Using SQL Prompt Code Snippets for Repetitive Tasks

Louis Davidson discovers the joy of using SQL Prompt code snippets to remove repetition from a variety of tasks, from inserting comment headers, to creating tables, to executing useful metadata queries. Read more

Database Build Breakers: Avoiding Constraint Violations during SQL Server Deployments

A common database build breaker is data that violates the conditions of any of the CHECK, UNIQUE or FOREIGN KEY constraints, and unique non-clustered indexes, designed to protect the consistency and integrity of your data. Phil Factor explain how to avoid this problem, using SQL Compare and some custom stored procedures to discover which rows will cause violations, and fixing them, before running the build. Read more

The Dangers of using Float or Real Datatypes

Floating point datatypes accommodate very big numbers but sacrifice precision. They are handy for some types of scientific calculations, but are dangerous when used more widely, because they can introduce big rounding errors. Read more

Changing SET options in a Procedure or Trigger leads to Recompilation (PE012)

Phil Factor delves into SQL Prompt's performance rule, PE012, which will advise you if it detects the use of the SET statements within a stored procedure or trigger, which might cause unnecessary recompilations, though the issue extends to other types of batches. Read more

Custom Deployments from Source Control using SQL Compare Command line

Giorgi Abashidze explains how his team use a 2-phase deployment process with SQL Compare Command line, and some SQL Synonyms, to automate custom deployments for each of their customers, while only needing to maintain one branch per release in source control. Read more

Cloning all the Databases on a Server

Phil Factor shows uses SQL Clone and PowerShell to automatically create images of all databases on an instance, if they don't already exist, and then create or refresh clones of each one, on all your development servers. Read more

Removing the Square Bracket Decorations with SQL Prompt

If you avoid illegal characters and reserved words in your identifiers, you'll rarely need delimiters. Sadly, SSMS applies square bracket delimiters indiscriminately, as a precaution, when generating build scripts. Phil Factor provides a handy function that adds quoted delimiters only where they are really needed and then sits back and lets SQL Prompt strip out any extraneous square brackets, in a flash. Read more

Monitoring SQL Server with Splunk and Redgate Monitor

Splunk is a search engine for collecting and analyzing all sorts of "machine data", including log data and metrics for SQL Server. Redgate Monitor gives you the detailed diagnostic view of all your SQL Server instances, and databases. If you have Splunk to monitor your applications and server infrastructure, and Redgate Monitor to help you understand the behavior of a complex database system such as SQL Server, then you have a powerful and capable monitoring tool set. Read more

Using Aliases in SQL Prompt

Phil Factor explores the role of table aliases, explaining when they are required, and their general purpose otherwise, the need for sensible naming of aliases, and how SQL Prompt handles them. Read more

Data Categorization for AdventureWorks using SQL Data Catalog

Josh Smith shows how to use SQL Data Catalog to perform a 'first cut' data classification for one your SQL Server databases, identifying all columns that are likely to hold personal or otherwise sensitive data. Read more