Louis Davidson

Louis is the editor of this Simple-Talk website. Prior to that, has was a corporate database developer and data architect for a non-profit organization for 25 years! Louis has been a Microsoft MVP since 2004, and is the author of a series of SQL Server Database Design books, most recently Pro SQL Server Relational Database Design and Implementation.

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20 January 2011
20 January 2011

What Counts for a DBA: Passion

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One of my first questions, when interviewing for a DBA/Programmer position, is always: “Why do you want this job?” The answers I receive range from cheesy hyperbole (“I want to enhance your services with my vast knowledge”) to deadpan realism (“I have N kids who all have a hole in the front of their face … Read more
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24 November 2010
24 November 2010

Un-SQL–Thanksgiving

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So here it is the night of Thanksgiving Eve here in the United states, and some time tomorrow I will likely be extra stuffed with Turkey and fixin’s and have begun to prep to do some shopping on Black Friday (if not catatonic from the mythical wonder tryptophan. @mythbusters, there is one for you) However, … Read more
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22 November 2010
22 November 2010

Design Book– First Section (Skills)

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One of the main things that I haven’t always loved about the previous books is that it wasn’t a perfect reference book. I focused on having a flow throughout the book that, not unlike a school class, started at the beginning and finished at the end. Interspersed were semi-cohesive examples that followed along in an … Read more
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20 November 2010
20 November 2010

One Domain Table or Many?

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  Early in 2007, I wrote an article for Simple-Talk called Ten Common Database Design Mistakes, and it has been my most successful bit of writing every with 333994 views at last counting. Anything where you point out the negatives of what other people are doing is going to be polarizing, and this was no … Read more
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16 November 2010
16 November 2010

Design Book–Top level outline

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The more I teach sessions about database design, the more I realize that two things are true. First, most people don’t dig the normalization stuff as much as I do (some do), and second, people really need the normalization stuff more than they think. The really hard part is how to flavor the medicine just … Read more
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11 November 2010
11 November 2010

PASS Day 3–Database Design Session Day (mine and two others)

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Today was much different than yesterday when I attended the “hurts your head” sessions. Today the sessions were, for the most part, a bit higher level (with one notable exception). First up, I went to see Glenn Alan Berry’s (http://twitter.com/#!/glennalanberry) session on hardware. Good session, nice level for the average person (like me!), at least … Read more
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11 November 2010
11 November 2010

PASS Day 2–In which my head began to hurt

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This morning, keeping to my typical method I missed the keynote in person but kept up via twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23sqlpass). Knew about most of the new stuff, and seriously could have used a few more hours of sleep (I nodded off in a few sessions later in the day) My first session was Conor Cunningham’s … Read more
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09 November 2010
09 November 2010

PASS Day 0 – After

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So we are finished with the day, and man am I tired. (Actually I am starting this blog at 4:45, before the quiz bowl, but I anticipate tired pretty well (it’s 11:20 now, and I was right!)).  Started off with a rousing meeting to discuss SQL Saturday with a lot of the people who have … Read more
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08 November 2010
08 November 2010

Pass Day 0 – Before

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Last night I got in around 3, saw a few people in the airport, shared a cab with some of them, and worked on my presentation. There is my news 🙂 But the bigger things is that I am getting ready to go to registration, I think for the 10th time in a row. Every … Read more
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and 17 August 2010
and 17 August 2010

DMVs for Query Plan Metadata

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Before you can tackle any performance issues with a working database, you need to know which queries to work on first: The ones that are taking the most time in total, and which are the most expensive in terms of cache, CPU and disk. Although SQL Server Management Studio can help, it isn't long before you need an armoury of DMVs to provide you the statistics to find the culprits. … Read more
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27 June 2010
27 June 2010

A problem I must solve about speaking

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So I am back hotel (yeah, not I won’t be “back home” until the 4th most likely) after speaking in Columbus yesterday, and I feel like blogging about how things went, perhaps to get advice on how you might correct/approach things.  I do two sessions usually, a design fundamentals session that went well, with scores … Read more
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and 14 June 2010
and 14 June 2010

Performance Tuning with SQL Server Dynamic Management Views

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This is the book that will de-mystify the process of using Dynamic Management Views to collect the information you need to troubleshoot SQL Server problems. It will highlight the core techniques and "patterns" that you need to master, and will provide a core set of scripts that you can use and adapt for your own requirements.… Read more
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