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

Further Aspects of Logical Query Processing

This section covers further aspects of logical query processing, including table operators (JOIN, APPLY, PIVOT, and UNPIVOT), the OVER clause, and set operators (UNION, EXCEPT, and INTERSECT). Note that I could say much more about these language elements besides their logical query processing aspects, but that’s the focus of this chapter. Also, if a language element described in this section is completely new to you (for example, PIVOT, UNPIVOT, or APPLY), it might be a bit hard to fully comprehend its meaning at this point. Later in the book I’ll conduct more detailed discussions including uses, performance aspects, and so on. You can then return to this chapter and read about the logical query processing ...