SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBM) developed by Microsoft that competes with Oracle, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other RDBMs. In this article, I’ll explain in detail what SQL Server is and go through its release history over the past three decades. I’ll also detail what are the different SQL Server versions...
Last Update: Mar 12, 2024
SQL Server is a relational database. But what is a relational database exactly? Mike Otey, our resident SQL Server expert, explains in this article. What is a relational database? A relational database is a type of data storage mechanism that organizes data into tables where each table consists of rows and columns. It is typically…
Last Update: Dec 20, 2023
Databases are the primary containers for your SQL Server relational database objects. Some of the main relational database objects that are contained in SQL Server databases include: tables, schema, indexes, views, logins, security and roles. You can create a SQL database plus there are a number of built-in SQL system databases including the master, model, msdb and tempdb databases. Technically, SQL Server supports a…
Once you have created a user database, you can begin to create tables using the SQL CREATE TABLE statement. Databases typically have many different tables. If you haven’t yet created your first database in SQL Server, check out this article on Petri about how to create a SQL database using the SQL CREATE DATABASE statement. Tables are structures…
Last Update: Oct 17, 2023
In this SQL Server Management Studio tutorial (SSMS), I will show you the primary database management and development capabilities provided by the tool. Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the primary management and development tool for SQL Server and has been since its release back with SQL Server 2000. SSMS provides a graphical interface…
Last Update: Oct 04, 2023
SQL Server sample databases can be very useful for learning new techniques or trying out various samples of code. In this article, I’ll detail what you can do with the main SQL Server sample databases including Northwind, AdventureWorks, and WideWorldImporters. I’ll also show you how to find these SQL Server sample databases and install them….
Last Update: Oct 04, 2023
Microsoft’s SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the primary tool for working with SQL Server databases. In this article, I’ll guide you through the steps you need to follow to download and install SQL Server Management Studio on your PC. What is SQL Server Management Studio? SQL Server Management Studio provides an integrated environment that…
Last Update: Sep 25, 2023
SQL Server 2022, the latest release of Microsoft’s relational database product is nearing the finish line. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install SQL Server 2022 with the default, typical setup configuration. Planning and prerequisites Before we get started with the installation of SQL Server 2022, the first thing to accomplish is to…
SQL Server’s T-SQL query language has a plethora of data retrieval options. That includes the ability to query a SQL database, as well as providing a sum function, a count aggregate function, and grouping columns. The SQL GROUP BY clause can make use of all of these capabilities. In this article, I’ll show you how…
Last Update: Aug 24, 2023
In this article, I’ll cover the basics of using the SQL SELECT statement to retrieve data from one or more SQL Server tables. I’ll also detail how to retrieve selected columns, as well as how to use the SQL WHERE and HAVING clauses to filter rows. The samples in this article all use the AdventureWorksLT2019…