Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Working with Sparse Columns

Querying and manipulation of sparse columns is the same as for regular columns, with one exception described later in this chapter. There’s nothing functionally different about a table that includes sparse columns, except the way the sparse columns are stored. You can still use all the standard INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements on tables with sparse columns just like a table that doesn’t have sparse columns. You can also wrap operations on a table with sparse columns in transactions as usual.

To work with sparse columns, let’s first create a table with sparse columns. The following example creates a version of the Product table in the AdventureWorks2012 database and then populates the table with data from the ...