Hello not a rant,

Are there MS SQL Server admins here who self taught and learn thru self study?

I work in a company where they use MS SQL Server as the database. I would love to 'understand' how to write efficient queries, and how things really work, not just selecting and joining table blindly and not understanding how things work.

Would you recommend how you understand MS SQL Server, or what learning path you took?

Thank you. I would appreciate any suggestions and comments.

For identifying issues with queries you can use the execution plan.

A good read can be found here

https://red-gate.com/simple-talk/...

As for how to form your queries, find the shortest path for joining tables and plan your table structure in advance so you can have decent sets vs giant tables that should have been broken up, and only select fields you need rather then entire tables.

You should split this in two areas:
- MS SQL Server administration
- T-SQL

For the first part, start with a local SQL Server Express installation and get familiar with the docs. Start playing around with creating databases, learn the differences between the backup types, how database space gets expanded, and so on (look at the configuration settings when you create and edit a database with SQL Studio).

Writing good queries is the T-SQL part. I would grab a copy of "T-SQL Fundamentals": https://amazon.com/T-SQL-Fundamenta...
It's worth the money.

First learn how to return correct data.
Then how to return correct data quickly.
Let the engine do the work.
Use the Actual Execution Plan, and Live Query (not in production) to understand how the engine reacts to the script.

Ok, not being a rant makes this an anti-rant? 'question' tag seems just plain

Ps: Not trying to be a jerk, just funny, sorry for writing gibberish when everyone else post serious comments

SQL performance explained by Marcus Winand

Very simple..get your certification! See https://microsoft.com/en-us/...

@gipsydanger interesting but lil bit old

@JhonDoe the problem I got is devRant app persist the content of previous post. And once you posted, you can’t change the type anymore 🥺

@sunfishcc oooh, strange

@JhonDoe a known iOS issue