Published on

June 26, 2011

Understanding SQL Server Concepts: Stored Procedures, Triggers, Views, Indexes, Linked Servers, Cursors, and Collation

SQL Server is a powerful relational database management system that is widely used in the industry. It offers a variety of features and concepts that help developers and administrators efficiently manage and manipulate data. In this article, we will explore some of the key concepts in SQL Server, including stored procedures, triggers, views, indexes, linked servers, cursors, and collation.

Stored Procedures

A stored procedure is a named group of SQL statements that have been previously created and stored in the server database. Stored procedures accept input parameters, allowing a single procedure to be used by multiple clients with different input data. They help reduce network traffic and improve performance. Additionally, stored procedures can be used to ensure the integrity of the database.

Triggers

A trigger is a SQL procedure that initiates an action when a specific event (such as an INSERT, DELETE, or UPDATE) occurs. Triggers are used to maintain the referential integrity of data by changing the data in a systematic fashion. They are stored in and managed by the DBMS. Triggers can be considered similar to stored procedures, but they are implicitly executed and are attached to specific tables.

Views

A view is a subset of a table that can be used for retrieving data, as well as updating or deleting rows. When rows are updated or deleted in a view, the changes are reflected in the original table. Views are constructed using standard T-SQL select commands and can come from one or many different base tables or even other views. They provide a way to look at specific parts of the original table.

Indexes

An index is a physical structure containing pointers to the data in a table. It is created to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. By creating indexes on one or more columns of a table, queries can be executed faster. Effective indexes are one of the best ways to improve performance in a database application. A table scan occurs when there is no index available to help a query, which can have a significant impact on performance.

Linked Servers

Linked Servers allow SQL Server to query other SQL Server databases using T-SQL statements. With linked servers, clean and easy-to-follow SQL statements can be created to retrieve, join, and combine remote data with local data. Stored procedures like sp_addlinkedserver and sp_addlinkedsrvlogin are used to add new linked servers.

Cursors

A cursor is a database object used by applications to manipulate data in a set on a row-by-row basis. Unlike typical SQL commands that operate on all rows in a set at once, cursors allow for more granular control. The steps involved in working with a cursor include declaring the cursor, opening it, fetching rows, processing fetched rows, closing the cursor, and deallocating it.

Collation

Collation refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared. It defines the correct character sequence and provides options for specifying case sensitivity, accent marks, Kana character types, and character width. Collation is important when working with character data, as it ensures consistent sorting and comparison results.

Understanding these concepts in SQL Server is crucial for developers and administrators to effectively manage and manipulate data. By leveraging stored procedures, triggers, views, indexes, linked servers, cursors, and collation, SQL Server users can optimize performance, maintain data integrity, and efficiently retrieve and manipulate data.

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