In SQL Server, you can use the WAITFOR statement to delay the execution of a batch, stored procedure, or transaction.
It works similar to MySQL‘s sleep() function.
Actually, it’s probably more like a combination of Postgres‘s three “sleep” functions: pg_sleep(), pg_sleep_for(), and pg_sleep_until().
I say this, because SQL Server’s WAITFOR statement gives you the option of specifying either a time delay, or an actual fixed time before execution continues.
In SQL Server, you can use GOTO to alter the flow of execution. You can use it to “jump” to another part in the T-SQL code.
The way it works is, you create a label, then you can use GOTO to jump to that label. Any code between GOTO and the label are skipped, and processing continues at the label.
GOTO statements and labels can be used anywhere within a procedure, batch, or statement block. They can also be nested.
In SQL Server the sys.sql_modules, sys.system_sql_modules, and sys.all_sql_modules system catalog views return metadata about SQL language-defined modules in SQL Server.
However, there is a difference between them.
When you create a temporary table in SQL Server, you have the option of making it a local or global temporary table.
Here’s a quick outline of the main differences between local temporary tables and global temporary tables.
In SQL Server, you can use any of the following five ways to return a list of temporary tables using Transact-SQL.
These return both local and global temporary tables.
In SQL Server you can create a temporary table based on another table by using the SELECT... INTO syntax.
You can create the table with or without data. In other words, you can copy data from the original table if you wish, or you can create the table without any data.
If you’re looking for a catalog view to return parameter information in SQL Server, you have a choice. In particular, you can get parameter information from sys.parameters, sys.system_parameters, and sys.all_parameters.
However, you will probably only want to use one of these views, as there are differences between them.
Here’s some T-SQL code you can use to get a list of all CHECK and foreign key constraints in a SQL Server database.
The RAND() function in SQL Server returns a pseudo-random float value from 0 through 1, exclusive.
This function can be deterministic or nondeterministic, depending on how it’s invoked.
In SQL Server, you can encrypt a view at the time you first create it, or you can alter it later to include encryption.
To create a view with T-SQL, you use the CREATE VIEW syntax. To encrypt it, you add the WITH ENCRYPTION argument.
You can also use the same argument to encrypt an existing view when using ALTER VIEW.