Jeff Moden (8/7/2013)
Sean Lange (8/7/2013)
You might also click on the Stairways over on the left side. There are a number of series that start out basic and get more advanced as they go.Also, make sure you check out the question of the day (QotD) on the left side. It is a great learning tool about a variety of topics. Make sure you follow the discussions. Often times the discussion is more informative than the question itself.
Be advised that at least one author over on the "stairway" has an extremely annular fixation on the use of ANSI-only code. Of course, that's great for the basics but it won't cover things like how to use the proprietary UPDATE of SQL Server, which can be a whole lot faster than an ANSI standard update when trying to update many columns. The UPDATE statement in SQL Server doesn't actually meet ANSI standards since you can't list multiple columns around a single "=".
This is specifically why I mentioned to read the discussions. 😉
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Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/