Joe Celko Divided We Stand: The SQL of Relational Division Businesses often require reports that require more than the classic set operators. Surprisingly, a business requirement can often be expressed... 17 February 2009 17 min read
Phil Factor The TSQL of Text Files Phil returns to the old subject of 'Getting text-based data in and out of SQL Server'. He shows various easy... 19 January 2009 15 min read
Alex Kozak Estimating Disk Space Requirements for Databases In the first of a series of Database Maintenance Tips and Tricks, Alex Kozak discusses some general issues surrounding disk... 16 January 2009 16 min read
Robert Sheldon SQL Server Index Basics Given the fundamental importance of indexes in databases, it always comes as a surprise how often the proper design of... 25 November 2008 10 min read
Joe Celko Unique Experiences! You'd have thought that a unique constraint was an easy concept - Not a bit of it; it can cause... 18 November 2008 14 min read
Rodney Landrum The DBA Script Thumb Like many DBAs, Rodney has squirrelled away a large number of routines that he uses almost daily to check on... 10 November 2008 13 min read
Joe Celko Constraint Yourself! In his first article for Simple-Talk, Joe Celko demystifies the use of Constraints, and points out that they are an... 26 October 2008 13 min read
Francis Hanlon On the Trail of the Expanding Databases It is sometimes difficult for other IT people to understand the constraints that DBAs have to work under. So often... 11 October 2008 12 min read
Joe Webb Using Covering Indexes to Improve Query Performance Designers of database systems will often assume that the use of a clustered index is always the best approach. However... 29 September 2008 12 min read
Phil Factor Robyn Page Database Design Workbench – Keys Robyn Page and Phil Factor explore the innocent subject of Keys for their latest workbench. Everybody knows about keys. Oh... 19 September 2008 18 min read
Jaap Wesselius Exchange Database Technologies One of the most misunderstood technologies in Exchange Server, regardless of its version, is the database technology. Most people, even... 22 August 2008 17 min read
Jaap Wesselius Exchange 2007 Mailbox Server Clustering The original, rather complex, Exchange clustering, 'Single Copy Cluster', protects you against a server failure but not a database failure.... 12 August 2008 19 min read
Amirthalingam Prasanna Creating Service-Orientated Data-Access Layers The ADO.Net Data Services framework enables you to provide data services to Web applications that are simple to integrate with... 30 July 2008 13 min read
Mario Broodbakker Investigating SQL Server 2008 Wait Events with XEVENTS Some reasons for the slow-running of database applications aren't obvious. Occasionally, even the profiler won't tell you enough to remedy... 24 July 2008 9 min read
Randy Volters DML Trigger Status Alerts When databases suddenly stop working, it can be for a number of different reasons. Human error plays a large part,... 04 July 2008 9 min read
Richard Morris Dr Richard Hipp, Geek of the Week Simple-Talk's Geek of the Week is Dr Richard Hipp. His code is probably running on your PC, and running completely... 04 July 2008 13 min read
Amirthalingam Prasanna Entity Framework: The Cribsheet Prasanna Amirthalingam provides an overview of Entity Framework and how it can be used. He shows that it can provide... 26 May 2008 18 min read
Alex Kuznetsov Close these Loopholes – Reproduce Database Errors This is the final part of Alex's ground-breaking series on unit-testing Transact-SQL code. Here, he shows how you can test... 23 May 2008 8 min read
Alex Kuznetsov The Case of the Skewed Totals Even when your code tests out perfectly in the standard test cell, you can experience errors in the real production... 15 April 2008 7 min read
Hugh Bin-Haad The Concept of Cardinal Reciprocity- A Primer Too many authors in the field of relational theory have neglected the concept of Cardinal Reciprocity. This can cause a... 01 April 2008 12 min read