Every application developer who uses SQL Server 2008 should own this book. To start, this book presents the essential SQL statements for retrieving and updating the data in a database, because that's what every application developer needs to know. Then, it shows you how to design and create a database, because application developers often end up in the role of database designer and DBA. Next, it shows how to work with views, scripts, stored procedures, functions, triggers, cursors, transactions, locking, security, XML data, and BLOB data with FILESTREAM storage. These features allow you to create database applications that are thoroughly professional. Finally, this book shows how to use the CLR integration feature, so you can use C# or Visual Basic to code stored procedures, functions, triggers, aggregate functions, and user-defined types.