An easy-to-use application programming interface (API) that wraps OLE DB for use in languages, such as Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, Active Server Pages, and Microsoft Internet Explorer Visual Basic Scripting.
aggregate functions
Functions that provide summary data over sets returning a singular value.
alert
A user-defined response to a SQL Server event. Alerts can either execute a defined task or send an email and/or pager message to a specified operator.
ALTER
A command used to change a database object, such as a function or procedure. Using ALTER allows the object to be changed without losing permissions and other database settings.
ALTER TRIGGER
The ALTER TRIGGER statement is used to change the definition of a trigger. Its syntax and arguments are similar to CREATE TRIGGER.
ALTER VIEW
The ALTER VIEW statement is used to easily reshape the definition of a view without affecting permissions granted. Its syntax is similar to the CREATE VIEW statement's syntax.
analysis server
The server component of Analysis Services that is specifically designed to create and maintain multidimensional data structures and provide multidimensional data in response to client queries.
articles
Data structures made from selected columns from a table, or an entire table, that need to be bundled into a publication to be used for replication. A publication is composed of one or more articles. An article represents some or all columns, and some or all rows in a single table.
attributes
The characteristics given to an entity, such as PhoneNumber and State; they are usually represented as rows inside an entity. An attribute in data modeling can be thought of as the columns of a table implemented in SQL Server.
