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    SQL Server Advanced Data Types: JSON, XML, and Beyond
    SQL Server Advanced Data Types: JSON, XML, and Beyond
    SQL Server Advanced Data Types: JSON, XML, and Beyond
    Ebook468 pages2 hours

    SQL Server Advanced Data Types: JSON, XML, and Beyond

    By Peter A. Carter

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    About this ebook

    Deliver advanced functionality faster and cheaper by exploiting SQL Server's ever-growing amount of built-in support for modern data formats. Learn about the growing support within SQL Server for operations and data transformations that have previously required third-party software and all the associated licensing and development costs. Benefit through a better understanding of what can be done inside the database engine with no additional costs or development time invested in outside software.
    Widely used types such as JSON and XML are well-supported by the database engine. The same is true of hierarchical data and even temporal data. Knowledge of these advanced types is crucial to unleashing the full power that's available from your organization's SQL Server database investment. 

    SQL Server Advanced Data Types explores each of the complex data types supplied within SQL Server. Common usage scenarios for each complex data type are discussed, followed by a detailed discussion on how to work with each data type. Each chapter demystifies the complex data and you learn how to use the data types most efficiently.
    The book offers a practical guide to working with complex data, using real-world examples to demonstrate how each data type can be leveraged. Performance considerations are also discussed, including the implementation of special indexes such as XML indexes and spatial indexes.

    What You'll Learn
    • Understand the implementation of basic data types and why using the correct type is so important
    • Work with XML data through the XML data type
    • Construct XML data from relational result sets
    • Store and manipulate JSON data using the JSON data type
    • Model and analyze spatial data for geographic information systems
    • Define hierarchies and query them efficiently through the HierarchyID type
    Who This Book Is For

    SQL Server developers and application developers who need to store and access complex data structures
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherApress
    Release dateAug 23, 2018
    ISBN9781484239018
    SQL Server Advanced Data Types: JSON, XML, and Beyond

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      Book preview

      SQL Server Advanced Data Types - Peter A. Carter

      © Peter A. Carter  2018

      Peter A. CarterSQL Server Advanced Data Typeshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3901-8_1

      1. SQL Server Data Types

      Peter A. Carter¹ 

      (1)

      London, UK

      SQL Server 2017 provides a wide range of basic data types that can store data, such as character strings, numeric data, binary data, and dates. In this chapter, I will review each of the basic data types available in SQL Server, looking at the differences between similar data types. I will also discuss the importance of using the correct data type for each use case.

      Tip

      The following sections discuss the acceptable ranges for each data type. It is worth noting, however, that all data types can also be set to NULL, indicating that the value is unknown.

      Numeric Data Types

      Some numeric data types in SQL Server are exact, while others are approximate. If a data type is exact, it stores a number to a fixed precision. If a data type is approximate, in many cases, it will store a very close approximation of a number, instead of the number itself.

      The numeric data types supported by SQL Server are listed in Table 1-1.

      Table 1-1

      Numeric Data Types

      Tip

      The caret (^) operator means to the power. For example, 2^15-1 means 2 to the power of 15 minus 1, which equates to 32,767.

      To see how a number behaves, using each of the numeric formats, we will use the number 2.5888712345678923456789 and convert it to each of the numeric data types, to examine its behavior. In SQL Server, there are two functions that we can use to change the data type of a value: CAST and CONVERT.

      The CAST function uses the syntax in Listing 1-1.

      CAST( expression AS datatype[(length)] )

      Listing 1-1

      CAST Syntax

      The expression can be either a value that you wish to convert, a column in a table, or any other valid expression. The datatype should be the target data type for the expression. length is optional and based on the target data type. For example, if you were using CAST to change the data type of an INT to a DECIMAL, length would consist of the required precision and scale. If you were casting a value to a string, the length would be the maximum length of the string.

      The CONVERT function uses the syntax in Listing 1-2.

      CONVERT( datatype[(length)], expression [, style] )

      Listing 1-2

      CONVERT Syntax

      The style option of the CONVERT function allows the developer to supply additional information about how to translate the expression. The style options that are available for numeric data types can be found in Table 1-2.

      Table 1-2

      Numeric Data Type Style Options

      The script in Listing 1-3 shows how to use the CAST function to translate the number 2.5888712345678923456789 to each numeric data type.

      Note

      BIT is excluded, as the conversion does not make sense. If it were included, however, it would CAST to 1.

      SELECT

                CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS TINYINT) AS 'TINYINT'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS SMALLINT) AS 'SMALLINT'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS INT) AS 'INT'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS BIGINT) AS 'BIGINT'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS DECIMAL(23,22)) AS 'DECIMAL'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS DECIMAL(18,17)) AS 'DECIMAL ROUNDED'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS NUMERIC(23,22)) AS 'NUMERIC'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS FLOAT(24)) AS 'SINGLE FLOAT'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS FLOAT(53)) AS 'DOUBLE FLOAT'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS REAL) AS 'REAL'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS SMALLMONEY) AS 'SMALLMONEY'

              , CAST(2.5888712345678923456789 AS MONEY) AS 'MONEY'

      Listing 1-3

      Casting a Number to Each Data Type

      The results of the query in Listing 1-3 can be found in Figure 1-1.

      ../images/447873_1_En_1_Chapter/447873_1_En_1_Fig1_HTML.png

      Figure 1-1

      Results of casting to numeric data types

      Character Strings

      SQL Server can store both Unicode and non-Unicode strings. Strings can also be stored either as a fixed length or a variable length. The character data types supported by SQL Server are listed in Table 1-3.

      Table 1-3

      Character Data Types

      The script in Listing 1-4 uses the DATALENGTH system function to demonstrate the difference in storage size for a 15-character string, cast as each character data type.

      SELECT

            DATALENGTH(CAST('My String Value' AS NCHAR(20))) AS 'NCHAR'

          , DATALENGTH(CAST('My String Value' AS NVARCHAR(20))) AS 'NVARCHAR'

          , DATALENGTH(CAST('My String Value' AS CHAR(20))) AS 'CHAR'

          , DATALENGTH(CAST('My String Value' AS VARCHAR(20))) AS 'VARCHAR'

      Listing 1-4

      Examining the Storage Size of Strings

      The results of Listing 1-4 can be found in Figure 1-2.

      ../images/447873_1_En_1_Chapter/447873_1_En_1_Fig2_HTML.jpg

      Figure 1-2

      Results of comparing string storage sizes

      Binary Data Types

      SQL Server can store binary data, such as a word document or a photo, using native binary data types. Binary data types are also used to store data that has been encrypted using a key or certificate. The binary data types available in SQL Server are detailed in Table 1-4.

      Table 1-4

      Binary Data Types

      Tip

      For detailed information about encrypting data, please refer to Securing SQL Server (Apress, 2016), which can be found at www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484222645 .

      The style options available for BINARY data when using the CONVERT function are detailed in Table 1-5.

      Table 1-5

      Style Options for BINARY Data

      The script in Listing 1-5 demonstrates how to read a password that has been encrypted and stored in a VARBINARY column and convert it back to a character string. The script first creates the required objects and encrypts the password.

      --Create a certificate that will encrypt the symmetric key

      CREATE CERTIFICATE PasswordCert

               ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'MySecurePa$$word'

               WITH SUBJECT = 'Cert for securing passwords table' ;

      --Create a symmetric key that will encrypt the password

      CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY PasswordKey

              WITH ALGORITHM = AES_128

              ENCRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE PasswordCert ;

      --Create a table to store the password

      CREATE TABLE dbo.Passwords

      (

              Password    VARBINARY(256)

      ) ;

      --Open the symmetric key, so that it can be used

      OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY PasswordKey

              DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE PasswordCert

              WITH PASSWORD = 'MySecurePa$$word' ;

      --Encrypt a password and insert it into the table

      INSERT INTO dbo.Passwords

      SELECT ENCRYPTBYKEY(KEY_GUID('PasswordKey'), 'Pa$$w0rd') ;

      --Decrypt and read the password

      --The first column in the result set shows the password as the decrypted value but still binary format

      --The second column in the result set shows the password decrypted and converted back to a character string

      SELECT

                DECRYPTBYKEY(Password) AS 'Decrypted Password In Binary'

              , CAST(DECRYPTBYKEY(Password) AS CHAR(8)) AS 'Decrypted Password As Character String'

      FROM dbo.Passwords

      --Close the symmetric key

      CLOSE SYMMETRIC KEY PasswordKey ;

      Listing 1-5

      Decrypting an Encrypted Password and Converting It Back to a Character String

      The results of the select statement against the table created in Listing 1-5 can be found in Figure 1-3.

      ../images/447873_1_En_1_Chapter/447873_1_En_1_Fig3_HTML.jpg

      Figure 1-3

      Results of converting binary data to a character string

      Dates and Times

      SQL Server can store accurate date and time information, including UTC offsets. The details of each supported date and time data type can be found in Table 1-6.

      Table 1-6

      Date and Time Data Types

      Table 1-7 details allowable style options

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