Best preparation for Microsoft Certification Exam 70-461, job interview & successful database developer career. Exam 70-461: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012. The book covers all the official published Microsoft exam topics. Very good chance of passing the certification exam after studying the book thoroughly. Study & practice at your own pace through a series of illustrated lessons with practical database diagrams & T-SQL scripts. Contents at a Glance CHAPTER 1: SQL Server Sample & System Databases CHAPTER 2: Installing SQL Server 2012 CHAPTER 3: Structure of the SELECT Statement CHAPTER 4: SQL Server Management Studio CHAPTER 5: Basic Concepts of Client-Server Computing CHAPTER 6: Fundamentals of Relational Database Design CHAPTER 7: Normal Forms & Database Normalization CHAPTER 8: Functional Database Design CHAPTER 9: Advanced Database Design Concepts CHAPTER 10: The Art of Database Design CHAPTER 11: New Programming Features in SS 2012 CHAPTER 12: JOINing Tables with INNER & OUTER JOINs CHAPTER 13: Basic SELECT Statement Syntax & Examples CHAPTER 14: Subqueries in SELECT Statements CHAPTER 15: SELECT INTO Table Creation & Population CHAPTER 16: Modify Data - INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE & MERGE CHAPTER 17: The Magic of Transact-SQL Programming CHAPTER 18: Exporting & Importing Data CHAPTER 19: Maintaining Data Integrity in the Enterprise CHAPTER 20: Query & Stored Procedure Optimization CHAPTER 21: Advanced T-SQL Programming Topics SPECIAL: How to Prepare for the Exam & Job Interview. Relational database design and SQL (Structured Query Language) programming teach-by-practical-diagrams-&-examples book for developers, programmers, systems analysts and project managers who are new to relational database and client/server technologies. Also for database developers, database designers and database administrators (DBA), who know some SQL programming and database design, and who wish to refresh & expand their RDBMS design & development technology horizons. The book has special orientation for passing Exam 70-461(Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012), job interview and performing well on the job. Familiarity with at least one computer programming language, Windows file system & Excel is assumed. Since the book is career advancement oriented, it has a great number of 3NF database design examples with metadata explanations along with practical SQL queries (over 1,600 SELECT queries) and T-SQL scripts, plenty to learn indeed. Great emphasis is placed on explaining the FOREIGN KEY - PRIMARY KEY constraints among tables, the connections which make the collection of individual tables a database. The database diagrams and queries are based on historic and current SQL Server sample databases: pubs (PRIMARY KEYs 9, FOREIGN KEYs 10), Northwind (PRIMARY KEYs 13, FOREIGN KEYs 13) and the latest AdventureWorks series. Among them: AdventureWorks, AdventureWorks2008, AdventureWorks2012 (PRIMARY KEYs 71, FOREIGN KEYs 90), & AdventureWorksDW2012 (PRIMARY KEYs 27, FOREIGN KEYs 44). The last one is a data warehouse database which is the basis for multi-dimensional OLAP cubes. Sample databases installation instructions are included. The book teaches through vivid database diagrams and T-SQL queries how to think in terms of sets at a very high level, focusing on set-based operations instead of loops like in procedural programming languages. There is a chapter dedicated to the new programming features of SQL Server 2012 and XML. The best way to master T-SQL programming is to type the query in your own SQL Server Management Studio Query Editor, test it, examine it, change it and study it. Wouldn't it be easier just to copy & paste it? It would, but the learning value would diminish rapidly. You need to feel relational database design and the SQL language in your DNA. SQL queries must "pour" out from your fingers into the keyboard.