Getting Started with SQL Express 2008
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From: Wes Groleau on 27 Jul 2010 19:38 On 07-27-2010 17:36, Erland Sommarskog wrote: > I suggest that you browse Amazon or your local books store for SQL books and > see what might fit your current level of knowledge. The one book I Or your library! -- Wes Groleau You always have time for what you do first.
From: Wes Groleau on 27 Jul 2010 19:44 On 07-27-2010 19:12, Gene Wirchenko wrote: > I have an in-house app written in VFP. It uses VFP's internal > tables. We now need to make it more accessible. My boss has decided > to go the Microsoft route. I now have to get going with SQL Server > from about zero. O'Reilly's “SQL Cookbook” contains over a hundred “problems” with suggested solutions in five dialects of SQL. The problems are probably trivial for you, but you might benefit by comparing the different solutions, as that would show a lot about things that are added to one dialect or missing from another. One of the five is SQL Server. -- Wes Groleau Scribd Copyright Violations http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/russell?itemid=1529
From: i79947 on 28 Jul 2010 02:39 Gene Wirchenko <genew(a)ocis.net> wrote: > Hello: > Well, I downloaded it. I think I installed it right, but I do > not know enough to be sure. Now, what? > Can someone please point me to what I need to study to get going? > I do not want a huge list as much as I want a map. What should I > study first? > Sincerely, > Gene Wirchenko After installing the product the server waits silently on the background for you to make a connection and start sending commands and queries written in T-SQL language. You can use Query analyzer that comes with the product to test your scripts. Writing queries with QA is much easier than using VFP. There are some differencies, especially in functions. Check: http://www.ml-consult.co.uk/foxst-38.htm http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFPSQL-TSQL-Mapping~VFP and http://www.eps-cs.com/pdf/whitepaper_migrating.pdf You can make a connection directly from VFP. There is a Data Explorer in the Task Pane that also has tool for testing queries. Before you can start using VFP:s own tools you have to create a database with some tables on SQL-server. You can do this directly with T-SQL commands but you have to learn some of them first. Of course you can do it with SQL-Server Management tools, check http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186312.aspx Don't be overwhelmed with options, filegroups and indexes, you don't need them at this stage. Just create one simple table and start using it. Later you can make a connection from VFP and upload data with VFP:S upsizing wizard. I guess the most difficult part is making the first connection and understanding the steps needed for that. After that you can read the whitepaper about migrating, it contains a lot VFP-code that can be useful. -- JS
From: Erland Sommarskog on 28 Jul 2010 04:45
Gene Wirchenko (genew(a)ocis.net) writes: > I suppose so, but it is difficult to know what is needed. Here > goes: > > I have an in-house app written in VFP. It uses VFP's internal > tables. We now need to make it more accessible. My boss has decided > to go the Microsoft route. I now have to get going with SQL Server > from about zero. Why don't request from your boss to be take a training class? There is always a problem with getting the right level - you don't want a class where they teach the basics of a SELECT statement, but that should be fairly easy to sort out. > A rewrite of the app is likely, but first, I have to learn enough > SQL Server. This means that you may not only have to learn SQL Server, but you also have to learn .Net or whatever front-end API you settle for. And that includes the data access to SQL Server. > Part of my problem is that I know how VFP's dialect of SQL works, > but I do not know how SQL Server differs. For example, here is a VFP > create table: > create table contrived (somedata c(20), moredata n(5)) > SQL Server chokes on the types. I could use a list of all of the > types and what they are. SQL Server largely supports the type names defined by ANSI, although if you don't know ANSI SQL, that does not help you much. (One can hardly blame you; I'm not well versed in ANSI SQL either.) Anyway, this topic in Books Online has the information you need: ms-help://MS.SQLCC.v10/MS.SQLSVR.v10.en/s10de_6tsql/html/a54f7373-b247-4d61- 8fb8-7f2ec7a8d0a4.htm > What exactly does "connect" mean? If I am using SSMS on a > database, I assume that counts. I am not totally sure though. As far as I know FoxPro is like Excel, that is the program writes directly to the database file directly. Not so with SQL Server (or any other major RDBMS). SQL Server runs as a service, and you talk to it over a network connection. It's like a web server. To open a URL, your computer does not open and read that HTML file, but it talks to another computer that opens the file and sends the content with you. There is one special case here: your client program and the server may be running on the same machine, and this is the typically scenario you will see when you first play with Express. In this case, the communication uses shared memory rather than a real network connection. But that is actually somewhat immaterial, because the basic principle is the same. You run a client program that sends commands to SQL Server which sends data back. You never access the database file directly. And, oh, there is one important difference with regards to the web server: you don't authenticate when you connect to a web server, but this is needed when you connect to SQL Server. > I would like to know how to connect from VFP. I will have to > look up VFP particulars, but I also need to know how to connect to SQL > Server / Express. What are the particulars for the latter, please? I > do not know what I have to know to create a connection from something > not part of SQL Server. Exactly how you connect depends on the environment and the client API you are using. Using .Net is certainly not the same as using Java. I hope you saw the post from 79947(a)fake.uwasa.fi.invalid - it seems that there were some good information there for moving from FoxPro. >>Transact-SQL is the SQL dialect that SQL Server uses. Nor do I have any >>idea whether that book is good for you. As I said, my psychic capabilities >>are limited. > > I thought the name was "TSQL", or is that something else? T-SQL = Transact-SQL. T-SQL is what you usually say, but Books Online is careful to only use Transact-SQL. -- Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel(a)sommarskog.se Links for SQL Server Books Online: SQL 2008: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc514207.aspx SQL 2005: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb895970.aspx SQL 2000: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx |