Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals, The

Rowset Functions

Transact-SQL defines a special class of functions called rowset functions that can be used in place of tables in the FROM clauses of queries. Rowset functions return result sets in a fashion similar to a derived table and can be joined with real tables, summarized, grouped, and so on. There are two rowset functions related to full-text searching: CONTAINSTABLE and FREETEXTTABLE. These are rowset versions of the predicates discussed earlier in the chapter. Rather than being used in the WHERE clause, these functions typically appear in the FROM clause of a SELECT statement. They return a result set consisting of index key values and row rankings.

The CONTAINSTABLE Rowset Function

Despite the fact that it's a rowset function rather ...