Robert Sheldon

Understanding Full-Text Indexing in SQL Server

Microsoft has quietly been improving full-text indexing in SQL Server. It is time to take a good look at what...

29 December 2008 19 min read

Brad McGehee

SQL Server 2008: Performance Data Collector

With Performance Data Collector in SQL Server 2008, you can now store performance data from a number of SQL Servers...

29 December 2008 12 min read

Joe Celko

Temporal Datatypes in SQL Server

In the first of a series of articles on the tricks of tackling temporal data in SQL, Joe Celko discusses...

16 December 2008 10 min read

Grant Fritchey

Graphical Execution Plans for Simple SQL Queries

Learning how to read and analyze execution plans takes time and effort. But once you gain some experience, you will...

16 December 2008 41 min read

Robert Sheldon

SQL Server Index Basics

Given the fundamental importance of indexes in databases, it always comes as a surprise how often the proper design of...

25 November 2008 10 min read

Joe Celko

Unique Experiences!

You'd have thought that a unique constraint was an easy concept - Not a bit of it; it can cause...

18 November 2008 14 min read

Phil Factor

Robyn Page

SQL Server Matrix Workbench

In this workbench, Robyn Page and Phil Factor decide to tackle the subject of Matrix handling and Matrix Mathematics in...

15 November 2008 13 min read

Rodney Landrum

The DBA Script Thumb

Like many DBAs, Rodney has squirrelled away a large number of routines that he uses almost daily to check on...

10 November 2008 13 min read

Robert Sheldon

SQL Server Data Warehouse Cribsheet

It is time to shed light on Data Warehousing and to explain how SSAS, SSRS and Business Intelligence fit into...

03 November 2008 21 min read

Joe Celko

Constraint Yourself!

In his first article for Simple-Talk, Joe Celko demystifies the use of Constraints, and points out that they are an...

26 October 2008 13 min read

Brad McGehee

SQL Server 2008: The New Data Types

Brad continues his helicopter-level view of the most interesting new features of SQL Server 2008 with a look at the...

11 October 2008 15 min read

Francis Hanlon

On the Trail of the Expanding Databases

It is sometimes difficult for other IT people to understand the constraints that DBAs have to work under. So often...

11 October 2008 12 min read

Alex Kozak

The Bejeweled Puzzle in SQL

Alex Kozak provides another SQL puzzle to hone your SQL Skills with. …

09 October 2008 6 min read

Robert Sheldon

Using Powershell to Generate Table-Creation Scripts

For all of us who learn best by trying out examples, Bob Sheldon produces a PowerShell script file for SQL...

04 October 2008 19 min read

Ron Dameron

PowerShell for SQL Server DBAs: Managing Multiple Servers, SQL Tasks, WMI, and SMO – A DBA’s Introduction

A SQL Server DBA's practical introduction to PowerShell - managing multiple servers, automating SQL tasks (version checks, inventory reconciliation, sysadmin...

30 September 2008 19 min read

Richard Morris

SQL Response: The dim sum interview

Richard Morris met David and Nigel of the SQL Response team, in a dim sum Restaurant in Cambridge. They had...

30 September 2008 13 min read

Joe Webb

Using Covering Indexes to Improve Query Performance

Designers of database systems will often assume that the use of a clustered index is always the best approach. However...

29 September 2008 12 min read

Phil Factor

Robyn Page

Database Design Workbench – Keys

Robyn Page and Phil Factor explore the innocent subject of Keys for their latest workbench. Everybody knows about keys. Oh...

19 September 2008 18 min read

Brian Harris

SQL Response: Choosing Our Words Carefully

Historically, the profession of "technical author" emerged from the nascent aerospace and technology industries following the war, and brought with...

17 September 2008 9 min read

Brian Harris

SQL Response: Does Everything Need a Name?

Our overriding goal at Red Gate is to make our software more usable by "doing whatever works". That means to...

17 September 2008 5 min read