Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
- Italic
-
Used for emphasis, for the first use of a technical term, for example URLs, and for file and directory names.
- Constant width
-
Used for SQL examples, file contents, and examples of output.
- Hungarian_Constant_Width
-
Used for table and column names, whether in SQL or referring to SQL from within the body of a paragraph. Also used for alias names and node names, which are elements in a SQL diagram that theoretically refer to table aliases, even when a diagram sometimes shows an abstract tuning problem without referring to a specific SQL statement that corresponds to that problem. Since aliases are usually made an acronym based on a table name, such as CT for the column Code_Translations, aliases are usually pure uppercase.
- (C, O, OT, OD, ODT, P, S, A)
-
A constant-width list of aliases, node names, or columns, bounded in parentheses. I borrow this n-tuple notation from mathematics to indicate an ordered list of items. In the example case, the notation describes a join order between nodes in a join diagram, representing table aliases. In another example, (Code_Type, Code) would represent a pair of indexed columns in a two-column index, with Code_Type as the first column. Alternately, Code_Translations(Code_Type, Code) represents the same index, while specifying that it is on the table Code_Translations.
- <Constant_Width_Italic>
-
Constant-width italic text inside angle brackets describes missing portions of a SQL statement template, which you must fill in, that represents a whole class of statements. For example, SomeAlias.Leading_Indexed_Column=<Expression> represents any equality condition matching the leading column of an index with any other expression.
- UPPERCASE
-
In SQL, uppercase indicates keywords, function names, and tables or views pre-defined by the database vendor (such as Oracle's PLAN_TABLE).
Pay special attention to notes set apart from the text with the following icons:
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