Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – Merge Interval When Fabiano agreed to undertake the epic task of describing each showplan operator, none of us quite predicted the interesting... 11 January 2011 7 min read
Michelle Ufford Effective Clustered Indexes As a guideline, clustered Indexes should be Narrow, Unique, Static and Ever Increasing (NUSE). Michelle Ufford Explains why. … 06 January 2011 21 min read
Robert Sheldon The DELETE statement in SQL Server Of the big four DML statements in SQL Server, the DELETE is the one least written about. This is odd... 25 November 2010 11 min read
Fabiano Amorim ShowPlan Operator of the Week – Merge Join Did you ever wonder how and why your indexes affect the performance of joins? Once you've read Fabiano's unforgettable explanation,... 22 November 2010 9 min read
Robert Sheldon Working with Window Functions in SQL Server With SQL Server 2005, SQL Server introduced some of SQL's window functions, that apply, not to the full set, but... 28 October 2010 12 min read
Joe Celko VALUES() and Long Parameter Lists – Part II The use of the comma-separated list of parameters to a SQL routine, that Phil Factor calls the 'comedy-limited list, is... 28 October 2010 10 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – SORT Fabiano introduces another ShowPlan operator that is used to build a query plan, or perform an operation specified in the... 11 October 2010 5 min read
Robert Sheldon Working with the INSERT statement in SQL Server The INSERT statement in SQL Server is versatile. It now allows the insertion of multiple rows of literal values. It... 27 September 2010 12 min read
Jonathan Lewis Oracle to SQL Server: Putting the Data in the Right Place Jonathan Lewis is an Oracle expert who is recording his exploration of SQL Server in a series of articles. In... 17 September 2010 24 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – Stream Aggregate Fabiano continues his mission to explain the Query Optimiser in practical terms, describing, one week at a time, all the... 10 September 2010 9 min read
Robert Sheldon The MERGE Statement in SQL Server 2008 When the SQL MERGE statement was introduced in SQL Server 2008, it allowed database programmers to replace reams of messy... 27 August 2010 14 min read
Robert Sheldon Implementing the OUTPUT Clause in SQL Server 2008 In retrospect, it was probably the inclusion of the OUTPUT clause in the MERGE statement that gave SQL Server 2008... 22 July 2010 17 min read
Joe Celko VALUES() and Long Parameter Lists To make progress as a relational Database programmer, you have to think in terms of sets, rather than lists, arrays... 22 July 2010 11 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – Row Count Spool The Row Count Spool operator is a simple component in an execution plan that can make an enormous difference to... 06 July 2010 5 min read
Fabiano Amorim Operator of the Week – Index Spool If you've ever wondered what happens to your queries if you're not conscientious about creating indexes, then Fabiano Amorim has... 25 June 2010 14 min read
Jonathan Lewis Oracle to SQL Server, Crossing the Great Divide, Part 3 We soon learn, in SQL Server, that heaps are a bad thing, without necessarily understanding how or why. Jonathan Lewis... 23 June 2010 15 min read
Robert Sheldon UPDATE Basics in SQL Server SQL Server's UPDATE statement is apparently simple, but complications such as the FROM clause can cause puzzlement. Bob Sheldon starts... 21 June 2010 17 min read
Hima Bindu Vejella Book Review: The Art of XSD – SQL Server XML schemas The 14 chapters of "The Art of XSD", written by MVP Jacob Sebastian, will take the reader step-by-step all the... 10 June 2010 12 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – Lazy Spool Continuing to illuminate the depths of SQL Server's Query Optimizer, Fabiano shines a light on the sixth major Showplan Operator... 10 June 2010 9 min read
Jonathan Lewis Oracle to SQL Server: Crossing the Great Divide, Part 2 A well-known Oracle expert records faithfully his struggles with the unfamiliar : SQL Server. He now sets himself the task... 26 May 2010 19 min read