In Oracle, under certain circumstances, an implicit data type conversion precludes the use of indexes. Perhaps you have a vague idea of what an implicit data type conversion hierarchy is, and you might even ignore the subtlety of the implicit data type conversion direction within a query predicate expression. Hopefully this article will shed some light on this concept. 1… Read more
Database Design is one of those tasks where you have to carefully get all the major aspects right. If you mess-up just one of these, it can all go horribly wrong. So what are these aspects that can ruin database design, and how can you get them right? Robert Sheldon explains.… Read more
In order to be able to take data from a variety of sources, manipulate it, and then export it to one of several destinations, SSIS has to use its own data types. Generally, the conversions of data types is handled implicitly, but if you hit problems, then you may need to intervene in one of several ways to ensure an appropriate conversion.… Read more
The XML data type, introduced in SQL Server 2005, is a powerful construct. When used wisely, it can provide useful extensions to SQL Server. Robert Sheldon, in the first part of a series, describes how create and index a typed XML column in a table, and discusses when you should consider using an XML Datatype.… Read more
