sql server programming: Hi
Are there any document talking about SELECT, WHERE, JOIN etc with straight forward samples? SQL books online is good but too heavy for fast browse..

Any suggestion is appreciated

vishalsu@online.microsoft.com


RESOLUTION/LINKS;
===================
SELECT
Retrieves rows from the database and allows the selection of one or many
rows or columns from one or many tables. The full syntax of the SELECT
statement is complex, but the main clauses can be summarized as:

SELECT select_list
[ INTO new_table ]
FROM table_source
[ WHERE search_condition ]
[ GROUP BY group_by_expression ]
[ HAVING search_condition ]
[ ORDER BY order_expression [ ASC | DESC ] ]

The UNION operator can be used between queries to combine their results
into a single result set.

Syntax
SELECT statement ::=
< query_expression >
[ ORDER BY { order_by_expression | column_position [ ASC | DESC ] }
[ ,...n ] ]
[ COMPUTE
{ { AVG | COUNT | MAX | MIN | SUM } ( expression ) } [ ,...n ]
[ BY expression [ ,...n ] ]
]
[ FOR { BROWSE | XML { RAW | AUTO | EXPLICIT }
[ , XMLDATA ]
[ , ELEMENTS ]
[ , BINARY base64 ]
}
]
[ OPTION ( < query_hint > [ ,...n ]) ]

< query expression > ::=
{ < query specification > | ( < query expression > ) }
[ UNION [ ALL ] < query specification | ( < query expression > ) [...n
] ]

< query specification > ::=
SELECT [ ALL | DISTINCT ]
[ { TOP integer | TOP integer PERCENT } [ WITH TIES ] ]
< select_list >
[ INTO new_table ]
[ FROM { < table_source > } [ ,...n ] ]
[ WHERE < search_condition > ]
[ GROUP BY [ ALL ] group_by_expression [ ,...n ]
[ WITH { CUBE | ROLLUP } ]
]
[ HAVING < search_condition > ]

Because of the complexity of the SELECT statement, detailed syntax elements
and arguments are shown by clause:

SELECT Clause
INTO Clause
FROM Clause
WHERE Clause
GROUP BY Clause
HAVING Clause
UNION Operator
ORDER BY Clause
COMPUTE Clause
FOR Clause
OPTION Clause

SELECT Clause
Specifies the columns to be returned by the query.

Syntax
SELECT [ ALL | DISTINCT ]
[ TOP n [ PERCENT ] [ WITH TIES ] ]
< select_list >

< select_list > ::=

{ *
| { table_name | view_name | table_alias }.*
| { column_name | expression | IDENTITYCOL | ROWGUIDCOL }
[ [ AS ] column_alias ]
| column_alias = expression
} [ ,...n ]

Arguments
ALL

Specifies that duplicate rows can appear in the result set. ALL is the
default.

DISTINCT

Specifies that only unique rows can appear in the result set. Null values
are considered equal for the purposes of the DISTINCT keyword.

TOP n [PERCENT]

Specifies that only the first n rows are to be output from the query result
set. n is an integer between 0 and 4294967295. If PERCENT is also
specified, only the first n percent of the rows are output from the result
set. When specified with PERCENT, n must be an integer between 0 and 100.

If the query includes an ORDER BY clause, the first n rows (or n percent of
rows) ordered by the ORDER BY clause are output. If the query has no ORDER
BY clause, the order of the rows is arbitrary.

WITH TIES

Specifies that additional rows be returned from the base result set with
the same value in the ORDER BY columns appearing as the last of the TOP n
(PERCENT) rows. TOP ...WITH TIES can only be specified if an ORDER BY
clause is specified.

< select_list >

The columns to be selected for the result set. The select list is a series
of expressions separated by commas.

*
Specifies that all columns from all tables and views in the FROM clause
should be returned. The columns are returned by table or view, as specified
in the FROM clause, and in the order in which they exist in the table or
view.

table_name | view_name | table_alias.*
Limits the scope of the * to the specified table or view.

column_name
Is the name of a column to return. Qualify column_name to prevent an
ambiguous reference, such as occurs when two tables in the FROM clause have
columns with duplicate names. For example, the Customers and Orders tables
in the Northwind database both have a column named ColumnID. If the two
tables are joined in a query, the customer ID can be specified in the
select list as Customers.CustomerID.

expression
Is a column name, constant, function, any combination of column names,
constants, and functions connected by an operator(s), or a subquery.

IDENTITYCOL
Returns the identity column. For more information, see IDENTITY (Property),
ALTER TABLE, and CREATE TABLE.
If the more than one table in the FROM clause has a column with the
IDENTITY property, IDENTITYCOL must be qualified with the specific table
name, such as T1.IDENTITYCOL.


ROWGUIDCOL
Returns the row global unique identifier column.
If the more than one table in the FROM clause with the ROWGUIDCOL property,
ROWGUIDCOL must be qualified with the specific table name, such as
T1.ROWGUIDCOL.


column_alias
Is an alternative name to replace the column name in the query result set.
For example, an alias such as "Quantity", or "Quantity to Date", or "Qty"
can be specified for a column named quantity.
Aliases are used also to specify names for the results of expressions, for
example:

USE Northwind
SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) AS 'Average Price'
FROM [Order Details]

column_alias can be used in an ORDER BY clause. However, it cannot be used
in a WHERE, GROUP BY, or HAVING clause. If the query expression is part of
a DECLARE CURSOR statement, column_alias cannot be used in the FOR UPDATE
clause.

INTO Clause
Creates a new table and inserts the resulting rows from the query into it.

The user executing a SELECT statement with the INTO clause must have CREATE
TABLE permission in the destination database. SELECT...INTO cannot be used
with the COMPUTE. For more information, see Transactions and Explicit
Transactions.

You can use SELECT...INTO to create an identical table definition
(different table name) with no data by having a FALSE condition in the
WHERE clause.

Syntax
[ INTO new_table ]

Arguments
new_table

Specifies the name of a new table to be created, based on the columns in
the select list and the rows chosen by the WHERE clause. The format of
new_table is determined by evaluating the expressions in the select list.
The columns in new_table are created in the order specified by the select
list. Each column in new_table has the same name, data type, and value as
the corresponding expression in the select list.

When a computed column is included in the select list, the corresponding
column in the new table is not a computed column. The values in the new
column are the values that were computed at the time SELECT...INTO was
executed.

In this release of SQL Server, the select into/bulkcopy database option has

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absolutely ... Books Online

If you're looking for a quick and dirty book to use as a reference for
syntax, I really like the SQL in a Nutshell by Kevin Kline and Daniel Kline.
ISBN 1-56592-744-3


--
JT Lovell

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