Microsoft SQL Server implements extensive support for location-based data. Pro Spatial with SQL Server 2012 introduces SQL Server’s spatial feature set, and covers everything you'll need to know to store, manipulate, and analyze information about the physical location of objects in space. You’ll learn about the geography and geometry datatypes, and how to apply them in practical situations involving the spatial relationships of people, places, and things on Earth.

Author Alastair Aitchison first introduces you to SQL Server’s spatial feature set and the fundamental concepts involved in working with spatial data, including spatial references and co-ordinate systems. You’ll learn to query, analyze, and interpret spatial data using tools such as Bing Maps and SQL Server Reporting Services. Throughout, you'll find helpful code examples that you can adopt and extend as a basis for your own projects.

• Explains spatial concepts from the ground up—no prior knowledge is necessary
• Provides comprehensive guidance for every stage of working with spatial data, from importing through cleansing and storing, to querying, and finally for retrieval and display of spatial data in an application layer
• Brilliantly illustrated with code examples that run in SQL Server 2012, that you can adapt and use as the basis for your own projects. 

What you’ll learn

• The fundamental concepts involved in working with spatial data, including spatial references and co-ordinate systems
• How to create and store spatial data using the geometry and geography data types
• How to use of spatial indexes in the design of highly-performant databases
• Write spatial queries to answer practical, business questions
• Pass spatial data seamlessly between database and application layers using T-SQL and C#
• Overcome common issues, including how to deal with invalid, imprecise, or erroneous spatial data
• Apply advanced techniques such as routefinding and clustering

Who this book is for

Pro Spatial with SQL Server 2012 is the go-to book for anyone involved in spatial applications involving Microsoft SQL Server 2012. The book helps database administrators create and optimize the performance of spatial database. The book gives developers what they need to know in order to make effective use of the extensive support for location-based data provided by SQL Server, T-SQL, and C#.

Table of Contents

1. Spatial Reference Systems
   

2. Spatial Features
   

3. Spatial Datatypes
   

4. Creating Spatial Data
   

5. Importing Spatial Data
   

6. Geocoding
   

7. Precision, Validity, and Errors
   

8. Transformation and Reprojection

1. Examining Spatial Properties
   

10. Modification and Simplification

1. Aggregation and Combination
   

2. Testing Spatial Relationships
   

3. Clustering and Distribution Analysis
   

4. Route Finding
   

5. Triangulation and Tesselation
   

6. Visualization and User Interface 
   

7. Reporting Services
   

8. Indexing
   

About the Author

Alastair Aitchison has more than eight years of experience as a management information consultant, specializing in the design and deployment of online reporting systems. For the last three years, he has been employed as a reporting and analysis manager at Aviva, the world's fifth largest insurance group. In this role, he has championed the use of spatial data in corporate applications including the geographic analysis of risk patterns, plotting the success of regional marketing campaigns, and understanding the impact of major weather incidents. Alastair is a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and has delivered numerous training courses to individuals and small groups on a range of software packages.