Chapter 14: Transact-SQL in Applications and Reporting

Overview

I've always been a firm believer in the principle that any learning experience should lead to a tangible and usable end product. I remember taking a Visual Basic 3.0 programming class at a local college. It was a daytime class so most of the students were typical first-year college kids, just trying to pass the class and get their credits. I, on the other hand, was working in the industry as a database programmer with Hewlett Packard and was in need of a particular skill. Students would raise their hands and ask questions like, "Will this be on the test?" When I asked questions about user-input validation and concurrent database access, others would grimace because these topics weren't covered in the textbook.

This chapter is all about turning theory into reality. I'd like to share some experience (and the experience of others) with you about building applications and database solutions on the concepts you've learned in previous chapters. Throughout this book, I've mentioned that Transact-SQL isn't really a programming language, although in many ways it acts like one. Structured Query Language is best suited for returning and manipulating data and database objects. When it comes to processing complex business logic and interacting with users, the SQL language usually doesn't do the job — that's not what it's for. Fortunately, SQL Server integrates extremely well with many programming languages and application development environments. It's probably more accurate to say that a number of application development environments work well with SQL Server and other database products that use the SQL query language.