Chapter 6. Query Development and Derived Structures

A problem in SQLand in all programming, for that matteris the development of long queries or statements. One way to create long queries is to begin modestly and to incrementally build or develop the query of interest. This is the approach described in this chapter, which we will illustrate by developing a few queries. And, as you'll find out, often the appropriate placement of parentheses within the query is required to get the right answer to a question.

Another way to develop queries is to use derived structuresa pseudo-table, of sorts. In Server SQL 2005, derived structures include such things as views (both real and inline views) and temporary tables (both temporary and global), both of which enable us to easily manipulate partial displays of tables. The partial displays can then be connected to answer a complicated database query. This chapter discusses derived structures, focusing specifically on views and temporary tables, and how query development can be aided with the use of derived structures.