With SQL Server 2017, Microsoft announced the exciting news that SQL Server would now run in Docker containers. Laerte Junior provides a guide to get started creating SQL Server instances in Docker.… Read more
One of the most important tools for query tuning is the ability to view execution plans. They are even portable; you can send an execution plan to get advice from someone who doesn't have access to the underlying data. Have you even considered that sensitive information might travel along with the plans? Hugo Kornelis explains how execution plans affect data protection. … Read more
SQL Server has a couple of different ways to represent hierarchies, but they do not allow storing any additional information that is important to the relationship between objects. In this article, Phil Factor explains how to use closure tables to overcome this deficiency.… Read more
Modifying data in Graph Database tables is similar to working with traditional tables, but there are several things to consider. Robert Sheldon explains how to insert, update, and delete rows of Graph Database tables and explains how to use several new helper functions. … Read more
SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) is a great tool for managing SQL Server. Darko Martinovic demonstrates how to use SMO within a C# solution to create tables, backup the database, and more.… Read more
Some time ago, Phil Factor wrote his booklet 'SQL Code Smells', collecting together a whole range of SQL Coding practices that could be considered to indicate the need for a review of the code. It was published as 119 code smells, even though there were 120 of them at the time. Phil Factor has continued to collect them and the current state of the art is reflected in this article. SQL Prompt is committed to cover as many as possible of them. Phil has also updated his book which you can download here.… Read more
Unit testing and even Test-Driven Development is possible for databases. In this article Samuel Nitsche makes the case for introducing unit tests to your database development, and suggests some lightweight ways to get started.… Read more
With Amazon RDS, it’s easy to have a SQL Server running in minutes. There are some limitations, though. Seth Delconte explains a workaround to overcome one of the limitations: the inability to restore a second copy of a database to recover missing data.… Read more
Along with Graph Databases, Microsoft has introduced the new MATCH function for querying them. Robert Sheldon explains how to use the new function.… Read more
With SQL Server now supported on Linux, traditional SQL Server DBAs will need to learn how to work with Linux, and Linux administrators will need to learn how to work with SQL Server. Fortunately, there are several tools available to assist. In this article Prashanth Jayaram describes how to work with the DMV tool which treats queries as files. … Read more
T-SQL does not have an easy way to transpose a row and a column. Of course, there is the PIVOT statement, but it doesn’t quite accomplish the task. In this article, Darko Martinovic shares another method using a SQLCLR stored prodedure.… Read more
SQL Server 2017 now includes a new feature to represent complex relationships in data called Graph Databases. Robert Sheldon introduces Graph Databases in the first article of this new series. … Read more
Developer shops may decide to use Read Committed Snapshot Isolation (RCSI) to reduce contention, and possibly improve performance, but it is not without its own pitfalls. In this article, Uwe Ricken describes a situation where long running transactions caused a severe performance degradation when RCSI was in use.… Read more
Stored procedures, for example, are very easy to document. The comment block at the beginning stays with the code and a CREATE or ALTER script contains everything to reproduce the proc. SQL Server tables, however, are more difficult to document. You can use Extended Properties to document columns and constraints, but working with Extended Properties is difficult at best. Phil Factor demonstrates ways to easily add Extended Properties to your build scripts. … Read more
Joe Celko reminisces about the origins of databases and one of the early pioneers, Charles Bachman. He explains how pointer chains were used to traverse data in the NDL standard and referential integrity that we use today.… Read more
Most development teams have agreed upon some sort of naming convention as it typically increases the readability and comprehension of the source code. Defining these rules is one thing, but correctly and consistently applying them is another. Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to actually validate whether our team-specific naming rules have been applied the right way?… Read more
Changing a data type seems like a simple task unless the table is quite large and downtime must be kept to a minimum. Danny Kruge walks you through the process he created to change an INT to a BIGINT in a large table.… Read more
Visualization is often the first step in analyzing data. Python makes visualization easy. In this article, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to generate multiple charts from one dataset using Python with SQL Server Machine Learning Services.… Read more
Database administrators have enormous responsibility whether they manage one or hundreds of servers. Monica Rathbun tells us how she survived as the Lone DBA for 56 database servers for over a decade. While many DBAs work on teams instead of alone, she has great advice for all.… Read more
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