Too much help equal little help

Question

For newbie like me, there are bewildering choices of help and stepping through each one to find form or structure has been the hardest thing for me. It is like easier learning SQLserver itself than learning how to setup HELP !!!  What is wrong with this picture :)

Will someone kindly guide me:

1. How to find technical reference for Transact SQL used by SQLSRVR.  The pointer under 2008 books online is not what it promised to.  It is a tedious long list, you have to eye-ball everything as you roll down the list. I would think there must exists a more structured document. I expect a manual, not a 1000 item dropdown list.

2. How to get access to CodeZone and other communities ?  I think I am in MSDN because I am here, and got here through Windows Alive Account Registration. What about those other communities ? Do they get search automatically when I am here (in MSDN) ?

3. What is F1 Help ?

4. What and why "Sync with Table of Content" ?

Thank you in advance!

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RSL

Answer 1

Hi,

Let me try to answer most of your questions.

1. Books Online is the ultimate source of help for SQL Server. If you are looking for some other resources, I recommend to buy some books from Amazon like Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL Fundamentals.
2. For other communities, you can register yourself if the registration is open. We may reference some articles, posts at here.
3. It is BOL. Books Online
4. It is  very useful function when you are using index search. You may be interested teh complete topic and his function helps you to navigate to it in TOC.

I hope it helps.

J.

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There are 10 type of people. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
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Answer 2

Thanks for your reply, J.  I have BOOKSONLINE installed. Here's my problem. Please see where im going wrong.

sqlserver 2008 BOOKS ONLINE > Database Engine > Tech Reference > Transact SQL reference:

_  if i click on Transact SQL ref, i get a single page blurb, just a face sheet, saying something

    about functions...etc

_ if i click on the + sign , it explores into a long index list

I am expecting a manual of sorts. Not finding any. Am I in wrong place ?

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RSL

Answer 3

Hi, If you are really a beginner, I'd recommend to start at the SQL Server --> Database Engine --> select the start page by your role. If you want a guided learning, I'd recommend to buy a book. If you can share your primary role working with SQL Server, I can recommnd some good books. I hope it helps. Janos

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There are 10 type of people. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
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Answer 4

The part you are looking at is the reference manual for Transact-SQL. Once you are focused on the Transact-SQL Reference topic in the table of contents pane, when you expand the + sign you are presented with the list of the individual topics for each Transact-SQL language element. Yes, it is a long list in the SQL Server 2008 BOL.

The SQL Server 2008 Books Online was the last one where we produced a long, alphabetic list of the individual reference topics. In the SQL Server 2008 R2 BOL and SQL Server 2012 BOL we grouped the individual statements into about 20 categories. While it is a shorter list when you open the Transact-SQL Reference node, many customers complain that it just forces them to click more things to navigate to the reference topic they are interested in when using the table of contents.

Many people use the search tab to get to the statement they are interested in.

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Alan Brewer [MSFT] SQL Server Documentation Team This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Answer 5

I use Book On Line (BOL) mostly the following ways:

1. In the index window I enter a keyword such as "GROUP BY"

2. In the search box I  enter a keyword such as "PARTITION BY"

I use 1 more frequently than 2.

When I am looking for internet articles on a topic, I google/bing "SQL Server" {keyword}.

Example: "SQL Server UDF CHECK constraint"

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Kalman Toth SQL SERVER 2012 & BI TRAINING
New Book: Beginner Database Design & SQL Programming Using Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Answer 6

I'll try to share something about your queries #1 and #3. The F1 key is used across Microsoft products to display context sensitive help information. For example, while writing queries in SQL Server Management Studio, if you need syntax help on a JOIN, you can highlight the JOIN keyword and press F1. That will open new Help display window with details of the keyword.

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