Transact-SQL Subset Used for Generating Remote Queries

SQL Server uses the following subset of the Transact-SQL language for queries evaluated by SQL command providers:

• SELECT statements with SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, UNION, UNION ALL, ORDER BY DESC, ASC, and HAVING clauses. UNION and UNION ALL are generated only against providers that support SQL-92 entry level, not against those supporting ODBC Core.
• SELECT clause:
• Scalar subqueries in the SELECT list.
• Column aliases without the AS keyword.
• FROM clause:
  • Explicit join keywords are not used; comma-separated table names are used to specify inner joins, and outer joins are not specified in remote queries.
  • Nested queries of the form FROM ( <nested query> ) <alias>.
  • Table aliases without the AS keyword.
• WHERE clause uses subqueries with [NOT] EXISTS, ANY, ALL.
• Expressions:
  • Aggregate functions used: MIN([DISTINCT]), MAX([DISTINCT]), COUNT([DISTINCT]), SUM([DISTINCT]), AVG([DISTINCT]), and COUNT(*).
  • Comparison Operators: <, =, <=, >, <>, >=, IS NULL, and IS NOT NULL.
  • Boolean operators: AND, OR, and NOT.
  • Arithmetic operators: +, -, *, and /.
• Constants:
  • Numeric and money literals are always surrounded by ( ).
  • Character literals are quoted with ‘‘.