Sql server® 2012 t-sql fundamentals

Working with SQL Server Books Online

Microsoft SQL Server Books Online is the online documentation that Microsoft provides for SQL Server. 

It contains a huge amount of useful information. When you are developing T-SQL code, think of Books 

Online as your best friend—besides this T-SQL fundamentals book, of course.

You can access Books Online through the Microsoft SQL Server program group, by clicking Docu-

mentation & Community | SQL Server Documentation. If you’re starting the product documentation 

for the first time, you will be asked to choose a default setting for Help—specifically, whether to get 

the Help content from the Internet or store it locally on your computer. Make a choice based on your 

preferences. You can always change your choices later from the Help Library Manager (accessible 

via the rightmost icon in the top toolbar). For example, in my environment, I chose local help and 

installed all topics under the SQL Server 2012 category locally.

Note that if you choose to store the Help content locally, you actually have to go to the help library 

manager and download it. Also, updates to Books Online aren’t linked to service pack releases, so it’s 

a good idea to check for updates from time to time in the Help Library Manager.

Books Online for SQL Server 2012 is also available directly on the Internet through the following 

link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214(v=SQL.110).aspx. The examples that I demon-

strate are based on a local installation of Books Online on my machine.

Learning to use Books Online is not rocket science, and I don’t want to insult anyone’s intelligence 

by explaining the obvious. Dedicating a section to Books Online in the “Getting Started” appendix is 

more about making you aware of its existence and emphasizing its importance rather than explaining 

how to use it. Too often, people ask others for help about a topic related to SQL Server when they can 

easily find the answer if they only put a little effort into searching for it in Books Online.

I’ll explain a few of the ways to get information from Books Online. One of the windows that I use 

most in Books Online to search for information is the Index tab, shown in Figure A-19.

Type what you are looking for in the Look For box. As you type the letters of the subject you are 

looking for (for example, window function), Books Online positions the cursor on the first qualify-

ing item in the sorted list of subjects below. You can type T-SQL keywords for which you need syntax 

information, for example, or any other subject of interest.

www.it-ebooks.info

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