SQL Server Reference

When to Load

Load when the project uses SQL Server or Azure SQL (signal: mssql, tedious, pyodbc, sqlserver in connection string, SQL_SERVER env var, mcr.microsoft.com/mssql in docker-compose).

CLI Connection

# sqlcmd (installed with SQL Server tools):
sqlcmd -S "$DB_HOST,$DB_PORT" -U "$DB_USER" -P "$DB_PASSWORD" -d "$DB_NAME"
# with Azure AD:
sqlcmd -S "$DB_HOST" -G -d "$DB_NAME"

# mssql-cli (cross-platform, pip install mssql-cli):
mssql-cli -S "$DB_HOST" -U "$DB_USER" -P "$DB_PASSWORD" -d "$DB_NAME"

# Docker-hosted SQL Server:
docker exec -it <container> /opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd \
  -S localhost -U sa -P "$SA_PASSWORD" -d "$DB_NAME"

Key inspection queries:

SELECT @@VERSION;                                          -- version
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_requests WHERE status = 'running'; -- active queries
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats ORDER BY waiting_tasks_count DESC; -- waits
EXEC sp_who2;                                             -- connections + blocking

T-SQL Specifics

• TOP n replaces LIMIT: SELECT TOP 10 * FROM orders ORDER BY created_at DESC
• ISNULL(col, default) vs standard COALESCE — prefer COALESCE for portability
• @@ROWCOUNT / @@ERROR after DML (use TRY…CATCH for error handling)
• NOCOUNT ON in stored procedures to suppress row-count messages
• OUTPUT clause: capture inserted/deleted rows in a single statement

INSERT INTO orders (user_id, total)
OUTPUT INSERTED.id, INSERTED.created_at
VALUES (@user_id, @total);

Indexes

Type	Use when
Clustered	Physical row order; one per table; choose a sequential, narrow key (INT identity or sequential GUID)
Non-clustered	Additional access paths; up to 999 per table
Columnstore (clustered)	OLAP / data warehouse; batch-mode execution; 5–10× compression
Columnstore (non-clustered)	HTAP: add on OLTP table without changing clustered index
Filtered	Index a subset: WHERE deleted_at IS NULL
Full-text	CONTAINS, FREETEXT search on varchar/nvarchar columns

• Avoid NEWID() as a clustered key — causes page fragmentation; use NEWSEQUENTIALID() or INT IDENTITY
• Check fragmentation: sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats; rebuild if > 30%, reorganize if 10–30%

Transactions & Isolation

Default isolation: READ COMMITTED with shared locks (blocking reads).

Isolation	Behaviour
READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT (RCSI)	Row versioning instead of shared locks; set at DB level; recommended for OLTP
SNAPSHOT	Full transaction-level read consistency; may get 3960 update conflicts
SERIALIZABLE	Full locking; use only for strict invariant enforcement

Enable RCSI: ALTER DATABASE db SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON; — eliminates most reader/writer blocking with no application code change.

Always On Availability Groups

• Primary replica handles reads and writes; secondary replicas are readable (with READ_INTENT_ONLY)
• Synchronous commit: zero data loss, slight latency; asynchronous: no latency, potential data loss on failover
• Connection string: ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly routes to readable secondary
• Monitor: sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_states, sys.dm_hadr_database_replica_states

Change Data Capture (CDC)

-- Enable CDC on database:
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_enable_db;

-- Enable CDC on a table:
EXEC sys.sp_cdc_enable_table
  @source_schema = N'dbo',
  @source_name   = N'orders',
  @role_name     = NULL;

-- Query changes:
SELECT * FROM cdc.fn_cdc_get_all_changes_dbo_orders(
  @from_lsn, @to_lsn, N'all');

CDC capture job runs every 5 s by default; cleanup job purges after 3 days.

Common Gotchas

Gotcha	Fix
NVARCHAR vs VARCHAR — implicit conversion blocks index use	Match parameter type to column type; use N'...' for nvarchar literals
Statistics not updated → bad query plans	UPDATE STATISTICS or enable AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS
SELECT INTO does not preserve indexes	Create indexes explicitly after SELECT INTO
Implicit transactions in some drivers	Set SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS OFF; or use explicit BEGIN TRAN
Parameter sniffing causes slow plans after data distribution changes	Use OPTION (RECOMPILE) or OPTIMIZE FOR UNKNOWN on affected queries
GETDATE() vs GETUTCDATE()	Always store in UTC; use GETUTCDATE() or SYSUTCDATETIME()