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.

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.

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