Joe Celko SQL and the Snare of Three-Valued Logic The whole subject of the Three-Valued (also known as ternary, trivalent or 3VL) Logic of SQL tends to trip people... 07 May 2009 13 min read
Anith Sen Facts and Fallacies about First Normal Form When discussing the normalisation process, it is always the First Normal Form that causes the most grief and confusion. Anith... 07 May 2009 15 min read
Robert Sheldon XML Data Modification Language Workbench XML Data Modification Language (XML DML) allows you to modify and update XML data. When working with SQL Server Databases,... 28 April 2009 21 min read
Chris Massey Free eBook: SQL Server Crib-Sheet Compendium For everything you need to know, rather than want to know, about SQL Server Reporting Services, replication, backup, XML, performance,... 24 April 2009 1 min read
Phil Factor CLR Assembly RegEx Functions for SQL Server by Example Phil Factor presents a simple CLR Assembly to allow SQL Server users to access all the powerful RegEx library methods... 15 April 2009 15 min read
Joe Celko Median Workbench SQL Server database engine doesn't have a MEDIAN() aggregate function. This is probably because there are several types of median,... 05 April 2009 15 min read
Gail Shaw Finding the causes of poor performance in SQL Server, Part 2 In the first part of this series of articles, Gail showed how to find the procedures that contributed most to... 03 April 2009 28 min read
Robert Sheldon Working with Property Expressions in SQL Server Integration Services Property Expressions in SSIS packages are assigned to a property at run time. This allows parameters to be passed to... 16 March 2009 12 min read
Brad McGehee How to Identify Blocking Problems with SQL Profiler Many SQL Server developers and DBAs have, in the past, had their own favourite diagnostic Stored Procedures for investigating blocking... 13 March 2009 11 min read
Gail Shaw Finding the Causes of Poor Performance in SQL Server, Part 1 To tackle performance problems with applications, you first find the queries that constitute a typical workload, using SQL Profiler: Then,... 09 March 2009 13 min read
Dan McClain How to Get Management Buy-In for Software purchases There is a good chance that the process of purchasing software or hardware in your organization involves several people. DBAs... 02 March 2009 15 min read
Alex Kuznetsov Brain Teaser for Pi Day Alex has come up with a great idea for Pi Day. We should celebrate by trying to come up with... 02 March 2009 2 min read
Grant Fritchey Understanding More Complex Query Plans In order to be able to tackle performance issues in SQL Server , and write effective SQL, it is essential... 26 February 2009 30 min read
Joe Celko Divided We Stand: The SQL of Relational Division Businesses often require reports that require more than the classic set operators. Surprisingly, a business requirement can often be expressed... 17 February 2009 17 min read
Allen White Let PowerShell do an Inventory of your Servers If you run a regular and comprehensive inventory of all the servers you manage, you can solve problems more quickly... 13 February 2009 15 min read
András Belokosztolszki Removing Duplicates from a Table in SQL Server Sometimes, in SQL, it is the routine operations that turn out to be the trickiest for a DBA or developer.... 11 February 2009 13 min read
Brad McGehee How to Identify Slow Running Queries with SQL Profiler With SQL Server Profiler, it is easy to discover all those queries that are running slowly. Once poorly performing queries... 03 February 2009 40 min read
Robert Sheldon Full-Text Indexing Workbench Robert Sheldon continues his guide to Full-Text Indexing, by putting down his pen and reaching for SSMS for a practical... 02 February 2009 11 min read
Phil Factor The TSQL of Text Files Phil returns to the old subject of 'Getting text-based data in and out of SQL Server'. He shows various easy... 19 January 2009 15 min read
Joe Celko Temporal Data Techniques in SQL In the first part of this series on Temporal Data, Joe explained how it is that the Common Era calendar... 18 January 2009 12 min read
