Accessing and Changing Database Data

Accessing and Changing Database Data deals with the fundamental aspects of building and executing Transact-SQL statements and processing results in the form of relational, or tabular, result sets.

The topics in this section provide information to help you retrieve data from and modify data in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 tables.

Topic Description

Query Tools

Describes the different classes of tools used to work with SQL Server.

Using Options in SQL Server

Describes the various options that affect the result and performance of SQL statements.

Querying the SQL Server System Catalog

Describes the various interfaces to the SQL Server system catalog.

Elements of Transact-SQL

Describes the primary syntax elements used in Transact-SQL statements.

Query Fundamentals

Describes the fundamental processes of building Transact-SQL statements. Describes the main clauses used in the SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE statements:

Select list

FROM clause

WHERE clause

ORDER BY clause

JOIN clauses

Manipulating Result Sets

Describes how to manipulate and control the results of queries by combining result sets and views, working with temporary result sets, producing summary reports of result sets, and sending notifications when result sets change.

Changing Data in a Database

Describes the methods for inserting new rows, and updating or deleting existing rows.

Procedural Transact-SQL

Describes the methods for grouping Transact-SQL statements.

Transactions (Database Engine)

Describes how several data modification statements can be grouped in a transaction.

Locking and Row Versioning

Describes how SQL Server prevents multiple users from modifying the same data at the same time.

Cursors (Database Engine)

Describes how SELECT statements always return a set of rows, but applications sometimes need to go through the result set one row at a time. Cursors support processing a result set one row, or a block of rows, at a time.

Distributed Queries

Describes how to code Transact-SQL statements that reference data on separate instances of SQL Server, or even in non-SQL Server OLE DB or ODBC data sources.

Query Performance

Describes how application queries and updates interact with the database schema and how you can tune them for improved performance.

For information about using XPath queries or Transact-SQL statements that work with XML documents, see Using XML in SQL Server.

See Also

Concepts

Designing and Creating Databases

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance