Fabiano Amorim SQL Server Prefetch and Query Performance Prefetching can make a surprising difference to SQL Server query execution times where there is a high incidence of waiting... 21 May 2012 11 min read
Performance Jonathan Kehayias in Performance A Performance Troubleshooting Methodology for SQL Server When healing a sick SQL Server, you must forget the idea that there could ever be a simple correspondence between... 28 September 2011 33 min read
Benjamin Nevarez The SQL Server Query Optimizer To understand how to write SQL code for SQL Server that performs well, it is important to appreciate how the... 03 August 2011 35 min read
Fabiano Amorim Questions about SQL Server Distribution Statistics Fabiano was asked a couple of questions about SQL Server Distribution Statistics. Having given an answer based on his current... 23 June 2011 20 min read
Joe Celko Improving Comparison Operators and Window Functions It is dangerous to assume that your data is sound. SQL already has intrinsic ways to cope with missing, or... 01 April 2011 12 min read
Feodor Georgiev The default trace in SQL Server – the power of performance and security auditing Since the introduction of SQL Server 2005, there is a simple lightweight trace that is left running by default on... 14 March 2011 17 min read
Fabiano Amorim Lipoaspiration in your SQL Server Database Once, when disk space was at a premium, DBAs fought hard to keep the size of their database down. Now... 03 March 2011 13 min read
Robert Sheldon The EXCEPT and INTERSECT Operators in SQL Server The UNION, EXCEPT and INTERSECT operators of SQL enable you to combine more than one SELECT statement to form a... 28 February 2011 14 min read
Feodor Georgiev Collecting Performance Data into a SQL Server Table Occasionally, when tracking down a performance problem, you have to have information over time on the values of particular sets... 20 January 2011 12 min read
Greg Larsen Which of Your Stored Procedures are Using the Most Resources? Dynamic Management Views and Functions aren't always easy to understand. However, they are the easiest way of finding out which... 11 January 2011 9 min read
Benjamin Nevarez Index Selection and the Query Optimizer While we all know that the Query Optimizer uses Indexes to produce better execution plans, we don't all know exactly... 25 November 2010 23 min read
Holger Schmeling SQL Server Statistics: Problems and Solutions SQL Server Statistics assist the query optimiser to calculate the best way of running the query. Holger describes every common... 27 October 2010 39 min read
Holger Schmeling Queries, Damned Queries and Statistics In a perfect world, we should just be able to write queries and leave the RDBMS to decide the perfect... 14 October 2010 43 min read
Kathi Kellenberger SSN Matching Speed Phreakery On Ask.SQLServerCentral.com, a group of people interested in experimenting with heavily optimised SQL techniques try them out on a problem,... 05 August 2010 18 min read
Kathi Kellenberger Set-based Speed Phreakery: The FIFO Stock Inventory SQL Problem The SQL Speed Freak Challenge is a no-holds-barred competition to find the fastest way in SQL Server to perform a... 25 May 2010 31 min read
Rod Colledge Reliable Storage Systems for SQL Server By validating the IO path before commissioning the production database system, and performing ongoing validation through page checksums and DBCC... 12 May 2010 12 min read
Rod Colledge High Performance Storage Systems for SQL Server Rod Colledge turns his pessimistic mindset to storage systems, and describes the best way to configure the storage systems of... 29 April 2010 14 min read
Jonathan Lewis Designing Efficient SQL: A Visual Approach Sometimes, it is a great idea to push away the keyboard when tackling the problems of an ill-performing, complex, query,... 25 February 2010 16 min read
Kathi Kellenberger Writing Efficient SQL: Set-Based Speed Phreakery Phil Factor's SQL Speed Phreak challenge is an event where coders battle to produce the fastest code to solve a... 04 February 2010 31 min read
Josef Richberg Simple Query tuning with STATISTICS IO and Execution plans A great deal can be gleaned from the use of the STATISTICS IO and the execution plan, when you are... 04 February 2010 21 min read
