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Showing of 35What is SQL Server and what are its main components?
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SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Microsoft. Its main components include:
- Database Engine: Core service for storing, processing, and securing data
- SQL Server Agent: Handles job scheduling and automation
- SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS): For creating and managing reports
- SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS): For data integration and transformation
- SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS): For data mining and analytics
- SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS): Primary management and development tool
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What are the different data types in SQL Server?
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SQL Server data types are categorized into:
Numeric Types: INT, BIGINT, SMALLINT, TINYINT, DECIMAL, NUMERIC, FLOAT, REAL, MONEY
String Types: VARCHAR, NVARCHAR, CHAR, NCHAR, TEXT, NTEXT
Date/Time Types: DATE, TIME, DATETIME, DATETIME2, SMALLDATETIME, DATETIMEOFFSET
Binary Types: BINARY, VARBINARY, IMAGE
Other Types: BIT, UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, XML, JSON (SQL Server 2016+)
Example:
CREATE TABLE Employee (
ID INT,
Name NVARCHAR(50),
Salary DECIMAL(10,2),
HireDate DATETIME
);
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What is the difference between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR?
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- VARCHAR: Stores non-Unicode character data, uses 1 byte per character
- NVARCHAR: Stores Unicode character data, uses 2 bytes per character
VARCHAR is suitable for English text, while NVARCHAR supports international characters and multiple languages. NVARCHAR requires more storage but provides better internationalization support.
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Explain different types of JOIN operations.
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- INNER JOIN: Returns records matching in both tables
- LEFT JOIN: Returns all records from left table and matching from right
- RIGHT JOIN: Returns all records from right table and matching from left
- FULL OUTER JOIN: Returns all records from both tables
- CROSS JOIN: Returns Cartesian product of both tables
Example:
-- INNER JOIN
SELECT e.Name, d.DepartmentName
FROM Employees e
INNER JOIN Departments d ON e.DeptID = d.ID;
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What are PRIMARY KEY and FOREIGN KEY constraints?
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PRIMARY KEY: Uniquely identifies each record in a table. Cannot be NULL and must be unique.
FOREIGN KEY: Links two tables together, referencing the primary key of another table.
Example:
CREATE TABLE Departments (
ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
Name NVARCHAR(50)
);
CREATE TABLE Employees (
ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
Name NVARCHAR(50),
DeptID INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Departments(ID)
);
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What is the difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE, and DROP?
What are indexes and why are they important?
What is a View in SQL Server?
What are Stored Procedures and their advantages?
What is normalization and name the normal forms?
Explain the difference between clustered and non-clustered indexes.
What are window functions and how do they work?
Explain transaction isolation levels in SQL Server.
What are triggers and what types exist?
What is the difference between UNION and UNION ALL?
Explain different types of backups in SQL Server.
What are CTEs (Common Table Expressions)?
What is deadlock and how can it be prevented?
Explain the MERGE statement.
What are user-defined functions and their types?
How do you analyze and optimize query performance?
Explain table partitioning and its benefits.
What are the different types of replication in SQL Server?
Explain Always On Availability Groups.
What is parameter sniffing and how do you handle it?
Explain columnstore indexes and their use cases.
What are memory-optimized tables (In-Memory OLTP)?
How do you implement and manage database security?
Explain query hints and when to use them.
What are Extended Events and how are they used for monitoring?
How do you handle large data migrations and ETL processes?
Explain the difference between SNAPSHOT isolation and READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT.
What is Resource Governor and how is it used?
How do you implement database compression in SQL Server?
What are Filegroups and how do you use them effectively?
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SQL Server cheatsheet
- SQL Basics01
- Data Types02
- Constraints03
- Joins04
- Indexes05
- Stored Procedures & Functions06
- Views07
- CTEs & Window Functions08
- Transactions & Concurrency09
- Performance Tuning10
- Security11
- Backup & Recovery12
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