Resources for Learning elements of MS SQL server

[ThomasSoerensen]

Hi
Could you point me to some good resources book/web/whatever that I can look at in order to learn about MS SQL servers capabilities.

I am building an application and have a bunch of tables that I have written a lot of queries against, this results in a bunch of views.

I need to learn:
how to trigger the execution of the views in a sequence
how to store the result of each view in a more permanent way than just in the output screen of the view - in a new table? in many new tables? what are the options
how to use the reporting capabilities to make a nice looking report that makes sense to people who do not enjoy looking at endless rows of data

etc.

Can you guys help me?

Thanks in advance

[jmo21]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sql+server+books+online

[ThomasSoerensen]

Does anyone have a more personalized recommendation?

I need first to get a feel for the options before diving into deep detail.

[lilelvis2000]

I learned from the SQL Guru series of books.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gurus-Guide-...0567703&sr=8-4

you can buy each individually as well.

[jmo21]

Sql Server books online is all you need mate!

[AtW]

I find that best way to learn is to take some real life project and work on it while using reference guides to find out how to do particular things on that particular system: if you are an experienced programmer then all you need is a good reference and test system.

[ThomasSoerensen]

Sql Server books online is all you need mate!

Could be, it is just that my day work in in a completely different domain so I do not even know the MS SQL terminology.
But the above recommended book looks good and I will dive a bit deeper into the online books too.

Should I just adopt a default mindset that anything is possible?

[jmo21]

Sql Server books online has everything you need to start yourself off, honestly!

You can learn the basics, and more advanced stuff from there. Once you have those, then think about looking elsewhere for even more advanced stuff.

Wouldn't waste £85 on that set of books.

Not sure what else I can say to convince you.

[ThomasSoerensen]

I find that best way to learn is to take some real life project and work on it while using reference guides to find out how to do particular things on that particular system: if you are an experienced programmer then all you need is a good reference and test system.

I am not an experienced programmer.

[jmo21]

As for your app requirements, I'm not sure what you are meaning by view, as a view is a well defined "thing" in Sql Server.

A query produces a result set (you are calling it a view).

A View in a Sql Server is like a saved query.

Ie. basic query select x, y, z from Table1
can be saved as a View called View1 for example.

then you can write a query in the form.
Select * from View1 which will give you exactly the same result as your original query.

There are many reasons for this that you can look up.

"how to trigger the execution of the views in a sequence"
Assuming you mean queries, you can call them one by one in your code, or one by one in a stored proc.

"how to store the result of each view in a more permanent way than just in the output screen of the view - in a new table? in many new tables? what are the options"

they are already in tables, so the first question is why do you want to store them somewhere else? do you need? why can't you just run the query again?
But of course, there is a facility to do that, look up "Select Into" statements.

"reporting capabilities"

look up Sql Server Reporting Services for a starter. There are other reporting packages that can hook up to Sql Server as well.