in figure 16.9.

Figure 16.9: Data Lake

Scale-out data mart

SQL Server Big Data Clusters provide scale-out compute and storage to improve the performance of
analyzing any data. Data from a variety of sources can be ingested and distributed across data pool nodes
as a cache for further analysis as shown in figure 16.10.

Figure 16.10: Data Mart

Integrated AI and Machine Learning

SQL Server Big Data Clusters enable AI and machine learning tasks on the data stored in HDFS storage
pools and the data pools as shown in figure 16.11. Spark as well as built-in AI tools in SQL Server, using
R, Python, Scala, or Java are used to perform AI and Machine learning related task.

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 Figure 16.11: Integrated AI and ML

A SQL Server big data cluster is a cluster of Linux containers orchestrated by Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Terms
Kubernetes is an open source container orchestrator, which can scale container deployments according to
the need. Table 16.1 defines some important Kubernetes terminology:

Term Description
A Kubernetes cluster is a set of machines, known as nodes. One node controls the
cluster and is designated the master node; the remaining nodes are worker nodes. The
Cluster
Kubernetes master is responsible for distributing work between the workers and for
monitoring the health of the cluster.
A node runs containerized applications. It can be either a physical machine or a virtual
Node machine. A Kubernetes cluster can contain a mixture of physical machine and virtual
machine nodes.
A pod is the atomic deployment unit of Kubernetes. A pod is a logical group of one or
more containers-and associated resources-required to run an application. Each pod
Pod
runs on a node; a node can run one or more pods. The Kubernetes master
automatically assigns pods to nodes in the cluster.
Table 16.1: Kubernetes Terms

In SQL Server Big Data Clusters, Kubernetes is responsible for the state of the SQL Server Big Data
Clusters; Kubernetes builds and configures the cluster nodes, assigns pods to nodes, and monitors the
health of the cluster.

Figure 16.12 shows the components of a SQL Server big data cluster.

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 Figure 16.12: SQL Server Big Data Cluster

Controller provides management and security for the cluster. It contains the control
Controller service, the configuration store, and other cluster-level services such as Kibana,
Grafana, and Elastic Search.

Compute pool provides computational resources to the cluster. It contains nodes

Compute Pool running SQL Server on Linux pods. The pods in the compute pool are divided into
SQL Compute instances for specific processing tasks.

Data pool is used for data persistence and caching. The data pool consists of one or
Data Pool more pods running SQL Server on Linux. It is used to ingest data from SQL queries
or Spark jobs. SQL Server big data cluster data marts are persisted in the data pool.

Storage pool consists of storage pool pods comprised of SQL Server on Linux,
Storage Pool Spark, and HDFS. All the storage nodes in a SQL Server big data cluster are
members of an HDFS cluster.

16.4 JSON data in SQL Server

JSON is a textual data format that is used for exchanging data in modern Web and Mobile applications.
JSON is also used to store unstructured data in log files or NoSQL databases such as Microsoft Azure
Cosmos DB. Many REST Web services return results that are formatted as JSON text or accept data that
is formatted as JSON.

For example, most Azure services, such as Azure Search, Azure Storage, and Azure Cosmos DB, have
REST endpoints that return or consume JSON. JSON is also the main format for exchanging data between

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Web pages and Web Servers by using AJAX calls.

JSON functions in SQL Server enable you to combine NoSQL and relational concepts in the same
database. Now, it is possible to combine classic relational columns with columns that contain documents
formatted as JSON text in the same table, parse and import JSON documents in relational structures, or
format relational data to JSON text.

Code Snippet 5 shows sample JSON data.

Code Snippet 5:

[
{
"name": "John",
"skills": ["SQL", "C#", "Azure"]
},
{
"name": "Jane",
"surname": "Doe"
}
]

By using SQL Server built-in functions and operators following things can be performed with JSON text
as shown in figure 16.13.

• Parse JSON text and read or modify values

• Transform arrays of JSON objects into table format
• Run any Transact-SQL query on the converted JSON objects
• Format the results of Transact-SQL queries in JSON format

Figure 16.13: Built-in JSON function

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If JSON text is stored in database tables, values in JSON text can be read or modified by using following
built-in functions as shown in Code Snippet 6:

• ISJSON (Transact-SQL) tests whether a string contains valid JSON

• JSON_VALUE (Transact-SQL) extracts a scalar value from a JSON string
• JSON_QUERY (Transact-SQL) extracts an object or an array from a JSON string
• JSON_MODIFY (Transact-SQL) changes a value in a JSON string

Code Snippet 6:

SELECT Name, Surname,

JSON_VALUE(jsonCol, '$.info.address.PostCode') AS PostCode,
JSON_VALUE(jsonCol, '$.info.address."Address Line 1"') + ' '
+ JSON_VALUE(jsonCol, '$.info.address."Address Line 2"') AS Address,
JSON_QUERY(jsonCol, '$.info.skills') AS Skills
FROM People
WHERE ISJSON(jsonCol) > 0
AND JSON_VALUE(jsonCol, '$.info.address.Town') = 'Belgrade'
AND Status = 'Active'
ORDER BY JSON_VALUE(jsonCol, '$.info.address.PostCode')

In Code Snippet 6 both relational and JSON data is used. Values from JSON text are used in any part of
a Transact-SQL query including WHERE, ORDER BY, or GROUP BY clauses, window aggregates, and so on.
JSON functions use syntax similar to JavaScript for referencing values inside JSON text.

Modify JSON Values

To modify parts of JSON text, JSON_MODIFY (Transact-SQL) function is used to update the value of a
property in a JSON string and return the updated JSON string. Code Snippet 7 updates value of a property
in a variable that contains JSON.

Code Snippet 7:
DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX);
SET @json = '{"info": {"address": [{"town": "Belgrade"}, {"town": "Paris"},
{"town":"Madrid"}]}}';
SET @json = JSON_MODIFY(@json, '$.info.address[1].town', 'London');
SELECT modifiedJson = @json;

Output of Code Snippet 7 is displayed in figure 16.14.

Figure 16.14: Modified JSON

OPENJSON to Convert JSON to rowset

Custom query language is not required to query JSON in SQL Server. To query JSON data, standard T-
SQL can be used. If you wish to retrieve or create a report on JSON data, you can easily able to do that by

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calling the OPENJSON rowset function, which will convert JSON data to rows and columns.

Code Snippet 8 calls OPENJSON and transforms array of objects that is stored in the @json variable to a
rowset that can be queried with a standard SQL SELECT statement:

Code Snippet 8:

DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX);

SET @json = N'[
{"id": 2, "info": {"name": "John", "surname": "Smith"}, "age": 25},
{"id": 5, "info": {"name": "Jane", "surname": "Smith"}, "dob": "2005-11-
04T12:00:00"}
]';
SELECT *
FROM OPENJSON(@json)
WITH (
id INT 'strict $.id',
firstName NVARCHAR(50) '$.info.name',
lastName NVARCHAR(50) '$.info.surname',
age INT,
dateOfBirth DATETIME2 '$.dob'
);

The output of Code Snippet 8 is displayed in figure 16.15.

Figure 16.15: JSON Variable to ROWSET

OPENJSON transforms the array of JSON objects into a table in which each object is represented as one row
and key/value pairs are returned as cells. The output observes the following rules:

• OPENJSON converts JSON values to the types that are specified in the WITH clause
• OPENJSON can handle both flat key/value pairs and nested, hierarchically organized objects
• It is not necessary to return all the fields that are contained in the JSON text
• If JSON values do not exist, OPENJSON returns NULL values
• Path can be specified optionally after type specification to reference a nested property or to reference a
property by a different name
• Optional strict prefix in the path specifies that values for the specified properties must exist in the JSON
text

JSON documents may have sub-elements and hierarchical data that cannot be directly mapped into the
standard relational columns. In this case, you can flatten JSON hierarchy by joining parent entity with
sub-arrays.

In Code Snippet 9, second object in array has sub-array representing person skills and each sub-object can
be parsed using additional OPENJSON function call.

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Code Snippet 9:

DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX);

SET @json = N'[
{"id": 2, "info": {"name": "John", "surname": "Smith"}, "age": 25},
{"id": 5, "info": {"name": "Jane", "surname": "Smith", "skills": ["SQL", "C#",
"Azure"]}, "dob": "2005-11-04T12:00:00"}
]';
SELECT *
FROM OPENJSON(@json)
WITH (
id INT 'strict $.id',
firstName NVARCHAR(50) '$.info.name',
lastName NVARCHAR(50) '$.info.surname',
age INT,
dateOfBirth DATETIME2 '$.dob',
skills NVARCHAR(MAX) '$.info.skills' AS JSON
)
OUTER APPLY OPENJSON(skills)
WITH (skill NVARCHAR(8) '$');

In Code Snippet 9, skills array is returned in first OPENJSON function as original JSON text fragment and
passed to another OPENJSON function using APPLY operator. Second OPENJSON function will parse JSON
array and return string values as single column rowset that will be joined with the result of first OPENJSON.

Output of Code Snippet 9 is displayed in figure 16.16.

Figure 16.16: Result of OPENJSON function calls

Export SQL Server Data to JSON

You can format SQL Server data or results of SQL queries as JSON by adding the FOR JSON clause to a
SELECT statement. The FOR JSON delegates the formatting of JSON output from your client applications
to SQL Server.

Code Snippet 10 uses PATH mode with the FOR JSON clause.

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Code Snippet 10:

USE AdventureWorks2019;
SELECT BusinessEntityId, FirstName AS "info.name", LastName AS "info.surname",
ModifiedDate AS dob
FROM Person.Person
FOR JSON PATH;

The FOR JSON clause formats SQL results as JSON text that can be provided to any app that understands
JSON. The PATH option uses dot-separated aliases in SELECT clause to nest objects in query results.

Output of Code Snippet is displayed in figure 16.17.

Figure 16.17: Exported JSON Data

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16.5 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following details are shown by troubleshooting feature Verbose Truncation Warnings
introduced in SQL Server 2019?

(A) Table Name (C) Column Name

(B) Data exceeding limit (D) All of these

2. Which of the following parameters are used to customize assessment report?

(A) Permission configurations (C) Feature configurations

(B) Database settings (D) All of these

3. Which of the following is not key term used in Kubernetes?

(A) Pod (C) Cluster

(B) Node (D) Knot

4. Which of the following big data cluster includes a scalable HDFS storage pool?

(A) Data Lake (C) Data Mart

(B) Data Virtualization (D) None of these

5. ______________________ extracts a scalar value from a JSON string.

(A) ISJSON (C) JSON_VALUE

(B) JSON_QUERY (D) JSON_MODIFY

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16.5.1 Answers
1. D
2. D
3. D
4. A
5. B

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 Summary
➢ Verbose Truncation Warnings makes troubleshooting easy by displaying additional and exact
details in error messages.
➢ SQL Vulnerability Assessment is a service that provides visibility into your security state.
➢ Vulnerability report lists how many issues were found and their respective severities.
➢ SQL Server Big Data Clusters provide flexibility in interacting with Big Data.
➢ Kubernetes is an open source container orchestrator.
➢ Kubernetes is responsible for the state of the SQL Server Big Data Clusters.
➢ JSON is used to store unstructured data in log files or NoSQL databases such as Microsoft Azure
Cosmos DB.

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 Try It Yourself
1. In this exercise you have to go through the Workshop - SQL Server Big Data Clusters - Architecture at
following link and perform all the steps on your local machine:
https://github.com/microsoft/sqlworkshops-bdc

2. Smith Sons and Corp. have following JSON data related to their account, they want you to convert the
same in tabular format with OPENJSON and WITH clause.

[
{
"Order": {
"Number":"SO43659",
"Date":"2011-05-31T00:00:00"
},
"AccountNumber":"AW29825",
"Item": {
"Price":2024.9940,
"Quantity":1
}
},
{
"Order": {
"Number":"SO43661",
"Date":"2011-06-01T00:00:00"
},
"AccountNumber":"AW73565",
"Item": {
"Price":2024.9940,
"Quantity":3
}
}
]

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 Session – 17
PolyBase, Query Store,
and Stretch Database
Welcome to the Session, PolyBase, Query Store, and Stretch Database.

This session introduces SQL Server features such as PolyBase, Query Store, and Stretch
Databases. PolyBase is used to process Transact-SQL queries that read data from external
data sources. The session also explains Query Store for analyzing query performance using
built-in reports. Finally, the session Stretch Database is used to migrate all or part of the
associated history table to cost-effective storage in Azure.

In this session, you will learn to:

➢ Describe PolyBase
➢ Explain features and advantages of PolyBase
➢ Define and describe Query Store
➢ Explain how to dynamically stretch warm and cold transactional data from SQL
Server to Azure
➢ Describe how to tune workload performance with Query Store

17.1 Understanding PolyBase

PolyBase enables your SQL Server instance to process Transact-SQL queries that read data from external
data sources. SQL Server 2016 and higher versions can access external data in Hadoop and Azure Blob
Storage. Starting in SQL Server 2019, you can now use PolyBase to access external data in SQL Server,
Oracle, Teradata, and MongoDB.

Queries that access external data can also use to target relational tables in your SQL Server instance. This
allows to combine data from external sources with high-value relational data in your database. In SQL
Server, an external table or external data source provides the connection to Hadoop.

PolyBase pushes some computations to the Hadoop node to optimize the overall query. However,
PolyBase external access is not limited to Hadoop. Other unstructured non-relational tables are also
supported, such as delimited text files.

PolyBase enables the following scenarios in SQL server:

• Query data stored in Hadoop from SQL Server or Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW): Users are
storing data in cost-effective distributed and scalable systems, such as Hadoop. PolyBase makes it easy
to query the data by using T-SQL.

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• Query data stored in Azure Blob Storage: Azure Blob storage is a convenient place to store data for
use by Azure services. PolyBase makes it easy to access the data by using T-SQL.

• Import data from Hadoop, Azure Blob Storage, or Azure Data Lake Store: Leverage the speed of
Microsoft SQL's columnstore technology and analysis capabilities by importing data from Hadoop,
Azure Blob Storage, or Azure Data Lake Store into relational tables. There is no need for a separate
Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) or import tool.

• Export data to Hadoop, Azure Blob Storage, or Azure Data Lake Store: Archive data to Hadoop,
Azure Blob Storage, or Azure Data Lake Store to achieve cost-effective storage and keep it online for
easy access.

• Integrate with BI tools: Use PolyBase with Microsoft's business intelligence and analysis stack or use
any third party tools that are compatible with SQL Server.

17.1.1 PolyBase Architecture

The architecture of PolyBase has some similarities to the Hadoop architecture. This is because the purpose
of PolyBase is interaction with Hadoop data.
Following are the main components of the PolyBase architecture shown in figure 17.1:

Head node Compute node Scale-out Reads

It contains SQL Server It contains SQL Server When querying external SQL
instance to which PolyBase instance that assists with scale- Server, Oracle or Teradata
queries are submitted. Each out query processing on instances, partitioned tables
PolyBase group can have only external data. A compute node will benefit from scale-out
one head node. A head node is is a logical group of SQL reads. Each node in a
a logical group of SQL Server and the PolyBase data PolyBase scale-out group can
Database Engine, PolyBase movement service on SQL spin up to eight readers to read
Engine, and PolyBase Data Server instance. A PolyBase external data and each reader
Movement Service on the group can have multiple is assigned one partition to
SQL Server instance. compute nodes. Both head read in the external table.
node and compute nodes must
run on the same version of
SQL Server.

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 Figure 17.1: PolyBase Architecture

17.1.2 Installing PolyBase in SQL Server 2019

Following are the pre-requisite to install PolyBase in SQL Server 2019:

➢ 64-bit SQL Server Evaluation edition.

➢ Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.
➢ Minimum memory: 4 GB.
➢ Minimum hard-disk space: 2 GB.
➢ Recommended: Minimum of 16 GB RAM.
➢ TCP/IP must be enabled for PolyBase to function correctly. TCP/IP is enabled by default on all
editions of SQL Server except for the Developer and Express SQL Server editions. For PolyBase to
function correctly on the Developer and Express editions, you must enable TCP/IP connectivity.

Note: PolyBase can be installed on only one SQL Server instance per machine.

Single node or PolyBase scale-out group:

Before you install PolyBase on your SQL Server instances, decide whether you want a single node
installation or a PolyBase scale-out group.

For a PolyBase scale-out group, make sure that:

• All the machines are on the same domain.
• You use the same service account and password during PolyBase installation.
• Your SQL Server instances can communicate with one another over the network.
• The SQL Server instances are all the same version of SQL Server.

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After you install PolyBase either standalone or in a scale-out group, you cannot change. To change this
setting, you have to uninstall and reinstall the feature.

Following are the steps to install and set up PolyBase:

1. Run the SQL Server setup.exe.

2. Select Installation and then, select New standalone SQL Server installation or add features.
3. On the Feature Selection page as shown figure 17.2, select PolyBase Query Service for External Data.

Figure 17.2: Feature Selection

Note: SQL Server 2019 PolyBase now includes an additional option Java connector for HDFS data sources.
See SQL Server preview features for more information about this feature.

4. On the Server Configuration page, configure the SQL Server PolyBase Engine Service and SQL
Server PolyBase Data Movement Service to run under the same domain account.

5. On the PolyBase Configuration page, select one of the two options.

• Use the SQL Server instance as a standalone PolyBase-enabled instance.

Choose this option to use the SQL Server instance as a standalone head node.
• Use the SQL Server instance as part of a PolyBase scale-out group. This option opens the firewall to
allow incoming connections. Connections are allowed for the SQL Server Database Engine, SQL

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 Server PolyBase Engine, SQL Server PolyBase Data Movement service, and the SQL browser. The
firewall also allows incoming connections from other nodes in a PolyBase scale-out group.

This option also enables Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) firewall
connections and modifies MSDTC registry settings.

6. On the PolyBase Configuration page, specify a port range with at least six ports. SQL Server setup
allocates the first six available ports from the range.

Enable PolyBase
After installation, PolyBase must be enabled to access its features as shown in Code Snippet 1.

Code Snippet 1:

exec sp_configure @configname = 'polybase enabled', @configvalue = 1;

RECONFIGURE;

Once SQL Server installation is complete with the PolyBase feature, PolyBase must be configured to
interact with external data sources.

Note: PolyBase using SQL Server 2019 can interact with Hadoop, Oracle, MongoDB, Teradata, and
so on.

Configure Hadoop Connectivity

1. Run sp_configure with 'hadoop connectivity' and set an appropriate value for your provider. To find the
value for your provider, see official document for PolyBase Connectivity Configuration. By Default, the
Hadoop connectivity is set to 7.

Code Snippet 2:

sp_configure @configname = 'hadoop connectivity', @configvalue = 7;

GO
RECONFIGURE
GO

2. Restart SQL Server using services.msc. Restarting SQL Server restarts these services as shown in figure
17.3.

• SQL Server PolyBase Data Movement Service

• SQL Server PolyBase Engine

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 Figure 17.3: SQL Server Services

Configure an external table

To query the data in your Hadoop data source, you must define an external table to use in Transact-SQL
queries. Following steps describe how to configure the external table:

1. Create a master key on the database, if one does not already exist as shown in Code Snippet 3. This is
required to encrypt the credential secret.

Code Snippet 3:

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

PASSWORD ='password': It is a password that is used to encrypt the master key in the database.
Password must meet the Windows password policy requirements of the computer that is hosting instance
of SQL Server.

2. Create a database scoped credential for Kerberos-secured Hadoop clusters as shown in Code Snippet
4.

Code Snippet 4:

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL HadoopUser1

WITH IDENTITY = '<hadoop_user_name>', Secret = '<hadoop_password>';

3. Create an external data source with CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE as shown in Code Snippet 5.

Code Snippet 5:

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE MyHadoopCluster WITH (

TYPE = HADOOP,
LOCATION ='hdfs://10.xxx.xx.xxx:xxxx',
RESOURCE_MANAGER_LOCATION = '10.xxx.xx.xxx:xxxx',
CREDENTIAL = HadoopUser1
);

4. Create an external file format with CREATE EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT as shown in Code Snippet 6.

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Code Snippet 6:

CREATE EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT TextFileFormat WITH (

FORMAT_TYPE = DELIMITEDTEXT,
FORMAT_OPTIONS (FIELD_TERMINATOR ='|',
USE_TYPE_DEFAULT = TRUE))

5. Create an external table pointing to data stored in Hadoop with CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE as shown
in Code Snippet 7. In Code Snippet 7, the external data used is car sensor data.

Code Snippet 7:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE [dbo].[CarSensor_Data] (

[SensorKey] int NOT NULL,
[CustomerKey] int NOT NULL,
[GeographyKey] int NULL,
[Speed] float NOT NULL,
[YearMeasured] int NOT NULL
)
WITH (LOCATION='/Demo/',
DATA_SOURCE = MyHadoopCluster,
FILE_FORMAT = TextFileFormat
);

6. Create statistics on an external table as shown in Code Snippet 8.

Code Snippet 8:

CREATE STATISTICS StatsForSensors on CarSensor_Data(CustomerKey, Speed)

17.2 Query Store

SQL Server Query Store feature provides an insight on query plan choice and performance. It simplifies
performance troubleshooting by helping quickly to find performance differences caused by query plan
changes.

Query Store automatically captures a history of queries, plans, and runtime statistics, and retains these for
review. It separates data as per time frames so database usage patterns can be identified and query plan
changes happened on the server are noted. Query store can be configured using ALTER DATABASE SET
option.

17.2.1 Query Store Architecture

Each query compilation or execution by SQL Server sends a message to the Query store. Figure 17.4
illustrates the connection to the Query Store.

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 Figure 17.4: SQL Server Messages to Query Store

The information about the compilation and execution is first stored in cache and then, stored to the disk.
The duration of keeping the information in the cache and the time when it is stored on the disk is
determined by the INTERVAL_LENGTH_MINUTES parameter and the DATA_FLUSH_INTERVAL_SECONDS
parameter, respectively. These parameters should be specified when Query Store is enabled and configured.
Sometimes, if there is an overload in the cache, the information is written to the disk and then, the cache
is cleared.

Note that information on both the cache and the disk can be accessed by running the sys.query_
store_runtime_stats catalog.

17.2.2 Enabling Query Store

Query Store is not enabled by default for new SQL Server and Azure Synapse Analytics (SQL DW)
databases and is enabled by default for new Azure SQL Database databases.

Using SQL Server Management Studio

1. In Object Explorer, right-click a database and then, click Properties.

2. In the Database Properties dialog box, select the Query Store page.
3. In the Operation Mode (Requested) box, select Read Write.

Note: Requires at least version 16 of Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.

Using Transact-SQL

Use the ALTER DATABASE statement to enable the query store for a given database shown as follows:

SET QUERY_STORE = ON (OPERATION_MODE = READ_WRITE);

17.2.3 Configuring Query Store

Once the Query Store feature is enabled, other parameters for Monitoring and Query Store Retention
can be configured. Figure 17.5 shows the parameters that can be configured.

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 Figure 17.5: Configure Query Store Using SSMS

Alternatively, Transact-SQL statements can be used. Figure 17.6 shows the Transact-SQL statements to
configure the Query Store parameters.

Figure 17.6: Configure Query Store Using Transact-SQL

In the code shown in figure 17.6,

▪ CLEANUP_POLICY = STALE_QUERY_THRESHOLD_DAYS = 367 specifies that the number of days to
retain data in the query store is 367.
▪ DATA_FLUSH_INTERVAL_SECONDS specifies that data in the query store is flushed to disk at an interval
of 900 seconds.
▪ MAX_STORAGE_SIZE_MB specifies that the maximum size of the query store is 100 MB. Once this size
is reached, the query store stops collecting new data and the state changes from read-write to read-
only. Starting with SQL Server 2019 (15.x), the default value is 1 GB. Keep track of current space
usage and increase the Max Size (MB) value to prevent Query Store from transitioning to read-only
mode.
▪ INTERVAL_LENGTH_MINUTES specifies the time interval at which the execution statistics data is saved
to the query store.
▪ SIZE_BASED_CLEANUP_MODE specifies whether the cleanup process is automatically activated when
total amount of data is almost reaching the maximum size.

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▪ QUERY_CAPTURE_MODE specifies whether all queries are captured automatically or only some queries
are captured based on execution count and resource consumption or if only current queries are
captured.
▪ Additionally, MAX_PLANS_PER_QUERY can also be given in a query. It specifies the maximum number
of plans maintained for each query.

17.2.4 Query Store System Objects

New system procedures and catalog views related to Query Store can be found in SQL Server. Code
Snippet 9 is used to retrieve these procedures and views.

Code Snippet 9:
SELECT name, type_desc FROM sys.all_objects
WHERE name LIKE ‘%query_Store%’ or name=’query_context_settings’
Figure 17.7 displays the list.

Figure 17.7: System-Stored Procedures and Catalog Views

17.2.5 Performance Tuning with Query Store

Performance of queries may deteriorate over time as a database grows. To analyze what is causing the
performance issue is a challenging and time-consuming task that is made easy with the Query Store
feature. The Query Store feature maintains all the information about queries over time and aids in quick
resolution of issues. As mentioned before, it also enables to ‘roll-back’ to query plans from history.
Following are few examples of application scenarios, where performance-tuning solutions can be provided
reactively or proactively by using the Query Store feature:

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 If any recent plan changes have caused poor performance, Query Store can be used to quickly identify the
issue and if required revert to a previous plan.

If any queries are consuming the most of system resources, such as CPU, memory or IO, they can be
identified and accordingly changed to ensure optimal usage.

When changes to applications or platforms are planned, Query Store can be used to compare performance
before and after change implementation. These changes may include installing new versions of applications,
installing new hardware, compatibility level upgrades to the database, and adding or modifying indexes.

When upgrades are planned for Query Optimizer, performance of queries can be recorded before
upgradation and fixed during upgradation.

When there is a need to optimize resources, queries with a lower frequency of execution can be identified
and allocation of resources to them can be proactively handled.

17.3 Stretch Database

Stretch Database is a new feature built into SQL Server that facilitates storage of a part of a database in
the cloud. When there is a need to retain data for a longer time, Stretch Database feature enables secure
migration of tables and data to the cloud. This is an economical solution for long-term data storage.

Moreover, applications can still query the data in the same way as before. Enabling Stretch Database feature
makes it possible to do the following:

• Move archived data as well as current data to the cloud securely by using the encryption features
• Access and query the data on the cloud at any time, without any changes to existing applications or
queries
• Reduce storage requirements of on-premise data by using the vast storage capacity of the cloud
• Reduce processing burden on the on-premise data by running the processes on the cloud in a way that
is transparent to the applications

17.3.1 Stretch Database Architecture

A secure linked server definition is created in the on-premise SQL Server when the Stretch Database
feature is enabled on a database. This establishes a connection to the remote or cloud database. When
Stretch Database is enabled on a table, the resources on cloud are prepared and if migration is enabled,
eligible data is migrated to the cloud database. Figure 17.8 illustrates the Stretch Database Architecture.

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 Figure 17.8: Stretch Database Architecture

17.3.2 Setting up Stretch Database

To configure an existing database for Stretch Database, select Tasks | Stretch | Enable for a database
in SQL Server Management Studio to open the Enable Database for Stretch wizard.

Transact-SQL can also be used to enable Stretch Database for a database.

If you select Tasks | Stretch | Enable for an individual table and you have not yet enabled the database
for Stretch Database, the wizard configures the database for Stretch Database and lets you select tables as
part of the process.

Note:
Stretch Database migrates data to Azure. Therefore, you require an Azure account and a subscription for
billing.

Enabling Stretch Database on a database or a table requires db_owner permissions. Enabling Stretch
Database on a database also requires CONTROL DATABASE permissions.

Prerequisite to Enable Stretch Database

To enable Stretch Database on a database or a table, first enable it on the local server. This operation
requires sysadmin or serveradmin permissions.

➢ If you have the required administrative permissions, Enable Database for Stretch wizard
configures the server for Stretch.
➢ If you do not have required permissions, an administrator has to enable it manually by running
sp_configure first then, run the wizard, or an administrator has to run the wizard.

1. Enable Stretch Database on the SQL Server instance as shown in Code Snippet 10.

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 Code Snippet 10:
EXEC sp_configure 'remote data archive', '1';
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

Code Snippet 10 runs sp_configure and enable remote data archive option. In this example remote
data archive option is enabled by setting its value to 1.

2. To configure an existing table for Stretch Database, run the ALTER TABLE command. Code Snippet
11 shows syntax that migrates the entire table and begins data migration immediately.

Code Snippet 11:

USE <Stretch-enabled database name>;

GO
ALTER TABLE <table name>
SET (REMOTE_DATA_ARCHIVE = ON (
FILTER_PREDICATE = dbo.fn_stretchpredicate(),
MIGRATION_STATE = PAUSED) ) ;
GO

3. Select the database and create the table that must be stretched. Code Snippet 12 shows syntax to
create a new table with Stretch Database.

Code Snippet 12:

USE <Stretch-enabled database name>;

GO
CREATE TABLE <table name>
( ... )
WITH (REMOTE_DATA_ARCHIVE = ON (MIGRATION_STATE = OUTBOUND) ) ;
GO

Consider that you have created a sample database and table. This table will be stretched to the Azure
cloud. Code Snippet 13 creates a table StretchSampleTable on the StretchDemo database.

Code Snippet 13:

USE [StretchDemo];
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.StretchSampleTable
(
FNM VARCHAR(50), LNM VARCHAR(50)
);
GO

Insert sample records into the table as shown in Code Snippet 14, where sample data is inserted into
the StretchSampleTable.

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 Code Snippet 14:
USE [StretchDemo];
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.StretchSampleTable (FNM, LNM)
VALUES(‘Pamella’, ‘Whee’), (‘Kimon’, ‘Turing’),(‘Joannie’, ‘Whitt’),
(‘Amelie’, ‘Janese’),(‘Toni’, ‘Gregory’), (‘Tedd’, ‘Walt’);
GO

4. On the Object Explorer, right-click the StretchDemo database, select Tasks, then select Stretch and
then, select Enable option as shown in figure 17.9.

Figure 17.9: Enabling Database for Stretch

The Enable Database for Stretch wizard opens as shown in figure 17.10.

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 Figure 17.10: Enable Database for Stretch

Select table for stretch as shown in figure 17.11.

Figure 17.11: Select Tables

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5. On the wizard, Sign In to the Microsoft Azure account and then, specify the Azure location, as
well as the server access credentials. It is recommended to save access credentials.

6. Click Finish to verify the choices made and to complete enabling the database for Stretch. A
secure linked server definition between the local database and the remote database on Azure is
now established.

17.3.3 Stretch Database Limitations

Limitations for Stretch Enable table are:

Constraints

• Uniqueness is not enforced for UNIQUE constraints and PRIMARY KEY constraints in the Azure
table that contains the migrated data.

DML operations
• You are not able to UPDATE or DELETE rows that have been migrated or rows that are eligible for
migration, in a Stretch-enabled table or in a view that includes Stretch-enabled tables.
• You are not able to INSERT rows into a Stretch-enabled table on a linked server.

Indexes
• You are not able to create an index for a view that includes Stretch-enabled tables.
• Filters on SQL Server indexes are not propagated to the remote table.

Following items currently prevent you from enabling Stretch for a table:
Table properties
• Tables that have more than 1,023 columns or more than 998 indexes
• FileTables or tables that contain FILESTREAM data
• Tables that are replicated, or that are actively using Change Tracking or Change Data
Capture
• Memory-optimized tables

Data types
• text, ntext, and image
• timestamp
• sql_variant
• XML
• CLR data types including geometry, geography, hierarchyid, and CLR user-defined
types

Column types
• COLUMN_SET
• Computed columns

Constraints
• Default constraints and check constraints

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• Foreign key constraints that reference the table. In a parent-child relationship (for
example, Order and Order_Detail), you can enable Stretch for the child table
(Order_Detail) but not for the parent table (Order).

Indexes
• Full text indexes
• XML indexes
• Spatial indexes
• Indexed views that reference the table

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17.4 Check Your Progress
1. Which of the following are added during installation of PolyBase through SQL Server 2019?

(A) SQL Server PolyBase Engine (C) SQL Server Data Movement Service

(B) DWQueue (D) All of these

2. Which of the following actions are necessary for data migration from a database table to an Azure
database through SQL Server?
Stretch Database must be enabled Stretch Database must be enabled on the
(A) (C)
on the Server instance table
Stretch Database must be enabled Stretch Database must be enabled on the
(B) (D)
on the database Server instance, database, and on the table

3. Which of the following are not supported by Stretch Database?

(A) Migration of current data to cloud (C) Filestream column type

(B) Querying data on cloud (D) Viewing migration status

4. Which of the following is not a function of Query Store?

(A) Seamless integration with external (C) Identify queries with degraded
data store such as Hadoop performance
(B) Store history of query plans in the (D)
Force older execution plans when required
system

5. Which of the following statements are incorrect?

PolyBase can be installed on only CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE
(A) one SQL Server instance per (C) statement is necessary to define a
machine connection to Hadoop file from SQL
Server
(B) PolyBase supports Cloudera and (D) Delimited Text is not a format of data
Hortonworks flavors of Hadoop supported by PolyBase

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17.4.1 Answers
1. D
2. D
3. C
4. A
5. D

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 Summary
➢ The PolyBase feature provides seamless integration with external data sources, such as Hadoop or
Azure Blob Storage.
➢ PolyBase eliminates the need to specialized skills on Hadoop internals by enabling query-runs on
external data sources with simple Transact-SQL commands.
➢ Query Store is a built-in tool to improve performance by maintaining historical information of every
query and execution plan.
➢ Query Store tracks the performance of queries and triggers alerts on poorly performing plans.
➢ Stretch Database in SQL Server 2019 enables stretching some part of a database to the Azure cloud,
thereby, lowering long-term storage costs as well as maintenance efforts.
➢ Stretch Database is used to migrate archive and data in current transaction to the cloud securely.
➢ Stretch database is used to access cloud data at any time similar to the local data available on
machines.

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 Try It Yourself
1. Starlight Digital Media is a popular digital media company in UK, they want to migrate all
their data stored in relational database to Azure cloud. Assume that they have hired you for
their team.

The tasks you are required to perform are:

i. Create demo database as StarlightDemo and insert data in it from Chinook database
at following link: https://github.com/cwoodruff/ChinookDatabase
ii. Next, create sample Azure Cloud account for Starlight Digital Media.
iii. Using Stretch database functionality migrate StarlightDemo database data to Azure Cloud.

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