What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to SQL Server 2016, very covers briefly the most important features and enhancements, not only those for developers. We want to show the whole picture and point where things are moving on.
Chapter 2, Review of SQL Server Features for Developers, is a brief recapitulation of the features available for developers in previous versions of SQL Server and serves as a foundation for an explanation of the many new features in SQL Server 2016. Some best practices are covered as well.
Chapter 3, SQL Server Tools, helps you understand the changes in the release management of SQL Server tools and explores small and handy enhancements in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). It also introduces RStudio IDE, a very popular tool for developing R code, and briefly covers SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), including the new R Tools for Visual Studio (RTVS), a plugin for Visual Studio, which enables you to develop R code in an IDE that is common and well-known among developers that use Microsoft products and languages.
Chapter 4, Transact-SQL Enhancements, explores small Transact-SQL enhancements: new functions and syntax extensions, ALTER TABLE improvements for online operations, and new query hints for query tuning.
Chapter 5, JSON Support in SQL Server, explores the JSON support built into SQL Server. This support should make it easier for applications to exchange JSON data with SQL Server.
Chapter 6, Stretch Database, helps you understand how to migrate historical or less accessed data transparently and securely to Microsoft Azure by using the Stretch Database (Stretch DB) feature.
Chapter 7, Temporal Tables, introduces support for system-versioned temporal tables based on the SQL:2011 standard. We’ll explain how this implemented in SQL Server is and demonstrates some use cases for it (for example, a time-travel application).
Chapter 8, Tightening the Security, introduces three new security features. With Always Encrypted, SQL Server finally enables full data encryption. Row-level security on the other side restricts which data in a table can be seen by specific user. Dynamic data masking is a soft feature that limits sensitive data exposure by masking it to non-privileged users.
Chapter 9, Query Store, guides you through Query Store, and helps you to troubleshoot and fix performance problems that are related to execution plan changes.
Chapter 10, Columnstore Indexes, revises the columnar storage and then explores the huge improvements for columnstore indexes in SQL Server 2016: updateable nonclustered columnstore indexes, columnstore indexes on in-memory tables, and many other new features for operational analytics.
Chapter 11, Introducing SQL Server In-Memory OLTP, describes a feature introduced in SQL Server 2014 that is still underused: the In-Memory database engine, which provides significant performance gains for OLTP workloads.
Chapter 12, In-Memory OLTP Improvements in SQL Server 2016, describes all of the improvements of the In-Memory OLTP technology in SQL Server 2016, which extend the number of potential use cases and allow implementation with less development effort and risk.
Chapter 13, Supporting R in SQL Server, introduces R Services and the R language. It explains how SQL Server R Services combine the power and flexibility of the open source R language with enterprise-level tools for data storage and management, workflow development, and reporting and visualization.
Chapter 14, Data Exploration and Predictive Modeling with R in SQL Server, shows how you can use R for advanced data exploration and manipulation, and for statistical analysis and predictive modeling that is way beyond what is possible when using T-SQL language.
