Troy Hunt Continuous Integration for SQL Server Databases When it comes to the subject of putting databases into source control, Troy Hunt is no shrinking violet. "Database source... 01 March 2011 28 min read
Jaap Wesselius SMTP Routing Changed in an Exchange Database Availability Group In Exchange Server 2010 it is possible to make the system more resilient by creating a Database Availability Group (DAG)... 03 February 2011 3 min read
Joe Celko Look-up Tables in SQL Lookup tables can be a force for good in a relational database. Whereas the 'One True Lookup Table' remains a... 01 February 2011 18 min read
Nick Harrison Database Refactoring Although the methodology of refactoring code has been adopted enthusiastically, the same has not really been the case with databases.... 01 February 2011 17 min read
Dennis Lloyd Sebastian Meine SQL Server Unit Testing with tSQLt When one considers the amount of time and effort that Unit Testing consumes for the Database Developer, is surprising how... 06 January 2011 11 min read
Joe Celko BIT of a Problem The BIT data type is an awkward fit for a SQL database. It doesn't have just two values, and it... 04 January 2011 12 min read
Troy Hunt Foolproof Atomic Versioning of Applications Bad things tend to happen to developments where the scripts for the database layer are left out of source control.... 08 December 2010 9 min read
Brad McGehee Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Storage Compress SQL Storage Compress does just that, and encrypts as well, allowing the files associated with a live database to take... 07 December 2010 27 min read
Nick Harrison Some NHibernate Best-Practices NHibernate can help to build a project more quickly if the database it connects to is sound. Otherwise, there are... 25 November 2010 13 min read
Holger Schmeling SQL Server Statistics A Distribution Statistics object is a sampled map of the distribution of data in a table. Such statistics help the... 23 November 2010 3 min read
Red Gate Books The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development This book shows how to use a mixture of home-grown scripts, native SQL Server tools, and tools from the Red... 02 November 2010 5 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
Alex Kuznetsov Defensive Error Handling TRY...CATCH error handling in SQL Server has certain limitations and inconsistencies that will trap the unwary developer, used to the... 28 October 2010 35 min read
Corrin Lakeland Snapper’s Sweet Source Control Corrin Lakeland's busy role as a Data Manager includes supervising the work of all database development. Although he was already... 12 October 2010 6 min read
Joe Celko State Transition Constraints Data Validation in a database is a lot more complex than seeing if a string parameter really is an integer.... 08 October 2010 13 min read
Timothy Ford Investigating Transactions Using Dynamic Management Objects There can be a great difference in the performance of a particular routine in a test database, and in a... 30 September 2010 39 min read
Rod Colledge Policy-based Management and Central Management Servers Whilst it may be more exciting as a DBA to rush around fixing broken databases, it is far better to... 30 September 2010 23 min read
Richard Morris Ted Krueger: DBA of the Day Ted Krueger is well known for his 'Less-Than Dot' website. He is a SQL Server MVP who has been working... 15 September 2010 12 min read
Andrew Clarke SQL Source Control: The Development Story, Part II When creating SQL Source Control, the team had to make decisions as to which source control systems the tool would... 02 September 2010 14 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
