There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The simplest query to retrieve the data that you can write includes the SELECT and the FROM clauses. In the SELECT clause, you can use the star character (*), literally SELECT *, to denote that you need all columns from a table in the result set."

A block of code is set as follows:

USE WideWorldImportersDW; 
SELECT * 
FROM Dimension.Customer;

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

USE WideWorldImporters; 
CREATE TABLE dbo.Product 
( 
   ProductId INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT PK_Product PRIMARY KEY, 
   ProductName NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, 
   Price MONEY NOT NULL, 
   ValidFrom DATETIME2 GENERATED ALWAYS AS ROW START NOT NULL, 
   ValidTo DATETIME2 GENERATED ALWAYS AS ROW END NOT NULL, 
   PERIOD FOR SYSTEM_TIME (ValidFrom, ValidTo) 
) 
WITH (SYSTEM_VERSIONING = ON); 

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

 Customer                       SaleKey  Quantity
 ------------------------------ -------- -----------
 Tailspin Toys (Aceitunas, PR)  36964    288
 Tailspin Toys (Aceitunas, PR)  126253   250
 Tailspin Toys (Aceitunas, PR)  79272    250

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Go to Tools | Options and you are then able to type your search string in the textbox in the top-left of the Options window."