// Ready, SET, Go – How Does SQL Server Handle Recursive CTE’s

First of all, a quick recap on what a recursive query is. Recursive queries are useful when building hierarchies, traverse datasets and generate arbitrary rowsets etc. The recursive part (simply) means joining a rowset with itself an arbitrary number of times. A recursive query is defined by an anchor set (the base rowset of the recursion) and a recursive part (the operation that should be done over the previous rowset). [...]