1.

What factors you think before Writing Stored Procedure?

2.

How the SP will be executed? (From Backend, from job, from FE etc) What are Input/Output Parameters and their data types? What is the result set of the SP? What Error checks and Validations are needed? Check for the objects required for writing SP. Check for the performance related inputs. Pseudo code may be written.

Difference between Function and a stored Procedure?

3.

Stored procedures are different from functions in that they do not return values in place of their names and they cannot be used directly in an expression. Functions can be used in a select statement; SP cant be used in a select statement. Functions can return tables, Stored Procedures cant. Functions cant change server environment or OS environment, while a sp can.

What Constraints we have in SQL Server 2000?

Primary Key constraint Foreign Key constraint Unique constraint Null or Not Null constraint Check constraint

4.

What is the difference between Primary Key and Unique Key? Primary key does not allow Null value. Unique key allows a single null value. When a primary key is defined by default a clustered index is created. When a unique key is defined by default a non clustered index is created.

Multiple Unique Key constraints can be defined on a Table. Only one Primary Key can be defined on a Table

5.

Why to use Clustered Indexes on a Table? A clustered index determines the physical order of data in a table. A clustered index is particularly efficient on columns that are often searched for ranges of values Clustered indexes are also efficient for finding a specific row when the indexed value is unique.

6.

When to use Clustered Indexes on a Table? Consider using a clustered index for: Columns that contain a large number of distinct values. Queries that return a range of values using operators such as BETWEEN, >, >=, <, and <=. Columns that are accessed sequentially. Queries that return large result sets. Columns that are frequently accessed by queries involving join or GROUP BY clauses; typically these are foreign key columns. An index on the column(s) specified in the ORDER BY or GROUP BY clause eliminates the need for SQL Server to sort the data because the rows are already sorted. This improves query performance. OLTP-type applications where very fast single row lookup is required, typically by means of the primary key. Create a clustered index on the primary key. When not to use Clustered Indexes on a Table? Clustered indexes are not a good choice for: Columns that undergo frequent changes. This results in the entire row moving (because SQL Server must keep the data values of a row in physical order). This is an important consideration in high-volume transaction processing systems where data tends to be volatile. Wide keys. The key values from the clustered index are used by all non clustered indexes as lookup keys and therefore are stored in each non clustered index leaf entry. Putting constraints increases correctness of data and retrieving also fast. Can we use Check Constraints on all columns? Constraints define rules regarding the values allowed in columns and are the standard mechanism for enforcing integrity. Using constraints is preferred to using triggers, rules, and defaults. The query optimizer also uses constraint definitions to build high-performance query execution plans. A CHECK constraint can validate a column value only against a logical expression or another column in the same table. If the application requires that a column value be validated against a column in another table check constraint may not be useful

7.

8.

Constraints can communicate about errors only through standardized system error messages. If the application requires (or can benefit from) customized messages constraints may not be useful. We may not use check constraints on all columns.

9.

What are distributed queries?

Distributed queries are queries that access data from multiple heterogeneous data sources, which can be stored on either the same or different computers. Distributed queries provide SQL Server users with access to: i. Distributed data stored in multiple instances of SQL Server. ii. Heterogeneous data stored in various relational and non-relational data sources accessed using an OLE DB provider.

10. How do you write a join query which uses one table from DB1 and other from DB2, both
DB1 and DB2 are in the same server? SELECT A.col1, A.col2, B.clo1, B.col2 FROM DB1.dbo.t1 A INNER JOIN DB2.dbo.t2 B ON (A.col1 = B.col1)

11. How many characters we can put in a Varchar Column?

8000 characters

12. I have text box in front end GUI which accepts unlimited characters. Data entered in that text box is going to the database. How do you handle it? We have to use Text or Ntext data types of SQL Server to store the information. 13. Where Stored Procedure is stored in Database? Procedure name is stored in sysobjects system table. Text of the procedure is stored in syscomments system table.

14. I have CountryId and Country Name columns in the table. For me, United States and

United Kingdom are most important countries. I want to get List of Countries in which US and UK in top order after that remaining all countries in alphabetical order. How can you achieve it? SELECT CountryID, CountryName FROM dbo.Country (NOLOCK) ORDER BY (CASE WHEN (CountryName = 'United States') THEN CHAR(0) WHEN (CountryName = 'United Kingdom') THEN CHAR(1) ELSE CountryName END)

15. What are triggers? SQL Server2000 triggers are a special class of stored procedure defined to execute automatically when an UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE statement is issued against a table or view. Triggers are powerful tools that can be used to enforce business rules automatically when data is modified. Triggers can extend the integrity checking logic of SQL Server constraints, defaults, and rules. Tables can have multiple triggers Triggers contain Transact-SQL statements, much the same as stored procedures. Triggers, like stored procedures, return the result set generated by any SELECT statements in the trigger. Including SELECT statements in triggers, except statements that only fill parameters, is not recommended There are 2 types of triggers in SQL Server; After Triggers and Instead Of Triggers. Explain AFTER Triggers. The trigger executes after the statement that triggered it completes. If the statement fails with an error, such as a constraint violation or syntax error, the trigger is not executed. AFTER triggers cannot be specified for views, they can only be specified for tables. You can specify multiple AFTER triggers for each triggering action (INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE). If you have multiple AFTER triggers for a table, you can use sp_settriggerorder to define which AFTER trigger fires first and which fires last. All other AFTER triggers besides the first and last fire in an undefined order which you cannot control. AFTER is the default in SQL Server 2000. You could not specify AFTER or INSTEAD OF in SQL Server version 7.0 or earlier, all triggers in those versions operated as AFTER triggers.

16.

17. Explain INSTEAD OF Triggers.

The trigger executes in place of the triggering action. INSTEAD OF triggers can be specified on both tables and views. You can define only one INSTEAD OF trigger for each triggering action (INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE). INSTEAD OF triggers can be used to perform enhance integrity checks on the data values supplied in INSERT and UPDATE statements.

18.

INSTEAD OF triggers also let you specify actions that allow views, which would normally not support updates, to be updatable. What are Cursors, How do you use them, and when do you use them? A cursor is a mechanism you can use to fetch rows one at a time. Transact-SQL cursors are used mainly in stored procedures, triggers, and Transact-SQL scripts in which they make the contents of a result set available to other Transact-SQL statements. When writing code for a transaction where the result set includes several rows of data, you may declare and use a cursor. For example, if you write code that includes a SELECT statement or stored procedure that returns multiple rows, you must declare a cursor and associate it with the SELECT statement. Then, by using the FETCH statement, you can retrieve one row at a time from the result set. The typical process for using a Transact-SQL cursor in a stored procedure or trigger is: Declare Transact-SQL variables to contain the data returned by the cursor. Declare one variable for each result set column. Declare the variables to be large enough to hold the values returned by the column and with a data type that can be implicitly converted from the data type of the column. Associate a Transact-SQL cursor with a SELECT statement using the DECLARE CURSOR statement. The DECLARE CURSOR statement also defines the characteristics of the cursor, such as the cursor name and whether the cursor is read-only or forward-only. Use the OPEN statement to execute the SELECT statement and populate the cursor. Use the FETCH INTO statement to fetch individual rows and have the data for each column moved into a specified variable. Other Transact-SQL statements can then reference those variables to access the fetched data values. Transact-SQL cursors do not support fetching blocks of rows.

When you are finished with the cursor, use the CLOSE statement. Closing a cursor frees some resources, such as the cursor's result set and its locks on the current row, but the cursor structure is still available for processing if you reissue an OPEN statement. Because the cursor is still present, you cannot reuse the cursor name at this point. The DEALLOCATE statement completely frees all resources allocated to the cursor, including the cursor name. After a cursor is de-allocated, you must issue a DECLARE statement to rebuild the cursor. Disadvantages of cursors Each time a row is fetched from the cursor, it results in a network roundtrip; where as a normal SELECT query makes only one roundtrip, however large the result set is. Cursors are also costly because they require more resources and temporary storage (results in more IO operations). Further, there are restrictions on the SELECT statements that can be used with some types of cursors.

19. What are indexes?

An index in a database is a list of values in a table with the storage locations of rows in the table that contain each value. In a database, an index allows the database program to find data in a table without scanning the entire table. Indexes can be created on either a single column or a combination of columns in a table and are implemented in the form of B-trees. An index contains an entry with one or more columns (the search key) from each row in a table. A B-tree is sorted on the search key, and can be searched efficiently on any leading subset of the search key. For example, an index on columns A, B, C can be searched efficiently on A, on A, B, and A, B, C.

The performance benefits of indexes, however, do come with a cost. Tables with indexes require more storage space in the database. Also, commands that insert, update, or delete data can take longer and require more processing time to maintain the indexes. When you design and create indexes, you should ensure that the performance benefits outweigh the extra cost in storage space and processing resources.

20. What is the difference between Clustered index and non-clustered index? A clustered index reorders the way records in the table are physically stored. Table can have only one clustered index. The leaf nodes of a clustered index contain the data pages. In non-clustered index the logical order of the index may not match the physical stored order of the rows on disk. The leaf node of a non-clustered index does not consist of the data pages. Instead, the leaf nodes contain index rows. Table can have 249 non-clustered indices.

21. Whats a Virtual Table?

Views are called virtual tables because the result set of a view is us not usually saved in the database. The result set for a view is dynamically incorporated into the logic of the statement and the result set is built dynamically at run time. What is stored in the database is a SELECT statement. The result set of the SELECT statement forms the virtual table returned by the view. A user can use this virtual table by referencing the view name in Transact-SQL statements the same way a table is referenced. A view is used to do any or all of these functions: Restrict a user to specific rows in a table. Restrict a user to specific columns. Join columns from multiple tables so that they look like a single table. Aggregate information instead of supplying details.

22. Explain Isolation Levels in Transactions. The isolation level is the degree to which one transaction must be isolated from other transactions. The level at which a transaction is prepared to accept inconsistent data is termed the isolation level. A lower isolation level increases concurrency, but at the expense of data correctness. Conversely, a higher isolation level ensures that data is correct, but can affect concurrency negatively. The isolation level required by an application determines the locking behavior SQL Server uses. Appropriate isolation level can be set for an entire SQL Server session with the SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL statement. SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL { READ COMMITTED | READ UNCOMMITTED | REPEATABLE READ | SERIALIZABLE } DBCC USEROPTIONS command can be used to determine the Transaction Isolation Level currently set. SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED

GO DBCC USEROPTIONS GO

Isolation levels allow different types of behavior as shown below.

Isolation level Read uncommitted Read committed Repeatable read Serializable

Dirty read Yes No No No

Nonrepeatable read Yes Yes No No

Phantom Yes Yes Yes No

READ UNCOMMITTED When it's used, SQL Server does not issue shared locks while reading data. So, uncommitted transaction can be read that might get rolled back later. This isolation level is also called dirty read. This is the lowest isolation level. It ensures only that a physically corrupt data will not be read. READ COMMITTED This is the default isolation level in SQL Server. When it's used, SQL Server will use shared locks while reading data. It ensures that a physically corrupt data will not be read and will never read data that another application has changed and not yet committed, but it not ensures that the data will not be changed before the end of the transaction. REPEATABLE READ

When it's used, then dirty reads and non-repeatable reads cannot occur. It means that locks will be placed on all data that is used in a query, and another transaction cannot update the data.

SERIALIZABLE This is most restrictive isolation level. When it's used, then phantom values cannot occur. It prevents other users from updating or inserting rows into the data set until the transaction is complete. Non-repeatable read

When a transaction reads the same row more than one time, and between the two (or more) reads, a separate transaction modifies that row.

Because the row was modified between reads within the same transaction, each read produces different values, which introduces inconsistency. Phantom Reads Phantom behavior occurs when a transaction attempts to select a row that does not exist and a second transaction inserts the row before the first transaction finishes. If the row is inserted, the row appears as a phantom to the first transaction, inconsistently appearing and disappearing.

23. Write a query to retrieve nth highest salary.

SELECT * FROM EmployeeSalary A WHERE n-1 = (SELECT count(distinct salary) FROM EmployeeSalary B

WHERE B.salary > A.salary) Or SELECT TOP 1 EmployeeNumber, Salary FROM (SELECT TOP N EmployeeNumber, Salary FROM EmployeeSalary ORDER BY Salary DESC) EmpSal ORDER BY Salary ASC 24. Write a query to delete duplicate records. If there is no unique key at all and we have to delete duplicates. Create a temporary unique column then delete as shown below. CREATE TABLE Employee ( EmpID int ) GO INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 1 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 1 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 1 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 1 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 2 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 2 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 3 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 3 INSERT INTO Employee(EmpID) SELECT 3 GO ALTER TABLE Employee ADD tempRowKey int identity(1,1) DELETE A FROM Employee A WHERE tempRowKey not in (SELECT min(tempRowKey) FROM Employee B WHERE A.EmpID = B.EmpID) ALTER TABLE Employee DROP COLUMN tempRowKey SELECT * FROM Employee

25. What is stored procedures and why we need it?

A stored procedure is a precompiled collection of Transact-SQL statements stored under a name and processed as a unit. SP can accept input parameters and return multiple values in the form of output parameters to the calling procedure or batch. SP can contain programming statements that perform operations in the database, including calling other procedures. SP can return a status value to a calling procedure or batch to indicate success or failure (and the reason for failure). SPs allow modular programming SPs allow faster execution than the batches of Transact-SQL code. They are parsed and optimized when they are created, and an in-memory version of the procedure can be used after the procedure is executed the first time. SPs can reduce network traffic. SPs can be used as a security mechanism.

26. What is re-indexing?

Re-indexing is reorganizing the storage of index data to remove fragmentation. When an index is created in the database, the index information used by queries is stored in index pages. Index pages contain index rows. The sequential index pages are chained together by pointers from one page to the next. When changes are made to the data that affect the index, the information in the index can become scattered in the database. Rebuilding an index reorganizes the storage of the index data (and table data in the case of a clustered index) to remove fragmentation. This can improve disk performance by reducing the number of page reads required to obtain the requested data

27. Write a query to get two random records from a table.

SELECT TOP 2 * FROM Customers ORDER By NEWID() (Preferred method) SELECT TOP 2 * FROM Orders ORDER BY Rand(OrderID) SELECT TOP 2 * FROM Customers ORDER BY Rand(LEN(CustomerID)) 28. What is difference between delete & truncate? The TRUNCATE TABLE statement is a fast, non-logged method of deleting all rows in a table. DELETE logs each row deletion, and TRUNCATE TABLE logs only the de-allocation of whole data pages. Truncate table does not cause DELETE triggers to fire. Truncate table will not work if the table is referenced in a foreign key constraint irrespective of the dependent table containing the keys or not. Delete statement will raise error, if the table is referenced in a foreign key constraint and there are depending rows in the child table on the keys. Truncate table resets the identity value to 1, delete does not reset the identity value. 29. What are statistics?

Microsoft SQL Server allows statistical information regarding the distribution of values in a column to be created. This statistical information can be used by the query processor to determine the optimal strategy for evaluating a query. When an index is created, SQL Server automatically stores statistical information regarding the distribution of values in the indexed column(s). The query optimizer in SQL Server uses these statistics to estimate the cost of using the index for a query. All indexes have distribution statistics that describe the selectivity and distribution of the key values in the index. Selectivity is a property that relates to how many rows are typically identified by a key value. A unique key has high selectivity; a key value found in 1,000 rows has poor selectivity. The selectivity and distribution statistics are used by SQL Server to optimize its navigation through tables and indexed views when processing Transact-SQL statements.

The distribution statistics are used to estimate how efficient an index would be in retrieving data associated with a key value or range specified in the query.

30. What all joins supported by SQL server? Inner Join Left Outer Join Right Outer Join Full Outer Join Cross Join (Join with no where clause) 31. What is difference between LEFT OUTER JOIN and RIGHT OUTER JOIN? The result set of a left outer join includes all the rows from the left table specified in the LEFT OUTER clause, not just the ones in which the joined columns match. When a row in the left table has no matching rows in the right table, the associated result set row contains null values for all select list columns coming from the right table. A right outer join is the reverse of a left outer join. All rows from the right table are returned. Null values are returned for the left table any time a right table row has no matching row in the left table.

32. What is FULL OUTER JOIN?

A full outer join returns all rows in both the left and right tables. Any time a row has no match in the other table, the select list columns from the other table contain null values. When there is a match between the tables, the entire result set row contains data values from the base tables.

33. What is locking?

A lock is an object used to indicate that a user/process has some dependency on a resource. Placing a lock on a resource is called locking. Locking is used to ensure transactional integrity and database consistency. Locking prevents users from reading data being changed by other users, and prevents multiple users from changing the same data at the same time. If locking is not used, data within the database may become logically incorrect, and queries executed against that data may produce unexpected results. SQL Server locks are applied at various levels of granularity in the database. Locks can be acquired on rows, pages, keys, ranges of keys, indexes, tables, or databases. SQL Server dynamically determines the appropriate level at which to place locks for each Transact-SQL statement. The level at which locks are acquired can vary for different objects referenced by the same query.

34. What is shared lock, when it is used? Shared locks allow concurrent transactions to read a resource. No other transactions can modify the data while shared locks exist on the resource. Shared locks on a resource are released as soon as the data has been read, unless the transaction isolation level is set to repeatable read or higher, or a locking hint is used to retain the shared locks for the duration of the transaction. Used for operations that do not change or update data (read-only operations), such as a SELECT statement. 35. What are Table Hints? A table hint specifies a table scan, one or more indexes to be used by the query optimizer, or a locking method to be used by the query optimizer with this table and for this SELECT.

Following table hints can be specified in the FROM clause. INDEX (index_val [ ,...n ]) FASTFIRSTROW HOLDLOCK NOLOCK PAGLOCK READCOMMITTED READPAST READUNCOMMITTED REPEATABLEREAD ROWLOCK SERIALIZABLE TABLOCK TABLOCKX UPDLOCK XLOCK

36. Can you write SELECT statement without FROM clause? Yes, for assigning values to variables, for evaluating expressions etc. 37. What all indexes SQL server provide? Clustered Non Clustered 38. One Non-Clustered index is based on Clustered index, what will happen if I drop clustered index, will it re-create new non-clustered index or will drop it?

Dropping a clustered index causes all the non-clustered indexes to be rebuilt.

39. How do you execute dynamic SQL statements?

Dynamic SQL statements can be executed using sp_executesql or Exec Statement

Example: Using sp_executesql procedure DECLARE @qry NVARCHAR(1000) DECLARE @ParmDefinition NVARCHAR(500) SELECT @qry = N'SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = @CustomerID' SELECT @ParmDefinition = N'@CustomerID nchar(5)' EXECUTE sp_executesql @qry, @ParmDefinition, @CustomerID = 'ALFKI' DECLARE @qry NVARCHAR(1000) Using Execute statement SELECT @qry = N'SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = ' SELECT @qry = @qry + '''ALFKI''' EXECUTE (@qry) 40. What is the difference between EXEC and sp_executesql stored procedure? sp_executesql can be used instead of stored procedures to execute a TransactSQL statement a number of times when the change in parameter values to the statement is the only variation.

Because the Transact-SQL statement itself remains constant and only the parameter values change, SQL Server query optimizer is likely to reuse the execution plan it generates for the first execution.

41. What is the output of following code? IF '' = 0 PRINT 'YES' ELSE PRINT 'NO' 'YES' This due to implicit conversion of character data to integer while comparing with integer. The blank string will be converted as zero implicitly.

42. Suppose a stored procedure is having one input parameter varchar data type with 8000 as
size. User enters extreme value, beyond 8K characters, what will happen? Only 8000 character will be taken in to the parameter, all the characters after that will be ignored.

To handle this, the input parameter should be defined with text data type instead of varchar.

43. NOLOCK is used for what purpose? Nolock does not issue shared locks and do not honor exclusive locks. When this option is in effect, it is possible to read an uncommitted transaction or a set of pages that are rolled back in the middle of a read. Dirty reads are possible. Only applies to the SELECT statement. 44. How do you do error handling in stored procedure? Using @@Error the error number of last transact SQL statement executed can be found. If the statement is executed successfully the value is set to 0. If any error occurred then @@ERROR returns the number of the error message. Because @@ERROR is cleared and reset on each statement executed, check it immediately following the statement validated, or save it to a local variable that can be checked later. Example:

CREATE PROCEDURE add_author @au_id varchar(11), @au_lname varchar(40), @au_fname varchar(20), @phone char(12), @address varchar(40) = NULL, @city varchar(20) = NULL, @state char(2) = NULL, @zip char(5) = NULL, @contract bit = NULL AS -- Execute the INSERT statement. INSERT INTO authors (au_id, au_lname, au_fname, phone, address, city, state, zip, contract) values (@au_id,@au_lname,@au_fname,@phone,@address, @city,@state,@zip,@contract)

-- Test the error value. IF @@ERROR <> 0 BEGIN -- Return 99 to the calling program to indicate failure. PRINT "An error occurred loading the new author information" RETURN(99) END ELSE BEGIN -- Return 0 to the calling program to indicate success. PRINT "The new author information has been loaded" RETURN(0) END

45. Suppose you want capture number of records affected for data manipulation statement as well as you want to trap error also if any how you will do that? Both error and Rowcount should be taken in a single select or set statement as shown below. Declare @error_number int Declare @affected_rows int Update authors Set au_lname = Meduri Where au_lname = Meduru Set @error_number = @@ERROR, @ affected_rows = @@ROWCOUNT

46. What needs to be done so that nobody should able to drop a table?
DROP TABLE permissions default to the table owner, and are not transferable. However, members of the sysadmin fixed server role or the db_owner and db_dlladmin fixed database roles can drop any object by specifying the owner in the DROP TABLE statement. If even the above should not be able to delete a table, make the database as read only EXEC sp_dboption 'databse_name', 'read only', 'TRUE' Remove all the users accounts from db_ddladmin role. Even this cant stop members of sysadmin fixes server role to drop the table.

47. What is Transaction, what all properties are required for a transaction? A transaction is a sequence of operations performed as a single logical unit of work. A logical unit of work must exhibit four properties, called the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) properties, to qualify as a transaction: Atomicity: A transaction must be an atomic unit of work; either all of its data modifications are performed or none of them is performed. Consistency: When completed, a transaction must leave all data in a consistent state. In a relational database, all rules must be applied to the transaction's modifications to maintain all data integrity. All internal data structures, such as Btree indexes or doubly-linked lists, must be correct at the end of the transaction. Isolation: Modifications made by concurrent transactions must be isolated from the modifications made by any other concurrent transactions. A transaction either sees data in the state it was in before another concurrent transaction modified it, or it sees the data after the second transaction has completed, but it does not see an intermediate state. This is referred to as serializability because it results in the ability to reload the starting data and replay a series of transactions to end up with the data in the same state it was in after the original transactions were performed. Durability: After a transaction has completed, its effects are permanently in place in the system. The modifications persist even in the event of a system failure.

48. Can CHECK constraints be created on user defined data types?

No 49. How the security is implemented in SQL server? A user passes through two stages of security when working in SQL Server: authentication and authorization (permissions validation). The authentication stage identifies the user using a login account and verifies only the ability to connect to an instance of SQL Server. If authentication is successful, the user connects to an instance of SQL Server. The user then needs permissions to access databases on the server, which is done by granting access to an account in each database, mapped to the user login.

The permissions validation stage controls the activities the user is allowed to perform in the SQL Server database.

50. What are different mechanisms to implement distributed queries?

Linked Servers A linked server is a virtual server that has been defined to SQL Server with all the information needed to access an OLE DB data source. A linked server name is defined using the sp_addlinkedserver system stored procedure. The linked server definition contains all the information needed to locate the OLE DB data source. Local SQL Server logins are then mapped to logins in the linked server using sp_addlinkedsrvlogin. Remote tables can then be referenced by using the linked server name as the server name in a four-part name used as a table or view reference in a TransactSQL statement. The other three parts of the name reference an object in the linked server that is exposed as a row set. Remote tables can then be referenced by using the linked server as an input parameter to an OPENQUERY function. OPENQUERY sends the OLE DB provider a command to execute. The returned row set can then be used as a table or view reference in a Transact-SQL statement. Ad Hoc Names An ad hoc name is used for infrequent queries against OLE DB data sources that are not defined as a linked server name. In SQL Server 2000, the OPENROWSET and OPENDATASOURCE functions provide connection information for accessing data from OLE DB data sources. 51. What is OPENQUERY command and what all parameters you pass? OpenQuery Executes the specified pass-through query on the given linked server, which is an OLE DB data source OPENQUERY ( linked_server , 'query' ) Example: EXEC sp_addlinkedserver 'OracleSvr', 'Oracle 7.3', 'MSDAORA', 'ORCLDB' GO SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY(OracleSvr, 'SELECT name, id FROM joe.titles') GO 52. How many types of User Defined Function SQL server support? SQL Server 2000 supports three types of user-defined functions o Scalar functions o Inline table-valued functions o Multistatement table-valued functions 53. Explain Database Schema. A database schema is a collection of meta-data that describes the relations in a database. A schema can be simply described as the "layout" of a database or the blueprint that outlines the way data is organized into tables.

54. What are user defined data types?

User-defined data types are based on the system data types in SQL Server. User-defined data types can be used when several tables must store the same type of data in a column

55. What are temporary tables? How many types of temporary tables can be defined in SQL
server? Temporary tables are similar to permanent tables, except temporary tables are stored in tempdb and are deleted automatically when no longer in use. The two types of temporary tables, local and global Local temporary tables have a single number sign (#) as the first character of their names; they are visible only to the current connection for the user; and they are deleted when the user disconnects from instances of SQL server. Global temporary tables have two number signs (##) as the first characters of their names; they are visible to any user after they are created; and they are deleted when all users referencing the table disconnect from SQL Server. 56. Given 2 tables: Emp Job EmpId JobID EmpName JobName Try any method for getting all employees having more than one job. You can add columns/create another table/drop columns Create a table Emp_Job with the columns EmpID and JobID SELECT E.EmpID, E.EmpName FROM Emp E INNER JOIN Emp_Job EJ ON (E.EmpID = EJ.EmpID) Group By E.EmpID, E.EmpName HAVING count(EJ.JobID) > 1

57. What is pin table?

A table whose pages are not flushed from memory (data cache)

58. What is @@TRANCOUNT?

This variable returns the number of active transactions for the current connection. The BEGIN TRANSACTION statement increments @@TRANCOUNT by 1. ROLLBACK TRANSACTION decrements @@TRANCOUNT to 0, except for ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepoint_name, which does not affect @@TRANCOUNT. COMMIT TRANSACTION or COMMIT WORK decrement @@TRANCOUNT by 1.

59. What is Co-related sub query?

A sub-query that references a column in the outer statement. The inner query is executed for each candidate row in the outer statement. SELECT * FROM EmployeeSalary A WHERE 3 = (SELECT count(DISTINCT salary) FROM EmployeeSalary B WHERE B.salary > A.salary)

60. Explain Files and File groups

All data and objects in the database, such as tables, stored procedures, triggers, and views, are stored within these operating-system files. SQL server maps a database using a set of operating system files. Primary file - This file contains the startup information for the database and is used to store data. Every database has one primary data file. Secondary files - These files hold all of the data that does not fit in the primary data file. If the primary file can hold all of the data in the database, databases do not need to have secondary data files. Some databases may be large enough to need multiple secondary data files or to use secondary files on separate disk drives to spread data across multiple disks. Transaction Log file - These files hold the log information used to recover the database. There must be at least one log file for each database.

File group is a named collection of one or more files that forms a single unit of allocation or for administration of a database.

61. What is collation how do you implement?

The physical storage of character strings in SQL Server2000 is controlled by collations. A collation specifies the bit patterns that represent each character and the rules by which characters are sorted and compared. SQL Server 2000 supports objects that have different collations being stored in a single database. Separate SQL Server 2000 collations can be specified down to the level of columns. Each column in a table can be assigned different collations When you install an instance of SQL Server, you can specify the default collation for that instance during setup. The default collation for the instance also becomes the default collation of the system databases: master, model, tempdb, msdb, and Distribution. When you create a database, you can use the COLLATE clause of the CREATE DATABASE statement to specify the default collation of the database. You can also specify a collation when you create a database using SQL Server Enterprise Manager. If you do not specify a collation, the database is assigned the default collation of the model database. The default collation of the model database is the same as the default collation of the instance of SQL Server. When you create a table, you can specify collations for each character string column using the COLLATE clause of the CREATE TABLE statement. You can also specify a collation when you create a table using SQL Server Enterprise Manager. If you do not specify a collation, the column is assigned the default collation of the database. You can also use the database_default option in the COLLATE clause to specify that a column in a temporary table use the collation default of the current user database for the connection instead of tempdb. When you specify a literal string, you can use the COLLATE clause to specify the collation. If you do not specify a collation, the literal is assigned the database default collation.

62. What is Page split?

The process of moving half the rows or entries in a full data or index page to two new pages to make room for a new row or index entry is known as Page Split.

63. Can we use Order by clause in View?

No, unless there is also a TOP clause in the select list of the SELECT statement. 64. Table Movie ( MName, ActorName, RolePlayed) Write a SQL query to get all the name of movies, in which two actors have acted in the same role in the same movie.

SELECT A.MName FROM Movie A INNER JOIN Movie B ON ( A.MName = B.MName AND A.RolePlayed = B.RolePlayed AND A.ActorName != B.ActorName )

65. Write a query to correct the salaries entries in the table A from B. Cant delete the table as
it may contains the more or less rows compare to B. Table A ( EmpID, EmpName, Salary) - Contains the wrong entries of salary Table B ( EmpID, EmpName, Salary) Contains the right entries of salary Update A SET A.Salary = B.Salary

66. What

FROM TABLE_A A INNER JOIN TABLE_B B ON (A.EmpID = B.EmpID) is normalization? Normalization can be termed as process of reorganizing data so that repeating groups can be eliminated, redundant data can be eliminated or minimized. Normalization usually involves dividing a database into two or more tables and defining relationships between the tables. The objective is to isolate data so that additions, deletions, and modifications of a field can be made in just one table and then propagated through the rest of the database via the defined relationships.

67. Explain First Normal form?

A relation is in 1NF if and only if all underlying domains contain atomic values only.

Following is not in 1NF Student Student No Student Name 1 2 Xxx Yyy 10, 20 10

Student Marks

Following is in 1NF Student Student Student Name No 1 Xxx 2 Yyy

Sub1Marks 10 10

Sub2Marks 20 null

68. Explain Second Normal form? A relation is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-key attribute is fully dependent on each candidate key of the relation. Following is not in 2 NF Student Student Student Name No 1 Xxx 1 Xxx 2 YYY Following is in 2 NF Student Student Student Name No 1 Xxx 2 Yyy Subject Subject Code S1 S2 S3 Student_Marks

Subject Name S1 S2 S1 10 10 20

Marks

Subject Name S1 name S2 name S3 name

Student Code 1 1 2

Subject Code S1 S2 S1

Marks 10 10 20

69. Explain Third Normal form?

A relation R is in third normal form if it is in 2NF and every non-key attribute of R is non-transitively dependent on each candidate key of R.

Following is not in 3 NF Student Student Student Name No 1 Xxx 2 Yyy Following is in 3 NF Student Student Student Name No 1 Xxx 2 Yyy School School Code S1 S2 S3

School Name S1 name S2 name

School Code S1 S2

School Code S1 S2

School Name S1 name S2 name S3 name

70. What is de-normalization and when would you go for it? De-normalization is the reverse process of normalization.

It's the controlled introduction of redundancy in to the database design. It helps improve the query performance as the number of joins could be reduced.

71. How do you implement one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships while designing tables? One-to-One relationship can be implemented as a single table and rarely as two tables with primary and foreign key relationships. One-to-Many relationships are implemented by splitting the data into two tables with primary key and foreign key relationships. Many-to-Many relationships are implemented using a junction table with the keys from both the tables forming the composite primary key of the junction table. 72. Define candidate key, alternate key, and composite key. A candidate key is one that can identify each row of a table uniquely. Generally a candidate key becomes the primary key of the table. If the table has more than one candidate key, one of them will become the primary key, and the rest are called alternate keys. A key formed by combining at least two or more columns is called composite key. 73. What is maximum size of row in a table? 8060 bytes

74. What type of data can be stored in bit data type? Bit data type is used to store Boolean information like 1 or 0 (true or false). Until SQL Server 6.5 bit data type could hold either a 1 or 0 and there was no support for NULL. But from SQL Server 7.0 onwards, bit data type can represent a third state, which is NULL 75. What are defaults? Is there a column to which a default can't be bound? Defaults specify what values are used in a column if you do not specify a value for the column when inserting a row.

A data value, option setting, collation, or name assigned automatically by the system if a user does not specify the value, setting, collation, or name. An action taken automatically at certain events if a user has not specified the action to take is called default. One way to apply default is to create a default definition using the DEFAULT keyword in CREATE TABLE to assign a constant expression as a default on a column. This is the preferred, standard method. It is also the more concise way to specify a default. Other way is to create a default object using the CREATE DEFAULT statement and bind it to columns using the sp_bindefault system stored procedure. DEFAULT definitions can be applied to any columns except those defined as timestamp, or those with the IDENTITY property.

76. What is lock escalation? Lock escalation is the process of converting a lot of low level locks (like row locks, page locks) into higher level locks (like table locks). Lock escalation is the process of converting many fine-grain locks into fewer coarse-grain locks, reducing system overhead.

For example, when a transaction requests rows from a table, SQL Server automatically acquires locks on those rows affected and places higher-level intent locks on the pages and table, or index, which contain those rows. When the number of locks held by the transaction exceeds its threshold, SQL Server attempts to change the intent lock on the table to a stronger lock (for example, intent exclusive (IX) would change to an exclusive (X) lock). After acquiring the stronger lock, all page and row level locks held by the transaction on the table are released, reducing lock overhead. SQL Server may choose to do both row and page locking for the same query, for example, placing page locks on the index (if enough contiguous keys in a nonclustered index node are selected to satisfy the query) and row locks on the data. This reduces the likelihood that lock escalation will be necessary. Lock escalation thresholds are determined dynamically by SQL Server and do not require configuration.

77. What is an extended stored procedure? Extended stored procedures are dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that SQL Server can dynamically load and execute. Extended stored procedures allow you to create your own external routines in a programming language such as C. The extended stored procedures appear to users as normal stored procedures and are executed in the same way. Parameters can be passed to extended stored procedures, and they can return results and return status. Extended stored procedures run directly in the address space of SQL Server and are programmed using the SQL Server Open Data Services API. After an extended stored procedure has been written, members of the sysadmin fixed server role can register the extended stored procedure with SQL Server and then grant permission to other users to execute the procedure. Extended stored procedures can be added only to the master database. Example to add extended stored procedure

USE master EXEC sp_addextendedproc xp_hello, 'xp_hello.dll' 78. Can you instantiate a COM object by using T-SQL?

Yes, COM object can be instantiated from T-SQL by using sp_OACreate stored procedure.

79. What is COALESCE function

Returns the first non-null expression among its arguments. If all arguments are NULL, COALESCE returns NULL. COALESCE(expression1,...n) is equivalent to this CASE function: CASE WHEN (expression1 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression1 ... WHEN (expressionN IS NOT NULL) THEN expressionN ELSE NULL

80. What are Inserted and Deleted tables?

Two special tables are used in trigger statements. SQL Server automatically creates and manages these tables. The deleted table stores copies of the affected rows during DELETE and UPDATE statements. During an insert or update transaction, new rows are added to the inserted table.

81. How to find the SQL server version?

SELECT @@VERSION SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion')