SQL Server 2008 introduces the ability to pass a table data type into stored procedures and functions. The table parameter feature can greatly ease the development process because you no longer ...

Table-valued parameters let you pass a collection of table rows as a parameter to your stored procedure. The benefit of passing table rows is you can short circuit some of the stored procedure code ...

A table-value function normally returns a set of rows, but it could be written to only return one. At which point the CROSS APPLY operator can be used to simulate a normal scalar function call.

With SQL Server 2016, that is no longer a problem. Implementation Row-Level Security in SQL Server 2016 (and SQL Azure) is based on a specially crafted inline table valued function.

Welcome to another exciting installment of “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy T-SQL Theory questions that only Maxer seems to care about…”If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about ...

If you find yourself doing this a lot in Microsoft SQL Server, you can get better performance by using a table-valued function instead and using CROSS APPLY in the query.

3. Do use table-valued functions This is one of my favorite tricks of all time because it is truly one of those hidden secrets that only the experts know.