Inside Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: T-SQL Querying

Chapter 4. Query Tuning

This chapter lays the foundation of query tuning knowledge required for both this book and Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Programming. (For brevity, I’ll refer to the programming book as Inside T-SQL Programming and to both this book and Inside T-SQL Programming as “these books.”) Here you will be introduced to a tuning methodology, acquire tools for query tuning, learn how to analyze execution plans and perform index tuning, and learn the significance of preparing good sample data and the importance of using set-based solutions.

When building the table of contents for this book, I faced quite a dilemma with regard to the query tuning chapter, a dilemma that I’ve also faced when teaching advanced T-SQL—should this ...