T-SQL vs SQL differences

  • Thanks. I will take a look at his books on Amazon. I have heard his name being mentioned before positively, so that must be a good sign.

  • The SQL 2012 Microsoft Training material does actually take time to state what is ANSI compliant and what is Microsoft specific.

  • T-SQL and SQL certainly are different. I, therefore, would never assume someone knew TSQL just because they wrote SQL on a resume.

    TSQL to me would mean the person understood the full language around the SQL statements, including meanings related specifically to MS, such as @ for variables, @@ for global variables, CONTEXT_INFO(), #, ##, etc..

    Just SQL could be from any RDBMS.

    SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear." "Norm", on "Cheers". Also from "Cheers", from "Carla": "You need to know 3 things about Tortelli men: Tortelli men draw women like flies; Tortelli men treat women like flies; Tortelli men's brains are in their flies".

  • Grant Fritchey (2/11/2013)


    If you are trying to learn T-SQL, you can't go very far wrong picking up Itzik Ben-Gan's book. He has a fundamentals book and the Inside book.

    I don't know of any free resource that's going to do a good, thorough, and accurate job of teaching t-sql. You'll either have to bounce around a lot or find a for pay resource. Sorry. But it's true.

    +1

  • This is an old post!

    Just FYI, I found the video series on T-SQL here excellent:

  • Love that trick. Nice!

    T-SQL and SQL certainly are different. I, therefore, would never assume someone knew TSQL just because they wrote SQL on a resume.

    TSQL to me would mean the person understood the full language around the SQL statements, including meanings related specifically to MS, such as @ for variables, @@ for global variables, CONTEXT_INFO(), #, ##, etc..

    Just SQL could be from any RDBMS.

    SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP('07, '08, '09)

    A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. ~ Einstein
    select cast (0x5365616E204465596F756E67 as varchar(128))

  • SQL and T-SQL may not technically be exactly the same thing, but they are often used interchangeably and people reading a resume may not be clear on the distinctions. If you CV also details your experience on various platforms (3 years developing Access, 5 years developing for MSSQL 2008 R2, 2 years report writing for Oracle 11i, 1 year building SSIS jobs pulling data from MySQL 5 into MSSQL 2012) that will provide a better picture of your skills.

    As for training materials, there is a tendency to get too complex too fast. The first code I learned was on the Commodore 64, where the first code learned was

    5 PRINT "HELLO!"

    Next I learned how to prompt the user for input, put the input into a, IF/GOTO statement depending on what the input was, then create variables and arrays. One could learn a new command every day and use it in what they were doing. After a few days one could create some fun stuff to impress their friends, and even employers (back in the 80s before PCs where everywhere).

    20 years later I attempted to learn C# and soon after creating the "Hello World!" executable it got very complex quickly and the exercises contained lots of code that wasn't yet explained in the text, and creating anything useful that wasn't spelled out in front of me was still a daunting task.

    I found SQL to have a less steep learning curve, like old-style BASIC. The query

    SELECT FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, EMAIL, PHONE FROM PERSON WHERE LASTNAME = 'Smith' is easy to grasp for anyone fluent in English. Read a chapter on joins and you can add the companies they work for or purchases they made. Get these basics down and then you can tackle INSERT, CROSS APPLY, window queries and administrative commands.

    Still some of the training books dump too much advanced information too soon. Maybe some assume 1-2 years experience already, but everyone has to start somewhere.

  • For a twist on the topic.

    I have seen people put 'SQL' and 'T-SQL' on their resumes.

    What they were trying to say was 'SQL Server' and 'T-SQL'.

    More and more I am seeing and hearing SQL Server called SQL. Not just newbies or uninformed are doing this. I have heard long time DBA's and DBD's refer to SQL Server as SQL.

    Actually had a 'discussion' with a manager about this a few months back.

    She (non technical director or IT staff) was convinced that SQL Server was SQL!!

    No explaination or evidence could convince her that her belief that MS created SQL and SQL = SQL Server was woefully incorrect.

    I now correct anyone who uses SQL in place of SQL Server.

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