Accessing and Changing Database Data

To access and change database data requires understanding 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 tables.

In This Section

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

  • Selecting a Database
    Describes how SQL Server determines which database contains a specified object.

  • Using Options in SQL Server
    Describes the various options that affect the result and performance of SQL statements.

  • 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.

See Also

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